I’ll start this post by plugging for a cause close to my heart. My daughter is an organisational psychologist, which explains how this topic arises in our conversations a lot. There are moves now to lower the entry requirements and accreditation standards for psychologists. Why? Because supply isn’t meeting demand.
You can read more about this important development here. Please support this petition on Change.org. https://c.org/vB7zfbWRsq
The same issue is facing education as students with lower ATAR scores are accepted into teaching courses. Again, because of supply issues.
Those who put these solutions across to address the shortage of teachers, psychologists, nurses, doctors, engineers etc do a disservice to society by undervaluing the critical importance of having well- trained, intelligent professionals who are actually trained to do a great job. Not all careers hinge on a good educational background. Some do because they require individuals who have received quality academic instruction ensuring they have the skills for the job, and have developed their skills to such an extent they can act professionally. Not all careers require those of high intelligence. Some do. Not everyone can or wishes to develop the intellect to be able to use their skills with professionalism and agility.
Can society afford for a skilled workforce that cannot actually provide quality care and service? There is a great deal of conversation about Australia’s poor performance in the PISA rankings. There are many reasons for this, and one of these is this unfortunate narrative that we do not actually need good teachers – anyone can do the job. And yes, there are teachers who can’t do math- and are teaching math. Teachers who can’t understand English grammar but teach English. The profession does what all professions do to make up for the inadequacies arising from staffing issues. We all know there are really bad doctors, engineers, lawyers and teachers out there. In most cases, educational rigor would have weeded out those who don’t make the cut academically, therefore leaving us to solve the multitude of other reasons for substandard service. However when we have reached the stage of saying anyone can do the job- lets just get the numbers up, I believe we have all lost the plot.
And here’s my plug for the teaching of English language learners. The almost complete eradication of the role of ESL/ EAL/ EAL/D specialist teachers in many contexts around the world and including Queensland does a disservice to the critical training, knowledge and expertise of these experts. Our students – the recent immigrants and refugees and those from our indigenous communities – are the ones that lose out when there is no dedicated attention to their development of language skills, when they are simply expected to catch up in the classroom while they struggle with both language development and the curriculum – the latter being the sole concern of their peers. Our students are the ones who lose out when we begin to spread the word and actually begin to believe that every teachers can teach every subject because everyone is trained for everything during their academic studies.
Yes. Staffing issues can make for very bumpy roads. I left university with qualifications to teacher english, literature and history. Over the last 40 years, circumstances have seen me take on teaching sport, math, geography, science and students with disability and I have taken all of this in my stride. It’s never bothered me EXCEPT when the narrative begins to turn to the belief that anyone and everyone can do this because we have all been trained to do so. I’m sorry but if we begin to go down that road – we will go down the road of deteriorating standards and poor outcomes. Because its actually sad that we, as a profession have to make these concessions in the first place. We don’t expect it of any other profession.
Teachers are professionals. We deserve to be treated as such.
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