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What do you want to be when you grow up? Lessons from a world-first study into student aspirations

In a world-first study Dr. Sally Patfield and Dr. Leanne Fray look at the importance of student aspirations and how they can be nurtured in public education…

While careers advice largely takes place in the later years of high school, young people begin to form ideas about their futures starting in the early years of primary school. How those aspirations take shape, what factors influence them, and what challenges they face in achieving their goals were some of the key questions at the heart of an Australian-first, decade-long study by us and our colleagues at the University of Newcastle.

When we first spoke to Dahlia* in 2016, she was a high achieving Year 11 student with aspirations to become a criminal psychologist. A young Aboriginal woman passionate about social justice, Dahlia had ambitions to create a different kind of future for First Nations people through reform of the criminal justice system.

However, the following year during Year 12, Dahlia suffered from severe mental ill health. Five years later, we spoke again with Dahlia who told us how the pressure of Year 12 had caused her to drop out of school:

It was just a burn out, like, I was just so overwhelmed. I felt like I was so pressured to do the best and I felt like I wasn’t the best […] then I’d get anxiety about not being as good as everyone thinks I am […] that’s why I really wanted to do this interview, because I wanted to put it out there that high school is not the be all, end all […] getting that high [Year 12] mark isn’t the be all, end all.

Dahlia’s story is just one from the thousands of interviews we conducted as part of the Aspirations Longitudinal Study, which began in 2012 and is continuing today, providing comprehensive insights into the factors which shape the career and educational aspirations of Australia’s young people – and how these aspirations actually eventuate. The insights produced by this research have significant implications for teachers, schools and communities.

The Aspirations Longitudinal Study

The Aspirations Longitudinal Study began as an ARC (Australian Research Council) Linkage Project in 2012, led by Laureate Professor Jenny Gore AM and the Teachers and Teaching Research Centre at the University of Newcastle.

The study sought to understand the way in which students from Years 3 to 12 think about the post-school options available to them, what factors shape their choices, how possibilities might be opened up or closed off, and the impact teachers, families and society can have on the pursuit of their goals.

In the first year of the study, students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 from 64 government schools in various locations across NSW undertook a survey about their career and educational aspirations. The students repeated the survey over four consecutive years which enabled us to follow students throughout their schooling, providing a range of views from Years 3 to 12, matched with NAPLAN data and other socio-educational data. We also undertook interviews and focus groups with students, teachers, parents, and community members.

In total, the study collected more than 12,000 survey responses and 1,000 interview and focus group transcripts and paved the way for ten additional studies which looked at everything from the aspirations of Indigenous students and students from regional and remote Australia, implications for the VET and Higher Education sectors, to the impact of bushfires, floods, and COVID-19 on the formation and pursuit of young people’s aspirations.

This year, we have returned to several of the schools involved in the original study to conduct a follow up study to understand how student aspirations might have changed over the decade since we first began collecting this data.

Key insights

Analysis of this data produced a number of important insights that are extremely relevant to teachers, school leaders and careers advisers, as well as education system leaders, policymakers, tertiary and higher education providers, and university staff developing community outreach programs.

Some of our findings are intuitive – we still see stubborn and highly gendered aspirations among young people. Males are more likely to aspire to careers such as Engineering, Defence, Sports, and STEM disciplines. Female students are more likely to aspire to careers such as Nursing, Teaching, Social Work and the Arts.

But many of the findings really challenge common assumptions about how students decide what they want or don’t want to pursue after school.

For instance, we found that Indigenous students have very similar career aspirations to their non-Indigenous peers, however teachers often perceive a difference. Interestingly, where the aspirations of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students really diverge is among the highest achieving students – where Indigenous students are significantly less likely to aspire to a university education career path than their non-Indigenous peers. For Indigenous students, the path to higher education often involves navigating complex intersections of racial, socioeconomic, and cultural barriers—challenges that are typically not experienced by non-Indigenous young people.

We also found that aspirations for university among students in regional and remote communities are often shaped by the presence or proximity of university to their community. While governments and universities often emphasise scholarships and other financial incentives for rural and remote students, cost is just one factor impacting young people’s desire to pursue higher education. Distance, job opportunities closer to home and emotional attachment to their communities are often of greater concern.

Starkly, another key finding of our research was that young people who don’t have parents who have been to university often discount the possibility of future study at a very young age when compared to their peers with university-educated parents. Those students without university-educated parents who go on to higher education are often referred to as ‘first in family’ students. These students sometimes fall into multiple equity categories – more likely to be Indigenous, live in a regional or remote area, and attend a relatively disadvantaged school – but they also face the unique challenge of navigating towards a new and alien environment. Our research calls for specific policies and supports for these students.

Translating these findings into practical applications for teachers and the wider community

In 2018, following the completion of the major arm of the Aspirations Longitudinal Study, the Australian Government commissioned the development of a professional development course to translate these research findings into practice.

Aspirations: Supporting Students’ Futures is a free, online self-paced course for teachers that unpacks the evidence-base produced during the longitudinal study. It provides a framework and practical strategies for teachers to understand how aspirations form and the role they can play in nurturing the aspirations of students from diverse backgrounds, with applications both within and outside the classroom.

On the back of the positive reception to this course, we also developed a second course,When I Grow Up: Supporting Children’s Aspirations, which is a free online course designed specifically for parents, carers and community members. Like the first course, it also provides evidence-based approaches for nurturing the educational and career aspirations of young people, with a particular focus on life outside of the classroom.

The Path Travelled

Thankfully, Dahlia’s story, which we began this article with, is a happy one. After leaving high school before the HSC, Dahlia took up a series of retail and hospitality jobs in her local community. But when she came across an advertisement for an Aboriginal traineeship at a local Indigenous pre-school, her passion to work with First Nations Australians was reignited. She completed her traineeship before entering university to study a combined degree in primary and early childhood teaching.

While her original career aspirations changed, the underpinning desire to create systematic change remains a driving force for Dahlia:

There’s such a push now for formal schooling to start early. But those first five years, just being able to be a kid and enjoy your childhood is just so important. I really want to give our Goori kids a chance to do that… I’m very passionate about culture so I do a lot of language and songs and dance in my practice so that these kids have culture in their lives and feel connected before they start school.

Dahlia’s story – like those of the many other young people we’ve spoken to over the course of the past 10 years – emphasises the need for all of us to understand how young people’s aspirations form, what values and beliefs drive them, and what supports – both at an individual and systemic level – we need to provide to enable them to achieve their goals.

*Names have been changed

About the Authors

Dr Sally Patfield is a lecturer in the School of Education and member of the Teachers and Teaching Research Centre at the University of Newcastle. Her research focuses on issues of equity and social justice across formal schooling and higher education, particularly in relation to educational and social inequities connected to social class, rurality, first-in-family status, race, and the changing nature of the education system.

Dr Leanne Fray is a senior lecturer in the School of Education and member of the Teachers and Teaching Research Centre at the University of Newcastle. Leanne’s research focuses on improving educational outcomes for students from complex backgrounds. Her work is centred on the impact of professional development in specialised school contexts, the effects of COVID-19 on teachers and students, and student education and career aspirations. Leanne leads the Primary Literacy team at the University of Newcastle.

Sally Patfield and Leanne Fray Download

Reclaiming (In)Visible Women in the History Curriculum

Judy King suggests that a woman’s place is everywhere, including the NSW History Syllabuses : HSIE K-6, History Years 7-10, History Elective Years 9-10, Modern History Years 11-12, Ancient History Years 11-12 and Extension History Year 12...

Ensuring that the achievements of women are included in the History curriculum cannot be left to a happy accident. It requires systematic planning and programming. It does not require extensive lists of content, but it does require some fresh approaches to programming and the framing of challenging enquiry questions which will engage students K-12.

The scope and sequence for each year or stage will depend on the time allocated for History lessons in each school. The hours in each school vary and are not always the same number of hours prescribed in the NESA syllabuses. The scope and sequence for a Year 8 class allocated 80 hours of History per year will be different from that of a Year 8 class allocated 100 hours or 120 hours.

The planning does not have to cover pages and pages. For mandatory History years 7-10, schools often allocate one major area/unit of work per term, a total of 4 each year, or 6-8 per year if some units are allocated half terms of 5 weeks instead of a whole term of 10 weeks.

Hours allocated for excursions, tests/exams, school assemblies and events should be factored into the planning page so as the ELT (engaged learning time) is the planning focus rather than the TLT (theoretical timetabled learning time)

The planning for each topic or area of enquiry can be outlined on a single A3 page, which includes brief notes on

Essential knowledge and understanding (what will students know and understand?)
Big enquiry questions which will stimulate debate, research, discussion
Historical concepts from the syllabus (including cause and effect, continuity and change, contestability, heritage, empathy)
Evidence of learning (what am I going to see, read, view, assess as a result of the work completed by the students? formal/informal assessment)
Skills relevant to the chosen area of study (these will vary from topic to topic and will not necessarily be the same each time (recall, summarise, explain/account for, define, argue, interpret, compare and contrast, deconstruct sources/evidence, draw inferences, investigate, research)
Essential vocabulary (all key terms associated with the new area of study)
Resources (including written, film and visual sources, graphs, maps, sites, websites, photographs, monuments)
Extension activities or modifications for mixed ability classes

Years 7-10 students should be exposed to all the skills listed in the syllabus over a four year period and this requires keeping records especially if Mandatory History and Geography courses are semesterised in the timetable and are not taught by the same teachers over each of the four years.

We do not have to lift large slabs of content straight from the syllabus. We do not have to outline every lesson over the 5 or 10 weeks per unit. Lesson outlines can be part of a support document rather than the streamlined teaching program itself. It is essential that students are issued with a unit of work outline before each unit of work begins. The essentials will fit on one page. Expectations of what students will come to know and understand and be able to do as a result of the unit should be clearly identified. Evidence of learning should also be clearly indicated and then followed up and recorded in each unit.

Thematic programming gives teachers the opportunity to teach more than one area of the syllabus in the same unit of work. In Stage 5 students are required to study seven focus areas in 100 hours, including three core depth studies Australia: Making a Nation, Australia at War and Human Rights and Freedoms via the choice of two options a case study and a site study.

Why not list the big enquiry questions up front and then use the content from all three or some of the Stage 5 depth studies to answer them. If half the population of any given period is to be included in the academic discourse, some key questions will need to refer specifically to women and women’s achievements

Some of the questions could include:

1.In what ways has the history of women and women’s voices been silenced over millennia/the last 200 years/until post-World War Two?

2.Why is the image of a “green faced witch with a pointed hat, large nose and broomstick” constantly used in the 21^st century to denigrate women politicians and leaders (e g Thatcher, Gillard, Merkel, Clinton)?

3.What ten items would you select to represent the history of women in Australia in an exhibition covering the period of World War 1/Word War Two /post-World War Two?

4.What are the opportunities available in 2025 for us to hear the voices of Aboriginal women and/or migrant women in our 21^st century Australia? What rights and freedoms have been gained, and which ones have been denied?

5.Why were women in France granted the vote in 1944 while Australian women were granted the vote and the right to stand for public office in 1901 at Federation?

6.Did militancy hinder or assist the campaigns by the suffragettes in the UK, USA and Australia to secure the franchise for women? What was the difference between a suffragist and a suffragette? Why is the distinction important?

7.Why and how were convict women, transported to Australia 1788-1867, demonized as “damned whores and obstreperous strumpets” in 18^th and 19^th century Australia?

It doesn’t matter which areas of the syllabus are being taught, the questions really matter.

When studying Ancient Greece and Rome in Stage 4 we need to ask questions similar to these:

1.Why were women excluded from the Agora and from the Forum in Ancient Greece and Rome?

2.Can Athens really be regarded as the “birthplace of democracy” if only 35% of the population could vote, women, slaves and metics were excluded from voting and engaging in popular discourse?

3. How has the fact that most of what is taught about Roman history includes military campaigns and “big events” led to the ignoring of the significant contribution of Roman women?

If teachers have programmed a unit of work on Heroes and Villains for Elective History

Years 9-10 there is perfect opportunity to ensure that the achievements of women and girls are included as part of the focus on “good/bad” deeds of individuals and groups of both men and women. Lots of possible organizing themes comes to mind, including:

Organizing theme	Key individual women	Important questions
Women warriors and leaders	Joan of Arc, Boudicca, Cartimandua Queen of the Brigantes, Nancy Wake and the SOE women spies of World War 11, Soviet Women’s Airforce and Sniper Brigades of World War 11, Cleopatra V11, Zenobia of Palmyra, Margaret of Anjou,	How were they viewed by their contemporaries? How were they viewed by later historians? Have the views changed over time? If so, why? Who opposed the women leaders or groups of women at the time? How did the women withstand the criticism and vilification? How did they lose/retain their power? Why were women scientists excluded from the Royal Society 1662-1946? Why are so few women awarded the Nobel Prize? Did the women leave any documents, art works, publications? What is their legacy in 2025? Which women with a book, an opinion and an ambition to be heard or included in public discourse have been silenced over the centuries and how? Why were women forbidden to run the Marathon in the Olympics until 1984 ? Why were Sophie Scholl and fellow members of the White Rose Resistance to Nazi Germany guillotined in 1944? How widespread was the resistance to Hitler inside Germany during World War Two? In what ways did Aboriginal men and women resist the British colonial government and armed forces 1788-1850s? Why has the AWM consistently resisted pleas to include the Frontier Wars in its displays within the War Memorial? Who were the radical women who were transported to Australia after the Peterloo Massacre 1819 in Manchester and the Irish rebellion in 1799? Why are they regarded as some of the “first teachers in the new colonies of NSW and Tasmania”?
Women as social justice agents, reformers in UK, USA and Australia	Coretta King and the civil rights activists in the USA, Mary Wollstonecraft, Emily Davison, Emmeline Pankhurst, Vida Goldstein, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Malala Yusofzai, Rachel Perkins, Oogeroo Noonuccal, Chartists, Abolitionists, Convict radicals, Suffragists
Scientists and Mathematicians	Laura Bassi Italy, Marie Curie Poland and France, Caroline Herschel UK, Fiona Wood Aus, Elizabeth Blackwell USA, Rosalind Franklin UK
Women with “Dangerous Ideas”	Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, Afra Behn, Margaret Cavendish (Duchess of Newcastle), Louisa Lawson, Gloria Steinem, Malala Yusofzai, Greta Thunberg, Taylor Swift, Artemisia Gentileschi, “Witches” 14^th– 19^th centuries
Women in the dock and executed	Mary Queen of Scots 1587, Ruth Ellis 1955, Sophie Scholl 1944, Mata Hari 1917, Edith Cavell 1916, Ethel Rosenberg 1953, Martha Corey 1692, Marie Antoinette 1793, Mary Surratt 1865, Dora Kaplan 1924, Charlotte Corday 1793
Early Colonial History of Australia	Mary Bligh, Elizabeth Macarthur, Mary Reiby, Barangaroo, Truganini, Elizabeth Macquarie, Anna King, 25,000 women convicts transported to Australia 1788-1867, Emancipated, ticket of leave women

It is essential that, as History teachers, we inspire students to

Ask further questions
Make connections
Interrogate sources and determine ones which provide us with evidence
Extend their vocabulary
Understand our political, social and cultural heritage
Construct arguments based on the evidence available

We cannot meet any of those challenges in our History classrooms if we omit half the population from our steely gaze and from our historical enquiry questions.

No matter what the unit of work and no matter what the age and experience of the student we should be asking students to think about:

Who has the power?
How did they achieve that power?
Who has been prevented from sharing that power?
How did they keep/lose that power?
What terms and concepts have we inherited from ancient civilisations?
What were the consequences of a narrow power base in the short/longer term?
Which websites speak with authority? How do we know?
Are historical facts different from scientific facts? if so, in what ways?
What photos or images have changed the world?
In what ways can false images be created in the 21^st century?
What are the challenges for the next generation of historians?

If you make a deliberate decision to include women in all aspects of your History teaching, after a few years it will be so usual to see them there, that CPL would not need to run any courses about Reclaiming (In)Visible Women in the History Curriculum. Women would be right there as you prepared of your units of work, your big questions, your formative and summative assessment strategies. They would appear in the source materials and written and visual stimulus materials you provided for the students. They would pop up in verbal quizzes and games. If you have your own classroom, their pictures would be on the wall and on the noticeboards alongside the men being studied.

Do give it some thought and good luck!

References

What is History Teaching Now ? A Practical Handbook for All History Teachers and Educators (John Catt 2023) Alex Fairlamb and Rachel Ball

History Thinking For History Teachers, A New Approach to Engaging Students and Developing Historical Consciousness (Routledge 2020) ed. Tim Allender, Anna Clark and Robert Parkes

About the author

Judy King OAM MA Dip Ed

Judy King is a former high school principal and a Life Member of the NSW Teachers Federation, the Australian Education Union and Secondary Principals’ Council. She retired from Riverside Girls High School in 2010 after 19 years as a secondary principal.

Since retirement Judy has worked part time at Chifley College Mt Druitt campus, Northmead High and Georges River College in an executive support role with a strong focus on teaching and learning, assessment and reporting, especially in the areas of reading for meaning and writing for purpose.

She currently teaches History and Politics at WEA , the oldest adult education foundation in the CBD of Sydney.

Judy represented secondary principals on the Board of Studies (now NESA) from 1998-2004 and was History Inspector at the Board in 1991. Judy was deputy president of the SPC from 1998-2006.

In 2018 she researched and wrote a history of the NSW Teachers Federation 1918-2018 as part of its centenary celebrations. The articles were published throughout each edition of Education in 2018 and were featured as part of a three week exhibition in the Federation building.

In 2007 Judy was awarded the Meritorious Service in Public Education medal by the Department of Education.

Judy has an abiding interest in all aspects of Ancient, Mediaeval and Modern History as well as archaeology, politics and film. In 2014 and 2019 she attended the Cambridge University History Summer School for international students and hopes to return in 2025.

In 2024, Judy was awarded an OAM for “services to secondary education.”

Judy King Download

Aboriginal Women in Early Contact History

Jen Moes offers an insight into Aboriginal women’s history, focussing on two extraordinary women from early contact history…

When investigating and reclaiming the voices of women in Australian history, it is essential that we include the voices of Aboriginal Women and Torres Strait Islander Women. I write this expressly acknowledging that this piece is exploring the reclaiming of invisible Aboriginal women in the records of western, post invasion history. Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have, since time immemorial, valued equally the roles of women and men. Both women and men have shared the responsibilities of lore, custom and practice. Women’s lore is equally as important as men’s lore in maintaining social and cultural practice.

In 1788, when the way history was recorded on this continent changed dramatically and irreversibly, Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander People’s experience and history was recorded through the lens of western patriarchy. The experiences and voices of Aboriginal Women and Torres Strait Islander Women, like those of other women, were rarely publicly recorded and therefore their voices are either missing, forgotten, ignored or subject to interpretation by the men recording and publishing their experiences.

Contact history is a great place to begin exploring the hidden history and women’s voices in early European records in NSW. By exploring the experiences of women, we see a more diverse range of social and cultural contacts and interactions than those traditionally presented. By exploring the experiences of Aboriginal women in early contact history, we can broaden our understanding of the shared experience that contact is. Contact is not just an experience one group has over another, or something that happens to one group by another group.

Here are two examples of the hidden histories of Aboriginal women in early contact history:

Patyegarang

Patyegarang was a young woman who spoke the Gadigal language and is recorded in some of the very earliest written records as the first teacher of Gadigal Language in the new colony.

William Dawes was an English Lieutenant and scientist who arrived on the First Fleet and remained in the colony until 1791. He recorded his experiences in the colony in detailed notes and manuscripts.

Patyegarang and William struck up what appears to be an unlikely friendship based on mutual respect, humour and a shared curiosity and interest in each other’s ways. In his notes Dawes records the conversations between them across a broad range of subjects.

Patyegarang taught Dawes Gadigal and she learnt English herself. Both learnt each other’s language in a functional manner which allowed them to communicate in depth and showed the intellect of both. Dawes recorded a conversation where Patyegarang explained the anger of the local people, that the colonists had stayed on their land and that they were afraid of the guns. Dawes later refused to follow orders to participate in punitive and violent actions against the local peoples and was likely sent back to England due to his sympathetic views towards the local Aboriginal peoples.

Maria Locke

Maria, a Dharug woman, was born on the Hawkesbury River between 1794-1804.

In 1814, Maria was in the first group of children placed in the newly created ‘Native Institution for tuition’, which was created to teach Aboriginal children basic education, moral and religious instruction and manual skills, to allow them to be useful to the new colony. Despite this radical and total upheaval in the young Maria’s life, she excelled in learning. In 1819, Maria won the top prize in the yearly exam for the children engaged in education in the colony, including nearly 100 European children.

In 1822, Maria married William Walker, a Dharug man she had spent time with at the Native Institute. Unfortunately, within weeks of their marriage, William died of illness. In 1823, Maria married convict, Robert Locke, in the first sanctioned marriage between an Aboriginal person and a European. As Robert was a convict, he was ‘assigned’ to Maria, making her the first Aboriginal supervisor of a convict.

In 1831, Maria petitioned Governor Darling to be given her deceased brother’s land grant at Blacktown. Maria had been promised a grant of land as part of her marriage to Robert but this had not been provided. The grant was not given; however, 40 acres of land were granted to Robert on Maria’s behalf. In 1833 a further 44 acres of land was granted to her in Robert’s name at Liverpool and in 1843, after 10 years perseverance, Maria was granted her brother’s land.

Maria outlived Robert by 24 years. She spent her life engaged in the day-to-day life as a land holder in the colonies. On her death in July 1878, her land passed to her nine surviving children.

References

Moran, Alexis and McAllister, Jai ‘Patyegarang was Australia’s first teacher of Aboriginal language, colonisation-era notebooks show’, ABC

Troy, Jakelin (1993) The Sydney Language, Aboriginal Studies Press (Produced with the assistance of the Australian Dictionaries Project and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies)

https://www.williamdawes.org/docs/troy_sydney_language_publication.pdf

Significant Aboriginal women: Maria Lock | Parramatta History and Heritage

Lock, Maria | The Dictionary of Sydney

Maria Lock’s 1831 petition

Jen Moes Download

Convict Women

Monika Schwarz uses modern data analysis to shed new light on how 19^th Century female convicts resisted the system designed to keep them in place. . .

The Bread Riot

In May 1839 the usual proceedings in the Cascades Female Factory in Hobart were disrupted by a major incident. 200 convict women, all held at the crime class¹ of the institution at the time, instigated a food riot after they found that instead of wheat the bread they received, as their ration that day, had been made of inferior barley. The women took control over the factory, forcing the principal superintendent for convicts, Josiah Spode, to hurry to the scene, followed by the chief constable and a dozen police men. When they arrived, the Colonial Times, a Hobart newspaper at the time, claimed that they were held ‘absolutely in deviance’ by the women (Smith 2021, p. 205). It wasn’t the only riot ever to occur in a female factory with similar events documented in Parramatta or Launceston (Daniels 1998, pp.146-151).

The Function of the Female Factories

Female Convicts could see the insides of a female factory at various stages of their passage through the colonial penal system. The first time was usually directly after their arrival, as the factories were used as distribution centres. In total, between 1788 and 1868, 168.000 convicts, predominantly from England and Ireland, were transported to Australia. Instead of filling up English gaols, they were brought across the seas to help with the colonisation of the newest addition to the British Empire . One in every six convicts was female, about 25,500 women overall. After their first brief stint in the assignment class of a factory, female convicts were usually assigned as servants into the settler households.

Image 1 Chart Showing Convict Arrival by Gender (visit https://monalena.github.io/vue-colonialbackdrop/ to explore this interactive visualisation)

The Conduct Registers

Every offence perpetrated by a convict while ‘under servitude’ and brought to a prosecution was entered into the conduct registers. Female convicts, different to male convicts, often worked and lived in very close proximity to their employers, usually under the same roof, and under the constant surveillance of their mistresses. Naturally, this situation could cause a lot of friction. An analysis of the offences recorded for female convicts bears witness to the kind of workplace battles in which the female convict servants and their colonial keepers were embroiled. 65% of the entries can be classified as offences against convict regulations, and ranged, in escalating order, from mere insolence and disobedience to neglect of work or refusing to work, to being out after hours or absent without leave, and finally, if things turned really sour, absconding (Cowley et al. 2021, pp. 29-30).

Image 2 Chart Showing Female Offences per Classification (visit https://monalena.github.io/vue-colonialbackdrop/ to explore this interactive visualisation)

Repeated offences, or severe offences like absconding, could bring a convict woman back into the factory, but this time she would serve a limited time, ranging from one month to a year, in the crime class. And while the women could be cut off from their peers while assigned to a specific household, the crime class in the factory gave them a chance to exchange experiences and get organised. As the superintendent of the Cascades Female Factory, Mr. Hutchinson, put it when he was interviewed for an official inquiry into the state of the factories, the biggest problem in the factory was that the women ‘talked’ (Smith 2021, p. 193).

It is incredibly lucky that the convict archives of Van Diemen’s Land have been fully preserved. And, through massive volunteering efforts like the one spear-headed by the Female Convicts Research Centre (https://femaleconvicts.org.au/), recent years have seen the complete digitisation and transcription of all female convict records. Having the conduct registers available in tabular, machine-readable form has a particular advantage. The original conduct registers are large leather-bound ledgers, where, for each arriving ship, details about every new convict, like their name, birthplace, age on arrival and reason for transportation, were recorded. After those details a part of the page was initially left empty, but every time a convict was brought to trial, the ledger would come out again to record the new offence along with its date, the sitting magistrate and the resulting sentence. Until now, these conduct registers were mostly used to reconstruct individual life courses. But in machine-readable form it is now possible to reorder the recorded offences by date and find connections between them. It is now possible to read the conduct registers across the grain.

Image 3 Fanny Jarvis Conduct Register (CON40-1-6P117 file downloaded from https://libraries.tas.gov.au)

The Plot Thickens

This means that we can now identify collective action in the female factories, in total 87 incidents between the years 1823 and 1854, when counting every instance where more than two women were sentenced for the same offence on the same day, in the same factory and by the same magistrate (Schwarz 2023, pp. 177-78). For example, the Bread Riot mentioned above led to the sentencing of 49 women, presumably the ring leaders. On the 6^th of May 1839, every one of their offence registers received the same peculiar entry ‘Insubordination on the 4^th instant in a forcibly, violently and turbulent manner resisting Mr. Hutchinson & and openly refusing to obey his lawful commands’.

The Bread Riot as an event made the news at the time and has been described by historians previously (e.g. Frost 2012, p.71; Smith 2021, p. 205). But through digital analysis we now know 49 names of participating female convicts.

One of these convict women was Fanny Jarvis. Originally a servant girl from Staffordshire, she was sentenced to life after stealing from her employer. It was a harsh sentence which may have caused Fanny’s recalcitrance. Her conduct register tells us that she spent long stints in the factories rather than serving some employer. She tried to incite her fellow prisoners to insubordination on at least one more occasion and once refused to testify in court (Follow this link to Conviction Politics’ documentary Fanny Jarvis – Right in the Middle )

And she participated not only in the Bread Riot, but ,three years later, also in the second largest collective event in the Cascades Female Factory, now dubbed the We Are All Alike incident:

In August 1842 the water pipes in the wash yard, where most of the women of the crime class would spend their day washing the colony’s linen, froze and broke down. Workmen had to be brought in to repair them, and the women were locked up in one of the upper bedrooms instead.

‘By mid-afternoon about 150 of them had reached frustration point. They began singing, dancing, shouting, clapping their hands and stamping their feet’ (Smith 2021, p. 206). When pressed for their ringleader’s names, the women first started chanting ‘We are all alike’. Eventually, 31 women were sentenced as a result of their involvement in this incident.

It is possible to look back at these events from a network analysis angle. By participating in the two separate events Fanny Jarvis created a connection between them, just like other women who participated in multiple events created further connections. And it is possible to visualise this network. It proves that collective resistance in the female factories were not isolated incidents. They were connected events, carried out by a body of women grouping together, time and again, to fight back against a system designed to exploit them as a cheap labour force. The network visualisation shows an intriguing amount of collusion, reflecting the social network the women became part of in the factories. The network also shows that the web of collusion spread across the different Van Diemen’s Land factories, most prominently the Cascades Female Factory, a converted distillery in the west of Hobart and the custom-built panopticon- style Female Factory at Launceston (Frost and Maxwell-Stewart 2022).

Image 4 Visualisation of the Female Factories Resistance Network (blue nodes: Cascades Female Factory, red nodes: Launceston Female Factory, beige nodes: other factories)

Conclusion

Historically, convict women were judged harshly. Comments by their contemporaries, usually coming from male writers with little to no experience nor understanding of the life of the lower classes, described them as ‘rebellious hussies’ (Frost 2012, pp. 66-67) or ‘contumacious, ungovernable and incorrigible’ (Reid 1997, p.106). This judgment was repeated for decades and only questioned by a first wave of female historians in the nineteen nineties (Daniels 1996, Oxley 1996, Damousi 1997). A lot of the early misconception around convict women, the female part of this first forced wave of European settlers, came from their own voices being largely absent. The use of modern data analysis can continue to change this perception. Originally the conduct registers were designed by the British bureaucracy to keep convicts in check by minutely recording every single one of their colonial perpetrations. Now, through digitisation and a modern ‘big data’ approach, the same registers can be used to show the convict women in a new light. Not as criminals. Not as victims. But as courageous and determined women, ready to organise themselves to fight back.

End notes

1 Crime class – the part of the factory set aside for female convicts who were repeat offenders.

References

Cowley, T., Frost, L., Inwood, K., Kippen, R., Maxwell-Stewart, H., Schwarz, M., Shepherd, J., Tuffin, R., Williams, M., Wilson, J. & Wilson, P. (2021). Reconstructing a longitudinal dataset for Tasmania. Historical Life Course Studies, 11, 20-47.

Damousi, J. (1997). Depraved and disorderly: female convicts, sexuality and gender in colonial Australia. Cambridge University Press, doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511470172.

Daniels, K. (1998). Convict Women. Allen & Unwin.

Frost, L. (2012). Abandoned women: Scottish convicts exiled beyond the seas. Allen & Unwin.

Frost, L. & Maxwell-Stewart, H. (2021). A Panoptic Eye: The Punishment and Reform of Female Convicts in Van Diemen’s Land. Revenue D’études Benthamiennes 21. doi.org/10.4000/etudes-benthamiennes.9802

Oxley, D. (1996). Convict maids: the forced migration of women to Australia. Cambridge University Press.

Reid, K. (1997). ‘Contumacious, Ungovernable and Incorrigible’: Convict Women and Workplace Resistance, Van Diemen’s Land, 1820–1839. In. I. Duffield & J. Bradley (Eds.), Representing Convicts: New Perspectives on Convict Forced Labour Migration. Leicester University Press.

Schwarz, M. (2023). ‘Round ring on the floor’—Collective resistance networks in female factories. Australian Journal of Biography and History, (7), 175-196.

Smith, B. (2021). Defiant Voices: How Australia’s Female Convicts Challenged Authority 1788–1853. NLA Publishing.

About the author

Dr Monika Schwarz is a research fellow at Monash University’s SensiLab. She holds a PhD in archaeology, with over 15 years of experience in that field, and a Master’s degree in information technology. Now specialising in the analysis, visualisation and even physicalisation of historical data, she has been and continues to work on various projects like ‘Conviction Politics’ (ARC funded), ‘A Stitch in Time’ (Whyte fund grant), ‘Putting Death in its Place’ (ARC funded) or ‘Making Crime Pay’ (ARC funded) since 2020. In these projects she is combining skills from her two careers in archaeology and information technology, for example by turning 19th century convict records into interactive data visualisations. Monika’s work has a particular focus on female narratives.

In 2024, Monika presented at the CPL’s course: Women in History: Reclaiming Invisible Women.

Monika Schwarz Download

Taking the kids to the park: On-Country learning about climate change

Judith Wilks, Mark Werner and Angela Turner demonstrate the importance of learning from Aboriginal approaches to caring for Country as they tackle climate change in the classroom…

Preface

I was surfing the other day and the conditions started to change. A rip had formed where I was sitting, and water was heading back out to sea. This is not unusual, and I instinctively moved to ensure that I remained in the best position. I could have stayed where I was (but I’d probably still be there). I am also a high school teacher. My desire to learn fuels my passion to teach. As both a teacher and surfer I rely on my instincts and situational awareness to ensure my students are engaged and focused on their learning. If what I am doing is not working, then I must make changes for the benefit of my students’ learning. The ongoing challenge for teachers lies in the confines of our scope of control. I can make incremental adjustments (within my role description as classroom teacher) that will have some benefit to student outcomes. I cannot however undertake the seismic shift that is so desperately needed to support the ongoing growth of our kids’ learning. If under some miracle I could, and let’s set aside the fact that we are in a crippling staffing shortage, then I would suggest one strategy: ‘onCountry learning’ to remind ourselves what teaching was like before schools had fences, and off campus excursions didn’t involve half a dozen layers of risk assessment paperwork. [Mark Werner]

Introduction

In 2021 a collaboration between school teachers, university teacher-researchers, and a local council established an outdoor learning setting in a park known as ‘Dawkins Park Reserve’, in Macksville, rural NSW. This group coalesced around a shared desire to promote local resilience to climate change impacts, and to strengthen the local community’s understanding and engagement with local Indigenous cultural and scientific knowledge. This park was chosen as a setting primarily for two reasons: it was within walking distance of a high school, and it was suffering real and visible biodiversity breakdown due to the effects of climate change.

Being part of this collaboration as two university researchers (Wilks and Turner) was a rich experience in terms of the lasting relationships built with local teachers and moreover, witnessing the enjoyment and significant growth in the students’ understanding of climate change. In Turner and Wilks (2022) we recounted our experiences and research findings, concluding with a concerning paradox: as the benefits of place-based environmental learning become better known, in practical terms it is getting harder to achieve with teachers increasingly burdened by layers of paperwork, risk assessment protocols, policies and procedures. The resulting disembodiment of learning from the natural environment is especially concerning, given that the endeavour of education has its very roots in nature, where over 250 years ago Jean-Jacques Rousseau recognised nature as the child’s best teacher (Taylor, 2013). Caught in the current risk-averse milieu, many educational systems have forgotten these roots in the face of increasing litigation, and educational trends that marginalise the connectedness between nature and children and young people. (Wilks, Turner & Shipway, 2020).

Our particular focus here is to convey the experiences of collaboration that involved the teaching of climate change. We share how a different approach to teaching and learning in this rural setting might be sustained into the future through engaged environmental and Indigenous cultural learning, and creating a smoother transition for students between primary and secondary school.

The enactment of positive change is not possible without first acknowledging the need for a new direction. In the high school learning environment, collegiality and the courage to innovate are important ingredients for success in cross-curriculum and cross-cultural teaching and learning. In 2020 a small collegiate of like-minded teachers saw an opportunity for their Year 7 students to investigate climate change through authentic, active, environmental learning experiences. Even though well-established relationships with local Aboriginal elders and Knowledge holders already existed, it was critical to invite them into our teaching collegiate. Consequently, they became integral to the students’ outdoor learning experiences.

The authors all live and work on Gumbaynggirr Country located on the NSW Mid-North Coast, NSW. Mark Werner is a proud First Nations man from the Torres Strait, a Dauareb and member of the Ulag Clan, a clan of the Zagareb Tribe of Mer. He is also a Geography/History high school teacher.

Background

At Macksville High we were seeking to create a different type of learning environment, albeit on a shoestring budget. In order to better engage Year 7 students, we were compelled to try something new, and it turned out to be something that became a highly influential force in our teaching — the creation of a teaching and learning Year 7 ‘Hub’ [Mark Werner].

The Hub was a learning environment established to provide students with a smoother transition from local primary ‘feeder’ schools into high school. It was designed with the goal that a foundation year of focused interdisciplinary teaching and learning would support the academic success of students, and address some of the poor student learning habits we were noticing. Students coming into Year 7 are confronted with up to fifteen different teachers. This not only impacts on their sense of connectivity and engagement with the new learning environment of high school, but also on the teaching staff’s capacity to develop an understanding of each student’s strengths, capacities and inherent learning styles.

The Hub space was an open learning space (conjoined classrooms) housing up to fifty students, three teaching staff (English, Maths, Science and Geography/History), and one student learning support officer. Each lesson could be delivered to the whole group or, alternatively, a targeted skills intervention lesson could be taught on a rotation basis.

The Year 6 – Year 7 transition is often experienced by students as a difficult period, thus there was a significant focus on student wellbeing. For students being part of this core group provided them with the continuity and consistency lacking in the traditional Year 7 structure. The establishment and maintenance of consistent classroom expectations provided a foundation for improved learning outcomes within a safe and predictable place, more attuned to the students’ social and emotional needs. The teacher-student ratio afforded staff the space to develop stronger relationships with students, target their skills, identify curriculum overlap, and withdraw struggling students to a different space without disrupting the learning of their peers.

Improving our knowledge, understanding and agency about climate change is urgent. The rapid deterioration in Earth’s natural systems presents unprecedented challenges for teaching and learning that is capable of encompassing, and bringing meaning and immediacy to the scientific, the ecological, the social, the economic/political, the moral, the cultural and the ethical dimensions of climate change (Haraway, 2015). It is not surprising that in recent years climate change learning has been embedded into Australian school curricula. In Australia, climate change learning in schools must provide the scope across key learning areas for students to be able to acquire deep knowledge about the many dimensions of human-caused ecological change. Learning about climate change therefore has played an increasingly significant role in NSW school curricula.

A series of cross curricular, collaborative learning programs and resources was developed by teachers in the Hub prioritising learning about climate change, and, under this umbrella, teaching the themes of ‘identity’ and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and sciences. The environmental learning activities at the Park were designed to deepen students’ knowledge of climate change through authentic learning about water quality, biodiversity, ecological and technological processes in Dawkins Park Reserve.

Activities and resources were designed to promote engagement with the Australian cross curriculum priorities Sustainability and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures. Students learned about how our ecological landscape is shaped through natural and human-caused factors; the influences of this on animal behaviour patterns; how humans interact with ecosystems; and how these interactions may be achieved in a sustainable way. At Dawkins Park Reserve students were exposed to ‘real world’ hands-on activities such as collecting water ‘bugs’ as the students called them [microorganisms], identifying flora and fauna, observing bird migration patterns, testing the water, and using maps, photos and light microscopes to analyse their water samples.

Findings

The interconnectedness of fieldwork skills combined with a highly relevant case study at Dawkins Park Reserve engaged both students and teachers, and through this experience they developed the necessary knowledge to understand climate change at a deep level. But we were only able to examine climate change in any depth because of the Hub model. Previously there were very few interdisciplinary options and subjects were taught in silos.

Well established community relationships with local Aboriginal elders and local Knowledge holders also proved to be pivotal. Students learned about clan size and what the size of the group should be to sustain itself. They learned about sustainable lifestyles in the Indigenous context, how a typical day was broken up in the clan, and about structured lore/systems. They enjoyed the Gumbayngirr cultural narratives through stories, dance, song, and art.

Students participated in an ‘On Country’ cultural immersion field trip. This excursion was organised to support the unit of learning called ‘Identity’. During this experience students and staff were offered an alternative learning environment. This alternative learning environment shifted behaviour and attitudes of both students and staff. The logistics of the journey focused on ensuring Aboriginal perspectives from across their valley were well represented. The day started with a Welcome to Country in Bowraville, delivered by a local knowledge and language holder, who then shared the history and narrative of his town and community. The immersive experience continued as the students travelled to Nambucca Heads and were met by traditional owners, elders and knowledge holders who shared narratives, culture and experiences. A smoking ceremony and the re-creation of a local dreaming narrative (using the students as actors and participants) enriched the students and teacher understanding of local Aboriginal culture and identity. The final leg of the journey was to Scotts Head. Once again cultural protocols were observed, and students and teachers learnt more about the Gumbaynggirr creation narratives regarding the how the sea was created and how waves were made. This was followed by the playing of Traditional Indigenous Games on the beach and reflecting on the history, purpose and relevance of these activities

Teachers’ interest, enjoyment and excitement in teaching climate change were stimulated by these events. Commensurately there was an increase in their self-efficacy and confidence as their knowledge grew and their understandings and perceptions deepened. It was clear that the growth in these attributes was connected to their own learning about climate change at the park. Teacher A recounted their journey as follows:

I think at the beginning … I kind of had that attitude of ‘nah Climate change’ … I’d glaze over. But now I think I have a better understanding myself, and I think the enjoyment of teaching it, through the process that we followed … has improved my knowledge of climate change, as well as my enthusiasm for teaching it, and passing it onto the students, and encouraging them to do something [about it].

Teachers shared that at the Park they had been caught up in the same feelings of excitement and the fascination as the students when they were discovering new knowledge through for example, water sampling activities. And the growth in both teacher and student knowledge and enthusiasm had an entwined, spiraling effect, with each promoting the other. The teachers became co-inquirers with their students because they were also making deeper connections between the different scales of climate change. Teacher B said “I think the connections I was able to make within my own personal life, and how little things that I can do can make a big difference on a bigger picture, certainly grew.”

While the teacher’s learning design and programming benefitted, they also stated that they now found it easier to link teaching about climate change with the Australian Curriculum’s Sustainability priority area. Furthermore, they envisioned the Park becoming a ‘centrepiece’ for future learning about the impacts of climate change at the local level, as it offered great affordance in terms of teaching, learning and benchmarking about key concepts in geography such as place; space; environment; interconnection; scale; and change. Fieldwork is geography; it is at its very heart (Laws, 1984; Bliss, 2009). From Teacher C’s perspective, the experience “gave me more time to spend investigating on a local level, and a pathway to teach it through because sometimes you think, ‘how am I going to embed this into the program?’ but here, if it’s the centrepiece of the program, it’s really simple.”

The teachers related that teaching climate change through an Indigenous lens gave students the opportunity to hear about Aboriginal perspectives of pristine environments and no trace practises. The Aboriginal guides embedded language into their stories. Although the Park is not an Aboriginal sacred site as it is human built, there are many sites in the district and the area has strong links to Gumma, where fresh water supply and the Nambucca River link to the sea. Students looked at the variety of vegetation types available, and their traditional Gumbaynggirr names and purposes. Students were shown the Lomandra grasses used for weaving baskets, and were encouraged to speculate about what type of things these baskets might have carried. Teacher D explained:

We’ve tried to open up their understanding as to what Indigenous communities are about and different aspects of their lives and we’re certainly incorporating a little bit more of that to increase the understanding because for some of them they really had limited understanding of pre-European settlement in the area.

Students came to realise that there were many places around them, in their daily lives, that have stories. Student A shared: “Just knowing about it makes you feel more connected”, and another (Student B) said, “Stories make it easier to remember things.”

Teachers not only observed the stimulation of their students’ interest, passion, enjoyment and engagement in learning about climate change, they also noticed their students were reflecting far more deeply about their responsibilities in relation to it. The following observations were made in this respect:

There were a lot of light bulb moments, a lot of students not only learning the information, but then also getting a bit of a fire in their belly, really wanting to change, really wanting to make action, and asking questions like what can they do about it to change. they’re kind of at that age where they’re starting to understand the world isn’t perfect. And we’re kind of called, aren’t we, it’s all our responsibility to all do something about it for the future. (Teacher A)

I guess for my generation we kind of feel responsible for what’s happened, and these guys kind of inherit a lot of our shortcuts and kind of short-sightedness. Whereas you get some students who kind of straight away think, they just lay the blame, and see the dire consequences straight away. And then to get other students that kind of perk them up by saying, “How about this and for solutions? (Teacher B)

Students were excited about seeing things in ‘real life’ at the Park and teachers could see them getting ‘hooked in’ to their learning there. Teachers were not having to deal with behaviour issues because the setting catered for a wide variety of learners and all students were so engaged: “they really benefit … all of them … from experiential learning where they’re hands on. They’re measuring … they’re testing … they’re collecting, analysing and comparing … they’re really focused and on-task” (Teacher C). This reinforced for teachers how important it is for students to have place-based, authentic learning experiences and to “try and get the kids out of the classroom and give them those real-life experiences as much as we can” (Teacher D). When they returned to classroom learning the teachers noticed a real enthusiasm borne from what they had done at the Park. Students were motivated to venture hypotheses, do their own research, and give class presentations on what they had found out.

In their discussions with researchers before they went to the Park, students used terms such as ‘nervous’, ‘devastated’ ‘not confident’ to describe their thinking about climate change. Teachers observed that as a result of the activities their students demonstrated a greater confidence and a richer vocabulary when postulating connections between the local and the global in relation to climate change. They related that through being at the Park students were able to link their learning about climate change to a place with which they were familiar and in so doing enriching their knowledge and understanding. As Teacher A explained, “having something to pin it on”, and Teacher B observed “We’re having conversations with the students where they wouldn’t have made the links previously … floods in West Germany, record temperatures in Europe”; and another:“… for them to get an understanding about the relationship between fossil fuels and carbon emissions…It was kind of like just opening the door for a lot of them. They really hadn’t thought about it before, even though they’ve heard some of the phrases and things like that. But for them to get an understanding of the causes and the links, and also some of the possible solutions”.

According to Teacher D, the conversations they were having with their students and what they did at the park had opened up their thinking to beyond their ‘small world’ to “what’s happening around them and how that impacts everybody else in the world”. Moreover, Teacher B observed that the program had encouraged students to have bigger thoughts beyond themselves, to “go deeper … and tie a lot of things in with climate change.”

Reflection

It not surprising that in recent years learning about climate change has played an increasingly significant role in NSW school curriculum. There are now frequent mentions of the term climate change, with Sustainability framing the entire curriculum as one of the three Australian curriculum priority areas. Nevertheless, such curriculum elements represent relatively new and emerging fields of study in both primary and secondary curricula, and teachers have had had to quickly ‘come on board’ with teaching them across all curriculum areas, as they are no longer just located within the traditional domains of geography and science. The students perceived the potential for cross curricula learning about climate change emanating from their experiences at the Park. They expressed a desire to see more art, mathematics, and writing, in addition to geography and science, associated with their activities there.

Through professional channels many teachers have anecdotally reported a lack of confidence in teaching climate change despite the many excellent professional development opportunities and resources that have been created for teachers. The problem has been that the majority of these are text-based and designed to be delivered in a classroom setting – either in digital or paper-based format. This has led to a focus on ‘climate science’ and environmental ‘issues’ (Loughland, Reid, and Petocz, 2010) privileging knowing facts about climate change over more experiential, sensory engagements inhibiting the creation of deep knowledge which, as Jensen and Ross argue, is so vitally important underpinning “all educational skills we value…knowledge begets knowledge”, (2022, p. 23). The experiences of teachers and students at Dawkins Park most certainly aided the development of deeper content knowledge about climate change.

Students related that they loved learning outside the classroom, that they felt more focused and “a bit more free” (Student B). Paradoxically, they felt “less distracted… if that makes sense” (Student C). They enjoyed learning through their senses – listening; seeing; touching and feeling; and smelling – and in so doing they felt more connected to the environment. They were more able to make connections between the local and the global manifestations of climate change; the interactions between plants and animals and the seasonal influences relating to climate change. Teachers observed students to be more curious, interested, engaged and both student and teacher appreciation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural, language and scientific knowledge increased. Teacher feelings about self-efficacy in teaching climate change also improved.

As others have experienced in similar, recent programs (Burgess & Thorpe, 2024; Spillman et al., 2022), we found that well established community relationships with local Aboriginal elders were vital to the success of the program. The students thoroughly enjoyed the telling of Gumbayngirr stories by the Aboriginal knowledge holders. Through embedding an Aboriginal voice in the activities, students’ cultural awareness and engagement with holistic, spiritually-based connections to Country were enhanced. Story telling involves feelings and emotions, and helps young people to follow a series of events through a story’s structure, and to understand choices people have made in the past and the consequences of those choices (Seefeldt, Castle & Falconer, 2014, p. 232).

The Hub enabled the Year 7 student cohort to be taught as an entity, as opposed to separate classes, by a core group of teachers enabling a significant focus on student wellbeing. Students were provided with continuity and consistency during what is often experienced as a difficult transition from primary to secondary school. The synergy generated through the combined efforts of highly trained professionals created momentum and enthusiasm within the learning environment. The collaboration facilitated an even deeper mutual regard for colleagues’ professionalism, their discipline and content-specific knowledge. Sharing a teaching space between colleagues and freely exchanging ideas and feedback empowered and invigorated teaching.

Conclusion

It is imperative that our students are climate change literate. This involves understanding how our ecological landscape is shaped through both natural and human-caused factors; the ways in which water is integral to the survival of all living things; how this influences animal behaviour patterns; how humans interact with ecosystems, and how these interactions may be achieved in an environmentally sustainable way.

It was obvious to us as teachers that students were developing understandings about climate change at a deep level. As clearly beneficial as it was to take the students to this rich environmental and cultural learning setting, we were only able to examine climate change to the depth we did because of the added affordances that the Hub model offered for enriching teaching and learning. That we managed to interconnect learning about climate change with fieldwork attached to a highly relevant case study at Dawkins Park Reserve which clearly engaged the students was achieved in large part because of the Hub. Learning stations have been created at the Park for future outdoor environmental education activities, and their continued use will augment students’ understandings about climate change vulnerabilities, risks and adaptation responses.

Just as swimmers and surfers must react to the sudden formation of an ocean rip, it is imperative in teaching to change what is not working. When you change your perspective on historical, entrenched challenges in education you can deliver enhanced student engagement and success. Macksville High School in rural NSW had the courage and conviction to embrace remodelling education delivery to its newest students when it literally flung open the school gates to a world of possibilities.

Postscript

Although the ‘physical’ Hub no longer exists, relational links between the participating teachers remain strong, and the possibility still exists for cross curriculum project-based learning because of these links. Ironically, external factors associated with climate change conspired to erode teacher motivation around its continuance. These included COVID-19 and the accompanying lockdowns and extended periods of learning from home, teacher shortages and time constraints largely borne out of the COVID-19 driven workforce-wide impacts, and prolonged flooding in the region causing major disruptions to everyday life. Possible areas of future focus are teaching space redesign, classroom furniture, and redistribution of students into subject-specific skill rotation groups that coalesce around social interactions, friendship cohorts and abilities.

References

Bliss, S. (2009). Fieldwork: The heart of geography. Geography Bulletin, 41(1), 7-11. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/aeipt.183894

Burgess, C., & Thorpe, K. (2024). How teachers can use the Learning from Country framework to build an Aboriginal curriculum narrative for students. Journal of Professional Learning. NSW Teachers Federation.

Jensen, B., & Ross, M. (2022, September 23). One million left behind. The Australian. https://www.theaustralian.com.au/

Laws, K. (1984). Learning geography through fieldwork. In J.Fein (Ed.), The Geography teacher’s guide to the classroom (pp. 134-145). MacMillan.

Loughland, T., Reid., & Petocz, P. (2010). Young people’s conceptions of the environment: A phenomenographic analysis, Environmental Education Research, 8(2), 187-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620220128248

Seefeldt, C., Castile, S., & Falconer, R. (2014). Social Studies for the preschool/primary child. Pearson.

Spillman, D., Wilson, B., Nixon, M., & McKinnin, K. (2023). ‘New Localism’ in Australian Schools: Country as Teacher as a critical pedagogy of place. Curriculum Pedagogies. 43, 103-114

Taylor, A. (2013). Reconfiguring the natures of childhood. Routledge.

Turner, A., & Wilks, J. (2022) Whose voices? Whose knowledge? Children and young people’s learning about climate change through local spaces and indigenous knowledge systems, Children’s Geographies. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2022.2139591

Wilks, J., Turner, A., & Shipway, B. (2020). The risky socioecological learner. In A. Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles., A. Lasczik., J. Wilks., M. Logan., A. Turner, A., & W. Boyd, (Eds.), Touchstones for deterritorializing socioecologcial learning: The anthropocene, posthumanism and common worlds as creative milieux (pp. 75-99). Palgrave Macmillan.

About the Authors

Mark Werner

Mark is Daureb and part of the Ulag Clan which is a clan of the Zagareb Tribe of Mer in the Torres Strait. He is a secondary trained teacher and holds a Masters in Indigenous Languages. He lives and works on the Mid North Coast of NSW. He is passionate about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education, the environment and creating On Country immersive learning experiences.

Dr Judith Wilks OAM

Is Adjunct Associate Professor at Southern Cross University, Faculty of Education, and also Adjunct Associate Professor, Nulungu Research Institute of the University of Notre Dame Australia. She is an experienced educator with a significant research, teaching and community engagement track record in regional education services delivery in both the higher education and schooling sectors. In 2023 Judith was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for Services to Education. Her research interests and publications stretch across a number of fields. These include the promotion of agency, resilience, and citizenship skills through participatory methodologies for children and young people in environmental education learning settings. Judith has also been an active member of national research collaboration (Nulungu Research Institute) that has sought to promote access, participation and success in higher education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. In recent years she has undertaken considerable research work in the Western Kimberley region focusing on strengthening the learning experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander higher education students living in remote locations.

Dr Angela Turner

Dr Angela Turner has 22 years higher education teaching experience. She holds a Bachelor of Education Technologies (Hons) and a PhD in Food Technology education. Angela has been recognised for integrating the domains of teaching and research through a Southern Cross University Vice Chancellor’s Teaching Citation (2018); School of Education Recognition Award (2018); Australian College of Educators Award (2017). Her research projects have received competitive grant success over the years for actively forming university-school community engagement with rural primary and secondary school communities that have advanced teaching, learning and assessment in the classroom as an ongoing educational enterprise. She is currently an Adjunct Senior Lecturer/Researcher at Southern Cross University and a curriculum advisor for the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) curriculum reform for Technological and Applied Studies 7-10.

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The Significance of Graduations

Melissa O’Meara looks at nurturing the learner psyche, strengthening family bonds, and shaping the affective domain in non-traditional learning environments…

High school graduations are pivotal milestones in an individual’s educational journey, wielding profound influence on the learner’s psyche, family dynamics, and the affective learning domain. This impact is particularly pronounced in cases where the learning journey has been non-linear, involving unconventional paths and challenges. Additionally, the significance of high school graduations extends to non-traditional learning environments, such as high school equivalency programs, where the achievement of graduation holds even greater importance. I will explore the importance of high school graduations, with a specific focus on non-traditional learning environments, drawing connections between the learner psyche, family dynamics, and the affective domain.

High school graduation serves as a transformative event that significantly shapes the learner’s psyche. In the context of a traditional learning journey, the achievement of this milestone represents the culmination of years of academic growth and personal development. Erikson’s psychosocial theory (Cherry, 2023) highlights the importance of successfully navigating the developmental task of identity versus role confusion during the adolescent years, and high school graduation serves as a critical marker in this process.

For learners in non-traditional learning environments (such as TAFE NSW’s high school equivalency programs), where the path to graduation may be non-linear, the psychological impact is even more pronounced. The learner’s psyche becomes intricately connected to the process of overcoming challenges, showcasing resilience, and achieving academic success. This achievement not only validates the learner’s intellectual capabilities but also instils a sense of pride and accomplishment that can positively shape their self-identity. Non-traditional learning environments, specifically TAFE NSW high school equivalency programs, cater to individuals whose educational journeys have often taken unconventional paths.

TAFE NSW, as the public provider, serves learners who face various challenges, such as academic setbacks, personal responsibilities, disability or the need for flexible learning options. A raft of research suggests that such disadvantage is often compounded by social structures of power further minimising an individual’s ability to achieve in a mainstream learning environment. Therefore, high school graduations hold unique significance in the TAFE NSW environment, symbolising triumph over adversity and resilience in the face of challenge.

The attainment of high school graduation is not solely an individual triumph, but also a shared victory within the family unit. In traditional learning environments, families play a crucial role in supporting learners, and the celebration of high school graduation becomes a testament to the collective efforts and sacrifices made. In non-linear learning journeys, families often face additional challenges, and the achievement of graduation becomes an even more significant source of pride. Moreover, family dynamics are intimately tied to the affective domain. High school graduations, particularly in non-traditional learning environments, strengthen familial bonds by providing a shared sense of accomplishment. The affective domain within the family unit is enriched through the collective emotions of pride, joy, and resilience. The celebratory nature of graduation ceremonies fosters a positive emotional connection among family members, contributing to a supportive environment that recognises and values the learner’s unique journey.

Graduations also have deep intergenerational impacts, shaping not only the graduate’s life, but that of their family and subsequently their communities. According to Sahirah and Mohd (2024) educational attainment often sets a precedent for future generations. Further, they found that a student’s academic performance was directly influenced by a mother’s educational accomplishments, with following generations viewing this as something attainable and tangible for themselves. It is not unreasonable to conclude then that this leads to the breaking of systemic access and equity issues and improves socio-economic status and opportunities for the family. It also benefits the communities in which they live, as graduates have higher levels of community engagement, are more likely to take on community leadership, mentorship and role modelling, thereby contributing to societal improvements as their credibility, due to having qualifications, lifts. There are further societal and generational effects, as education is linked to increased positive health outcomes, an increased ability to access healthcare and an increased capacity to adopt healthier lifestyles. This is in conjunction with a shift in social and cultural values due to an increase in critical thinking and the adoption of new principles that are aligned to diversity, inclusion and a challenge to community norms.

Research by Reed et al (2012) emphasises the importance of recognising the diverse needs of learners in non-traditional settings. High school equivalency programs, designed to provide an alternative pathway to graduation, acknowledge the complexities of learners’ lives and offer tailored approaches to education. The achievement of graduation in these environments becomes a symbol of empowerment, demonstrating that individuals can successfully navigate non-linear paths and attain academic success despite challenges. In the TAFE environment, the affective domain plays a central role in the educational experience. High school equivalency programs often cater to adult learners, and the affective domain becomes a key factor in shaping their attitudes, motivations, and emotional connections to education. The achievement of high school graduation in these settings can have a profound impact on learners’ perceptions of themselves and their lifelong educational journey.

Learners in high school equivalency programs often harbour a range of emotions, including anxiety, self-doubt (imposter syndrome), and a desire for self-improvement. If the current trends around school refusal and childhood and adolescent mental health continue, neurodiversity will be a huge driver of students to the TAFE NSW learning environment, as students fail to thrive in the mainstream ecosystem (evidence of an overworked, underfunded, and under-resourced learning environment and not a failure of teachers). Given this range of emotions, and current learner trends, there is a clear link that graduation serves as a catalyst for positive emotional experiences, contributing to a more favourable attitude toward education and the creation of lifelong learners.

Moore and Anderson (2003) emphasise the importance of recognising and addressing the affective needs of learners to enhance educational outcomes and, thereby, meeting TAFE NSW’s core value of creating lifelong learners. Graduations in non-traditional learning environments also influence learners’ motivations. The accomplishment becomes a source of intrinsic motivation, inspiring individuals to pursue further educational and career goals. The affective domain, in this context, becomes a driving force behind continued learning and personal development.

High school graduations wield profound importance for learners, their families, and the affective domain, particularly in the context of non-traditional learning environments. The achievement of graduation shapes the learner’s psyche, providing a sense of pride, persistence and resilience in the face of challenges. Family dynamics are enriched through shared victories, characterised by a supportive learning environment and are often symbolic of a student’s first experience of educational success. Improvements within the affective domain, which is intrinsically connected to attitudes and motivations, foster a lifelong love for learning. Recognising the increased significance of high school graduations in non-traditional settings like TAFE NSW and a consistent approach to such – as opposed to shooting a student out of a funding system – is crucial for promoting inclusivity and acknowledging the diverse pathways individuals take to achieve educational success.

References

Cherry, K. (2023) Identity vs. Role Confusion in Psychosocial Development, Verywell Mind. Available at: https://www.verywellmind.com/identity-versus-confusion-2795735 (Accessed: 07 December 2023).
Michael Grahame Moore and Anderson, W.G. (2003). Handbook of Distance Education. Routledge.
Reed, D et al. (2012) An Effectiveness Assessment and Cost-Benefit Analysis of Registered Apprenticeship in 10 States. Available at: https://www.doi.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ETA/publications/ETAOP_2012_10.pdf (Accessed: 07 December 2023).
Sahirah Ag Isha, D. N., & Rahaya Mohd, H. S. (2024, March 7). Determinants of students’ academic performance among undergraduate students in Universiti Malaysia Sabah: A structural equation modelling approach. The 6th ISM International Statistical Conference 2023, 3123(1). https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0192226
Walsh, F. (2003). Family Resilience: A Framework for Clinical Practice. Family Process, 42(1), pp.1–18. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1545-5300.2003.00001.x.

About the Author

Melissa O’Meara is a teacher at TAFE NSW. Her specialities include neurodiversity and LLND. The youngest daughter of migrants, Melissa came to teaching late in life after finishing her first degree in 2018. Prior to this Melissa spent nearly 20 years as a qualified financial planner and bank manager.

Melissa is currently the Women’s Contact for TAFE Teachers Association as well as a member of the Teacher Workload Committee. Melissa is proud to teach, learn and live on Ngambri, Ngunnawal and Gundungurra country. She predominately teaches on the high school equivalency programs at Goulburn TAFE Campus, as well as the occasional specialist program.

Melissa has been active in the NSW Teachers Federation since joining the teaching profession and credits her sanity to activism and the collegiately, compassion and collaboration that it brings to her teaching practice.

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Music Education: Right from the Start

Anita Collins delves into her area of expertise – neuro musical research – and gives an explanation as to why quality musical education for all students is an essential part of their academic development …

The teaching value of music education

For primary teachers, music education is just one subject area on a long list of subjects that must be fitted into the timetable, effectively taught and appropriately assessed. However, for the majority of primary teachers, teaching music can be a very daunting task.

Why is it daunting? The overwhelming reason that I hear from primary teachers in NSW sounds something like this: “I’m not musical” or “I can’t sing”. These reasons are not about the curriculum, the need for equipment or the need for teaching resources. These reasons are centred on the primary teacher’s confidence and competency to make music themselves.

This is nothing to be ashamed of or embarrassed about. This is something that needs to be addressed promptly, for both NSW students and NSW teachers. We need to make sure that every NSW teacher feels confident to teach music in their classrooms and has the necessary personal and professional skills and knowledge to do so.

Importantly, this step will lead to teachers feeling a greater sense of efficacy in their everyday work. More than this, research has shown it will also lead to improvements for students in their ability to learn, their general wellbeing, self-regulation skills and sense of safety, and capacity to engage in learning. Teaching music in the classroom is not just teaching students how to sing in tune and read the notes on the board, it is about teaching HOW to learn.

Teaching students how to learn

There is a field of research that lives predominantly in the neuroscience area called neuromusical research. This field used music listening and music learning to understand how the human brain grows and learns. In the mid-1990s, researchers using then new technology that could monitor brain functioning in real time somewhat accidently discovered that listening to music engaged more parts of the brain simultaneously than any other activity.

In the early 2000s, neuroscientists used music listening as a way to understand how the human brain processed all information; made, sorted and retrieved memories, and how the brain healed itself after traumatic injury(Peretz & Zatorre, 2003) [i]. Music was a vital tool in this process as it showed that the auditory processing network processed all sounds for their musical qualities, and our auditory processing network is our largest information gathering sense.

In the late 2010s, the same researchers began to look at children between the ages of 6-12 years who had learned music. Why did they focus on this group of students? The reason was that musically trained students seemed to have brains that learned faster, were more consistently reliable, had greater connectivity and brain density, and displayed greater synchronisation (Hallam & Himonides, 2022). [ii]. This final aspect was possibly the most important one for teachers to understand – students who have brains that exhibit higher levels of synchronisation take less time to incorporate new knowledge, are better at problem solving, can maintain their attention for longer, and can manage frustration in their learning far more effectively (Miendlarzewska & Trost 2014 p279)[iii].

The obvious question arose, was it just the more able and high-performing students who were attracted to music learning; those you might expect to be exhibiting the higher levels of brain function? In short, was it the smarter students who happened to be learning music who were the ones being researched? The answer was no. Randomised control studies were conducted using music learning as the experiment, and improvements in brain structures and functions were observed in all students (Martin-Requejo et al, 2024 pp1 -15)[iv].

The neuromusical research is about to move into its third decade, and the findings have been replicated and rigorously examined. The consensus is that music learning has a small to moderate effect on a student’s ability to learn effectively( Guhn et al,2020 p308.)[v]; it can mediate disadvantage and trauma (Hille & Schupp, 2015)[vi], and can significantly support learners with ASD (Sharda et al, 2018 p231) [vii], ADHD (Puyjarinet et al , 2017 p11550 )[viii] and Dyslexia ( Hornickel & Kraus, 2013 pp3500 -3504)[ix].

It follows that, with this new neuroscientific research pointing to music education as both an enhancement and intervention tool for all students, shouldn’t we be ensuring that every NSW student is receiving a quality, ongoing and sequential music education? Such a focus could have the potential to improve literacy and numeracy levels, help teachers to manage complex learning needs in their classroom, and – possibly the most deeply needed improvement – to make the act of teaching easier, more enjoyable and even more fulfilling.

What is happening with music education in NSW?

The answer is many things are happening in NSW.

In June 2024, the NSW parliamentary Joint Select Committee into Arts and Music Education and Training was established and calls for submissions were made. The Committee is specifically inquiring into the quality and effectiveness of music education and training.

In July 2024, just as the new Creative Arts Syllabus hit the stands, the first public hearing was conducted with key education, music industry, music providers and philanthropic experts appearing before the Committee. A second hearing was held in late August. On 29 November 2024, the Committee is due to release its final report into the current state and future needs of music education in NSW government schools.

The results from this Inquiry will be important for every NSW teacher who has ever thought or said, “I’m not musical” or “I can’t sing”. This Inquiry could prove to be a game-changer: recognising that primary schooling should be much more than numeracy and literacy rankings; actively encouraging and providing tailored, substantial support for classroom teachers; enhanced opportunities for specialist music educators; classroom resources, and improved facilities.

We know that every primary teacher can be supported to bring quality music education to their students with all the benefits that this offers.

The Inquiry is one significant development, delivering the baseline knowledge to inform change is another. And where better to go for this information than to go direct to those in the know: primary teachers themselves.

The Music Education: Right from the Start initiative, in collaboration with the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and the NSW Department of Education, ran the NSW Primary Teachers Survey. This survey resulted in a statewide picture of the current state and future needs of NSW teachers in the area of music education. The results from this survey are in the process of being publicly released. The aim is to support the NSW Department of Education and school principals to get a better handle on your experience and circumstances for the express purpose of better supporting you in the classroom.

This survey was not for the shelf; it was an opportunity to inform change. It was released into NSW schools during Term 3 2024, and as a NSW primary teacher, you might have seen a request from your school principals to complete the survey. The survey took less than 20 minutes and could have been your contribution to improving not only music education in NSW, but also the use of a tool to improve an enormous number of issues that teachers face every time they enter their classroom.

It is hard to think of a time when you had the Parliament, the government, the department, Teachers Federation, industry, researchers, educators, organisations like ours and those we work with all in sync on the value of a quality, sequential and ongoing music education – and willing to look at what it’s going to take to deliver on the promise. It’s early days, but it’s a pretty good start.

About the author

Dr. Anita Collins is an acclaimed educator, researcher, and writer renowned for her groundbreaking work in the intersection of brain development and music education. She is the creative force behind Bigger Better Brains, an initiative aimed at bridging the gap between neuroscience and practical music education globally.

Recognized for her leadership as the inaugural Creative Chair of Learning & Engagement at the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Anita drives innovative educational programs and was instrumental in the acclaimed “Don’t Stop the Music” documentary.

Through her influential writings and advocacy, including the seminal book “The Music Advantage,” Anita continues to shape music education policy and practice, ensuring its integration from the grassroots to national strategy levels.

Endnotes

i. Guhn, M., Emerson, S. D., & Gouzouasis, P. (2020). A population-level analysis of associations between school music participation and academic achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 112(2),

ii. Hallam, S., & Himonides, E. (2022). The power of music: An exploration of the evidence. Open Book Publishers.

iii. Hille, A., & Schupp, J. (2015). How learning a musical instrument affects the development of skills. Economics of Education Review, 44.

iv. Hornickel, J., & Kraus, N. (2013). Unstable representation of sound: a biological marker of dyslexia. Journal of Neuroscience, 33(8),

v. Martin-Requejo, K., González-Andrade, A., Álvarez-Bardón, A., & Santiago-Ramajo, S. (2024). Mediation of study habits and techniques between music training and academic achievement in children. European Journal of Psychology of Education

vi. Miendlarzewska, E. A., & Trost, W. J. (2014). How musical training affects cognitive development: rhythm, reward and other modulating variables. Frontiers in neuroscience, 7

vii. Peretz, I., & Zatorre, R. J. (Eds.). (2003). The cognitive neuroscience of music. OUP Oxford.

viii. Puyjarinet, F., Bégel, V., Lopez, R., Dellacherie, D., & Dalla Bella, S. (2017). Children and adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder cannot move to the beat. Scientific Reports, 7(1)

ix. Sharda, M., Tuerk, C., Chowdhury, R., Jamey, K., Foster, N., Custo-Blanch, M., … & Hyde, K. (2018). Music improves social communication and auditory–motor connectivity in children with autism. Translational psychiatry, 8(1)

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‘Evidence-based teaching’ – the term is everywhere at the moment.

Misty Adoniou explains why evidence based learning is not a new phenomenon. It has always been a part of a teacher’s pedagogy and is used in every classroom every day…

The Federal government committed $34.6 million in the 2024 Budget ‘to make evidence-based curriculum and student wellbeing support and professional development materials. In July NSW launched a ‘revamped’ curriculum that is ‘clear, evidence-based and carefully sequenced’. (NSW Government, 2024)

Who can argue? We all want our children taught by methods that have evidence behind them. Yet these political pronouncements, and the accompanying media frenzy, seem to imply that up until now this has not been the case.

But of course, our children have always been taught through evidence-based methods. All teacher education degrees are evidence-based. Departments of Education have always used evidence to develop curricula and provide professional learning for teachers.

Teacher Education has been an academic discipline for over a century. That is about 50 years longer than Macroeconomics, 60 years longer than Cognitive Psychology and 75 years longer than Media Studies.

To be a member of the ‘academy’, the field of Teacher Education fulfils the requirements of being a science. This means conducting studies under defined conditions to ensure validity, reliability and accuracy, and submitting those studies for peer review to have them questioned, clarified, rejected or accepted. This is how knowledge is built in the sciences – including in Teacher Education which has about 130 years of this scientific knowledge building behind it.

The NSW and Federal governments have both declared initiatives to make curricula ‘evidence-based’. Yet, the national Australian Curriculum we have today, and which is taught in some form or other in every Australian school, including NSW, drew on a huge evidence base from domestic and international studies, and several years of research consultations with academics and educators before it was finally released in 2011. It has undergone many reviews since then, making changes in response to new evidence from research studies in curriculum, teaching and learning. The latest review was in 2021, and we are now at Version 9 of our national curriculum. We have always had evidence-based curricula – it has always been the task of the various federal, state and territory curriculum authorities to ensure this.

Victoria’s Education Minister announced in June 2024 that his Department will mandate ‘evidence-based teaching and learning’ from 2025.

Victoria has always provided evidence-based teaching and learning guidance for its teachers, most recently in 2018 with its ten High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS) highlighting clear goals, structured lessons and explicit teaching as its top 3 strategies. These were developed from researcher John Hattie’s evidence base gathered in his synthesis of 800 meta-analyses of research studies on school achievement.

So if we have always used evidence-based practices and curricula in schools, what are these most recent pronouncements about?

Why give this public impression that our teacher education faculties, education departments, school leaders, and teachers have been operating for decades on a whim, rather than on the evidence?

Why? Because ‘Evidence-based teaching’ is actually being used as shorthand for ‘the approach I favour’ or ‘the approach that worked for someone I know’, or even ‘the approach I have a vested interest in’.

And too many of those advocating for these ‘evidence-based practices’ either misunderstand, or deliberately misrepresent what evidence is.

This is what evidence is NOT.

Evidence is NOT proof.

Evidence is NOT static or absolute.

Evidence is NOT neutral.

Evidence IS contextual.

Evidence IS open to interpretation.

Evidence is not neutral. Studies are designed to gather evidence within a theoretical paradigm. Both the goals and the methods of the study are informed by a theory. If the informing theory of learning is behaviourist, where learning is deemed cognitive and moderated by repetition and reward, the research study will look for different evidence than a study situated within a social constructivist theory, where learning is deemed social and moderated by interactions with expert others in the pursuit of meaning.

Evidence is contextual. Each research study context has multiple variables: historical context, socio-economic context, cultural context, situational context, the number, age, gender, social and economic status, the cognitive and emotional wellbeing of the participants. Evidence gathered in one context is not proof similar evidence will be generated in another context.

Indeed the contextual variability of classrooms is a nightmare for clinical scientists, whose methods are highly dependent upon controlling variables. It is impossible to recreate classroom conditions in a lab. And even when studies are conducted in classrooms, it is impossible to control the variables and replicate the conditions from one classroom to another.

However we have always known this challenge. Researchers reviewing data sets or conducting clinical experiments are not the only people gathering evidence to inform teaching practice. Teachers gather evidence every hour, every day, in every classroom in Australia. Teachers are scientists.

It is why teacher education institutions train teachers in the scientific method. Over their 4 year degree, primary school teachers are taught how to conduct their own studies, gathering evidence from their own classrooms to build robust evidence-based practices that work in their contexts for their students. They plan and record these studies in a document called a lesson plan – the equivalent of a lab report – for every lesson they conduct.

The lesson plan starts with a learning goal – or hypothesis – which describes the learning that will occur in the lesson. These goals come directly from the government mandated evidence-based curricula.

The plan then states how achievement against the goal will be measured e.g. through observation, collection of work samples, interviews, testing etc

Materials and resources required to achieve the learning goal are listed.

Conditions for the learning are described with time allocations, and organisational structures for the lesson. E.g. in pairs, whole class, self-assigned groups, teacher-assigned groups and how much time will be allocated to each task

The plan describes how the teaching will deal with known variables. E.g. audio support for learning impaired student, supplemental written and visual instructions on task cards for student with autism etc

A method is given – a sequential and detailed account of what will occur during the lesson to achieve the learning goal. The method is shaped by the informing theory for the lesson.

An assessment is conducted of the students’ achievements against the learning goal and the results recorded.

Finally an evaluation occurs – a discussion of the results. Was the learning goal achieved – by whom? Why did it work or not work? Were there limitations? What adjustments need to be made for the next lesson?

Teachers conduct this scientific gathering of evidence with every planned lesson they teach, as many as 6 per day. Teachers spend all day every day building evidence-based teaching practices. Yet their voices, and their findings are strangely absent from these most recent and most earnest evidence-based directives from government.

Every time an educator hears the term ‘evidence-based’ practice it is incumbent upon the educational scientist within each of us to ask:

Evidence of what?

Why was it generated – what question were they seeking to answer?

How was the evidence gathered – what was the informing theory?

Where was it generated?

When was it generated?

Who were the study participants?

This allows us to firstly decide whether it is a practice we need to trial in our own context – is it solving a problem that we have, and secondly understand its limitations due to contextual differences and the possible need to make adjustments to its implementation.

For example, let’s say the proposed practice or program has evidence it improves decoding skills in 6 year old monolingual urban students with language delays.

A target school’s testing shows their 6 year olds have good decoding skills but their 10 year olds have poor comprehension skills. Thus there would be no reason for the school to trial the proposed evidence-based practice as it does not address their issue.

Another target school in a low SES regional area has 6 year old multilingual students with poor decoding skills. The school may trial the practice but make adjustments for the fact that the evidence base is for a student cohort in a different location and with different language needs.

If the practice is shown to also be effective for their cohort they should report the results to their peers so the entire education community can learn from their study. Equally, if it is found to be ineffective for their cohort, they should drop the trial, and report the results. They should not continue blindly with an evidence-based practice which is ineffective in their context or irrelevant to their needs simply because it has been ‘mandated’.

This is actually what evidence-based practice means. Trialling evidence-based research in your own teaching context, seeing whether it works and being agile and informed enough to adjust the practice, or reject it, when it isn’t working.

We can only hope that our Education Ministers have understood this. Their words and actions so far suggest they haven’t.

References

NSW Government Media release (July 24, 2024) Landmark new primary school curriculum to drive better education outcomes

https://www.nsw.gov.au/media-releases/landmark-new-primary-school-curriculum-to-drive-better-education-outcomes#:~:text=The%20Minns%20Labor%20Government%20is,receive%20the%20best%20education%20possible.

Premier of Victoria media release (June 2024)Making Best Practice Common Practice In The Education State

https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/making-best-practice-common-practice-education-state

About the author

Misty Adoniou is an Adjunct Associate Professor in Language, Literacy and TESOL at the University of Canberra, and a Principal Fellow at Melbourne Graduate School of Education. She has received numerous teaching awards, including a National Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning and the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence.

She was a lead writer for the national English as an Additional Language Teachers Resource which accompanies the Australian Curriculum. She was a contributing writer for ACARA’s Language Learning Progressions. She also wrote the Federal government’s Orientation curriculum for newly arrived adult refugees.

She believes in the advocacy power of professional voices and the importance of professional associations in corralling that strength. She has served as the President of two national teachers associations – TESOL Greece, and the Australian Council of TESOL Associations. She is currently on the board of Directors of TESOL International, an affiliation of 105 teachers associations around the globe.

She currently works directly with schools, overseas and around Australia, leading professional learning in the teaching of spelling, grammar and writing.

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Achieving excellence and equity in Australian schools

Professor Jenny Gore shares the history of the use of Quality Teaching Rounds in NSW public schools and explores the positive impact of the approach on student outcomes . . .

Lost in the growing call in NSW for a “back-to-basics” approach to curriculum, teaching and learning is recognition of the complex, intellectual work teachers do in every lesson to ensure relevant, meaningful, and powerful learning experiences. More than ever, in the face of growing classroom complexity, burgeoning workloads, budget constraints, high stress and burnout, the realities of teachers’ work should be recognised.

Our research on Quality Teaching Rounds professional development provides such recognition. It supports teachers by building morale, efficacy, and collegiality while simultaneously improving the quality of teaching and lifting student academic achievement.

The Quality Teaching approach

More than 20 years ago, Associate Professor James Ladwig and I were commissioned by the NSW Department of Education to develop an evidence-based pedagogical framework to improve teaching quality across the state. Drawing on a wide body of research and hundreds of hours of lesson observations, the Quality Teaching (QT) Model was born (Ladwig & King, 2003). The Model addresses three key ideas:

Intellectual Quality: Developing deep understanding of important knowledge
Quality Learning Environment: Ensuring positive classrooms that boost student learning
Significance: Connecting learning to students’ lives and the wider world

Under these dimensions sit 18 elements based on evidence of teaching practice that improves student outcomes. Launched in 2003, the QT Model has been the Department’s framework for teaching since. But creating a framework is never enough to change practice and impact teachers and students. We needed a powerful way to support teachers to embed the Model in their everyday work.

A series of research studies between 2009 and 2012 developed and refined the approach to professional development we call Quality Teaching Rounds, or QTR (Bowe & Gore, 2017). QTR brings teachers together to learn from each other and improve their practice. Any four teachers form a professional learning community (face-to-face or online) and then observe, analyse and discuss one another’s lessons using the QT Model across four days of professional learning.

QTR treats teachers as professionals and builds on what they already know and do. Importantly, it doesn’t dictate particular teaching methods but focuses attention on improving pedagogy to make a difference where it matters most – ensuring high quality student learning experiences.

Improving the quality of teaching

In 2014–15, with funding from the NSW Department of Education, we undertook the first randomised controlled trial on QTR. This trial set out to investigate the impact of QTR on the quality of teaching, teacher morale, and sense of recognition and appraisal. The trial, which involved 192 teachers from 24 NSW government schools, found significant positive effects on teaching quality for primary and secondary teachers, those in metropolitan and rural locations, regardless of their years of experience. Importantly, these effects were sustained six months later (Gore et al., 2017).

We also found participation in QTR had significant positive effects on teacher morale and sense of recognition and appraisal, and our qualitative data showed it improved collaboration among teachers, boosted beginning teacher confidence, and rejuvenated experienced teachers (Gore & Bowe, 2015; Gore & Rickards, 2021).

Our theory of change was supported by these findings. Improve the quality of teaching to improve student learning. But we needed to test the causal link between QTR and student achievement.

Funded by a $17.2M philanthropic grant from the Paul Ramsay Foundation, the Building Capacity for Quality Teaching in Australian Schools, 2018–2023, remains unprecedented in the Australian education research landscape for its investment, scope, and ambition. The project also received funding and support from the NSW Department of Education, the Australian Research Council, and the University of Newcastle.

Through three interrelated activities – research, scaling, and setting up a sustainable business model – we set out to comprehensively explore what QTR could do for schooling in Australia (Gore et al., 2023).

Australia’s largest education randomised controlled trial

Between 2019 and 2023 we conducted a series of randomised controlled trials to investigate the impact of QTR on student and teacher outcomes in a range of contexts. These trials are the “gold standard” for research because voluntary participants are randomly allocated to either “intervention” (in our case QTR) or “control” (PD as usual) groups.

Randomised controlled trials are common in medicine. But they are much rarer in education because they typically involve “clustered” groups (students within classes within schools) and, therefore, require really large samples of teachers and students to account for this complexity. The need to collect data ourselves, using ACER’s progressive achievement tests (because NAPLAN data wasn’t fit for purpose due to the two year interval), made these trials hugely expensive.

Our first trial in NSW involved almost 500 teachers from 120 public schools and was the largest randomised controlled trial in Australian education. In total our four trials in this program of research involved 1,400 teachers and 14,500 students from 430 schools across New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.

As well as experimental evidence in the form of randomised trials, the program of research included case studies, longitudinal research (where we tracked teachers over the five years of the study), and evaluations of a partnership model for whole-school engagement in QTR which focused on improving outcomes for teachers and students in disadvantaged schools.

No other school-based intervention has been so thoroughly tested in Australian schools or amassed such a comprehensive body of evidence.

QTR improves student outcomes

These trials replicated the results of the 2014–15 study, demonstrating that teacher participation in QTR improves the quality of teaching, teacher morale, sense of recognition and appraisal, and school culture. For the first time, we also tested for, and found, increased teacher efficacy.

Most importantly, three of the four trials in the Building Capacity project produced robust evidence of positive effects on student achievement. Excitingly, we found these results were stronger in disadvantaged schools, signalling the potential for QTR to help narrow pervasive equity gaps (Gore et al., 2021; Harris et al., 2022; Povey et al., 2023).

Our studies compared students’ scores on progressive achievement tests in mathematics and reading. Across the four trials (including one conducted by the University of Queensland and one by ACER to provide independent replication), we tested students in Term 1 to provide a baseline score and then again in Term 4 after their teachers had participated in QTR (intervention group) or completed their usual PD (control group).

While we didn’t see an identical set of results in every study, three of the four trials produced statistically significant positive effects on student learning. These improvements ranged from two-to-three months’ worth of additional achievement growth in mathematics and reading for the students whose teachers participated in QTR compared to teachers who didn’t.

Education research is messy. Mixed results are common in education given the complexity of conducting research in schools. An analysis of large-scale education randomised trials in the US and UK found that only one quarter of trials produced a statistically significant result. For example, a trial of Dylan Wiliam’s formative assessment program found improvements of one month’s growth, however, these improvements were not statistically significant.

Achieving significant results in multiple trials is especially rare and even more remarkable considering the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that QTR professional development is “distal” from the student achievement measure – meaning, we changed teachers’ pedagogy and improved academic achievement, rather than a “proximal” intervention focused specifically on the instruction of mathematics or reading.

Importantly, these results were amplified by the qualitative insights of teachers and principals throughout the project. These rich qualitative data enabled a deeper understanding of how, why, and under what conditions QTR is effective (Gore et al., 2023). Here are just two examples:

“Long after the QTR process is done, I don’t think I’ll ever not think about these 18 elements to some level as I go through my practice. Even now when I start thinking about planning the next area or planning the next unit, I will run through the things in my head like, “How am I going to make sure I’m inclusive? How am I going to make sure that I look at different cultural knowledge? Where can I draw on the kids’ background knowledge?” I just find it’s going to be beneficial and helpful long term.” (Ava, teacher in a metropolitan secondary school)

“QTR is the vehicle through which we can achieve our school’s goals. It’s not the end point. It’s enabling that professional learning, that reflection, that dialogue to happen. And that’s going to improve our knowledge of students, improve explicit teaching, improve lesson planning. That’s going to improve all those elements that sit underneath the QT Model. That’s all going to be what we achieve through Rounds.” (Gwen, principal in a metropolitan secondary school)

What next?

Thanks to the funding provided in the Building Capacity project, teachers across Australia can access QTR through our non-profit social enterprise, the QT Academy.

The Australian Government has also provided funding for 1,600 teachers to take part in a free QTR workshop between 2023 and 2026 as part of the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan (Department of Education, 2022). The Strengthening Induction through QTR project aims to improve the morale, confidence, job satisfaction, and retention of early career teachers across Australia (Teachers and Teaching Research Centre, 2024).

Our partnership with Cessnock High School, one of the most disadvantaged schools in NSW, led to the school achieving the greatest NAPLAN growth from Year 7 to 9 in the Hunter region and the 11th greatest in the state by engaging in whole school Quality Teaching Rounds (Duffy, 2024). Simultaneously, teachers reported greater morale and improved school culture, which are critical factors in addressing the current teacher shortage crisis.

“We are really proud of the results we have achieved so far. We’re not just trying to help kids through school here, we’re trying to help the Cessnock community by producing kids who are capable of getting quality jobs, being able to operate as a community member, and adding to our community.” (Peter Riley, Principal, Cessnock High School)

Thanks to additional funding from the Paul Ramsay Foundation, this partnership model is now being rolled out to 25 disadvantaged schools in NSW to support teachers and improve outcomes with a key focus on equity.

Our research shows the Quality Teaching approach, which was born here in NSW, has clear potential to address many of the most pressing concerns facing education in this country. By engaging in QTR on a wide scale, we can support the teaching workforce while achieving excellence and more equitable outcomes for Australian students.

References

Bowe, J. M., & Gore, J. M. (2017). Reassembling teacher professional development: The case for Quality Teaching Rounds. Teachers and Teaching, 23, 352–366.

Department of Education. (2022). National Teacher Workforce Action Plan. https://www.education.gov.au/national-teacher-workforce-action-plan

Duffy, C. (2024, April 14). Teachers once feared working at Cessnock High, now it’s a model for best practice. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-14/formerly-violent-nsw-high-school-sets-model-for-teaching/103675354

Gore, J. M., & Bowe, J.M. (2015). Interrupting attrition? Re-shaping the transition from preservice to inservice teaching through Quality Teaching Rounds. International Journal of Educational Research, 73, 77–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2015.05.006

Gore, J., Lloyd, A., Smith, M., Bowe, J., Ellis,H., & Lubans, D. (2017). Effects of a professional development on the quality of teaching: Results from a randomised controlled trial of Quality Teaching Rounds. Teaching and Teacher Education, 68, 99–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2017.08.007

Gore, J., Miller, A., Fray, L., Harris, J., & Prieto-Rodriguez, E. (2021). Improving student achievement through professional development: Results from a randomised controlled trial of Quality Teaching Rounds. Teaching and Teacher Education, 101, Article 103297. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2021.103297

Gore, J., Miller, A., Fray, L., & Patfield, S. (2023). Building capacity for quality teaching in Australian schools 2018–2023. Teachers and Teaching Research Centre, The University of Newcastle. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1493345

Gore. J. M., & Rickards, B. (2021). Rejuvenating experienced teachers through Quality Teaching Rounds professional development. Journal of Educational Change, 22, 335–354. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-020-09386-z

Harris, J., Miller, D., Gore, J., & Holmes, M. (2022). Building capacity for quality teaching in Australian schools: QTR Digital RCT final report. Teachers and Teaching Research Centre, University of Newcastle. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1471857

Ladwig, J. G., & King, M. B. (2003). Quality teaching in NSW public schools: An annotated bibliography. NSW Department of Education and Training, Professional Support and Curriculum Directorate.

Povey, J., Porter, M., Kennedy, L., Potia, A., Bellotti, M., & Austerberry, S. (2023). Building capacity for quality teaching in Australian Schools: Queensland replication study – final report. Institute for Social Science Research, University of Queensland. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1471855

Teachers and Teaching Research Centre. (2024). Strengthening Induction through Quality Teaching Rounds. The University of Newcastle. https://www.newcastle.edu.au/research/centre/teachers-and-teaching/quality-teaching-rounds/strengthening-induction-through-qtr

About the author

Laureate Professor Jenny Gore AM is the Director of the Teachers and Teaching Research Centre at the University of Newcastle. With almost $35 million in external funding since 1992, Jenny’s research is driven by the notion that all children should experience high quality teaching. Her ongoing work with colleagues on Quality Teaching and Quality Teaching Rounds over the last decade has shown how this framework can effectively support teacher professional development, increase teacher satisfaction, enhance teaching quality in schools, and improve student achievement while narrowing equity gaps. Jenny’s research on improving teaching and learning saw the QT Academy established in 2020. She has received awards and recognition from the ACDE, ACEL, AARE, AERA, ASSA, Royal Society of NSW, the Paul Brock Memorial Medal and was most recently awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2024 Australia Day Honours for significant service to tertiary education.

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Public Education and Privatisation in Australia

Maurie Mulheron offers a timely analysis of the impact privatisation has had on Australia’s public education system…

Debunking the myth of privatisation’s benefits to education

It was the economist Milton Friedman decades ago who described public education as “an island of socialism in a free market” society.[1] As a high priest of neo-liberal economic theory, the highly influential Friedman and others called for all public services to be privatized including public education, which they argued needed to be turned into a free market characterized by competition and choice. Initially regarded as the viewpoint of extremists this ideology has, certainly since the 1980s, become a political and economic orthodoxy central to policy positions of many governments across the globe, including Australia.

Schools

Australian schooling was always characterized by deep inequalities but, as neo-liberal economics became dominant from the 1980s onwards, the divide between socially advantaged and disadvantaged students widened considerably as policy settings designed to favour private schooling were enacted. Enrolments in private or non-government schools in Australia, almost all of which are owned and run by religions, have now reached approximately 40 per cent of all students.

Private schools have the right to charge uncapped fees, have total autonomy as to which students they enrol, and are exempted from anti-discrimination laws. What this has created is a form of educational apartheid where over 80 per cent of low socio-economic status (SES) students are enrolled in public schools with only approximately 18 per cent enrolled in private schools. Similar enrolment ratios remain constant for Indigenous students, those living in remote locations, students from a refugee background, those with a language background other than English, and students with a disability.

School funding policies introduced to embed ‘competition and choice’ have meant that private schools in Australia receive significant annual federal government funding, including huge grants for capital works. In addition, at the state government level, private schools receive recurrent and capital funding. A landmark review in 2011 created a national Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) intended to measure the amount of additional public funding schools should receive based on student need.[2] Despite this, it is estimated that private schools were over-funded by approximately $1 billion for the period 2020–23 while public schools were under-funded by $19 billion.[3] Essentially, the public system which is doing the ‘heavy lifting’ is vastly under-resourced for the challenges its teachers face on a daily basis.

Successive Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reports have confirmed that social segregation is a defining feature of Australian schooling. The ideology of treating schooling as a market-place has resulted in Australia having the highest degree of school choice of any OECD country but with huge concentrations of disadvantaged students, low equity in provision, and social segregation.

There are now massive gaps across Australia in academic achievement between high SES and low SES students of up to several years of schooling. For example, recent national testing data reveals that 29% of low SES Year 9 students (15 years of age) were below the writing standard and 16 percent were below the numeracy standard. For Year 9 Indigenous students, the proportion not achieving the national reading standard is 11 times higher than for high SES students.[4]

Choice has not enlarged the educational opportunities of the poor. Indeed, the tendency for choice to segregate children in the lower bands of socio-economic status has created worsening conditions for the populations who most depend on the effectiveness of public schools. Growth in public and private spending in the non-government sector has operated to remove more culturally advantaged children and young people from the public systems, leaving these systems less supported culturally by a balanced mix of students from different family backgrounds.[5]

While the history of how Australia found itself in this situation is as complex as it is torturous, the experience of prioritizing private advantage over social good contrasts with other countries as shown in a 2013 comparative study of Australia and Canada,

The relationship between school SES and student outcomes is generally stronger in Australia than in Canada. An important and visible difference between the Australian and Canadian educational systems is the degree to which they are marked by school choice, privatisation, and social segregation. In Australia, these features of educational marketization have provided unequal access to resources and “good” schools and have led to levels of social exclusion and segregation higher than in comparable, highly developed countries such as Canada.[6]

Of course, while funding policies have weakened the public education system in Australia, there are other forces at play. Governments in Australia, as elsewhere, no longer regard the provision of public services as primarily their responsibility with privatisation occurring throughout the public sector including in: postal and communication services, transport, roads, shipping ports, airports, health care, welfare, prisons, security services, employment services, housing, and energy. It could be argued that schooling is the last great public enterprise. But since the 1980s national systems of education have been left unprotected from an emerging global education industry that sees compulsory schooling as an under-capitalized market with a permanent and ever-increasing customer base, children.

Governments have created the conditions for the commercialization of education services. National testing regimes, such as the Australian National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) along with accompanying accountability and data infrastructures, have gifted enormous influence to education technology giants, sidelining teachers and too often wresting control of the curriculum from them. Further, as government education departments retreat from providing professional support and resources to teachers, the vacuum is filled by firms in the obvious areas of student assessment, but also in school administration, student well-being, teacher professional development, and curriculum delivery. “Commercialization is big business. Many commercial providers generate large profits for shareholders by selling goods and services to schools, districts, and systems.”[7]

However, the role of large corporations is much more opaque at the government level. Global consultancy firms, such as the “Big 4”: PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler (KPMG), Deloitte, and Ernst and Young, work inside of government departments such as the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Education with direct influence over policy development and strategic planning. In the state of NSW, tens of millions of dollars have been paid to these firms, without consultation with the teaching profession and in the absence of public scrutiny.[8] In a report commissioned by the NSW Teachers Federation the researchers found that:

The reduced capacity of the state has opened up spaces and opportunities for edu-businesses to expand their role in schools and schooling systems, largely on a for-profit basis. Private corporations have also sought an enhanced role in all stages of the policy cycle in education (from agenda setting, research for policy, policy text production, policy implementation and evaluation, provision of related professional development, and resources) in what has been referred to as the ‘privatisation of the education policy community’.[9]

Since the report was published, the direct influence of the corporate consultancies and edu-businesses has increased dramatically. It should come as no surprise that the Big 4 consultancy firms are generous donors to Australia’s two major political parties.[10]

Vocational Education and Training: A case study

The most striking example of the catastrophic impact of the application of market forces to education is in the area of Australia’s post-compulsory Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector.

Until relatively recently, the provision of vocational education and training was largely the responsibility of the public system known as Technical and Further Education (TAFE). It existed as a national system in every state and territory of Australia, administered at a state level, and with an enormous reach into local communities. Despite chronic underfunding compared to other sectors, TAFE was highly regarded, providing skills training for industries, trades, small business, and emerging professions. In addition, it provided more general and further education, particularly to those re-joining the workforce, or those mature age citizens seeking additional qualifications including entry to university. In contrast to the Australian university sector, enrolments by students from a disadvantaged background was much higher in TAFE.

The watershed moment was April 2012 when all state and territory governments met with the federal government at a Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting and agreed to introduce a radical restructuring of vocational education and training. Within a short period, a new funding regime based on the market model was introduced. There were two key requirements which became the architecture for the privatisation of the sector and the destruction of the public provider, TAFE. Firstly, what was called entitlement funding was introduced. This was simply a voucher system. Secondly, a student loan scheme, an income contingent loan model, was introduced. Both these mechanisms were underpinned by a requirement that state governments had to open up all funding to the private sector and that the funding had to be allocated on a competitive basis.

It soon became clear what the national agreement meant. Voucher funding detached the funding from the actual TAFE college and attached it to the individual student. The connection between funding and the TAFE college was severed. In short, the public provider’s funding was now precarious, no longer guaranteed.

VET students were to pay the full cost of a qualification, without any government subsidy, to either private for-profit providers – which under the national agreement were allowed to charge fees up to AUD$99,000 – or to TAFE. This became the incentive for private for-profit training companies to increase tuition fees dramatically, and offer only those courses that would maximize profits. Students and their families soon found that the charging of fees was completely unregulated. Within the first two years of the scheme, 84% of income contingent loans from government to students went to private for-profit companies.

Student debt ballooned but many students also discovered that the private training organisations did not necessarily complete the course or even offer the actual training. Students in this situation were left with the debt but no qualification. Media stories began to appear of private training organisations aggressively targeting disadvantaged students with brokers waiting outside employment agencies to sign up students or setting up kiosks in suburban shopping malls offering incentives such as free iPads.

The impact of the 2012 national agreement on the teachers in TAFE was devastating. Without guaranteed funding, the employer attacked salaries and working conditions. In some states of Australia, the levels of casualisation grew to 80% of the workforce. Across Australia some TAFE colleges closed, courses were scrapped, and student numbers plummeted. In 2012, the number of permanent and temporary teaching positions in New South Wales, was 17,104. By 2022, ten years on from the national agreement this had dropped to 8,197, a net loss of 8,907 teachers from the public system in just one state.

Of course, VET teachers, through their national and state unions, and academics working in this area had warned government of the dire consequences if the market model was introduced.[11] They were ignored.

Conclusion

While education has always been an area of public policy that has been contested, where historically, tensions between church and the state have played out, where individual privilege keeps challenging the very idea of public good, and where social conservatives have consistently attempted to control the school curriculum, in recent years we have witnessed a much more aggressive, coherent, and global campaign against public education that is underpinned by the ideology of the market. It is this influence of neoliberal ideology that is having the most dramatic effect on public education around the world. It is up to teachers, professional allies, and the community to be alert to the dangers and to fight to retain control. Our children and young people deserve nothing less.

*This article was originally published as “Public education and privatization in Australia” in the December 2023 edition of Education Forum, the official magazine of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF). Republished with permission. See Public education and privatization in Australia – Education Forum (education-forum.ca)

About the author

Maurie was a teacher and principal with 34 years of experience teaching in public high schools in rural, regional and metropolitan New South Wales. From 2012-2020, he served as President of the NSW Teachers Federation, and concurrently as Deputy Federal President of the Australian Education Union from 2015-2020. During this time, Maurie was a key member of Education International’s Global Response Network which coordinated international opposition to the growing commercialisation and privatisation of education.

Endnotes

[1] Fiala, Thomas J. and Owens, Deborah (April 23, 2010) “Education Policy and Friedmanomics: Free Market Ideology and Its Impact on School Reform” Paper presented at the 68th Annual National Conference of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, USA p22.

[2] https://www.education.gov.au/school-funding/resources/review-funding-schooling-final-report-december-2011

[3] Rorris, Adam (May 2022) “School Funding in Australia —Overview and a RoadMap” Centre for Public Education Research. https://www.cper.edu.au/podcasts/school-funding-in-australia-an-overview

[4] Cobbold, Trevor (December 2022) “Close the Gaps Between Rich and Poor.” https://saveourschools.com.au

[5] Teese, R. (2011), From opportunity to outcomes. The changing role of public schooling in Australia and national funding arrangements, Centre for Research on Education Systems, University of Melbourne.

[6] Perry, Laura B and McConney, Andrew (2013) “School socioeconomic status and student outcomes in reading and mathematics: A comparison of Australia and Canada” Australian Journal of Education 57(2) p138.

[7] Hogan, Anna and Thompson, Greg (December 2017) “Commercialization in Education” in Noblit, G W (Ed.) Oxford research encyclopedia of education. Oxford University Press, United Kingdom, pp. 1-19.

[8] “NSW Education pays Deloitte $9.1m to write documents for NSW Treasury” (3 March 2021) Australian Financial Review.

[9] Lingard, Bob; Sellar, Sam; Hogan, Anna; and Thompson, Greg; (2017) “Commercialisation in Public Schooling (CIPS)”. New South Wales Teachers Federation: Sydney, NSW. pp7-8.

[10] “Spend a buck, gain a thousand: Big Four political donations reach record levels” (4 February 2020). Big Four consulting firms’ political donations reach record levels (crikey.com.au)

[11] Wheelahan, Leesa “The race to the bottom in the VET market & why TAFE cannot win” (1 May 2013) Submission to House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Employment Inquiry into TAFE.

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Monika Schwarz uses modern data analysis to shed new light on how 19^th Century female convicts resisted the system designed to keep them in place. . .