School Centres for Teaching Excellence Symposium Two Session Three
Theme: New considerations for school- university-community partnerships.
Education New considerations for school- university partnerships School Centre of Teaching Excellence - Symposium Two, 24 May 2013 Associate Professor Lucas Walsh, Monash University Senior Research Fellow, The Foundation for Young Australians
Changing worlds of work and ways of working The rate of full-time employment among teenagers not in education has decreased by more than 22 percentage points since the mid-1980s. 3 times as many teenagers and more than twice as many young adults had part-time jobs in 2011 than in the mid-80s. A third of the 814,700 part-time workers who would prefer to work more hours was aged 15 to 24 years. An average of nearly 1 in 5 teenagers changed their labour force status every month in 2011, compared with 1 in 10 older workers. Young people seek hands-on opportunities to learn. Source: Robinson, Long and Lamb 2011
The Teaching Profession "Globalisation and technological, environmental, social, demographic and economic change and rapid and continuing advances in information communication technologies will place greater demands on, and provide greater opportunities for, young people. These changes will also place greater demands on and opportunities for teachers and school leaders“ (Cole 2011, p.2). What are the knowledge and skills that teacher educators require to be effective in strong school-university partnerships? What can universities and school communities do better to build an effective teacher educator workforce? Some common constraints to developing strong school-university partnerships.
Changing School Cultures New teachers can inject innovative thinking, current research, evidence and fresh approaches to school life. Evidence from 2008 TALIS data suggests that this transference is not taking place from new teachers to experienced teachers in schools (Jensen et al. 2012). Are school cultures open and receptive to innovation and new thinking? How can partnerships enable this?
Leaders must adapt to increasingly complex environments Where there has been a push for leaders to become more managerial, there is now an awareness that more is required: Engaging policy change Engaging stakeholders across sectors Engaging parents and carers Engaging individual stakeholders “where they live” Working within structural constraints Partnership networks: As a result of informal patterns of communication and without clear governance models Informal communication (mobile phones) Based on personalities Brokers Professional judgement: to whom to disclose, when to disclose it and what to whom Legal issues of confidentiality, security and privacy Schools rely on face to face meetings
Horizontal Engagement The notion of "learning environments" beyond the classroom also is important to understanding the future direction of the profession, in which schools need not necessarily within a given be the default locations for learning community. Underpinning these environments is a platform upon which a range of actors interact in a learning ecosystem reef. Within contemporary learning ecosystems, the conventional notion of the school working in isolation gives way to one in which it becomes a "base-camp" within a broader vibrant platform of learning from which teachers and leaders engage with other key actors (such as those from the community and third sector) and other stakeholders seek to improve student outcomes (Hannon, Patton and Temperley 2011, p.18). Horizontal engagement is a feature of high performing systems. Teachers, support staff, administrative staff, social workers, psychologists and other health carers and so forth play a role within the learning ecosystem.
Horizontal Engagement Community actors, parents and carers, brokers, external stakeholders such as universities, business, philanthropic and NGOs, as well as other enablers of improved learning outcomes also need to be taken into consideration Brokers, universities and funders provide new opportunities for professional development, new models and measures of their employees, enhancing and extending learning, as well as physical and in-kind resources for teaching and learning. In contrast to the vertical engagement of teachers with school leaders and schools with jurisdictions and broader policy, these actors represent important features of horizontal engagement within the learning platforms and education ecosystems of the 21st century. Web 2.0 technologies enable broader networks of knowledge sharing and building that can engage students, teachers and leaders in educational transformation in participatory ways.
Horizontal Engagement Its applications can be used to extend and deepen networks of participation and collaboration in educational environments surrounding the school and extend opportunities for horizontal engagement. Distributed leadership is an emergent feature of this landscape to develop coherence across communities working in interdependent partnership to ensure school improvement (Timperley 2011, p.22). The need for schools to increase capacity through engagement with the business community is now recognised as a key feature of the of 21 st century education landscape. Increasing this capacity through horizontal engagement requires recognition, encouragement and support of "teachers and school leaders to develop the skills needed for effective and sustainable school-business relationships" (DEEWR 2011a, p.1). How can school-community-university partnerships can better foster adaptability? Engagement with youth remains underdeveloped
Concluding Remarks As the world is becoming more fluid for young people, the same applies to the teaching profession. Exposure to opportunities for professional learning and development are important in both formal and informal learning contexts New skills are needed to navigate emergent eco-systems of schooling How do these partnership approaches fit within the broader learning eco-systems of the 21st century?
Input 3:Deakin-Northern Bay College A/Prof Damian Blake Kellie Tobin Jennifer Dalton
The Deakin-NBC SCTE
Is it time to consider a more consistent approach to assessment instruments? Feedback from school-based teacher educators supervising PSTs from different programs and universities: –Working with many different assessment instruments despite the existence of national standards; –Different ITE courses offer varying degrees of support for using the assessment instruments; –Some conflict and contradictions between school-based teacher educators and university-based teacher educators regarding: the merit of different ‘types’ of teacher knowledge/skills that is being assessed; the sequential development and assessment of knowledge and skills. –A need for a common assessment instrument across ITE courses?
Is it time to consider a more consistent approach to adult-based pedagogy (andragogy) informing supervision? Contrasting feedback from students undertaking a more conventional professional experience: –Some PSTs expected to a clone of their supervising teacher; –Limited opportunities to experience ‘shared professional knowledge’ and knowledge/skills required for team-based approaches to teaching; –PST-Supervising teacher relationships that are based on a child- focused pedagogy rather than an adult-based relationship for supervision and learning; A need for a school-based teacher educators to be skilled in contemporary approaches to adult learning?
Consideration for the capacity PSTs bring to a community? Feedback from PSTs regarding: –Limited recognition of PSTs prior experience and skills that are often very relevant to teaching and schools (in conventional professional experience arrangements); –Multiple cases of PSTs’ capacity to add significant value to school improvement initiatives; –Expansive learning opportunities and partnerships arising from PSTs’ prior networks and community connections; –Opportunity for PSTs to build their teacher identity in a manner that recognises and values their individual pathways into teaching.