Feedback From Focus Group Sessions
5.3 Implementation Issues
Significant aspect of discussions in the Focus groups concerned identification of
potential issues involved in implementing the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. The majority of discussion focused on the practicalities of implementing the standards. Other issues that were discussed include, the Context of Early Childhood Education and Care, Industrial implications, clarity of the purpose for implementing the standards, communication strategies, implications for the culture of Early Childhood Education and services and alignment of processes.
5.3.1 Practicalities of Implementing Teacher Standards
Comments on the practicality of implementing the standards, expressed predominantly as questions or matters needing to be determined, comprised the greatest area of comment on implementation issues.
Many of the comments were concerned with the processes of implementing the standards. These comments concerned the administration of processes, determination of assessment processes and ensuring the validity and reliability of judgements against the standards. As one comment put it: ‘What will be the safeguards from favouritism from Principals?’ and another the “potential for abuse of assessment by senior staff is of concern”.
Other comments were concerned with implications for teachers in the implementation of the standards. Reference was made to their workload and the time and opportunity needed to engage with their colleagues and supervisors to develop skills and capacities needed initially to meet the requirements for full-registration and later for certification at higher levels. This was seen to be particularly challenging for teachers working in services where they were the sole teacher working and the centre leader was not a qualified teacher.
The need for leaders and supervisors to engage with the standards was also seen as an issue. Their role in mentoring and assessing teachers is complicated by the fact that that they themselves may not be required to meet professional standards.
A significant number of comments were concerned with the availability of resources and funds to support the implementation of the APST. Adequate support for leaders, teachers and their line managers was seen critical to effective implementation as was funding of the initiatives, especially the backfilling costs when teachers are released to undertake professional learning. Currently, much of the professional learning that underpins service quality improvement was seen to occur outside of school hours. Some saw difficulties for teachers accessing flexible working conditions, in particular those that leave and return to the workforce or those that choose to work limited numbers of hours. Similar issues will occur for teachers who transfer from one service to another.
Timeliness and time to make the necessary adjustments to practice was an issue. A number of comments related to the need to consolidate the changes arising from implementation of the EYLF and NQS, prior to implementing the standards. As one comment put it: ‘Time and headspace to take it all in’. Others took a finer grained view suggesting that any implementation should not occur at the beginning of the year when teachers are coping with the demands of enrolling new children and getting new programs underway.
Some participants commented that the implementation of standards needs to be seen as part of what teachers currently do and not an extension of their role or workload. This is a critical perspective as it helps position standards in terms of perceptions of increased workload and the timeliness of implementation. Nonetheless, teachers’ workload will increase at critical points when they have to develop evidence for moving form provisional to full registration or when they volunteer to be certified as meeting higher-level standards.
5.3.2 The Context of Early Childhood Education and Care Services
The breadth and range of Early Childhood Education and Care teaching contexts was raised as an issue by almost all focus groups in all meetings, in particular, the professional isolation of teachers in the majority of services. This has particular implications for the access of effective mentoring for provisionally registered and inexperienced teachers and for their capacity to gain experience mentoring other teachers as part of their professional growth towards certification at higher levels. Others saw broader implications arising from differences between schools and Early Childhood Education and Care contexts raising the need for any implementation strategies to be cognisant of the differences in pedagogy, the culture of services, the qualifications and experience base across services, and their leadership and management.5.3.3 Industrial Implications
5.3.5 Communication Strategies
The need for clear communications that assist teachers understand the meaning and purpose of the standards was seen as fundamental.
5.3.6 Implications for the Culture of EC Services
Application of professional standards into contexts where few educators were required to engage with them was seen to have implications for the culture of Early Childhood services with the potential for conflict within an Early Childhood Education and Care team. The standards may also be implemented in contexts where the management structures and hierarchies do not reflect the traditional teaching experience and expertise hierarchies of schools. A particular question was: ‘How do the standards value other early childhood workers?’.
5.3.7 Alignment of Processes
For some groups, where existing qualifications approval and teacher registration processes were in place for some elements of the Early Childhood Education and Care workforce within the jurisdiction, the need to align these elements with the APST was seen as an issue. For others the current processes for moving from provisional to full registration within their jurisdiction were not flexible enough to cater for their teaching contexts and supervisory circumstances.