Anonymous #357

Submitter information

Name

Anonymous #357

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?

Early childhood education and care

What is your occupation?

Teacher

Elevating the profession

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

Strongly agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

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 disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Increasing the number of students entering and completing ITE doesn’t not necessarily lead to an increased supply of teachers, and even less so for an increased supply of high-quality teachers. We’re already seeing this in our workplaces. So many students are completing ITE courses for the purpose of immigration ONLY and have little passion or commitment to this profession. The graduate diplomas in early childhood teaching offered by many institutions are so easy to complete and the universities don’t hold high expectations on placement performance, compared to the teaching degrees we completed a few years ago and the high expectations we had to meet in our course work and placements. Teachers and mentors are increasingly frustrated and shocked by the level of incompetence, lack of care, and lack of professional knowledge in preservice teachers that have come to us to do their placements. Many of these preservice teachers graduate and stay for as long as it’s needed to obtain permanent residency only. I came from overseas myself and obtained my permanent residency through my teaching degree and work. However even for the many teachers like me who shared the similar immgrant experience are extremely disappointed and concerned to see so many students are now allowed to get their teaching degrees easily and the immigration policies do not require a long commitment to this profession.

Meanwhile lots of good, experienced teachers are leaving the early childhood sector due to burnout, low pay, excessive amount of paperwork, and in many places an unfriendly working environment largely due to stress and low quality of staff.

How can training more new teachers solve the problem of staff shortage, when the existing experienced workforce is not being valued and supported? Supplying new teachers of not high enough quality or strong enough passion will only cause worse staff shortage or a worse professions culture in early childhood education in the long run.

Strengthening Initial Teacher Education (ITE)

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

Strongly agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

All graduate diploma courses should have much higher expectations on students. For example, students who don’t have any teaching background or experience can only graduate if they achieve a reasonably high grade in their course work and shows high performance in placements.

All universities should set out specific marking criteria for mentor teachers to complete the placement reports for pre-service teachers.

All early childhood teaching courses should increase their focus on infant toddler education. There’s an increasing demand in teacher roles in the infant toddler space.

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?

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.

Somewhat agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?