For example, below average BAGS935 says,
Teachers gain a deep understanding of individual student’s learning needs and styles.
Here teachers are presented as instrumental to learning in ways that present teachers as experts, with expert skills, or, as school BAGS966 says,
Parents can be assured that their child will be guided through their secondary school years by committed and caring teachers who utilise the most up to date educational approaches and emerging technologies.
Note that teachers already possess these skills, and that it is then a matter of them applying these skills, taking into consideration the individual needs of their students. Both non-elite and above average government schools discuss their teachers in quite a different way. They focus on the varied pedagogical practices their highly
experienced and qualified teaching staff possess. These schools present their teaching staff as role models of lifelong learning – rather than as already fully qualified
experts. This is particularly interesting, as no below average school discusses lifelong learning in any context.
For below average schools teaching and learning is always transmitted from an expert teacher to the novice learner (Freire 2005). In non-elite and above average
government schools, teachers are presented as also being learners, and as such being able to engage students in learning because they are themselves are constantly reflecting on their own practice and learning too. Indicative quotations from the prospectuses include,
AAGS1038 has a large team of professional teachers and support staff that also live the school motto of ‘Daring to be Excellent’. Staff work in teams to continually revise and develop learning opportunities for students with the aim of making them relevant, engaging and rigorous whilst focusing on literacy, numeracy and curiosity. Staff also actively participate in coaching and professional development programs throughout the year to ensure they are at the cutting edge in terms of their subject knowledge and also engaging curriculum initiatives and practices.
AAGS1075 says,
Our teachers, as professionals, continue to reflect on their practice and, in so doing, challenge themselves to better meet the needs of their students; to leave spaces for students to discover things for themselves, to value their
imagination and idiosyncratic voices.
In these above average schools, there is a clear expectation that teachers will continue to learn and this is explicitly stated in their marketing materials.
One school at the top of the above average range stresses that how they teach is significantly different to how parents were likely to have experienced schooling. AAGS1092 says,
Students and staff are now actively engaged in new and innovative programs which are very different from the closed classroom of the past, where we saw one teacher with students undertaking teaching and learning programs in isolation.
As will be discussed later in this chapter, many of the materials implicitly assume that the teaching and learning provided at the school is relatively transparent to the
observer, and therefore does not require explanation. Nevertheless, a statement regarding how different teaching practices are today never appears in below average school marketing materials, which instead stress the most traditional of pedagogical practices (c.f. Connell 2009; Kenway & Bullen 2001).
Elite school teachers have more extensive roles. As EPS1130’s prospectus says, Our staff play a vital role in the social, academic and personal development of our young people.
At these schools, teachers are much less teachers, in the sense of being concerned with the transmission of knowledge, and more akin to personal coaches: able to assist students to become fully-rounded citizens, aware of their unique talents, and able to identify and fulfil their passions.
For example, EPS1141 says,
Teachers act as mentors and advocates for each student in their care – they follow their progress carefully and aim to engage students in their learning and guide them towards a positive social culture.
Just who the teachers are advocating to on behalf of students is not made clear, however, this is a different role to that of teachers in other schools.
EPS1160 stress that they appoint teachers who,
know their students well, who understand the strong arterial pulse of young life.
This ability to understand students is reiterated throughout the prospectuses, but such a role is never mentioned in other ICSEA grouped schools.
EPS1177 stresses,
The College therefore recruits teachers who are innovative and inspirational and who relate well to children on all levels.
When videos discuss teachers as learners, it is once again restricted to schools with an above average ICSEA. For instance, a teacher at AAGS1024 says,
It’s good for the kids to know, and it’s good for the younger teachers to know, that experienced teachers are always learning as well. And it creates an
environment of support and sharing.
Teachers in Videos
One of the main differences between the prospectuses and the videos is that in many of the videos teachers are provided with the opportunity to speak to camera and therefore be involved in the promotion of the school directly, rather than being referred to as an abstract group with generalised characteristics. Teachers have a speaking role in five-of-the-fourteen videos analysed in this study. Given that teachers are, at best, given a single line quotation in a minority of prospectuses, this is a
significant difference between the two genres.
Ten-of-the-fourteen videos appear to have been professionally produced for the school. Only one of the non-professionally produced videos contains a teacher speaking to camera, while four of the ten professional videos do. Many of these professionally produced videos, particularly for government schools, appear to have been produced to both attract new parents, and promote an aspect of the school, such as the school’s innovative learning spaces (BAGS961), the use of information technology (AAGS1024), or the school’s curriculum (AAGS1092). It appears that in these cases the videos have been paid for either by the Education Department or a technology company.
The principal of non-elite NEPS1037 introduces and closes the video. However the discussion of the school’s benefits is left to students, parents and teachers. This produces a powerful impact, as it implies that the school is confident that everyone connected to the school can be relied upon to praise its achievements.
In contrast, both EPS1160 and EPS1165 present only the principal speaking. Above average state schools are likely to have only students speaking, with them either creating the video text and reading it as voice over (AAGS1046), or in face-to-camera roles discussing the merits of the school (AAGS1050).
The video for AAGS1053 has students speaking directly to camera and this is the only instance in any of the marketing materials where teachers are mentioned by name or where a teacher’s individual talents are discussed.
As will be discussed in further chapters, above average government schools are focused on developing interpersonal skills in their students, and so it is unsurprising that these would be the schools to have students as the creators and narrators of school videos.