Academics
continue to share effective strategies but determining ‘how’ to implement these
strategies in our increasingly busy schools is not easily identified. Academics
and teachers must work collaboratively to support new teachers to stay in the
profession. I have previously acknowledged the benefits of networks but when schools
partner with universities, the provision for teacher release needs to be acknowledged. To truly value this collaborative process, time provision is
required. This opinion piece will discuss what I believe is needed to support new teachers and
increase teacher retention.
Teacher
accountability has increased and with it comes an increase of administrative
tasks. Yet time allocated to these mandated tasks appears to be absent from
education policies. The NSW Accreditation Policy has placed the
accountability of the accreditation process from NESA to the School. This
process takes most teachers and supervisors between 1-2 years to complete and
with this, comes an increase to an already heavy workload. This policy has not
made any time provisions for new teachers or supervisors to achieve this
mandatory process. If teachers and supervisors were allocated time to work
collaboratively, then the early career teachers may feel more supported and valued. Additionally, the
mandated requirements to maintain accreditation does not come with mandated
time allocation, resulting in another layer of teacher responsibility.
While
these strategies to support teachers to stay in the profession are valid; creating a supportive culture requires structured time allocation. If policies
such as accreditation demand new mandates, then time provisions need to be
equitable and sustainable, but most importantly, mandated. To influence
teacher retention in a positive way, all policies must consider teachers’ high
workload and support teachers with mandated time allocation to create
more work-life balance.
Andrea, Always enjoy your well referenced posts.
ReplyDeleteI read the article on Six Ways to Support New Teachers with interest. You are right - Definitely, time is an issue here. Time for the new teacher and time for the mentor. I looked at how do Finland do it. Most of their teachers have Masters degrees. I wonder if they have been better at creating teachers who are lifelong learners and who actively participate online with a PLN. Connection to others is the big thing for me. We have induction programs and tick off accreditation tasks but do we really get teachers connected into a PLN within those induction programs. It made me think about Silvia Tolisano's Blog Post on 4 Big Ideas around the Connected Educator http://langwitches.org/blog/2014/09/28/4-big-ideas-around-the-connected-educator/
I loved your quote from J.R.R Tolkien too. So true!
Have a happy Easter 2019!
Thank you Fiona for taking the time to read. I've found it very interesting to speak with Pasi about teacher training and I'm very keen to learn more. Unfortunately, I think we see teacher training (uni), teacher placement (school) and accreditation (NESA) as three separate processes. Imagine if we looked at teacher training and the first 5 years of teaching as one supported process where we are all accountable and the teachers are professionally responsible to be curious learners. Thanks for making ask more questions.
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