Anonymous #401

Submitter information

Name

Anonymous #401

Where are you located?

Queensland

What type of area do you live in?

Metropolitan

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

Yes

Which sector do you work in?

Secondary

What is your occupation?

Teacher

Elevating the profession

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

Strongly disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

$10m for advertising? What, do people not realise that they can become teachers? How ridiculous. Medals and awards? Sure, that might be attractive to those who are already slogging their guts out, but is not going to do one single thing to keep a burnt-out teacher in the profession. HAT and LT? Again, these positions themselves do very little to keep experienced teachers teaching. It pays roughly the same as a HOD, but requires constant work to maintain, so why would we choose this over a HOD position if it arises?

To elevate the profession requires action, not platitudes. The simple answer is that students must value their education, therefore they will more value their teachers. How to work this, I don't know, I guarantee that not one of these solutions (or even all of them together) are going to do anything to help.

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.

Strongly disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Take a typical student out of a typical high school and ask them what they think of teachers and what they have to deal with. I am certain that the typical response would be something to do with dealing with disrespectful kids. I teach two senior subjects and I could count on one hand the number who have gone in to education. I would need many, many hands to count those who have gone into fields related to the subjects I have taught though, but why would students pick education? What value can they see in choosing the pathway? Dealing with bratty kids all day? They aren't even aware of all the other stuff behind the scenes - dealing with parents, mandatory reporting, the marking, reporting, making work that suits the wide range of capabilities inside a single room.

The only option that makes any sense here is giving out visas, but even then how sustainable is this? I am personally aware of at least one school who looked for teachers for a subject as far away as New Zealand and only had one respondent who simply wanted to retire in Australia.

I don't know how full Education courses are at university, but I wouldn't have thought they would have been full to overflowing. So, if this isn't the case, what is the point in having more empty seats?

Strengthening Initial Teacher Education (ITE)

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

Strongly disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Again, what is this doing to improve supply into the workforce? If teachers are drastically in need of extra literacy and numeracy support, I think this is indicative of a deeper problem. It is good to have as a support measure, but again, how is this helping keep more teachers in the profession?

My experience with universities is that they are divorced from the realities of teaching. The assessments and content and materials in no way prepare students for the realities of stepping in to a room with 25 kids. I was teaching a prerequisite course at a University around the year before the ATAR system was introduced and my students had never been shown the new version of the syllabus and were still working on the old OP one. Despite the fact that when they would graduate the best they could hope for is to teach one year of that course. Universities should employ teachers to teach teachers. These teachers should have mandatory industry currency, just like teachers are required to have to teach certificates.

Maximising the time to teach

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

Strongly disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Teacher workload is super easy to sort out. I currently get 210 minutes of preparation and correction time. Double that. We are expected to do meetings and moderation outside of the regular school hours - get rid of that. Teachers are constantly told to contact parents, call them because Johnny isn't behaving or let them know that Sarah is going to get a D on her report card. **Ban this**. I have had classes where I have had students in need of extension, working at level, working slightly below level and working drastically below level. There has to be minimum expectations set for each and every classroom. If I have a classroom where three kids are 5 or 6 years behind how is it reasonable for me to spend time solely teaching them at the expense of all other students in the room? Now each of these kids may need individualised materials to be created for each and every lesson (not to mention modified assessments). And this is just one class! If students are working at year 6 English, then they should be in a year 6 English class, not year 10. If they fail, then they don't move on.

Again, nothing in the suggested plan does anything to address the root cause of teacher workload which is behaviour management. If Terry plays up in class, I am expected to give him a detention, during my break time. Terry doesn't show, so I have to give up more time chasing him down and forcing a 2nd detention. I also have to contact home. This might happen again - contact HOD who wants to know all the things that I have done to support and engage Terry. Then there might be another detention. He might be good for a week and it happens again, so I start the process all over again. Maybe Terry gets suspended. Terry doesn't do any work on suspension, comes back and now has missed more work so has even less of an idea of what to do so plays up even more. Throughout this I am having to write reports, talk to other for support, employ and document strategies of classroom management, modify work, prepare extra work. All for one kid. I am lucky to only have one Terry in each of my classes. Quite often I have much more.

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?

Not effective at all

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

We have the new Australian Curriculum being released - do you know who is going to teach me any of the new stuff in that document? Me. Who is going to have to go and upskill so I can teach the content? Me. Who offers actual training in specific things I need to teach? I don't know, but please let me know if you know. I assume that a number of teaching areas are relatively static - English, maths, history? Does their content ever change? But what about those subjects that do change? Sciences? Industry certificate subjects? IT??? Why is it that the onus is always on the teacher to do their own learning, maintain their own currency in their own time with no support from anyone? Future teachers need dedicated time to do study. Allow teachers to salary sacrifice the course payments. Subsidise related university courses for teachers.

What about funding for schools? Why is it that Governments can provide double (or more!) funding to private education when compared to state? At the very least, State education must be on parity with what is given to private. An even more sensible idea would be to entirely reverse the current status quo and give state schools twice as much as is being given to private.

Finally, the future workforce are our current students. Why not do a survey of students every 3 or 5 years, to identify what is popular and what isn't? Ask why they aren't interested in profession x and y?

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.

Strongly disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

I have been trying, off and on, for the last 5 years or so to get a HOD position. I have had any number of interviews, but not once have I been offered some sort of training or PD to develop my capacity to be a HOD. Every one of my leaders has said that I have to "go above and beyond". I have to come up with my own "value add" to the school and run it myself, in my own time. But it can't interfere with how the school runs, or with my contact time, or cost the school money. I have to build it from the ground up into something, and then I might have things that I can add in to my CV to make me an attractive prospect as a HOD. Why not go HAT or LT? Time. I still need to do all of those things to become a HAT or LT, but I also need to create some sort of massive document that potentially takes years to develop. I dunno, but that certainly sounds like an entire extra job..

I have gone as far as I can with teaching and am at the point of looking outside of teaching for something different. I have to rely on the kindness of others to get feedback on my applications or CVs. I have to get through to the interview-phase to get practice sitting and responding to interviews. Why can't I access a professional mentor? Why isn't there a dedicated person or place I can go to to get support?