From The Point: You are what you read
The torrent of education news, research and opinion is never ending. So where do a union leader, a teacher, a principal, and an academic get their information?
Veronica Yewdall, Assistant Federal Secretary IEUA, ploughs through thousands of words every day.
The federal office of our union engages with the Commonwealth government through meetings with the Minister for Education and agencies such as the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership and the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority.
The IEUA also monitors peak employer bodies such as the National Catholic Education Commission and Independent Schools Australia, and regulatory authorities including the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority because the work of these bodies has “significant impacts on teachers and support staff in classrooms and/or early childhood centres”.
The IEUA subscribes to a service that sends them notifications about politics and media announcements related to education as soon as they come out.
“This allows us to respond quickly, sometimes issuing our own response to the state branches, to keep members informed of developments and the advocacy of the IEU on various issues. Sometimes there are multiple political alerts in a single day.”
Veronica must also read everything pertaining to the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan, a major response to teacher shortage crisis.
That includes a “plethora” of discussion and consultation papers developed by the Federal Department of Education, the Productivity Commission, the National Artificial Intelligence taskforce, and the Australian Education Research Organisation.
“In order to respond, it is essential that federal officers understand the issues and can point out the critical errors or unintended consequences of proposals outlined in these often-lengthy papers.
“Our representation carries greater weight if we can clearly demonstrate a considered approach to their proposals, based on our knowledge of their documentation.”
One example was the development of an Evidence Fact Sheet for the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with a Disability (NCCD) which helped the IEUA “clearly demonstrate the boundaries of necessary compliance for the NCCD”.
Veronica says recommends that time-poor members prioritise reading their union publications, tell other members and non-members how union officers are engaging in this space, and “join in the fight being waged by the IEU to restore the centrality of professional voice.”
Full-time teacher, OHS Rep and committed IEU Victoria Tasmania Rep Brendan Nicholls receives up to 50 emails a day, and much of his time is spent responding to this correspondence and taking any issues it raises to leadership.
His teaching workload means that his reading is confined to “areas that are pressing and support others in a quantifiable way”.
“If I could simply teach and not have to be concerned about all of the other 'problems', I might find a passion for new educational research, but I can't see schools changing the way they operate so for now its industrial matters and OHS for my 'reading'.”
As a result, his teaching/pedagogical reading is “very limited these days”.
Brendan “continually reviews” the new Agreement covering his members, IEU materials supporting its implementation, the OHS Act and the OHS Reps website created and maintained by Trades Hall.
This focus on serving fellow unionists yields rewards, however: he receives “plenty of news and ideas” from IEU Rep Facebook groups.
“I have also recently started making use of the Teacher Learning Network (TLN) IEU Learning Hub which has an amazing variety of material that is on-demand and specific to the kind of information that is practical and helps teachers go about their job.”
Sally Buick, Principal of Killester College, is also time poor. She’d love to have three or more hours a week to read but “it is simply impossible most weeks… there is so much to read and so little time!
She relies on “a heap of social media pages” for daily news.
“At the moment, I am really focusing on what is happening in the AI space and there is a lot of really interesting reading on LinkedIn and Facebook. I also belong to a lot of mailing lists from organisations such as ACEL, NCCD, and different leadership experts, and I listen to the ABC and read the ABC news online every day.”
She says the best ideas arise when dialogue with colleagues and students results in “the handing around of well-thumbed books that share a similar vision about what we’re aiming to do with our school community”.
Ideas emerge from conversation “then we source experts via reading to help us explore them in greater detail.”
Sally recommends the ABC for a “balanced insight into what is happening in general discussion around education in the broader community”.
Beyond that, she reads educationalists such as Yong Zhao and The Big Questions Institute.
“I read a lot about leadership and particularly enjoy the work of Julie Diamond, Chris Lowney and Michelle McQuid. Other than that, I read a lot for spiritual development and will always dip into John O'Donahue, Joan Chittiser, Richard Rohr.”
Michael Victory, the Executive Officer of the Teacher Learning Network, focuses on the “why and how of teaching and education” with his reading.
“The why is important because it helps teachers and educators get through the difficult days when things do not go well, and the how is important, because when a teacher can articulate how they go about their daily work in the classroom, then they can see areas they can keep developing and improving. This is what we try and communicate in our work at TLN.”
He receives a daily feed of education news from sites[AM3] [WB4] such as The Conversation, The Guardian, the ABC, and several online education journals.
“They help me understand how a broad range of educators think, even those who have views are diametrically opposed to my own.”
Michael is a member of the Australian Association for Research in Education, which produces a peer-reviewed journal, and several blogs and publications.
“This keeps me in touch with the latest Australian research on teaching and education and challenges me to ensure that TLN professional development is based on good quality research.”
Michael also subscribes to the Quarterly Essay, The Monthly, The Saturday Paper and various online digests, online journals Eureka Street and Inside Story, and daily breaking news sites The Guardian, the ABC and The Age.
This reading can have a direct effect on TLN output. Michael says articles on reconciliation by Dr Yunupingu and ALP Senator Pat Dodson in The Monthly “directly influenced” the latest TLN Journal Steps to Reconciliation.
(Email TLN for a copy of the Journal – it’s free for all IEU members: admin@tln.org.au)
He also picks up plenty from his work.
“TLN has a circle of 50 high quality teachers and leaders who present our courses. I am privileged to talk with some of Australia’s leading educators. How can I not be inspired by their ideas?”
And he ventures outside work and the news cycle for broader insights.
“My favourite education writer is Gert Biesta; one of the best contemporary thinkers on the purpose of education. He draws on thinkers such as Dewey, and Hannah Arendt. After spending half an hour with one of his books, I am always brimming with ideas.”