This site is intended as a forum for people who are interested in social justice in education to express their opinions. it is not a 'true' blog, but it provides a forum on different topics where others can contribute to informed debate about issues that are current, particularly issues raised by decisions made by, and policies of, Australian federal and state governments as well as prominent commentators on educational issues.
Saturday, 9 December 2006
Early career teacher issues
If this doesn't get Feminista in here, nothing will ...
1 comment:
Anonymous
said...
Clever woman you are, Dr Mini. Love the blog- timely, incisive and inspiring.Early career teacher issues- where to start? Well, here's an oldie, but a goodie.
An ‘ethic of care’ or a state of neglect?
All students in all schools, regardless of who they are or where they live, deserve quality teachers who deliver quality teaching. The plight of our early career teachers, those in the first years of their professional practice in schools, has a long, distressing history and is documented in a wide field of academic and bureaucratic research and literature. To its credit, the NSW Department and Education has made an effort in the past decade to raise the standard of teacher induction from non-existent to intermittent, and in some NSW public schools, excellent. Pioneered by Dr Norman McCulla and his original team of Jane Hunter and Peter Balding and continued by Bridge St powerhouse Fiona Conroy and her small band of dynamos in the New Teacher Development Unit, a small cadre of Teacher Mentors, principals, executive staff and outstanding classroom teachers are now available to support our early career teachers in multiple ways- face-to-face meetings, conferences, on-line services and professional learning seminars. I applaud the initiatives by the DET, schools, universities and teachers across NSW in doing what they can to support our early career teachers.
But it is not enough.
This is not simply about teacher attrition and retention- it is mostly about quality, effectiveness and career satisfaction. To ensure the quality and effectiveness of our new generation of teachers and to reap the benefits of a retiring teacher workforce who have made an outstanding contribution to public education, a significant investment in terms of personnel and money must be made. That there are only 58 designated Teacher Mentors available to the approx 2500 early career teachers in various schools across NSW, is not enough. That only a few million dollars a year are earmarked for New Teacher Development, is not enough. That many early career teachers are dependent on the goodwill of their colleagues for support and encouragement, is not enough. That retention is valued over quality, is not enough.
Having been invited to present my research on Teacher Induction at the 8th National Symposium on Teacher Induction, held by the highly esteemed and successful New Teacher Center@UCLA-Santa Cruz, California in February this year, I was constantly amazed at the myriad of programs and strategies available and the amount of money being invested in Teacher Induction and Mentoring in the USA. A few examples- New York City has approximately 6000 teachers entering its schools this year. There is a budget of $US44 million dollars – each new teacher is provided with the services of a qualified mentor. In Wisconsin, Statute PI34 requires that each new teacher is provided with a qualified mentor and an Induction program. In California, the Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Program ensures each graduate teacher is provided with guided entry to the profession, a mentor and release time to develop their professional capacity. Programs that employ retired teachers to mentor and coach both new teachers and new principals are having extraordinary success in terms of both increasing quality and retention. Even in isolated states such as Alaska and Hawaii, large amounts of money and many qualified personnel are provided by districts, school boards and state education departments to be invested in induction and mentoring programs.
The New Teacher Center, in operation since 1988, now operates affiliate programs in more than 50 sites across the USA with its model of ‘Adapt and/or Adopt’. Its Executive Director, Ellen Moir, has recently won the prestigious McGraw Prize in Education for her long-standing contribution to education in general and Teacher Induction. For those interested in these excellent programs, check out their website, www.newteachercenter.org. Most importantly, the research tells us that students who are taught by fully-mentored early career teachers have higher rates of achievement than those who are left to their own resources. And mentored teachers who are retained are higher quality teachers who deliver good teaching.
For those of us who are committed to education and to improving both the learning and life outcomes of all children in all schools, we need to start asking, and attempting to answer, the hard questions. Common sense as well as the research consistently tells us that quality teaching is the key to our children’s’ future. That so many teachers are lost to the profession in their early years of practice is a tragedy in itself. But what of the cost to the teachers themselves, the economy, the community, to the development of a civil society and to the twin goals of social justice and equity? We must develop a stronger ethic of care for teacher and student learning, rather than neglecting the chance to improve education for all. Every early career teacher deserves a quality induction program that focuses on good teaching and assessment practice (as defined in the NSW Quality teaching initiative, for example), a qualified mentor whose purpose is to share their expertise with the early career teachers and to also nurture what they bring with them from teacher education, an organised professional learning program that focuses on pedagogy, complemented by timely personal and practical support, and the respect and praise that goes with their dedication and enthusiasm.
Rather than just giving our early career teachers the keys to the classroom, by ’throwing them in at the deep end’ and expecting them to ‘sink or swim’, in a ‘trial by fire’, in usually the most isolated, difficult and hard to staff schools, places where many experienced teachers struggle to endure school culture and context, we need to support them- by offering them the keys to success.
1 comment:
Clever woman you are, Dr Mini. Love the blog- timely, incisive and inspiring.Early career teacher issues- where to start?
Well, here's an oldie, but a goodie.
An ‘ethic of care’ or a state of neglect?
All students in all schools, regardless of who they are or where they live, deserve quality teachers who deliver quality teaching. The plight of our early career teachers, those in the first years of their professional practice in schools, has a long, distressing history and is documented in a wide field of academic and bureaucratic research and literature. To its credit, the NSW Department and Education has made an effort in the past decade to raise the standard of teacher induction from non-existent to intermittent, and in some NSW public schools, excellent. Pioneered by Dr Norman McCulla and his original team of Jane Hunter and Peter Balding and continued by Bridge St powerhouse Fiona Conroy and her small band of dynamos in the New Teacher Development Unit, a small cadre of Teacher Mentors, principals, executive staff and outstanding classroom teachers are now available to support our early career teachers in multiple ways- face-to-face meetings, conferences, on-line services and professional learning seminars. I applaud the initiatives by the DET, schools, universities and teachers across NSW in doing what they can to support our early career teachers.
But it is not enough.
This is not simply about teacher attrition and retention- it is mostly about quality, effectiveness and career satisfaction. To ensure the quality and effectiveness of our new generation of teachers and to reap the benefits of a retiring teacher workforce who have made an outstanding contribution to public education, a significant investment in terms of personnel and money must be made. That there are only 58 designated Teacher Mentors available to the approx 2500 early career teachers in various schools across NSW, is not enough. That only a few million dollars a year are earmarked for New Teacher Development, is not enough. That many early career teachers are dependent on the goodwill of their colleagues for support and encouragement, is not enough. That retention is valued over quality, is not enough.
Having been invited to present my research on Teacher Induction at the 8th National Symposium on Teacher Induction, held by the highly esteemed and successful New Teacher Center@UCLA-Santa Cruz, California in February this year, I was constantly amazed at the myriad of programs and strategies available and the amount of money being invested in Teacher Induction and Mentoring in the USA. A few examples- New York City has approximately 6000 teachers entering its schools this year. There is a budget of $US44 million dollars – each new teacher is provided with the services of a qualified mentor. In Wisconsin, Statute PI34 requires that each new teacher is provided with a qualified mentor and an Induction program. In California, the Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Program ensures each graduate teacher is provided with guided entry to the profession, a mentor and release time to develop their professional capacity. Programs that employ retired teachers to mentor and coach both new teachers and new principals are having extraordinary success in terms of both increasing quality and retention. Even in isolated states such as Alaska and Hawaii, large amounts of money and many qualified personnel are provided by districts, school boards and state education departments to be invested in induction and mentoring programs.
The New Teacher Center, in operation since 1988, now operates affiliate programs in more than 50 sites across the USA with its model of ‘Adapt and/or Adopt’. Its Executive Director, Ellen Moir, has recently won the prestigious McGraw Prize in Education for her long-standing contribution to education in general and Teacher Induction. For those interested in these excellent programs, check out their website, www.newteachercenter.org. Most importantly, the research tells us that students who are taught by fully-mentored early career teachers have higher rates of achievement than those who are left to their own resources. And mentored teachers who are retained are higher quality teachers who deliver good teaching.
For those of us who are committed to education and to improving both the learning and life outcomes of all children in all schools, we need to start asking, and attempting to answer, the hard questions. Common sense as well as the research consistently tells us that quality teaching is the key to our children’s’ future. That so many teachers are lost to the profession in their early years of practice is a tragedy in itself. But what of the cost to the teachers themselves, the economy, the community, to the development of a civil society and to the twin goals of social justice and equity? We must develop a stronger ethic of care for teacher and student learning, rather than neglecting the chance to improve education for all.
Every early career teacher deserves a quality induction program that focuses on good teaching and assessment practice (as defined in the NSW Quality teaching initiative, for example), a qualified mentor whose purpose is to share their expertise with the early career teachers and to also nurture what they bring with them from teacher education, an organised professional learning program that focuses on pedagogy, complemented by timely personal and practical support, and the respect and praise that goes with their dedication and enthusiasm.
Rather than just giving our early career teachers the keys to the classroom, by ’throwing them in at the deep end’ and expecting them to ‘sink or swim’, in a ‘trial by fire’, in usually the most isolated, difficult and hard to staff schools, places where many experienced teachers struggle to endure school culture and context, we need to support them- by offering them the keys to success.
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