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Australian

Under pressure

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// Extreme workloads weigh on educators

Australia’s truth

// First Nations learning strengthened

New reform agenda The coalition has foreshadowed a dangerous assault on public education

Testing times // Are NAPLAN’s days numbered?

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A new subject

// A roadmap for out-of-field teaching

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Contents ON THE COVER The next election, due within 12 months, will be critical for teachers and students at public schools such as Taroona High School in Tasmania's south-east.

PHOTOGRAPHY Chris Crerar

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NEWS IN BRIEF

TESTING TIMES

A STRONG, FAIR RECOVERY

• Global education funding falls short • Call for collaboration on climate • Tool to help teach consent • Publishing results a policy fail

Are NAPLAN's days numbered? A new report calls for a better and cheaper national assessment system.

Education systems must find a new normal that promotes equity and resilience in the wake of COVID-19.

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08 NEW REFORM AGENDA Did federal education minister Alan Tudge launch a new assault on public education even as he declared the old funding wars over?

14 UNDER PRESSURE Extreme workloads are making many teachers and principals question their long-term commitment to the profession.

16 EARLY LEARNING SHORTAGE The early childhood education sector requires a national systemic solution to address dire workforce issues.

20 AUSTRALIA'S TRUTH Educators are set to revamp the way First Nations knowledge, history and culture is taught to future generations.

24 TRAUMA: A TEAM APPROACH Working together gives educators the best chance of supporting students – and each other – to cope in times of crisis.

36 A WHOLE NEW SUBJECT Out-of-field teaching is a widespread and global phenomenon, but policy responses are thin on the ground.

REGULARS 04 From the president 05 Know your union 38 Recess

28 ALL IN A DAY'S WORK From grooming chickens to public speaking, new educators are finding fresh and innovative ways to inspire their students.

www.aeufederal.org.au

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From the president

The three Rs; reward, respect and rigour Minister Tudge's reform agenda will impact deeply on the teaching profession and — if the Morrison government is re-elected — result in new bilateral agreements that will entrench funding cuts to public schools and escalate teacher workloads.

In March, Alan Tudge used his first major speech as Minster for Education to lament the decline of Australian students in international assessments.

As Liberals often do, he sought to pin the blame for decades of policy neglect and government failure on teachers and announced the establishment of the Quality Initial Teacher Education Review.

This is the sixth review of Australian teachers in eight years and its announcement fails to recognise the complexities that have contributed to the decline in student performance.

Running this narrative entirely undermines the attractiveness of our profession to the very people we would all like to see in our schools.

Any education minister truly interested in reversing that decline would seek to ensure that schools are properly funded and have access to the facilities and resources required to deliver the best education possible to every student.

And, of course, a well-respected, professionally supported and appropriately remunerated teaching workforce is always critical to lifting student outcomes.

To build this workforce, Minister Tudge should look to the three Rs; reward, respect and rigour.

REWARD Research by the Grattan Institute confirms a teacher’s

Australian Educator

(ISSN: 0728-8387) is published for the Australian Education Union by Hardie Grant Media.

The magazine is circulated to members of the AEU nationally.

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Hardie Grant Media

Ground Level, Building 1 658 Church St, Richmond 3121 Tel: (03) 8520 6444 Fax: (03) 8520 6422 Email: educator@hardiegrant.com

role has grown in complexity yet, over the course of a career, Australian teachers’ pay progression still lags behind comparable nations. At the top of the salary scale, a teacher in Australia will earn around 30 per cent more than they did as a graduate, compared to 70 per cent across the OECD. There are reams of national and international research proving this flat salary scale discourages many potential teachers from ever entering the classroom, to say nothing of average working hours at 55 to 60 per week, frequent policy and practice changes, increasing administrative requirements and the growing number of students that require additional support.

RESPECT Reward goes hand-in-hand with respect, which is best shown to teachers by recognising the complexity of 21st century classrooms. Professional autonomy and trust are crucial. Teachers should be supported to develop their practice according to their classroom needs, their professional judgement and without the hindrance of direct instruction fads.

Graduate teachers should be offered ongoing support from their universities and education departments. Experienced teachers should be offered the time away from the classroom required to undertake regular professional development.

AEU and subscription enquiries Australian Education Union Federal Office, PO Box 1158 South Melbourne Victoria 3205 Tel: (03) 9693 1800 Fax: (03) 9693 1805 Email: aeu@aeufederal.org.au facebook.com/AEUfederal @AEUfederal

Editor Susan Hopgood Publisher Fiona Hardie Account manager Hannah Louey Managing editor Jo Davy Commissioning editor Tracey Evans Subeditor Leanne Tolra Art director Dallas Budde Design Natalie Lachina

RIGOUR Any attempt to undermine the professionalism and rigour of teaching should be flatly rejected.

This includes gimmicky, fast-track teacher training programs such as Teach for Australia (TFA).

Since 2008, the Commonwealth has provided close to $80 million for TFA. However, reviews of the program reveal it has been an abject failure.

An independent evaluation of the program showed that within one year of completing their two-year placement, more than one third of TFA associates had stopped teaching. At three years, less than half of all TFA associates are still employed as teachers.

Concerningly, as TFA associates are generally placed in schools in disadvantaged communities, this incredibly high attrition rate reduces teaching to a short-term philanthropic exercise rather than a longterm professional commitment.

The program is entirely at odds with Minister Tudge’s stated aim to ensure teachers are rigorously trained and have the skills, confidence and knowledge to be effective from day one in the classroom.

This aim, which is shared across the education sector, is best served by drawing Initial Teacher Education (ITE) students from the top 30 per cent of secondary school graduates for undergraduate courses and maintaining a full two-year master qualification for postgraduate ITE studies.

If the review focuses on rewarding teachers commensurate with their knowledge, skills and experience, respecting their judgement and professionalism and setting rigorous standards in ITE, it could be a valuable contribution to the roadmap to lifting student performance.

But if it is an exercise in blame-shifting, perpetuated by a federal government that refuses to fund its fair share of public education and a minister focussed on short-term gimmicks at the expense of long-term student outcomes, then the Morrison government will fail in its fundamental responsibility to ensure that every child can achieve to their potential.

And that would be a tragedy.

Correna Haythorpe AEU federal president

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Copyright rests with the writers, the AEU and Hardie Grant Media. No part of this pub­lication may be reproduced without the prior permission of the copyright holders. The opinions expressed in the magazine are not necessarily the official policy of the AEU.

Know your union With a federal office and branches or associated bodies in every state and territory, the AEU represents more than 188,000 members industrially and professionally.

AEU FEDERAL 120 Clarendon St, Southbank, VIC, 3006 Phone: +61 3 9693 1800 Email: aeu@aeufederal.org.au Web: aeufederal.org.au

Federal president Correna Haythorpe Federal secretary Susan Hopgood

AEU ACT BRANCH Branch president Angela Burroughs Branch secretary Glenn Fowler 40 Brisbane Avenue Barton 2600 Phone: 02 6272 7900 Email: aeuact@aeuact.org.au Web: aeuact.org.au

AEU NT BRANCH Branch president Jarvis Ryan Branch secretary Adam Lampe 3/8 Totem Road Coconut Grove 0811 Phone: 08 8948 5399 Email: admin@aeunt.org.au Web: aeunt.org.au

AEU SA BRANCH Branch president Lara Golding Branch secretary Leah York 163 Greenhill Road Parkside 5063 Phone: 08 8172 6300 Email: aeusa@aeusa.asn.au Web: aeusa.asn.au

AEU TAS BRANCH Branch president Helen Richardson Branch state manager Brian Wightman 1/32 Patrick Street Hobart 7000 Phone: 03 6234 9500 Email: support@aeutas.org.au Web: aeutas.org.au

AEU VIC BRANCH Branch president Meredith Peace Branch secretary Erin Aullich 126 Trenerry Crescent Abbotsford 3067 Phone: 03 9417 2822 Email: melbourne@aeuvic.asn.au Web: aeuvic.asn.au

QUEENSLAND TEACHERS UNION President Cresta Richardson General secretary Kate Ruttiman 21 Graham Street Milton 4064 Phone: 07 3512 9000 Email: qtu@qtu.asn.au Web: qtu.asn.au

NEW SOUTH WALES TEACHERS FEDERATION President Angelo Gavrielatos General secretary John Dixon 23-33 Mary Street Surry Hills 2010 Phone: 02 9217 2100 Email: mail@nswtf.org.au Web: nswtf.org.au

STATE SCHOOL TEACHERS UNION OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA President Pat Byrne General secretary Mary Franklyn 1 West Street West Perth 6005 Phone: 08 9210 6000 Email: contact@sstuwa.org.au Web: sstuwa.org.au

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News

News in brief Global education funding falls short The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) – an alliance of governments, business and charitable foundations committed to helping children in lower income countries get a quality education – has failed to meet a US$5 billion target to fund its work for the next five years.

In what has been described by lobbyists as a “decidedly underwhelming” result and a missed opportunity to turn the tide on the learning crisis, pledges fell short of the goal

by US$1 billion.

The GPE’s aim was to raise enough money to support the learning of 175 million children and enrol 88 million in school over the next five years.

Teaching consent A new book aims to demystify the social and practical aspects of consent for teens and tweens.

Welcome to Consent is written by adolescent health experts Dr Melissa Kang and Yumi Stynes.

“As the parent of teenagers, I see first-hand how consent conversations are absent in school education and how important they are,” says Stynes.

“I also see how there are tools missing in parents’ toolkits for explaining consent to our children. For the most part, it’s not our fault – we weren’t taught either!”

Kang says that consent is at the heart of gender equality – who can touch another person’s body when, where and how, no matter how young or old.

“Learning what that really means and how we communicate about it needs to start in earliest childhood, but it takes on new dimensions when children reach puberty. This book is only the start of much-needed conversations at family dinner tables, classrooms, sports change rooms, workplaces and most definitely in the corridors of power,” says Kang.

The agencies had been pressing the Australian government for a $70 million commitment to help combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on education globally.

Australia fails to pull its weight when it comes to GPE contributions and has been falling further behind over the past 10 years. On average, leading donor countries committed $98 million per year from 2018 to 2020. Australia’s commitment was $30 million a year.

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NEW CLIMATE FORUM Education International (EI), the global federation of education unions, is encouraging teachers to share their ideas and best practice for climate education.

The Global Teaching Insights platform allows teachers to connect with their colleagues around the world. It is part of EI’s Teach for the Planet campaign.

EI president and AEU federal secretary Susan Hopgood says policy change in three key areas would enable quality climate change education:

1 Teacher training Climate education must be fully integrated into both initial teacher training and continuous professional learning and development.

2 Support Teachers need time to plan, upskill and innovate on climate education, as well as access to quality resources for teaching and learning. They must be trusted to teach the science of climate change without fear of politically motivated penalties.

3 Voice Teachers and their representatives should be included in policy reform discussions and involved in curricula design, development and evaluation.

ILLUSTRATION OSLO DAVIS PHOTOGRAPHY ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

While Australia’s contribution of A$36 million per year over five years is an increase on its previous support, the amount remains disappointing, according to five of Australia’s international aid agencies – Plan International, Save the Children, UNICEF Australia, ChildFund Australia and Global Citizen.

As the parent of teenagers, I see first-hand how consent conversations are absent in school education and how important they are.

Yumi Stynes Author

EVENTS Wear it Purple Day

27 August Indigenous Literacy Day

1 September R U OK? Day

9 September World Teachers Day

29 October Dyslexia Awareness Month

1-31 October International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

17 October Anti-Poverty Week

17-23 October National Unity Week

22-30 October Enviroweek

22-28 October Naming and shaming schools a policy failure A new OECD study shows that publishing school test results has little or no effect on student achievement.

“It found no evidence that test-based accountability has affected education outcomes in higher income countries.”

Test-based accountability has been a key education policy in most OECD countries, including Australia, for many years.

The study warned that the intensive competition between schools caused by test-based accountability could be disruptive and produce unintended consequences in school communities.

Former Productivity Commission economist Trevor Cobbold of Save Our Schools says it is believed that publication of school test results will put pressure on schools and teachers to increase student achievement.

But the OECD study shows the policy is “an abject failure”, he says.

Cobbold says the study raises serious questions for Australian education policy makers about the value of continuing to publish school results on the My School website.

International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

25 November National Recycling Week

8-14 November World Aids Day

1 December International Day of People with Disability

3 December SPR IN G 2 0 2 1 // 7

New reform agenda The coalition has foreshadowed a dangerous assault on public education.

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Agenda

The next federal election, due within 12 months, will be critical for government schools like Taroona High School in Tasmania's southeast (pictured left and below).

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PHOTOGRAPHY CHRIS CRERAR

id federal education minister Alan Tudge launch a new assault on state education even as he declared the old funding wars “over”?

The minister has spent recent months delivering speeches that foreshadow an alarming right-wing agenda, which the Liberal–National coalition could take to the next federal election.

Tudge has argued that standards in Australian schools are declining despite growing budgets, that public schools have done the best of any sector out of his government’s largesse, and that there is no link between standards and funding.

The next federal election, due within 12 months, will be critical for government schools. The bilateral funding agreements between Canberra and the states and territories expire at the end of 2023, and new agreements must be struck – agreements that will be shaped by the agenda and priorities of the federal government.

“I think the minister has foreshadowed a post-election agenda and it’s a very dangerous one,” AEU federal president Correna Haythorpe says. “If the Liberals are in charge when the next agreements are negotiated, their reform agenda will escalate workloads and undermine trust in the teaching profession.”

NO BIG WINS HERE The seeds of his agenda can be seen in his nods to the United Kingdom – specifically England – for its apparent turnaround in standards despite a 10 per cent cut to school funding in the past decade.

Tudge’s references to a UK success story will have brought gasps of disbelief from teachers in England who have

If the Liberals are in charge when the next agreements are negotiated, their reform agenda will escalate workloads and undermine trust in the teaching profession.

Correna Haythorpe AEU federal president

seen their wages cut and class sizes climb since the Conservatives came to power in 2010. The “austerity” regime the Tories introduced, coupled with quasiprivatisation and centralisation, have devastated the profession, reminding us of what funding cuts can mean in education: less pay, fewer teachers – or both.

Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the UK’s National Education Union, says there has been a “pernicious decline” of about 10 per cent in education funding.

“We’ve seen class sizes rise – they’re now the highest that they’ve been in over 20 years – and we’ve seen teachers leaving the profession because of the stress and overwork," she says.

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Agenda

PHOTOGRAPHY ALAMY, GETTY IMAGES

Mary Bousted (right), joint general secretary of the UK’s National Education Union, says the UK has seen a “pernicious decline” of about 10 per cent in education funding under the Conservatives’ austerity regime.

“Schools with predominately disadvantaged intakes are finding it much more difficult to recruit and retain teachers. In particular, they’re finding it almost impossible to find teachers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects.

“If you’re a pupil born into a disadvantaged home you are more likely to be taught by a teacher not qualified in the subject they’re teaching, and by an inexperienced teacher.

“So the educational attainment gap [between the least and most disadvantaged students], which was closing, is now widening again. That is compounded by increasing child poverty – in an average class of 30, nine students will be poor.”

Meanwhile, UK schools have a £12 billion (A$21 billion) backlog of repairs after the Tories cancelled the previous government’s ambitious school building program.

That may strike a chord with members in Australia’s public schools. Research for the AEU by education economist Adam Rorris found private schools massively outspent public schools on infrastructure, despite educating only about half as many students and only a small proportion from disadvantaged backgrounds.

If governments had spent as much per student on capital works as private schools over the decade to 2018, an extra $29.6 billion would have been invested in school buildings, or $12,450 per student.

So how have the Brits done so well?

The answer is … they haven’t.

Minister Tudge’s comparison was based on the most recent PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) results conducted by the OECD. PISA is generally considered high

From a very centralised government, we have a new curriculum that’s based on knowledge acquisition and timed exams. It’s a tired and failed assessment system.

Mary Bousted UK National Education Union

standard, and the use of sample testing to assess a school system’s health is one the AEU would like to see replace NAPLAN. But in Britain’s case its results were less than reliable. As Professor John Jerrim of University College London argues in a trenchant new paper, the UK should have been excluded from PISA 2018’s results for breaching several requirements, and this inflated its scores.

Only 72 per cent of sampled schools took part, well below the PISA requirement of 85 per cent. About 40 per cent of the target school population did not participate – one of the lowest rates of participation in the OECD – and the sample significantly underrepresented low-achieving students.

Jerrim concludes: “The OECD needs

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The AEU is calling on all political parties to commit to providing 100 per cent of the SRS, ending the Commonwealth’s 20 per cent cap on contributions to public schools, and a major capital works program.

to reconsider its technical standards, the strictness with which these are applied, and its data adjudication processes.”

Bousted says that educational outcomes in the UK have been pretty flat, and the Government is now receiving a backlash from employers over the number of students leaving school without the skills they need.

“From a very centralised government, we have a new curriculum that’s based on knowledge acquisition and timed exams.

It’s a tired and failed assessment system.

We’ve had the CBI (Confederation of British Industry) saying what we need in young people is the ability to communicate, to discern, to collaborate, to innovate – and a route march through potted

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One of the big problems in the past couple of years is that the really big increases are going to private schools outside of the model.

Trevor Cobbold Save Our Schools

NUMBER CRUNCHING Tudge has been quick to trash talk Australia’s educational performance, claiming PISA shows a precipitous decline that puts us at a disadvantage against our international competitors.

But, while PISA is a snapshot of Year 10, NAPLAN results for both primary and secondary students and Year 12 results paint a picture of generally steady outcomes over the past decade and some improvement.

The disconnect was even more obvious when Tudge took to the podium at a conference in March to declare the funding wars over and to trumpet the astonishing amounts of money that were now flowing into education.

Federal money is flowing into education, but not to where it is needed. It will be another eight years before Australian public school systems reach 95 per cent of the funding that the federal government says is the minimum they need.

By then, students who started prep in the early days of this Liberal–National government will have graduated, having never seen their education fully funded.

Tudge’s speech, available on the ministerial website, was a masterpiece of misdirection. In a few short sentences, he mixed real term and cash figures, percentages and dollar sums, federal and total funding; spliced sectors, shuffled time periods and threw around global figures rather than the more meaningful

PHOTOGRAPHY CHRIS CRERAR

knowledge just isn’t going to give that.

“The fact we’ve just stood still educationally is indicative that we have the wrong curriculum and the wrong assessment system, and we haven’t been funding our schools properly,” Bousted says.

Agenda

It’s abhorrent that we deliver so much money to the richest, most privileged schools when there is such great need in public schools right across the country.

Correna Haythorpe AEU federal president

per capita funding. Fortunately, figures are available that tell the truth.

OVERFLOWING PRIVATE SCHOOL COFFERS Former Productivity Commission economist Trevor Cobbold of Save Our Schools says that over the past decade, private school income has increased six to eight times that of public schools.

Adjusted for inflation, combined state and Commonwealth funding per student rose four times faster for Catholic and independent schools than for public schools between 2009 and 2019. State funding went down. Add in increasing fees and other income, and funding shot up 7.6 times faster for independent schools, and 6.2 times faster for Catholic schools.

“One of the big problems in the past couple of years is that the really big increases are going to private schools outside of the model,” Cobbold says.

As Adam Rorris notes in his report, The Schooling Resource Standard in Australia, every private school will be funded above its SRS by 2022, while government schools must wait until 2029 to reach 95 per cent. Private schools enjoy a floor under their funding, while public schools have a ceiling over theirs.

POLITICIANS MUST STEP UP With the next election so close, the AEU will demand proper commitments from political parties to provide 100 per cent of the SRS, the end to the Commonwealth’s 20 per cent cap on contributions to public schools, and a major capital works program.

“We need all politicians to understand the importance of this issue. The ALP needs to be prominent in this space and, at the moment, they’re not,” Correna Haythorpe says.

“It’s abhorrent that we deliver so much money to the richest, most privileged schools when there is such great need in public schools right across the country.”

While Tudge’s agenda remains unclear – and nothing that might frighten the horses is likely to be announced before polling day – clues might lie in his background.

While saying there are “no silver bullets” for raising standards, he arrived in politics having worked on two programs notable for offering just that: Teach for Australia, and Noel Pearson’s Cape York Institute, which imported the script-based Direct Instruction teaching program from the US. No wonder he wants us, as he told Nine media in June, to “move on from the tired ideological debates”.Si

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Under pressure Teachers and principals say extreme workloads are unsustainable, increasing stress levels and making many question their long-term commitment to the profession.

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eachers in more than 30 public schools across New South Wales staged walkouts earlier this year to protest against working conditions caused by significant staff shortages.

The industrial action followed the February 2021 release of Valuing the Teaching Profession, an independent inquiry by former Western Australian premier, Geoff Gallop.

The inquiry, the first investigation of teachers’ work in NSW since 2004, found their dedication remained high, but profound changes in the volume, intensity and complexity of their work was leading to unsustainable workloads.

Surveys report that teachers and principals across Australia are routinely working more than 50 hours a week – including an average of more than four

Teachers and principals across Australia are routinely working more than 50 hours a week, studies show.

hours each weekend – to accomplish core responsibilities of planning, preparation and assessment.

“Teachers have said enough is enough,” says NSW Teachers Federation (NSWTF) president Angelo Gavrielatos. “It’s the government’s responsibility to ensure all of our schools are appropriately staffed, and that is not the case in far too many instances.

“There’s been a dramatic decline in support for teachers over the last decade as governments have stripped away funding, while at the same time failing to increase teacher salaries to ensure parity with other professions.”

Based on the Gallop recommendations, the NSWTF is lobbying the state government to secure an extra two hours release from face-to-face or non-contact time for teachers so they can better plan, collaborate and do what's expected of them. It’s also pursuing a guaranteed 10 to 15 per cent increase in salaries over the next two years to ensure they’re competitive now and into the future.

Agenda

ILLUSTRATION SAM BREWSTER / IKON IMAGES

Funding – A federal election issue ACCOUNTABILITY IN FOCUS Teachers in Victoria are making similar demands. AEU Victoria president Meredith Peace says workload is a central plank of the branch’s campaign for a new enterprise agreement, which began in mid-December.

Data from more than 10,000 teachers, principals, and support staff across Australia who responded to the latest State of our Schools survey shows that almost 50 per cent of teachers regularly think about leaving the classroom. Most agree that reduced workloads are the best way of retaining teachers.

“Many of our members say the hours they once used for the core work preparation and planning are being taken up by meetings to discuss high-level data from NAPLAN and other school-level assessments,” says Peace.

While that’s all relevant work, teachers still need enough time to prepare lessons, says Peace. “There has to be a balance. If we really want improvements in teaching and learning, we can’t fill up teachers’ time with a lot of other things that may not make a difference.”

In Queensland, a workload reduction campaign has seen the creation of a Workload Advisory Council, which has received more than 800 submissions from members, according to QTU president Cresta Richardson.

The union is also working with the department to improve online processes to make it easier for teachers and school leaders to access materials.

The QTU website has information for schools offering ideas on planning good workload management.

“It’s about everyone having a look at their own practice and asking if there could be a better way of doing it,” says Richardson.

It’s the government’s responsibility to ensure all of our schools are appropriately staffed, and that is not the case in far too many locations.

Angelo Gavrielatos NSW Teachers Federation

"But, importantly, it's also about the system keeping to what needs to be done and making some clear decisions. Just because something has been done one way for 10 years, ask, is there a better and more efficient way? Do we need to continue this practice?"

Some schools are embracing a “right-to-disconnect” policy, which is part of the union’s workload reduction campaign.

“It supports teachers in reducing digital communication as a way to reclaim worklife balance through recognition of a right to their own time,” says Richardson.

GLOBAL COMPARISONS Dr Sue Thomson, a former teacher and the deputy CEO of the Australian Council for Educational Research, has been following trends in teacher workloads and is concerned about the higher proportion of hours worked outside of school to complete planning and preparation.

She’s also worried that the trend is much worse at disadvantaged schools.

COVID-19 has made workload issues worse, acknowledges AEU federal president, Correna Haythorpe, and she says the system relies on the goodwill of the teaching profession in the face of high expectations from governments and a public system already under pressure.

“Schools are being denied the funding they need to hire more teachers, reduce class sizes, bring in specialist support and provide ongoing professional development so teachers can engage in what they do best, which is collaboration in teaching and learning,” she says.

“This must be a federal election issue because we cannot have a system that delivers funding for some students and not others,” she says.

“When I interview teachers, the thing they want to talk about is how much extra work they have and do, and how little time they get to do it in,” says Thomson.

It can be even more demanding for new teachers, with the latest Teaching and Learning International Survey indicating that their workloads are heavy from day one.

“We need to look at how we fund schools because the disadvantaged ones aren’t getting the benefits,” she says.

“The way we’re going, it doesn’t seem like they’re ever going to be resourced properly. There’s a group of schools and kids we don’t seem to care about.”

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Urgent need for early childhood educators A systemic nationwide solution is needed to address dire workforce issues.

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IN SHORT // The early childhood sector is facing chronic staff shortages amidst increasing enrolments. // Lack of recognition and low pay is causing high staff turnover. // Experts are calling for a more consistent approach to training through properly funded TAFE.

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babysitters, they think it’s a really easy job, all you do is play with kids all day. But there’s so much more to it.

“People put in time to get qualified and then they go into an industry that is paying them peanuts. They can get paid more for looking after plants in a nursery,” Ingram says.

Helen Gibbons from the United Workers Union, which represents early childhood educators, says that, until pay and conditions improve, the sector will struggle to meet demand.

“The government has structured funding in a way that suppresses the capacity of educators to achieve fair pay rates,” says Gibbons.

“Educators know that, without more government funding, any increases in their pay will come at the parents’ expense, and early childhood education is already pretty expensive.”

Gibbons says it is not only workers and their unions putting pressure on the government to act. Employers, too, need certainty to ensure they have enough

PHOTOGRAPHY ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

he early childhood sector is facing a perfect storm of staff shortages and high turnover amid escalating enrolments.

Its educators in preschools and long day care centres are leaving their jobs over poor pay and conditions at a time when demand for places is rising quickly.

The Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) estimates the sector will need an extra 30,000 early childhood educators and 7000 teachers by 2024 to prevent the already severe staff shortage worsening.

Urgent action on pay and conditions as well as a strategy to attract and train new educators and teachers is needed, AEU federal president Correna Haythorpe says.

Liz Ingram, head teacher of early childhood education and care at Tamworth TAFE in New South Wales, says the lack of funding, direction and proper policies from governments have a flow-on effect, causing high levels of stress and burnout.

“Staff in early childhood centres are all overworked, and they’re not being treated as professionals,” Ingram says.

“The government still regards them as

Agenda

Educators know that, without more government funding, any increases in their pay will come at the parents’ expense, and early childhood education is already pretty expensive.

Helen Gibbons United Workers Union

Workforce crisis The sector will need an extra

30,000 early childhood educators

+

7000

teachers by 2024 to prevent the already severe staff shortage worsening.

(Source: ACECQA)

trained people to work in their centres.

“The government has very grand ambitions for growing the economy, but they’re going to find it really hard to do that if they can’t grow early education. Parents need to be able to go to work, so they need early education,” she says.

“ACECQA is writing a 10-year workforce strategy that will be presented for government consideration in August. If that strategy doesn’t call on a substantial overhaul of wages and conditions, it will ignore the obvious and be just another failed strategy.”

QUALITY TRAINING MATTERS Gibbons isn’t confident that the workforce can grow to the extent ACECQA has forecast unless there’s a more consistent approach to training.

“There are a lot of dodgy RTOs [registered training organisations] that offer qualifications in ECE [early childhood education], but they don’t meet the high standards providers and educators need. It’s a big debate happening in the sector and it’s heartbreaking when good people spend a lot of money to get a qualification that the sector won’t accept because of where it came from.”

TAFE is the preferred option for many early childhood educators to obtain their certificate III or diploma, but Gibbons urges governments to remove barriers to qualifications by funding colleges properly to allow them to provide courses free or at reduced rates.

All Australians have a right to public vocational education and training (VET), says Haythorpe.

“TAFE should be at the centre of that, with funding to ensure that providing qualified educational support staff and teachers for children in the early learning and care sector isn’t gifted to private providers,” she says.

The AEU launched the Rebuild with TAFE campaign in February 2021, calling on the federal government to restore funding with a guaranteed minimum 70 per cent of all VET funding directed to the public TAFE system.

A QUALITY INVESTMENT Investing in early childhood education doubles the return to Australia, according to a recently released study, A Smart Investment for a Smarter Australia, commissioned by an independent advocacy organisation, The Front Project. The economic analysis of the early childhood sector by PwC identified

just over $2 of benefits for every $1 spent on early childhood education, representing a return on investment of 103 per cent.

The report highlights the importance of investing in quality early education for business, governments and families, CEO of The Front Project Jane Hunt says.

“It’s also vital to our economic stability as the world of work becomes more complex. “We know that 65 per cent of children today will do jobs that have not been invented yet, so the reality is that our children will need to learn how to learn – early education does this.

“We now have the data that demon­ strates the potential for more children and families to live healthier, happier and more productive lives alongside dividends that will benefit the nation,” says Hunt.

Not to mention the staggering return on investment. “That’s higher than many of our nation-building infrastructure projects.

The benefits of early education can be seen immediately, and returns continue as those kids become adults,” Hunt says.

Early childhood educators are essential workers and the key to realising these economic benefits, says Dr Jen Jackson from the Centre for Policy Development and Victoria University’s Mitchell Institute.

“Every early childhood educator is such a precious resource for Australia, socially and economically.” But when VET is under-valued, the early childhood sector also gets short-changed, Jackson says.

“Without the contributions of the VET sector in developing a high-quality, well-supported workforce, we risk losing developmental benefits for children that come from quality ECE and care, opportunities for families to make the employment choices they want to, and the fantastic careers the sector can offer.”

SPR IN G 20 2 1 // 17

Are NAPLAN’s days numbered?

A new report says NAPLAN is out of step and cannot be fixed.

It calls for a better and cheaper national assessment system.

Testing times

85+15+D 75+25+D 94+6+D 85%

IN SHORT // A new report recommends replacing census-based testing with a sample-based assessment method. // Experts say NAPLAN has become "widely misused". // The change would bring Australia in line with international best practice.

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answers about the relevant aspects of performance, he says.

The report recommends a samplebased assessment method that is developed and implemented in close partnership with teachers.

At its heart would be a formative classroom-based system, which would include a national library of quality assessment tasks for Year 4 to Year 10 linked to the curriculum and teaching.

“The proposed system offers a suite of expert-designed, teacher-made and system-level assessments that are fit for specific purposes in schools,” Sahlberg says.

It would serve the purposes of public accountability and monitoring the progress of education systems. This new system would be cheaper to administer and the cost savings could be used to develop other assessment instruments for teachers and schools, he says.

The AEU has welcomed the report and its recommendations.

AEU federal president Correna Haythorpe says NAPLAN has put significant pressure on teachers to teach to the test as well as stress on students.

Its prominence in schools and the community has added to the pressure.

“Its data has been used for the production of league tables, which are purely intended

75%

About three-quarters of teachers and school principals say it isn’t effective for school comparison

94%

of teachers believe NAPLAN increases student stress and anxiety.

(Source: AEU State of our Schools survey)

PHOTOGRAPHY ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

C

ensus-based testing, which causes “harmful side effects”, should be scrapped and replaced with a new approach to assessment that supports student learning and provides better information to parents and government, according to the UNSW Gonski Institute of Education report, Putting Students First.

UNSW professor of education Pasi Sahlberg says NAPLAN has become a “widely misused” instrument.

Students, schools, parents and governments need better information about how students and their schools are performing but a single test such as NAPLAN cannot provide the

of teachers and 75% of school principals believe NAPLAN does not improve student outcomes

Agenda

We need education ministers to actually have some fortitude here and understand that there is a huge groundswell of support for a new assessment framework and to work with the teaching profession and its union to deliver that.

Correna Haythorpe AEU federal president

to name and shame schools and that corrupts the purpose of assessment.”

The AEU’s State of our Schools survey of 12,000 school staff highlights the level of disenchantment with NAPLAN. It found 85 per cent of teachers and 75 per cent of school principals did not believe NAPLAN improved student outcomes.

About three-quarters of teachers and school principals (75 per cent and 73 per cent respectively) do not believe it is effective for school comparison. And 94 per cent of teachers and 87 per cent of principals

believe it increases student stress and anxiety.

“NAPLAN is broken so it’s time to shift now and actually have a new and relevant assessment that works for teachers,” Haythorpe says.

International case studies in the Gonski Institute report show Australia is out of step with other education systems in Ontario, Scotland, Singapore and Finland, which have moved away from high-stakes standardised testing.

The proposed system would bring Australia into line with international best

practice and builds in a monitoring system to ensure it continues to evolve, says Haythorpe.

The report also recommends that a new program of professional learning and development for teachers be developed alongside the proposed system.

“We need education ministers to actually have some fortitude here and understand that there is a huge groundswell of support for a new assessment framework and to work with the teaching profession and its union to deliver that,” Haythorpe says.

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Teaching our nation’s truth Educators are set to revamp the way First Nations' knowledge, history and culture are taught to future generations.

BY R A C H AE L H O C K I N G

IN SHORT // A national curriculum review found "outdated" ideas in First Nations content. // Recommendations include recognising that First Nations people experienced colonisation as an invasion. // First Nations educators have welcomed the findings.

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PHOTOGRAPHY GETTY IMAGES

F

irst Nations educators say they have taken a step towards what many have sought for generations: a re-think of the way their knowledges, cultures and histories are taught in schools.

The change follows a mandated review by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), which found “outdated” ideas in the curriculum’s First Nations content.

The review, which took in core knowledge and skills taught up to Year 10, included the cross-curriculum priority (CCP) of looking at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures.

It was led by ACARA’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Advisory Group in consultation with other First Nations peoples. The group’s chairperson and Gunditjmara man Professor Mark Rose says the goal of reviewing the CCP was to achieve “a curriculum where every kid goes home proud that they’re living in this country, whether they’re black or white”.

Rose says the CCP exists to help educators enrich key learning areas. It can be embedded in content descriptions, or as content elaborations. The CCP has the potential to inform and shape key understandings of First Nations peoples, history and culture “outside of history class”.

The review re-examined the CCP’s organising ideas and found failings from ignoring the importance of the Native Title Act 1993, to omitting recognition that First Nations peoples are part of the world’s oldest continuing cultures.

In April this year, ACARA released hundreds of pages of proposed changes to the curriculum and opened a public consultation period (which ended in early July).

Curriculum

ACARA's review included the cross-curriculum priority of looking at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures.

Among the proposals are recognition that First Nations people experienced colonisation as an invasion, and a shift from using the term Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander Peoples to the more widely accepted First Nations Australians and First Nations Peoples of the Torres Strait.

RESETTING RELATIONSHIPS University of Sydney associate professor and Wiradjuri woman Dr Christine Evans says she’s delighted to see the “remarkable” improvement in the quality of representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures.

“This has the capacity to reset relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. So many people have deep-seated knowledge deficits, and we need to address that. We can do that with leadership by ACARA and the Australian curriculum.”

April also marked the 30th anniversary of the Royal Commission into Indigenous Deaths in Custody (RCIDIC) and three decades since the RCIDIC’s 339 recommendations, including 10 relating to education.

Recommendation 290 proposed that “curricula of schools at all levels should reflect the fact that Australia has an Aboriginal history and Aboriginal viewpoints on social, cultural and historical matters”.

In their consultation paper reviewing the CCP, the Advisory Group found the curriculum “did not reflect Australia’s First Nations Peoples’ calls for truth-telling”.

The implication behind the concept is that our complete history – tens of thousands of years of First Nations histories and cultures, and 251 years of British colonisation – has not been told accurately to-date.

This has the capacity to reset relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.

So many people have deep-seated knowledge deficits, and we need to address that.

Dr Christine Evans University of Sydney

Evans says a curriculum with a strong First Nations voice should allow “for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to participate in a countryspecific continuum of learning that has occurred on the mainland of Australia for at least 65,000 years”.

“Two-hundred years ago, we had disruption to that continuum of learning,” she says.

To translate the need for deeper truthtelling in the curriculum, the framework surrounding the CCP’s interconnected aspects of country/place, culture and people have been expanded.

For example, while the current CCP places importance on First Nations Australians’ connection to country/place,

SPR IN G 20 2 1 // 21

Recognising and rewarding Nominations open for the

Arthur Hamilton Award This is your chance to celebrate AEU members who are making an outstanding contribution to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education.

The Arthur Hamilton Award commemorates the achievements of Arthur Hamilton, a Palawa man who was active in promoting social justice, fostering the voice of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educators and campaigning for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to access a high-quality public education.

The winner will receive a $1500 prize and their work will be recognised by the AEU in an appropriate public forum in 2022, depending on COVID advice at the time.

All nominees will receive a certificate from the AEU.

Get nominating!

Download your nomination form at: aeufederal.org.au/our-work/indigenous or request a nomination form from Suzanne Lowndes: (03) 9693 1800 slowndes@aeufederal.org.au Closing date for nominations is Friday 17 December 2021.

Find out more

Visit aeufederal.org.au/our-work/indigenous or contact AEU Federal Secretary, Susan Hopgood: aeu@aeufederal.org.au

Pictured from top: Jeanene Booth from Caulfield South Primary School in VIC and Kayla White from Camden Haven High School in NSW were the joint winners of the 2020 Arthur Hamilton Award.

Curriculum

You’ll have young people actually finishing Year 10 and understanding the deep connection that First Nations really have to country and place, to people, to their culture, that is far deeper than anyone in Parliament has had in their own school experience.

Hayley McQuire National Indigenous Youth Education

PHOTOGRAPHY ALAMY

it lacks a nuanced discussion about how that connection has been disrupted.

Founder of the National Indigenous Youth Education Coalition, Darumbal and South-Sea Islander woman Hayley McQuire has followed the review closely.

She told Australian Educator that the changes allow for a thorough exploration of the history and present of the continent.

VITAL TRUTHS “It still depends on your teacher to be able to take these and embed them, but it’s about going deeper in looking at the compulsory elements and trying to make those more alive.

“The truths we embed into this curriculum are really vital,” says McQuire.

The Stronger Smarter Institute’s CEO Dr John Davis says the push for truth-telling must be purposeful. He calls on educators to maintain their rigor and commitment to walking with First Nations people.

He says the ACARA framework will play a vital role in accurately reflecting the diversity of First Nations communities.

“There’s never just one pan Aboriginality or one pan Torres Strait Islander identity,” he says.

“We’ve got to be able to map our history, our cultures, our story, our English in ways that are more responsive to that.

Because when we don’t, we miss that reality. And that reality is here I am, here.

“A model like ACARA provides a safe space for our identities, our reflections as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders across all gambits – urban, rural and remote.”

First Nations educators do have some reservations.

Christine Evans would like to see First Nations content descriptions that can be assessed across key learning areas such as mathematics, technologies, and health

First Nations educators say the proposed changes, if implemented, have the potential to shape a better future for the next generation.

and physical education. John Davis says the curriculum is still at the mercy of changing governments and attacks from conservative historians.

But Hayley McQuire says that the proposed changes, if implemented, have the potential to shape a better future for the next generation.

“You’ll have young people actually finishing Year 10 and understanding the deep connection that First Nations really have to country and place, to people, to their culture, that is far deeper than anyone in Parliament has had in their own school experience,” she says.

“Young people are our future PMs, they’re our future lawyers, they’re our future health workers. Imagine what this country could look like if they had a better and fairer recognition of what Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have experienced, and what they continue to face.”

The public review process closed in early July, and any updates to the F-10 curriculum are expected to be in place by early 2022.

Rachael Hocking is a freelance writer and Warlpiri woman.

SPR IN G 20 2 1 // 23

A team approach to building resilience There’s no quick-fix for social and emotional challenges but working together gives educators the best chance of supporting students – and one another.

ILLUSTRATION KERRY HYNDMAN / IKON IMAGES

BY L E ANN E T O L RA

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Mental health

S

ocial and emotional learning is not new to educators, but the need for it across all areas, and all age groups, has risen to unprecedented levels.

For the last 18 months, students and educators across the country have been forced to deal with the social disruption cause by COVID-19. Many communities have also faced natural disasters such as bushfires and floods, and families are under increased financial and emotional stress.

Teachers are at the forefront of the battle to help students maintain resilience and keep them engaged in learning, but they need tools, programs, resources – and each other – to do the job effectively.

“Research has shown that kids need a more sustained approach to social and emotional learning, not only for the everyday challenges of normal life, but to help them to readjust after they have experienced trauma,” says Professor Helen Cahill from the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at Melbourne University.

IN SHORT // Educators play a critical role in helping students build resilience. // COVID-19 disruptions have brought an increase in negative behaviours from students. // A collaborative approach to trauma-informed practice can equip both staff and students to cope in times of crisis.

Cahill is the author of Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships, a national, free, online social and emotional learning program provided by the Victorian Department of Education for students from foundation to Year 12.

She says that, against the backdrop of anxiety and unpredictability, there is an even greater need for schools to be places where students can develop their social and emotional skills and discover coping strategies.

“What the kids have dealt with is a major social disruption – it has an emotional effect, but it also has a social effect. Teachers are telling us that some kids are now struggling to get along with each other; there is evidence of more aggressive behaviour in the playground and the classroom.”

NO BOUNDARIES Winter at Taroona High School in Tasmania’s affluent southeast was tough for many students and demand for the school’s social workers reached a peak, says school psychologist Russ Ebert.

“I think resilience is down. Our students continue to face the same sorts of issues, but they are coming up with greater intensity. Some family issues have been heightened with parents working from home, too,” says Ebert.

Tasmanian students had one term of online learning in Term 2 of 2020 says Ebert, but it has had flow-on effects into this year. More students at the school of 1300 have been at risk of disengaging, social disruption has increased and some students now prefer to learn from home.

“We do a lot of anxiety work. There is a strong trend to psychoeducation that begins by talking to students about what anxiety is, so that when they are

I think resilience is down. Our students continue to face the same sorts of issues, but they are coming up with greater intensity.

Russ Ebert Taroona High School, TAS

experiencing the sick tummy or the tight chest, they understand the physical sensations. We talk about ways of managing them and ways of managing the mental symptoms, whilst also promoting the basics of healthy living such as exercise, diet and sleep.”

A LEGACY OF RESTORATION A strong trauma-informed practice at Aldinga Beach Primary School, 45 kilometres southwest of Adelaide, has sustained staff and students in times of crisis, says Kirsten Ifould, a foundation to Year 7 teacher.

SPR IN G 20 2 1 // 25

Mental health

The kids don’t need someone to feel sorry for them, they need us to provide strategies for them to deal with trauma now, and in the long term.

Mandy Dempsey Port Augusta Children's Centre, SA

“We did a solid two years of training through whole-school professional development. Our principal passed away suddenly during the last school holidays – and this is her legacy. It was apparent in the way we supported students and staff after we lost her.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has seen a change in behaviour and an increase in negative behaviours. Kids hear a lot of what is going on in the world and it worries them. The Black Lives Matter campaign really affected them as well.”

The school of 160 has 75 Indigenous students in its “culture mob”. Students face domestic violence, family mental health issues, high loss of family members, and many are in foster care or kinship care.

“We have learned about brain structures and how they are impacted by trauma and how working with students with trauma can cause problems for educators,” Ifould says.

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“We did the Berry Street training and that gave us ready-to-learn plans. We do circle-learning, and we teach the kids to take brain breaks. Restorative practice is our underlying discipline, and we have a reconnect room. We use the Flip Your Lid model and meditation is practised across the school.”

THE CYCLE OF LOSS Mandy Dempsey (pictured above) who is the Director of the Port Augusta Children’s Centre about 320 kilometres north of Adelaide, says death and dealing with loss are the biggest traumas facing her largely Indigenous community.

“Sometimes there is no time for an Aboriginal community to get over one death before the next person dies. It can be dealt with through drinking and drugs, which might lead to violence in the home, and it becomes a cycle. Children are impacted by this, and schools don’t

WORKING TOGETHER Cahill says it is important to acknowledge the intersection between student wellbeing and teacher wellbeing. “Teacher wellbeing is also hugely affected by their role as often unacknowledged and uncelebrated frontline workers in the community,” she says.

Ifould agrees. “If there was one positive thing that came out of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was that a lot of people across the country suddenly realised that teachers are pretty awesome.”

Cahill likens social and emotional learning, for both students and teachers, to playing sport: “You don’t improve by hitting a ball against a wall, you get better by practising with others. Social and emotional learning is built through interaction in the same way – group dynamics, self-regulation and behaviour modification.”

Leanne Tolra is a freelance writer.

PHOTOGRAPHY DAVE LASLETT

fit into that – kids have to wake up in the morning, have clean clothes and get on the bus to school.

“We try to train our staff from the families in our communities; we use playgroups as an inroad and then build these groups into parenting programs. The kids don’t need someone to feel sorry for them, they need us to provide strategies for them to deal with trauma now, and in the long term.

“One of the best things to support kids with trauma is routine. If we can provide consistency and kids know what they are coming back to every time they return to learning, it gives them control over their environment, empowers them and helps them to learn.”

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All in a day’s work Finding ways to inspire learning takes many forms, from grooming chickens to public speaking and encouraging fun.

BY MARG ARE T PATO N

JUST SAY HELLO Justin Pronin was delighted that his Year 8 English students at Harrison School in the ACT took up his public speaking challenge last term.

Easing them into it after exploring public speaking techniques and brainstorming speeches, Pronin asked each student to simply walk to the front of the classroom, say “hello” and return to their seat.

“I impressed upon them that nothing bad would happen when they took up the ‘hello’ challenge. They wrote down their feelings and shared with me that it did feel

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a bit weird, but it was OK,” Pronin says.

Next they chose a text – a poem, song, book, or movie – and wrote a speech that took into account cultural and historical perspectives of the text.

“My students had to be brave and stand in front of the class, and we all found out a bit more about each other. I was surprised by the positive results – it was a credit to those students, too,” he says.

THE MARKING CHALLENGE Pronin has had to find new approaches to clearly explain his marking system to

some students, who will often ask him how they can improve their grades.

“When I first came into teaching, I didn’t want to focus on grades, but they’re part of our system," he says.

"Students who are in between a B and an A ask what I want from them so they can get an A. I’ll give them feedback, for example that their writing needs more focus or depth.

“It also helps that we pass students’ assignments between English teachers at our school to get a better sense of what A, B, and C grades look like.”

PHOTOGRAPHY SUPPLIED

JUSTIN PRONIN Harrison School, ACT

In practice

In each issue of Australian Educator, we follow the challenges and achievements of three new educators – two teachers and a principal – throughout the year.

He’s also working on finding the right balance for his teaching approach.

“It’s a constant Zen practice. You don’t want kids to walk all over you, and you don’t want to be too strict,” he says. “For me, it’s about building relationships and being positive.”

It is a theme that Pronin is following after taking the reins of the Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) program for Years 7 to 10 students.

The international evidence-based framework to create a safe and supportive learning environment for students was put

It’s a constant Zen practice. You don’t want kids to walk all over you, and you don’t want to be too strict.

on the backburner at the school because of COVID-19 disruptions but, with a new principal this year and a new PBL team, momentum behind the program has picked up.

“I understand the philosophy behind it and like having the opportunity to do some public speaking about it in front of staff members to encourage a school-wide approach,” says Pronin.

Outside of the classroom, Pronin plays competitive basketball and is also head coach of an under-16 boys’ state volleyball team.

SPR IN G 20 2 1 // 29

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In practice

The process from breeding [chickens] to showing teaches my students different skills they really enjoy.

PHOTOGRAPHY SUPPLIED

EMILY PRICE Trundle Central School, NSW

CHOOK LEARNING Teaching students to shampoo and blowdry purebred chooks is part of the job for Trundle Central School teacher Emily Price. Her class has been preparing the school's Silkies, Rhode Island Reds, and Australorps for the local agriculture show.

And the birds aren’t complaining, says Price. “They actually love a clean. They keep still and close their eyes. Then we put olive oil on their feathers for shine. Last year’s students bred these chickens, and this year’s cohort will breed some as well.

The process from breeding to showing teaches my students different skills they really enjoy.”

Her agriculture and primary industries students are also showing 80 kilogram ewes that they have broken in with halters so they can lead them. Students will also take on junior judging roles for grain, wool, fruit, produce, and livestock.

Price has revived the school’s participation in the show after an absence

of a few years. She’s set up a new plot and yards and got students involved in fencing.

As the only agriculture teacher at Trundle, Price sometimes feels a “bit out of the loop” but she’s hoping her decision to join the NSW Agricultural Teachers’ Association will help.

“Two heads are better than one when thinking of ideas. I’ve met some ag teachers elsewhere and call them when I need advice, but it’s nicer to meet to bounce ideas off one another.”

FINDING THE TEACHABLE MOMENTS Outside of livestock wrangling, Price continues to teach science, maths and numeracy and says that seeing the penny drop for students in her Year 8 maths classes has been a highlight.

“I’ll keep trying to teach them a concept in a different way until it works for them.

I’ve tried to do step-by-step instruction and

find it’s helpful if they can see visuals on the board as I break down the task into simple chunks to structure their learning,” says Price.

“I love that moment of realisation when they all of a sudden get it; that look on their face. I’m excited to see them grow, change their attitude, and work really hard.”

Price has used her maths classes to work on her goal to become datasavvy. She’s been testing her data diagnostic skills.

“A lot of students say they don’t like and can’t do maths, so I’ve found a way to encourage them to build their confidence.

We do a baseline test at the start of a topic, when I explain I haven’t taught that topic yet, so they’re not expected to know it.”

Doing the same test after she’s taught the unit reveals how far they’ve progressed, and the students say it’s helpful seeing that growth.

Price has seen her own growth as a teacher using ACER’s online assessment system, PAT, which gives her quicker insights than hand-marking.

“I love that you can look at an area that your whole class needs to work on, so it says maybe I need to improve in my teaching of this particular concept. You can also break it down to see what parts individuals struggle with, too.”

Price is also the co-ordinating teacher for the student representative council (SRC). That involves helping the group organise fundraisers such as for a longterm project to build a covered outdoor learning area and escorting them on leadership programs.

“The SRC is fantastic for giving me a lot of insight into these students, building rapport, and that can only help me as a teacher,” she says.

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In practice

NIKKI DAVIES Yinnar South Primary School, VIC

GETTING SILLY Letting kids get a bit silly in class isn’t something you’d expect a principal to advocate. But it’s a bit of a quest for Nikki Davies principal at Yinnar South Primary School, a small rural school of 13 pupils.

Indeed, the distractions are encouraged as a way to learn the skill of returning to work.

“Having smaller classes of four or five students means I catch myself wanting to pull them up on being productive all the time. So, it’s really difficult to ensure I’m giving students the opportunity to act silly with friends, to get a bit distracted and bring themselves back on task – that’s a valuable skill,” she says.

Balancing silliness, fun, and play with learning is a strong theme for Davies.

She’s been developing the school’s new four-year strategy following an education department review of the previous one.

“What surprised me with the review was the amount of evidence we had to gather

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to show we’ve achieved our goals over the past four years, but I’d only been here for half of that. Now, I’m having more of a say in what we’ll do to put my mark on this school,” she says.

Davies has been transforming her school’s approach from mainly “focusing on fun and what students will enjoy doing” to one driven to achieve high expectations, development, and learning growth.

“The conversation has moved to what they will get out of these activities, how it affects their learning, and incorporating more data. We had no data when I started.”

LEARNING FIGURES Yinnar doesn’t receive its NAPLAN data because it has too few students. So, Davies has built a “culture of pre-and post-data”.

She’s upskilled staff with a data coach from a nearby high school and found online courses on reading, interpreting and using data, with an eye on the baseline figures.

“We’ve even built data meetings

into our regular meetings,” she says.

Davies is also completing a year-long professional development course on differentiated/play-based inquiry learning in the early years of schooling through the state education department and Deakin University.

“I’ve learnt play needs to be really structured for the learning to be taking place. You can’t just say to students, ‘go and create something’. With my background in secondary teaching, I know games look very different in high school than in primary.”

Play-based learning for Yinnar’s junior students features plate balancing, juggling, dressing up as clowns, basic tumbling, and magic shows.

“Our focus on circus and performance skills has really helped their learning goals around fine motor and gross motor and built their confidence for other things such as show and tell.”

Davies is modelling her skills, too. She’s learnt the ukulele to teach her students to play Waltzing Matilda for their end-of-year school concert. Parents will also be able to check out a new community garden at Yinnar. The school secured a $10,000 grant from the local council to expand the plot and change the garden edges from rotten wood to bushfire-safe concrete.

Along with her school responsibilities, Davies is on the AEU’s principals’ association executive. She’s helping support the campaign as membership heads into the next bargaining agreement in December.

Margaret Paton is a freelance writer and casual K-12 teacher.

PHOTOGRAPHY SUPPLIED

I’ve learnt play needs to be really structured for the learning to be taking place. You can’t just say to students, ‘go and create something’.

We can unlock poverty for families, children, and all affected by pandemic poverty.

Raising income support above the poverty line and government investment in social housing are the keys to unlocking poverty.

See new teaching resources on Poverty & Inequality in Australia from 13/9/21 www.coolaustralia.org www.antipovertyweek.org.au

Aiming for a stronger and fairer recovery Education systems need to find a new normal in the wake of COVID-19, one that promotes equity and resilience, says a new report.

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Most education systems should be proud of the effort they made, but a lot more will be required to ensure effectiveness and equity.

Andreas Schleicher OECD

The evidence shows that governments working effectively with education unions have been more successful at getting education back on its feet than in countries where partnerships are nonexistent, Hopgood told the launch.

“Nationally and internationally, we need to learn from what has already worked, not repeat what has already failed. This means the conscious adoption of positive pluralism by governments, teacher unions and organisations representing civil society when working together on recovery.”

EI and the OECD developed 10 principles for countries to follow as they re-establish systems.

Sustainable recovery of education systems needs a strategy, then proper implementation and rigorous evaluation, says Hopgood.

“Our joint principles are groundbreaking.

They are aspirational, but they are clear and practical,” she says.

PHOTOGRAPHY ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

T

he global pandemic has shaken education systems to their core, disrupting the lives and learning of educators and students, schools and parents. Many have struggled to adapt to the change in circumstances, particularly education systems that already needed more funding and support.

Some countries kept school closures brief but, in many others, such as Colombia and Costa Rica, students were locked out of their schools for as long as 12 months.

In other words, COVID-19 has shown that education systems are “highly vulnerable” to external shocks, according to a joint report by the OECD and Education International (EI), the global federation of educator unions.

The report, Effective and Equitable Educational Recovery, urges governments to heed the lessons of the past 18 months as we emerge from the pandemic so that education systems are better prepared for the next crisis.

High-performing education systems could run schools even in the most difficult circumstances whereas systems that were already battling slipped further back, OECD director for educational skills Andreas Schleicher told a webinar launch of the report in June 2021.

Where students had access to appropriate resources and support from parents and teachers, they could “find a way through closed school doors” but students with no access to resources and support were left behind, he says.

“Most education systems should be proud of the effort they made, but a lot more will be required to ensure effectiveness and equity,” says Schleicher.

EI president and AEU federal secretary Susan Hopgood says the value of collaboration was strongly recognised during the height of the pandemic.

World view

10 principles for effective and equitable educational recovery While schools have shown “great resilience” in trying to compensate for the global pandemic, they need to be better prepared for similar challenges, according to the OECD/EI report.

Continuity of learning must be “the centrepiece of all considerations”.

The 10 principles are:

1

6

Keep schools open as much and as safely as possible.

Enable teachers and parents to support learners.

2

7

Ensure equity and align resources with needs.

Co-design a robust digital learning infrastructure with teachers and stakeholders.

3 Provide a remote learning infrastructure which is designed to reach all students.

4 Support teachers in their professional lives.

5 Provide targeted support to meet students’ learning and social and emotional needs.

8 Empower teachers to exercise their professionalism and benefit from professional learning opportunities.

9 Encourage a collaborative culture of innovation.

Learn from national and international evidence.

Taking on a new subject Out-of-field teaching is a widespread and global phenomenon, but policy responses are thin on the ground.

T

he misconception that a good teacher should be able to teach anything is leading to a “global pandemic” of out-of-field teaching, which has ongoing implications says Dr Anna Elizabeth Du Plessis, senior lecturer in the School of Education at Griffith University.

Du Plessis has comprehensively explored out-of-field teaching during research for two PhDs, two books and through her own 20 years in the classroom in Australia and overseas. Her latest book, Out-of-Field Teaching and Education Policy: International Micro-Education Policy, was released late last year.

“I’ve experienced and seen how many teachers in out-of-field positions have to deal with significant classroom challenges, stress, and an emotional rollercoaster of not feeling confident teaching subject content or age levels outside of their training and expertise as well as managing student behaviour.

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“They are concerned about telling their leaders they’re struggling to cope because they don’t know if they’ll get another contract,” she says.

Her research has found out-of-field teaching occurs equally across all countries, school sectors and subject fields. Worldwide, an estimated one-third of beginning high school educators teach outside their qualification areas.

In Australia, a 2016 Australian Council for Educational Research report found that 26 per cent of teachers with seven to 10 years’ experience and more than a third of beginning teachers were teaching out-of-field.

There has been some progress in overcoming the severe shortage of STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) teachers, but a scarcity of subject specialists in geography, special education, languages, religious studies and history is yet to be addressed.

Out-of-field Teaching and Education Policy: International Micro-education Policy by Anna Elizabeth Du Plessis is published

by Springer.

ILLUSTRATION MARK AIRS / IKON IMAGES

BY M ARG ARE T PAT O N

Toolkit

... An emotional rollercoaster of not feeling confident teaching subject content or age levels outside of their training and expertise ...

Dr Anna Elizabeth Du Plessis Griffith University

OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES Du Plessis says some out-of-field teachers, with proper support, may take to a new subject with enthusiasm, but many often feel overwhelmed.

“Preparations to teach and develop assessment tasks in an out-of-field subject takes longer. Out-of-field teachers are spending most of their time trying to maintain the quality they’re used to delivering in their classrooms,” says Du Plessis.

And there are other far-reaching implications, such as the effect on school stability, quality teaching, teacher and student wellbeing, and the need to address parents’ concerns.

Policymakers who do not understand these consequences risk developing policies that do not work for the school, teachers, students, or the interests of the wider community, Du Plessis says.

She is arguing for better management

of the problem and more targeted policies to support teachers to enjoy their work and stay in the profession.

To start, she’d like to see initial teacher education courses address the issue and prepare new teachers for the likelihood that they will teach out-of-field. Du Plessis believes this might help improve the high early-career teacher attrition rates.

Apart from governments, school leaders also need to acknowledge the challenges faced by out-of-field teachers and ensure they don’t feel isolated, Du Plessis says.

She recommends professional development and mentoring specifically designed for teachers in out-of-field teaching positions, noting research shows that general professional support and development sessions rarely address out-of-field teachers’ needs.

“Teachers can develop expertise by teaching out-of-field if they have the support and exposure to professional learning opportunities. My research showed it could take up to three years before an out-of-field educator will feel comfortable teaching an out-of-field subject,” says Du Plessis.

Regular communication is important too. “I respect that school leaders have significant challenges, but if they use a ‘five-minutes-a-day’ strategy to have a conversation with each of their out-offield teachers, to know what’s going on in their classrooms, the issues, struggles and problems they need support with, it can make a massive difference to the educator to feel they belong, are supported and not taken for granted.”

Du Plessis says that a stable, satisfied and quality teaching workforce – with improved teacher retention – can only be achieved by implementing targeted policies to reduce and effectively manage out-of-field teaching.

Out-of-field teaching roadmap Author Anna Elizabeth Du Plessis argues that a stable and quality teacher workforce is possible despite the epidemic of out-offield teaching if targeted policies, at government and school levels, are developed to address and manage the issue.

This includes policies that: • Improve teacher quality through training • Support teachers’ career development • Effectively manage teacher assignments • Are aware of empirical research evidence • Take account of the complex and challenging situations of out-of-field teachers in schools that are difficult to staff • Reassess existing policies that overlook the implications of out-of-field teaching • Review teacher shortages

Source: Out-of-field Teaching and Education Policy: International Micro-education Policy, Anna Elizabeth Du Plessis, 2020.

Margaret Paton is a freelance writer and casual K-12 teacher.

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Recess

Relevant relationships Music and drama teacher Chris Spencer “hated” school, and that’s helped shape his pedagogy.

D

iagnosed with ADHD as a child, Chris Spencer was the student whom teachers often struggle to reach.

“I hated school. I didn’t like primary school and spent most of high school outside of classrooms, being removed for being too chatty, too disruptive, a smart arse,” he says.

His experience has given him useful insights into behaviour management at Aveley Primary School, Perth, where he teaches music and drama.

Spencer says he was poorly managed at school, except by one teacher. “He ignored my stupidity and eventually I thought, what’s the point of doing it, I’m not getting any attention.”

Spencer says ADHD helps him to be “super productive” and enhances his creativity.

“I really can have 10 things going at once and do them all.”

Spencer was out of the starting blocks early in his career, snagging a job as a drama teacher in a Perth primary school before he graduated and worked three days a week while he finished his degree.

“They had very bad behavioural issues. I was physically assaulted within a few days on the job by a Year 4 student who hit me in the face.”

The school struggled to keep staff although there was a core of committed teachers (including Julia whom he married some years later).

On the strength of this brief stint at the school, Spencer was offered a job at a private school but only stayed a year before returning to the public sector. “I didn’t enjoy it at all.”

He has also spent some time in education department administration, working as a curriculum improvement

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Why do you teach?

We want to hear your tips for engaging young minds. Email educator@hardiegrant.com if you have something to share. You can provide a written piece or we’d love to interview you.

“Standing in front of a class of kids keeps me on my toes. There’s no room for complacency. In a day, I might go from teaching five year olds to 12 year olds.

You’ve got to be able to pivot quickly. That thrill is what I still enjoy about face-to-face teaching, rather than administrative work.”

The kids will learn if they know that they’re safe and that you value them.

Chris Spencer Aveley Primary School, WA

officer and later held a role at the Schools Curriculum and Standards Authority. He has been a union activist since working in his first school when he took on a role as a union representative. Two years ago, he was elected to the SSTUWA state council.

Spencer says his brief periods in school leadership positions over the years, while interesting and helpful to his teaching, always cement his feeling that the classroom is where he wants to be.

“I miss the classroom and the interactions with the kids. Right now – I’m only 45 with a couple of decades ahead of me – I aspire to be a great music and drama teacher. That’s what I’m happy with.

BUILDING CONNECTIONS Spencer’s approach to behaviour management is built on creating “relevant relationships”.

He says that, while students see his music lesson as a break from intellectual work, behaviour can still be an issue.

“My room has more things that you can make noise with than a normal classroom.

I teach pre-primary kids who will come in and hit the drum, tap the xylophones and smash a cymbal, all before they’ve sat down. It’s frustrating at times, but I think that if it’s taken 20 seconds to get that out of their system and then I’ve got their attention for two minutes while I give an instruction, fine, I can deal with that 20 seconds.

“You need to pick your battles rather than nitpick.”

Spencer says his approach shifted and strengthened after he became a parent and then, when the second of his three children was born with autism, he refined his ability to ignore some behaviours.

“If the behaviour isn’t having an impact on anyone else, I can overlook it and let everyone else continue to learn. So, I’ll ignore it until it escalates to a certain level.”

Spencer says managing whole-class relationships as well as one-to-one relationships delivers a better result than “throwing content at them to see what’s going to stick”.

“The kids will learn if they know that they’re safe and that you value them.”

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