What's Going on in Australian Education?

What’s Going on in Australian Education?

David Nally

 This article will give an overview of Australian Education, a survey of the opportunities (such as pre-teaching, types of jobs and assistance available when studying to enter Education), as well as advice on how to find work. The Australian Education Industry consists of three main elements:

• Operations: the schools and universities that teach students
• Policy: the bureaucracy that directs policies that are adopted by these institutions
• Support: the companies and individuals that try to assist or profit from these first two components (such as publishers, tutors and tutoring colleges, as well as software and digital channels, such as WooTube)

The main motivation needed to excel in Australian Education is genuinely wanting to help other people achieving their goals. This capacity ensures that there is an ethos of constantly improving the results of students, but also making a commitment to improve one’s own teaching methodology. This motivation also has a trickle-effect into pedagogy. Research such as John Hattie’s Visible Thinking (2013) has proven that if there is a relationship of mutual respect between teachers and students, then results are more likely to improve for both parties. Moreover, students are more likely to respect their teacher in Australia if the teacher in question shows an interest in helping improve students’ welfare and results. This interest could be generated by teachers, tutors or teachers’ aides surveying the standardised testing that is part of Australian Education policy, and pinpointing strategies that students can use to address their problems at school. Therefore, what one should be prepared for when entering the Australian Education industry is knowing how to apply statistics to improve pedagogy and learning outcomes. This practice is at the core of using evidence to consistently focus on encouraging and pushing students to achieve beyond what they believe to be their best work.

The main opportunities that currently exist in the Operations elements of Australian Education are largely at the classroom teacher level. The most common caution when first entering this section is to expect to not achieve a permanent job within the first 3-5 years. Another statistic that has been generated by several universities in Sydney, Victoria and Queensland, is that around 50% of Education graduates drop out in the first few years of teaching. Therefore, while there are quite often opportunities as classroom teachers and teachers’ aides, these are usually of a temporary nature. Permanent roles are usually advertised in the closing stages of each school year (between October and December). The way to apply for these temporary positions is either:

(a)   To send a resume to the Head of Administration of any school. This person can be contacted by ringing the general number for the school, and then asking who to forward a resume to. The resume will then usually be directed via email, or you will be told to drop the resume off with the school’s reception.

(b)   Subscribe to job advertising newsletters. For the public sector schools, the site can be found by searching for “public sector school jobs” which are usually listed on indeed.com. For systemic schools, subscribe to sites such as teachers.on.net and seek.com.au. For independent schools, these jobs are usually listed on job search sites and in local papers.

The distinctions in these opportunities are between public (or secular) schools and religious schools. This dimension makes Australia more similar to schools in the U.S.A. or South America, where school life (but not necessarily school curricula) is infused with a particular religious ethos. These schools are more likely (but not necessarily) to favour teachers who can contribute to these pastoral duties.

Employment opportunities in Policy depend on a longer career in teaching, so there is a knowledge of how policy impacts pedagogy and behaviours within schools. Alternatively, there are some opportunities that are available to those who have a background in corporate or administration roles. In contrast, jobs in the Support element of Education are more available to people who are either studying with the intention of transitioning into an education job, or working on the coalface of teaching and providing specialist attention to students with more diverse needs. For example, there are tutoring colleges such as James An and Pre-Uni College which attempt to boost academic achievement by providing students with drills (such as memorising vocabulary, structured written work, or completing repetitive maths tasks to revise formulae). These companies pay approximately $50 per hour. There are also companies such as PosSability and Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes which offer one-on-one tuition for high-needs students. The payrate for these companies varies from $25 per hour, to salaried positions for part-time and permanent staff.

My own career path began with a publishing division of Macquarie University, where I was an Assistant Editor. This role involved me converting documents for tertiary students around Australia who had special needs, such as dyslexia, dyscalculia and various spectra of autism. This role however, did not allow me to ever work with, or know, the students, and working in an office environment where I never saw the impact of my work realised felt disconnected. This motivation lead me to work in various Support jobs within the Education Industry while I completed another degree in Education, before transitioning to teaching in schools. When I did make it into a classroom, I taught at four schools before finally settling into a permanent role, five years into my career.

The consistent trend that I have noticed develop in teaching during my short career is that it has become more professionalised, with preferences being given to budding educators who have had a previous career which can potentially provide guidance to students struggling to choose what they want to do, post-school. There are compliance processes that have also been developed, where teachers are inspected for their quality of teaching, their ability to improve students’ results, as well as their carrying out tasks respectfully, efficiently and reliably. As such, there is more close monitoring of teachers’ performance than in Central American, Central and Eastern European countries. Another trend that has been emerging is in policy, as there is a genuine attempt to bridge the inequalities that exist in Australian society. The ones that have been particularly concerning is between urban and rural, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, as well as between wealthy independent schools and overpopulated public schools. Attempts to address these divisions include Teach4Australia, where people with a prior career can rapidly transition into a permanent teaching place. As part of this course, enthusiastic potential teachers are flown to Melbourne for a four-week intensive course. They are then expected to study a Masters of Education and complete it alongside a 75% teaching load. This program however, has met with some criticism, as unless candidates are extremely enthusiastic yet knowledgeable,  and resilient, the dropout rate is quite high. For those wanting to teach in rural and remote areas, there are extensive subsidies available for teachers who express interest in teaching in rural and remote areas, such as discounts on fuel and accommodation. The other incentives for teaching in rural and remote areas include quite small class sizes and a more prominent, tight-knit sense of community within schools.

Australian Education is also moving in a utilitarian (or, employment-based) direction. Therefore, those with a background in STEM subjects (such as Sciences, IT, Engineering or Math) are highly regarded, and currently there is a shortage of Physics, Agriculture and Construction teachers. There is also some overlap with a tertiary institution, TAFE, which specialises in vocation courses. Thus, any teachers who bring industry experience are also highly regarded for roles that involve vocational elements. Another area where jobs are readily available is in English, as this subject is the only one that is compulsory through the entire of infants, primary and secondary school. The other area that Australian Education is developing in is the use of statistics to boost the performances of students, teachers, faculties and schools in ranking tables. The increased concern in this area is partly driven by the transparency of the NAPLAN results each year, which is a standardised test taken in Year 3 (7-8 years old), Year 5 (10-11 years old), Year 7 (12-13 years old) and Year 9 (14-15 years old). For individuals who have prior training or study experience with interpreting data or being able to teach others how to interpret data to boost performances, this development is highly favourable. Interestingly, although there is not a shortage of teachers who can deliver Geography courses, there is a lack of teachers opting to train in this subject at university. In future years, there will probably be more openings in this subject due to the overlap it has with Commerce, Economics and other statistics-based and science-based subjects.

The advantage of working in the Australian Education system is the amount of support that is offered to those teachers who are willing to give a lot of their time to helping causes run by the school or their faculties. It is also essential to be proactive, collegial and exchange resources to build repore with colleagues in order to establish oneself within a school. Australian students have tended to be, in my experience, reluctant to accept newcomers into a school community. After trust is established (by the teacher showing they are highly knowledgeable, competent, fair, and concerned mainly with helping students achieve good results) the teaching job tends to become much more livable! The double-edged sword of this profession is therefore the extremely high work rates in the first five years of teaching, while you establish your resources and professional relationships. Also be prepared to encounter students with a language and cultural background different to your own, and be prepared to learn about it (especially words that help you reprimand a student in their own language!). Doing small things like this will build trust, increase the standing in which the students hold teachers who are new to a school, and help to embed them in the community.