Anonymous #206

Submitter information

Name

Anonymous #206

Where are you located?

Victoria

What type of area do you live in?

Metropolitan

Are you an education professional?
(e.g. teacher, school leader, learning support assistant, teacher’s aide)

Yes

Which sector do you work in?

Secondary

What is your occupation?

Teacher

Elevating the profession

The actions proposed recognise the value teachers bring to students, communities and the economy.

Somewhat disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Singling out teacher of the year/individuals is nice but does little to recognise the work of the profession. Indeed there is some suggestion that it sets up the idea that there are a few good teachers who will sacrifice themselves for their students and the rest are what the media has told us about. Think Freedom Writers, Dangerous Minds etc - sacrifice your own life as a bare minimum.
Perhaps instead, the rhetoric used to discuss the profession in parliament and the media needs to shift and stay shifted. Stop the constant statements about teacher quality rather than educational quality - move from us as individuals back to the systems we're working in.

Improving teacher supply

The actions proposed will be effective in increasing the number of students entering ITE, number of students completing ITE and the number of teachers staying in and/or returning to the profession.

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Strengthening Initial Teacher Education (ITE)

The actions proposed will ensure initial teacher education supports teacher supply and quality.

Somewhat agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

More mentoring needs to be done for student teachers and graduate teachers. There is currently no time afforded to experienced teachers taking on a mentoring role for student or graduate teachers. For a profession so deeply time poor, this again means this work is taken on generally out of hours or during breaks (when not doing yard duty, meeting as teams, supervising clubs, supporting students with their work, coaching, contacting parents, marking work, or providing wellbeing support).

Maximising the time to teach

The actions proposed will improve retention and free up teachers to focus on teaching and collaboration.

Somewhat disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

The biggest changes that would help seem conspicuously absent - class size and curriculum changes. I recognise that curriculum changes at the Australian Curriculum level, but as a senior Victorian English teacher, the majority of my curriculum work comes from VCAA changing the text list each year and the study design. Changing texts is a massive amount of work - my honours is in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama. I have taught Ancient Greek plays, Alfred Hitchcock films, Absurdist plays, etc. It is fantastic to have depth and breadth to the study design, but to churn through texts at this rate takes a great deal of time and effort, only to have the text disappear after (at most) 4 years.

The difficulty of managing 25 students' needs in the classroom (often 2-6 years difference in ability between them), much less communicating with their parents, providing formative feedback in a timely manner, etc. Is the central driver of work and burnout. Make smaller class sizes and outcomes and teacher retention will improve.

Better understanding future teacher workforce needs

How effective are the proposed actions in better understanding future teacher workforce needs, including the number of teachers required?

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Better career pathways to support and retain teachers in the profession

The proposed actions will improve career pathways, including through streamlining the process for Highly Accomplished and Lead Teacher (HALT) accreditation, and providing better professional support for teachers to retain them in the profession.

Somewhat disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

It seems there are some good ideas of further qualifications teachers can get, but while I'm working 55 hours a week and being paid for 38 of those, I'm unlikely to take on these additional qualifications.
To retain teachers, we need to acknowledge the current state of burnout in the workforce. More mental health supports, and improving working conditions - having a guaranteed lunch break, having working facilities (toilets etc).

The other thing that is worth addressing is covid. We were routinely exposed to covid prior to vaccines, told about school closures and reopenings along with the general public. While we were eventually provided masks and ventilation, masks were never fit tested, and now masks aren't mandatory. I contracted covid 2 weeks after the mask mandate was dropped in schools (I wore mine but my students didn't). I was 8 months pregnant and my safety was not considered to be an issue by the education department. Take our health and safety seriously around covid and that will help us perhaps feel less disposable.