Academics back the role of unions in education
David Clements leads a packed session at Teaching Forward.
Two education leaders involved in the Teaching Forward conference highlight the critical role of unions, and argue that teacher education and early career support should move beyond outcomes-driven approaches.
David Clements, a research fellow at Victoria University, where he also chairs the Bachelor of Education P–12 course, challenged student teachers to question fundamental assumptions about education, teaching and learning.
‘Many final-year students have been trained in a very instrumentalist, outcomes-focused teacher education environment where the focus is primarily on lesson planning templates, differentiation strategies, assessment rubrics, and ‘what works’, evidence-based interventions.
‘By contrast, some students are convinced that education is much more than this and that it includes developing students into good, virtuous, moral or critically thinking democratic citizens. Questioning what underlies these positions, or similar ones, can lead to a sense of freedom from the pressure of necessarily having to achieve or produce these outcomes in their students. In this way, it can remove a great deal of unnecessary burden.’
He said embedding such an outlook is tricky for school leaders because, ‘… the prevailing culture makes it challenging to carve out space for sustained philosophical consideration without it seeming like a distraction from core responsibilities’.
David cautioned against turning reflection into another performance measure.
‘My aim is to share what’s helped me in the hope that it helps others. What’s helped me most has not been coming up with a new better outcome, even if that outcome is a critique of outcomes-based education, but simply to cease adopting an outcomes based view in the first place.’
He said he values conferences ‘primarily for the exposure to interesting ideas’ and suggested current approaches to teacher education can leave students ‘with an appetite for something else’.
‘From what I saw at the Conference I think it went a considerable way towards providing a reassuring alternative.’
Connection and support
Australian Teachers of Media Victoria Chair and Conference organiser Peter Anstee said Teaching Forward was designed ‘to support graduates in a constructive and affirming way’.
He wanted to instil ‘the joy, the surprises, the actual love in teaching’, so building connection and confidence were key aims of the event.
‘Many graduates feel anxious about starting teaching, so we chose speakers who could provide practical classroom examples and strategies to help manage common challenges.’
Peter says there is a need for ‘a deeper connection between schools and pre-service teaching institutions’.
‘There is often a disconnect between what is being taught in schools and what is taught in universities. This can cause problems for pre-service teachers on placement as they are often getting conflicting advice. Teaching Forward is an initiative from educators from a number of universities who volunteer their time to bridge the gap and provide graduates with real world experience.’
The role of unions in early-career teaching
Both academics argue that unions play an important role in supporting beginning teachers.
‘Unions remind us that teaching isn’t a solitary vocation,’ Clements said.
‘They also remind us that teaching is embedded in particular systems of economics and policy. A strong union helps protect the space for teachers to exercise professional judgement rather than becoming mere deliverers of prescribed outcomes.’
Peter added: ‘Unions (especially in education) have never been more important. For our conference we deliberately wanted to keep government away from what we were trying to do’.
He said having unions involved in the event sent ‘a more affirmative message’.
‘Unions are creating spaces for graduates to secure resources, get emotional and professional support and to get access to high-quality conferences and workshops.’
