Anonymous #458

Submitter information

Name

Anonymous #458

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?

Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership

What is your occupation?

Master Teacher

Elevating the profession

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

Neither agree nor disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

To elevate the profession, it is worth examining those professions that are currently ‘elevated’ and dissecting why that is the case. Also what kind of elevation? Are teachers meant to be on par with doctors or rock stars? It probably is important for there to be more Eddie Woo type of teacher-celebrities out there.
Looking abroad at where teachers are respected, difficult conversations may need to happen about wages and/or qualifications.
In my experience, there is an enormous, parasitic education industry around education that rarely seeks the advice of teachers (or students for that matter). Academics, public servants and similar find it hard to elevate teachers’ status and value even within the education sector. This should change and could do so with little cost.
There is a different between elevating the profession as a whole and elevating people in the profession. By implementing awards, it does the latter potentially at the cost of the former.
Be conscious of the breadth and diversity of the “excellent work” that teachers do. I went from a public servant role to being a teacher and the thing I love the most is the diversity of things it requires of me. It is a social role like very few professions require and demands that relationships are at its core.
Remember to not let others speak for teachers, get a wide range of teacher contributions to what makes it so great. Those who don’t teach, don’t know.
Be wary of the Teaching Excellence Program. It currently has a sound model that respects and elevates the professionalism of teachers (much more so than HALTs). However, due to increased mandatory enrolments in 2023 set by the Department of Treasury, there may be concerns about the quality of successful participants in the program.
There are a lot of concerns with HALTs that need to be acknowledged. It does not properly acknowledge the complexity of the profession of teaching, lending itself to “box ticking” rather than professionalism. This can have the added effect of reducing the status of teaching overall, if there is the expectation that only good ones are HALTs.

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.

Somewhat agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

This is linked to “those who can’t do, teach”. So if people are studying teaching because they can’t do anything else, then leave when they realise its complexities, that is not a bad thing.

Targeted financial incentives are a good idea and can work.

With the bursaries, it would be good if they have to teach for a time too. There are issues though in NSW where independent schools are poaching teachers in particular programs. Ways of making this not happen would be good (not sure how)

Number 7 has been trialled in different states, most recently very unsuccessfully in South Australia.

This aim could be at odds with elevating the profession.

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?

It seems that BEd’s and MTeach are actually cash cows for universities. Personally, I wouldn’t have done, and nor would I have been able to afford it, if my teaching qualifications had taken 2 years.

Instead, a model where teachers can teacher after one year study but then are required to return to learning later in their career would be worthwhile. This would allow teachers to engage with the research etc. in a more meaningful way than in their first two years as they would have practical applications of it in their own classroom.

Some teachers are always “out of field” such as Humanities or science teachers. It is important that ITE have courses that teach the content they will teach.

Maximising the time to teach

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

Neither agree nor disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

C2C was an epic fail and they had to back-pedal it.

The curriculum authorities do not make pedagogical decisions. So the resources should be made without pedagogical decisions.

It is concerning that AERO is such a significant part in this as they have a particular agenda as it relates to literacy that is certainly not a consensus view.

There are suggestions that it is important to lessen the ‘administrative load’ of teachers and give this to other staff. It is unclear what ‘administrative’ means in this case, is it photocopying, attendance sheets, entering grades of spreadsheets? Each of these could and should have a different approach and it may not be the silver bullet intended.

Instead, just give teachers less face-to-face and more planning/collaboration time.

Collaboration and mentoring are key moving forward in this space.

Teachers may need help and professional learning in understanding the changes to teaching in a post-pandemic context. There is much more focus on being equipped to respond and help student wellbeing. Particularly in high schools, where there is a priority on curriculum over the other parts of teaching, this change would need to be explicit.

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?

Moderately effective

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.

Neither agree nor disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

25 is a great initiative. Mentoring, coaching and collaboration are needed in teaching.

It is not clear that HALTs is the answer. Other possibilities, like the current Teaching Excellence Program, should be considered as they honour the profession that come from a strengths-based model of teaching rather than a deficit model. In order to elevate the profession too, this model is required.

The Grattan Report on Master Teachers is a great model for what could be possible.

The Gates Foundation determined that the triangulation of school success is value add, student voice and peer observation. Teacher progression could work in a similar way.

It is essential that promotion of teachers is not just from Principals' preference. Instead peers should be involved in progression. Unions are more likely to be on board with such a proposal.