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Teachers for the Future - The Changing Nature of Society and Related Issues for the Teaching Workforce. September 2004.

TEACHERS FOR THE FUTURE

THE CHANGING NATURE OF SOCIETY AND RELATED ISSUES FOR THE TEACHING WORKFORCE

A Report to the Teacher Quality and Educational Leadership Taskforce of the Ministerial Council for Education, Employment Training and Youth Affairs

Malcolm Skilbeck Helen Connell September 2004

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Teachers for the Future - The Changing Nature of Society and Related Issues for the Teaching Workforce. September 2004.

CONTENTS

Overview. Conclusions and Directions for Action .......................... 4

Purpose and Scope of the Study ........................................................................ 4

Conclusions and Directions for Action ............................................................. 7 A From quantity to quality .............................................................................. 8 B The school as a workplace: expectations and conditions .............................. 9 C Initial teacher education and early years in the profession ......................... 11 D The teaching career: continuing learning, maintaining quality, shaping the future ............................................................................................ 13

Main Report. A Career of Teaching: the Formative Years .......... 16

1. The Changing Nature of Society .......................................................... 16 1.1 Knowledge, the engine of change ..................................................... 16 1.2 Schooling in the web of the knowledge society ................................. 16 1.3 Mediating social change ................................................................... 17

2. Not Just a Question of Numbers, Quality is the Issue ......................... 20 2.1 Targeting demand ............................................................................. 20 2.2 A focus on quality ? across the generations ...................................... 21

3. A New Generation of Teachers ............................................................. 23 3.1 Key characteristics ........................................................................... 24 3.2 Is there a 'new generation' career orientation? ................................... 27 3.3 Knowing more about beginning teachers and their career interests ... 29

4. Teaching as an Occupation: Roles, Responsibilities and Image ......... 30 4.1 Why teach. Is teaching really a career of choice? ............................. 30 4.2 Teaching: one occupation or many? .................................................. 32 4.3 Teachers: one career, many roles ...................................................... 33 4.4 The teacher as knowledge worker ..................................................... 35 4.5 Toward role differentiation: para professionals and the issue of interrelated service provision ............................................................ 36 4.6 The school as a workplace ................................................................ 37 4.7 Constructing the future school .......................................................... 38

5. Preparing the New Generation of Teachers: Issues in Initial Teacher Education ............................................................................... 41 5.1 Changing patterns of initial teacher education ................................... 41 5.2 Expressed views from the field ......................................................... 41 5.3 Teachers' professional knowledge base ............................................. 47

6. Employing the Teacher ........................................................................ 52 6.1 Induction .......................................................................................... 52 6.2 Career pathways ............................................................................... 53

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Teachers for the Future - The Changing Nature of Society and Related Issues for the Teaching Workforce. September 2004.

6.3 Appointing and allocating teachers ................................................... 54 6.4 Retaining teachers ............................................................................ 56 6.5 Career mapping and development ..................................................... 58 6.6 Professional standards and appraising quality ................................... 60 7. A Profession for the Future ................................................................. 62

Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Appendix 3

Boxes 1. Changes commonly cited by teachers in home, neighbourhood

and community life ................................................................................ 18 2. Macro changes in or affecting Australian society .................................... 19 3. Policy and procedural changes in education systems .............................. 20 4. A bill of health ....................................................................................... 22 5. Professions repositioning themselves ..................................................... 23 6. Estimated underlying annual net separation rates for Australian primary

and secondary teachers in each five year age range ................................. 27 7. Changing contexts, continuing challenges for initial teacher education ... 44 8. Innovative partnerships and linkages in initial teacher education

courses in institutions visited .................................................................. 45 9. Typical Career Pathways into teaching in Australia ................................ 53 10. Acceptability of work environment and financial reward structures ........ 58

Figures 1. Percentage of teachers employed by age and gender: 2001 ..................... 24

Data Sources. Evidence from the Field

1. Initial Literature Review ? Diane Mayer 2. Report on the Questionnaire Survey of Teachers in their First Ten Years of

Teaching ? Stewart Bonser, with Malcolm Skilbeck and Helen Connell 3. Site Visits Report? Helen Connell, Malcolm Skilbeck

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Teachers for the Future - The Changing Nature of Society and Related Issues for the Teaching Workforce. September 2004.

OVERVIEW. Conclusions and Directions for Action

Purpose and Scope of the Study

During the next decade, the teaching profession in Australia will be transformed. Due mainly to age related retirements there will be a massive turnover and a huge influx of new entrants. At the same time, it can be expected that there will be more exacting requirements and expectations of teachers as new professional standards are set to meet the challenges of the knowledge society. As Mayer says, 'The challenge is to avoid generational self-renewal; to be unconstrained by old or re-worked notions of what it means to be an Australian teacher.'1

In preparation for these changes and to help address the challenge, in March 2003 the MCEETYA Teacher Quality and Educational Leadership Taskforce (TQELT) commissioned a study of the teaching workforce, specifically teachers in their first ten years of employment, whether teaching in government, Catholic or independent schools. The aim of the study was to inform the development of advice to MCEETYA and employers about:

? strategies for attracting, retaining and regaining quality teachers; ? approaches to working with new generations of teachers.

While MCEETYA and employers of teachers are the primary audience, the findings of the study are relevant to teacher educators, professional associations and teacher unions, and to all those with a concern for the quality of teaching and learning in the nation's schools.

The study commenced with a literature review (Data Source 1). Drawing on this review, for the second phase of the study a survey instrument was developed and a questionnaire sent to a broadly representative sample of teachers within the first ten years of their teaching career in the four participating states of New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia. Close to three hundred returns, approximately 64 per cent of the sample, were received and analysed (Data Source 2).

With data from the survey and the findings of the literature review, interview schedules for the third phase of the project were prepared and trialed in a small sample of schools in NSW and the ACT. Site visits were made to the four participating states with focus group meetings and interviews in primary, secondary and all-age schools, administration offices and teacher education faculties and departments (Data Source 3). In all, some 550 classroom teachers and more than 100 school principals, system officials and representatives, teacher educators and researchers have been interviewed in the course of the study or have provided written responses.

In addition, for information and views about employment practices and policies in the professions of accounting, communications and media, law and nursing, a sample of relevant authorities have been interviewed. Selected literature from these fields has been consulted. To ground the project, a reference group was established by the Taskforce to assist in the overall design, monitor progress and advise the researchers on preparation of the final

1 Data Source 1, p.29.

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Teachers for the Future - The Changing Nature of Society and Related Issues for the Teaching Workforce. September 2004.

report (see below). Four progress reports have been prepared in the course of the study and submitted to the reference group for advice and guidance as work proceeded.

The conclusions, recommendations and findings arising from the study are presented in three documents:

? Overview. Conclusions and Directions for Action ? Main Report. A Career of Teaching: the Formative Years ? Data Sources. Evidence from the Field The Overview serves as a summary for the findings and conclusions of the Main Report. 25 brief statements outline key points from the study for the consideration of policy makers, teacher educators, and the broader teaching profession.

The Main Report draws on the evidence analysed in the reports of the fieldwork, questionnaire responses and the literature survey (Data Sources). These sources show that the educational requirements of growing up in the knowledge society are setting new goals for schools and challenges for the teaching profession. The Main Report, in discussing these, develops the themes of a career in teaching and argues for changes both in employment policy and practice and the initial and continuing education of teachers.

Data Sources are of three kinds: 1) an initial literature review which provides a comprehensive survey of both Australian and international studies of the teaching profession and of changing trends in career aspirations and lifestyle expectations; 2) an analysis of responses by close to 300 practising teachers in government, Catholic and independent schools in New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia to the project questionnaire; and 3) a report on interviews and focus group meetings by the researchers in the four participating states.

Together, these data sources provide the evidence in which the findings, conclusions and directions for action are grounded.

Some sections of the text are italicised, to draw attention to major themes, key issues, conclusions and directions for action.

Unless otherwise indicated, all references to teachers and their expressed views in the Overview, Main Report and Data Sources relate to those surveyed in this study, that is, people in their first ten years of teaching in Australian schools.

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