NSW Deadly Leaders Alliance Incorporated and NATSIPA

Submitter information

Name

NSW Deadly Leaders Alliance Incorporated and NATSIPA

Where are you located?

New South Wales

What type of area do you live in?

Regional or rural

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

Yes

Which sector do you work in?

Members are from early childhood to high school. First Nations university researchers are invited members.

What is your occupation?

School leader

Elevating the profession

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

Somewhat agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Action1: Greater recognition of the profession is needed with an inclusion and promotion of the need for diversity within the workforce. A media platform that promotes First Nations teachers in white middle class classrooms as well as in communities to break down generalizations and to highlight the need and influence that all teachers provide to creating a better Australia. Value teachers work by listening to the voice of students and their families.

Action 2: Promote excellent teachers on a level platform, First Nations excellence is not less than green leafy suburb school excellence, it is just different. Promote those teachers who have retired and devoted a whole lifetime of commitment and dedication to their students.

Action 3: Be inclusive of the diversity of the profession. It is often a celebration of white excellence based on a dominant culture view of achievement.

Action 4: HALTs do not represent the diversity of the profession. It has a limited impact on the profession and should be deleted as an action.

If using TAFE further, consideration is needed for remote communities to have flight and accommodation costs covered. It is an expensive initiative that requires additional funding and staffing to relieve training staff.

A national project lead by NATSIPA members should be providing advice about how to include First Nations participation in this priority. We have to do things differently because universities have had little impact on catering for First Nations educators and increasing the number of graduates. Those that do graduate are existing in droves.
We need independent think tanks to lead a new way forward from strength based approach.

Improving teacher supply

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

Somewhat agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Action 8: More diversity in classrooms is needed. To attract good quality teachers an incentive is to pay qualified teachers to complete an additional graduate diploma or master's for 12 months with a focus on First Nations education, race and racism and be paid a teacher's wage. At the end of the qualification teachers commit to teach in a minimum of two First Nations communities for a minimum of for example 5 years. The 12-month program is designed by First Nations teachers and principals (NATSIPA) and delivered by universities. A minimum of 20 teachers per year are equipped with skills and competence to be culturally responsive teachers who have greater success due to their training.

Action 9: Visa processing has very limited potential with an extremely high cost. A greater investment is in First Nations communities to offer teacher training programs that will equate to faster completion than qualifying teachers from overseas. A greater investment in empowering Aboriginal communities and alternative pathways to teaching degrees is a better and more economical investment. Coaching and mentoring opportunities building relationships and expertise with experienced First Nations educators and leaders would strengthen the approach.

Action 10: First Nations voices must be included and yet a heavily female represented profession invites a male to lead this work.

Action 11: First Nations representation is needed to bring an understanding about the expertise that First Nations peoples bring.

Action 12: This action must be led by First Nations educators and principals. This is a very strongly held view by First Nations educators. A co-design is not a whitewashed version dominated by colonised views and promoted as a co-design but one that understands complexity and diversity of First Nations people.

An investment in First Nations leadership has never been prioritised but is needed. It is difficult to entice when there is no career progression to aspire to. Why do we have so few First Nations leaders? A great research question and one that is influenced by the institutional or systemic racism that is never addressed.

Strengthening Initial Teacher Education (ITE)

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

Somewhat agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

There are a variety of approaches to be considered for our First Nations communities to be enticed into teaching, not just one. Firstly, cultural safety must be prioritised and all staff must be expected to complete culturally responsive training as a prerequisite to entering a school environment. The prerequisite experience would be designed by First Nations educators. All graduates must be accredited with cultural training as an ongoing professional expectation that is revisited each year by education departments and linked to the Teacher Standards.

Alternative entry to university model: Setting up students to complete a Cert 3 in high school plus one practicum as entrance to university and not to take 5-10 years to complete.

Rural and remote locations to be included as final practicums for a full 10-week experience with all cost covered for all students.

Enticing First Nations teachers does not include one area of priority with the tokenistic inclusion of languages which is part of another agreement. A great focus on training is required with areas of specialization beyond just languages. We need First Nations school counsellors, special ed and behavioural experts and senior leadership roles.

Co-design actions to attract and retain First Nations teachers with the lead of NATSIPA including Riteway Wanjau Pty Ltd and access the data that is unashamedly not discussed due to the poor history of investing in First Nations educators and leaders.

Promote First Nations teachers in white middle class classrooms and leading mainstream schools as well as First Nations students.

LANTITE is a barrier and unnecessary. Proficient First language speakers of English struggle to pass the LANTITE. Just another platform to exclude those that may be proficient in other areas and do not require Standard Australian English as their main means of communication.

First Nations voices are to be represented and included in all priority areas of the plan to lead and strengthen a cultural lens which is currently very limited.

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?

Greater support in classrooms is needed by providing appropriate professional learning and other support staff in classrooms. Relieve the pressure off teachers by considering the additional resources needed to support classroom teachers. Greater priority to support special education by accessing support units and funding allocations for those students in need. The current process for funding support is ambiguous and time consuming with the possibility of no success. There are not enough school counsellors so teaching time is reduced due to the complexity of student needs and lack of additional support and the onerous tasks required by teachers to justify support.

From a remote school: The number of external distractions in a school calendar is impacted by the number of prominent dignitaries visiting, teacher absences with no replacements, school events and extracurricular gatherings. There must be expectations that prime learning time is necessary and for the first four weeks of the term there are no visitors or distractions from prime learning time. Remote schools are losing valuable learning time as a result of external factors that have little impact for the school but many positive results for the visitors.

The Curriculum to Classroom (C2C) did not provide the necessary support for multi-aged classrooms.

There is an additional acknowledge for the addition load that First Nations educators and leaders carry. It is necessary to attach additional RFF for the additional roles that First Nations educators and leaders acquire. As a First Nations person you are expected to be a classroom teacher, deal with First Nations students with additional needs and organise NAIDOC, Sorry Day etc.This additional load is not recognised as an additional workload and must be addressed. First Nations educators are an asset to our education as well as teachers and leaders.

All priorities must have a First Nations lens to be inclusive and impactful on enticing First Nations educators to the profession when First Nations peoples are not represented in senior leadership and no alternative views are considered due to the cultural blindness of an archaic westernised school system.

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?

Very effective

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

It is essential to include in the National Quality Framework to guide teacher accreditation, the inclusion of a culturally responsive workforce as an accredited recognition as part of the teacher entry and exit standards, ITE standards, and teacher accreditation. This should be viewed as an incentive to build on formal qualifications to be inclusive of First Nations education.

The exit interviews must be included as an independent process to capture transparent conversations and surveys to highlight the real issues impacting departure from our education systems. The process must not be culturally biased and inclusive of First Nations design and input. Many First Nations are leaving the profession in large numbers due to the racism and devaluing of our First Nations educators and leaders. Our profession could be strengthened by addressing these flaws.

A First Nations lens is required to include a framework, process and insight to be inclusive of First Nations educators for this priority area.

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?

Action 24 must be inclusive of First Nations teachers with an added inclusion of STEM Indigenous Knowledges. Growing Our Own is an initiative that First Nations educators create, implement and evaluate not a changing of ownership to call the initiative Grow Your Own which implies a colonised view led by non-First Nations expertise.

Action 25 requires the leadership of First Nations teachers and leaders to develop a framework that comes from their experience and perspective. This cannot be done by anyone other than First Nations people. AITSL does not have Aboriginal staff to do this work but this work should be led by NATSIPA.

Action 26 Cultural competence resources and training should be provided by First Nations experts and bodies. The Stronger Smarter Institute has more than 12 years experience providing professional learning for non- Aboriginal educators with astounding benefits. A High Expectations Relationship Tool is used to measure pre and post learning and ongoing learning is measured biannually to track the cultural growth of alumni.

QLD ED Department has identified positions which is an important equity issue but inconsistent when Tagai State College in the Torres Strait Islands was not included to have an identified Executive Principal position.

Action 27 HALTs are not representative of the profession. There are few First Nations HALTs and the process is cumbersome and expensive. There are better ways to offer alternative pathways. This action should be removed.

Alternative model: MATSITI provided data that was not accessible and continues to be challenging to access due to departmental ownership issues camouflaged by the argument of confidentiality. NATSIPA given an opportunity would lead this work with Human Rights Commissioner June Oscar and the Girls Strategy to provide a model to promote and increase the number of First Nations educators across the profession.