Robust discussion and teaching

Here's a thing I've noticed - robust discussion is not the norm within a school - teachers tend to avoid the nitty gritty and take a superficial look at issues within a school - many focused on short term gain and rapid results.

Subject passion was one of things taken for granted when I was young. I don't know if these sorts of discussions are had any more to the same degree and those that have it are looked on as a little strange. School is to be left behind at 3.15.

When I was at uni (strangely) my finest example of subject passion was amongst the Psychology lecturers. Each lecturer openly discussed their viewpoint and critiqued/criticised the views of other branches of psychology - behaviourists ridiculed those focused on the cognitive, everyone thought the Freudians were nuts and so forth. It was passionate, it was open and everyone had a beer together at the end.

Teachers have to tow the DET policies publicly when speaking as DET teachers - after all we are employed and representatives of the department, especially apparent when talking to parents and the media. But... teachers are entitled to personal opinions as professionals at the coalface. It is possible to have an opinion contrary to your employer, yet still do the job as the employer wishes. A teacher can hate OBE, yet teach it in the way they are employed to do. A teacher can dislike middle school, but be trained in it and be a great middle school teacher within the school and support its ethos.

To establish new concepts effectively each new concept must be subject to frank and open discussion. Once a decision is made (by whoever has the responsibility for the success and failure of the decision), the process needs to be given the full opportunity to succeed and evaluated with an open and critical mind. Opinion on the results of a decision are bound to be divided and this depth to evaluation should be welcomed. Position on a topic should be defended but flexible in the wake of fair criticism. Successes and failures need to be identified and analysed. Where once the devil's advocate and the ability to argue both sides of an argument was welcomed, today this diversity in education perhaps is not as valued or viewed as it should be.

Teaching salary and pay claim

The pay claim in WA is not about annual percentage increase. It's about about redressing the lack of increases over a long period of time. The reasons for teachers falling behind other professions by at least $20,000 are many and varied but the ramifications have been widespread.

1. Students no longer see teaching as a desirable profession - TEE scores are low
2. Teacher morale is low
3. The perception of teachers in the community is low - we are seen as those that couldn't find real work (who else would spend 4 years getting a degree (that a budgie could get entrance to and pass) - then to accept wages lower than manual labour)
4. Student performance in schools is lower than expected (although many point the finger here at OBE) - as evidenced by state school TEE performances
5. Extra curricular work has become the norm and expected rather than a point of difference between teachers
6. Union has weak support and leadership
7. DET has a teacher shortage in critical areas of schools
8. Business has become critical of quality of student output from school and has publically supported the need for teacher pay reform
9. Students are leaving the state school system for private school education despite having access in many cases to smaller class sizes and access to long term experienced teachers bound in place by 'tenure' type agreements

Unfortunately the community does not equate professional status with social justice or good education. Professions in WA are not valued by the community by the work that they do (and the promotion of social equity) but by the money that they earn.

If we are to change the mindset of the public, raise expectations, raise morale of teachers in the profession and improve the calibre of those entering the profession, a fixed rate increase is required (such has been done in other countries) with a publicity campaign explaining why the teacher rise is different to other rises (such as public service rises) and a good idea before inflationary increases are addressed.

When the mean salary of a teacher approaches at least the average WA salary, then we have a starting point for an improvement in the ongoing education saga.

Indigenous Education cont..

I spoke to a colleague about this issue (one of the successful teachers at the school motivating indigenous and low performing/high aptitude students) and he raised (surprise.. surprise) that the most significant factor was the contact he had with parents. It's true too, he has a joke with parents and doesn't hold back if he thinks a student is going in the wrong direction - it works for him.

His main criticism is related to parents saying one thing and doing another - the support of students had to be real as the lure of government money and money from working provided a real alternative to completing school. As a parent it is so important to do what is promised in the way of student support.

A situation today raised another pertinent factor - the need to maintain high expectations. A request to drop to an easier class via the AEIO was turned around with a reminder that assistance was available (and had been organised at the start of the year) but was not being used. The student walked away happy being able to discuss their concerns, negotiate a better situation and we maintain a student university bound. The downside is that I find these type of discussions rather time consuming, taxing and draining.

The final factor to raise today is the common avoidance of indigenous students to conflict. I had to double check with the AEIO afterwards to ensure that this wasn't one of the cases where student says yes and means no. He assured me that this was not the case and we can verify this when the student comes to the arranged tutoring.

All in all not a bad day..

Successful Indigenous/Aboriginal Education

A worrying trend is seeing high performing indigenous students in year 9/10 fall away in year 11/12. The success of students that buck the trend seems highly dependent on the contribution of a few people in schools.

Firstly the AEIO is one link in the chain. This is the person that has had the perseverence to keep the kids coming to school. They discover and solve issues on a regular basis and to be successful are firmly entrenched in their communities.

The follow the dream programme and their coordinators do a great job in lifting students to a level where university is a potential option. I've seen students, many that have been given up on, be brought 'back online' multiple times and crawl toward some form of success in year 12.

Individual teachers are such an influence on these students lives. Many of these students feel persecuted in the classroom by students and teachers. A good teacher can redirect some of this insecurity into the student seeing the consequences of their own negative behaviour and the same teachers also investigates any ongoing social issues themselves. And when I say good teachers, I mean great teachers, as these teachers are giving life changing assistance and it's not something just anyone can do. I say that with confidence as I'm pretty useless at it, despite best of intentions on many occassions.

Student support and integration are key components. Successful students can be persecuted by their own, leading to dumbing down their ability and overacting behavioual problems. Student integration into non-indigenous social groups can help break the helplessness cycle. Great student indigenous role models especially in year 10,11,12 prove to be so important. They show that success can be achieved, it's ok to work hard and quite possibly fun/cool too!

Administration is often the missing link as they are often seen as the punitive rather than supporting source. The punitive support is essential as there are many lower performing students that require that punitive backbone to underpin their positive behaviour. The other half of the equation is the ability of administration to assist teachers, programme coordinators, students and AEIO's to promote ongoing student success.