Why I am standing for EDUCANZ (anyway)

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Let's get a few things straight first.

Of course I am disappointed that we are losing a democratic means of voting on at least some of the council.

Of course I am disappointed that we are moving from a Code of Ethics to a Code of Conduct.

In fact I campaigned against these very things here and here.

And whilst I understand that PPTA's ballot is a matter of principle and was voted on, I simply do not understand how it will change anything.

Whether PPTA and members choose to "not accept nomination or appointment to the EDUCANZ council nor participate in the body’s consultation processes" or not does not change the fact that it will go ahead...regardless. 


PPTA have made a stand (fair enough, I respect that) but they have also ensured that there will be fewer left leaning and incredibly important voices missing in the establishment of EDUCANZ and throughout the code of conduct process. This is a crying shame.

I am also disappointed that in choosing to stand for EDUCANZ anyway it means I am forced to step down from the PPTA. I am a person who has deeply and passionately supported the PPTA as a member and as a part of the PPTA ICT Advisory Group. But I respect PPTA has made a decision, so I will leave, for now at least.

In terms of why I want to stand for EDUCANZ, here is some of my thinking.

I believe I could bring an articulate and positive secondary voice to EDUCANZ. I am passionate and well informed about educational issues and constantly seek ways to support and challenge NZ educators to be future-focused, open and reflective, as well as being recognised as the hardworking professionals they are.

I am very eager to be part of this establishment phase of EDUCANZ and would relish the opportunity to be involved in developing a vision for professional learning and ways we may lift the status of the teaching profession and publicly recognise the role quality teaching and educational leadership plays in raising student achievement. I also hope to be actively involved in the consultation process for developing the Code of Conduct. If it is going to happen, I want to do what I can to ensure it is the best it can be. 

As well as this, I believe I could bring a future-focused lens that will be important when reviewing or further developing the existing Graduating Teacher Standards and Registered Teacher Criteria - remember there is much more to EDUCANZ than non-democratic selection processes and a Code of Conduct. 

If we care about the future of our sector, well I reckon we need to be willing to be "at the table" talking about all of the issues.

To close, I want to come back to the statement made by PPTA “Members of EDUCANZ must understand that they will serve the minister and the government of the day ‒ not the teaching profession.”

I simply don't agree.

Handpicking aside, this council will be an independent statutory body which means it will not serve the minster anywhere near as directly as it does now. 

And I do I see myself as serving the teaching profession...in everything I do. At present I am a member of the NZTC (as secondary representative), the NetSafe board, N4L reference board, AUT Ed Futures team, NZQA brainstorming group and a member of Minister Kaye’s 21st Century Education Reference Group as well as being a Deputy Principal at a new secondary school where we make it our business to share our practice as widely as possibly. Aside from my main job I get paid nothing for any other roles. I do it because I am driven by a deep seated belief that we must change education to better serve the young people of New Zealand. I don't pretend to ever speak for the teaching profession, but I do serve it. Proudly. 

Of course I may not succeed in getting on EDUCANZ. At least I will (in my mind at least) have done the right thing.

At least I know I will have tried.

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EDUCANZ - between a rock and a hard place

I feel the need to begin this post with a few disclaimers:

• I am a passionate and committed PPTA member. 
• I am current a member of a NZ Teachers Council. 
• I am feeling genuinely stuck...between a rock and hard place. 

 As many of you will have seen, EDUCANZ announced that nominations are now open.

Source: http://www.education.govt.nz/

This was followed (not unexpectedly) by an announcement from PPTA that a ballot would be held to determine whether they will be refusing to put up (or accept) nominations and whether they will be instructing members to do the same.

Source: Radio NZ

And of course I completely understand where PPTA is coming from. As one of the many who fought a number of the legislations that ended up in the Education Amendment Act 2015 I submitted a written submission and and presented an oral submission that clearly outline what I did and still do see as major flaws in this act.

There are several issues with the act in relation to EDUCANZ in particular. 

There is the issue that the process for forming the council is clearly undemocratic, with nominations being open to all, but final selection being made by the Minister of Education. This is of course even harder to accept when you consider that the council is actually funded by the teachers themselves.  

There is also the issue of changing the code of ethics (which are viewed as aspirational) to a code of conduct (which suggest a baseline for behaviour) which to be fair IS insulting, particularly in light of the claim that one of the aims of the new council forming is to elevate the status of teachers??

Add to this the concerns around the stated aim to "to ensure that appraisals made by professional leaders for the issue and renewal of practising certificates achieve a reasonable and consistent standard, by auditing and moderating the appraisals made for at least 10% of the practising certificates issued or renewed in each year " Source: Section 382 Education Amendment Act 2015 which I actually wouldn't have a huge issue with if it weren't for the implications this will have for council employee workloads and the potential practicing certificate fee increase this will undoubtedly lead to. 

A fee increase in and of itself don't actually cause me undue concern - the reality is that we have been paying comparatively low fees and even if we weren't about to change councils a fee increase of some sort would have to occur to sustain even business as usual.

Add to this the fact that I see real potential in the forming of EDUCANZ. I believe there are several functions that will be of benefit to our teaching profession such as those outlined below:

Source: Education Amendment Act 2015

There is also the small fact that a big part of me would love to be on EDUCANZ. I have loved my short stint on the NZTC and can already see huge potential for the way their work may be honoured, continued and built upon to develop and even stronger body for leading the education sector.

Add to this the fact that I have seen first hand the excellent work that the present staff do - remember EDUCANZ is not just a council it is a team of professionals that do the hard work of processing registrations, approving and reviewing ITE courses,  delivering PD and managing competence and disciplinary processes. If we turn our back on EDUCANZ are we also turning our back on them?

Consider also that "EDUCANZ will be independent of Government. Unlike NZTC, which is a crown entity, EDUCANZ will be an independent statutory body and will be able to make independent comment on education policy. This will enable EDUCANZ to lead the public debate on education.

The EDUCANZ Council will set its strategic direction in consultation with the sector." Source: EDCANZ Transition. Surely this is an excellent shift.

And then there is the million dollar question - will snubbing the nomination process and the council even make a difference? Will a vote of no confidence be enough to result in a change of legislation? Could we instead be presented with a situation where no left-leaning, future thinking folks stand and give Minister Parata absolutely no choice but to appoint conservative, status-quo protecting council members. Of course, she may well do this anyway, but there a part of me saying if I don't put my hat (or the hat of like-minded folk) in the ring there really is NO chance of having a voice for a good chunk of our sector. 

Yes, we could all disengage and stand shoulder to shoulder, resolute that nominating someone or nominating yourself is by it's very virtue acceptance of fundamentally flawed legislation - but I genuinely don't think it is as straight forward as that. 

As a active, passionate PPTA member I understand how unions operate and not engaging with EDUCANZ could work. 

I am however concerned that my freedom as an individual to make my own choice may (depending on the outcome of the ballot) paint me as a picket line crossing "scab" and may indeed make me vulnerable. Which is sort of ironic considering reducing one's vulnerability is the very reason many join PPTA in the first place. Or (again) maybe PPTA's strategy won't work and EDUCANZ will survive AND we will have missed a chance of at least nominating a genuinely diverse group of people to be considered for the council. 

As I said at the beginning I am conflicted and I am increasing feeling that I am stuck between a rock and a hard place.

At the end of the day, I still keep coming back to the voice in my head and the feeling in my gut that says if there is any chance that you can sit at the table - you should (at least bloody well try to) sit at the table! 

To be honest all of this just makes me appreciate what Ernest Hemingway's reportedly once said - 'Never sit a table when you can stand at the bar.'

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Graduating Teacher Standards - Are they future-focused enough?

As you may (or may not) know, one of the many and varied roles of the New Zealand Teachers Council is to approve and review all Initial Teacher Education programmes. It was during my first council meeting where a number of the new Masters ITE programmes were being approved that the question came to me (once again): Are the Graduating Teacher Standards future focused enough?? The reason I asked myself and others this, is that I felt the courses we were looking at could have offered more. It wasn't that they weren't rigorous and well thought out, it was just that they felt lacking, particularly in the 'future-focused skills' area. When I voiced these concerns the response I got was, that we couldn't demand the courses to include anything that wasn't demanded in the graduating teacher standards. On reading the standards more closely I am not so sure. Surely if you take the second point of Standard One "have pedagogical content knowledge appropriate to the learners and learning areas of their   programme" and place this statement into a 21st century context aren't we demanding that courses provide them with the appropriate pedagogical content of the 21st century? Or are these standards too open to interpretation? Does one person's view of 'appropriate pedagogical content' vary so greatly that it in a sense becomes redundant? I can of course understand why the standards were written this way, anything too specific would become outdated within a heartbeat. But that said, is there something more we need to add?

I realise my ability to influence these discussions might be hampered by the fact that NZTC is now in it's twilight hours as we stare down the barrel of EDUCANZ taking over, still, no harm in trying.

So if the Graduating Teacher Standards in their present state are not (in my opinion) ensuring we have cutting edge, future-focused ITE programmes, what needs to change? Or is it not the place of the standards to determine this, it actually the providers themselves? My opinion is it probably a combination of the two. Firstly, you would hope that providers would take it upon themselves to ensure their courses were as future-focused as possible, I mean that is what they are preparing teachers for isn't it. Surely the courses wouldn't be designed to maintain the status quo? It's possible that our desire to base all practice on a strong evidence base is going to limit innovation in these courses. If you are only willing to offer what has proven to work in the past, then surely we have an issue. In terms of the graduating teacher standards changing, I think it is less about change and more about providing a current and future focused appendices to support the standards. This could be a document that gets reviewed annually, informed by what is being seen during ERO reports and areas that need focused on right now (I apologise if this doc already exists and I just don't know about it...). In a way I'd liken it to how I imagine the WOF system works (or seems to work from the outside), the same things might be on the list each year, but you get the sense they have another list somewhere that gives them an area to focus on, because current stats suggest it is an area that needs addressing. Wouldn't it be great if we had a group of innovators, risk takers and trail-blazers who helped to inform this secondary list of requirements. Recommended foci might include ensuring that every new teacher has researched how a range of IT interventions might best be used to support effective pedagogies. That all new teachers know how to make the most of a BYOD classroom environment. All new teachers would begin their career well versed in the work of Rachel Bolstad and Jane Gilbert, with Sue McDowall, Ally Bull, Sally Boyd and Rosemary Hipkins and the paper Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching - a New Zealand perspective and understand why we must prepare our students for the 'knowledge age' and prepare them for being increasing self-directed and self-reliant. And the likes of Professor Welby Ings might encourage teachers to value creative expression over rote learned "Excellence".

Maybe if we provided these annually updated insights into what our Graduating Teacher Standards look like in our current and future contexts we could make them available to all teachers, to provide an innovative and future-focused support document for our Registered Teacher Criteria as well. Then, taking it a step further, why don't we use these innovative, future focused, status quo challenging ideas as a basis for free online MOOCs available to all educators that could share their learning through an online teacher community (surely NZTC...or EDUCANZ and N4L's Pond could nail this one) and learning reflections could be make up part of a teachers online portfolio for appraisal. Okay. Now I'm getting sidetracked. But you get my gist, graduating teacher standards (and maybe even RTCs) are not enough in isolation to ensure that all ITE programmes are producing not only competent teachers, but innovative and future-focused educators as well.

The graduating teacher standards as the exist at present are below. Have a read and let me know what you think.

Future-focused or protecting the status quo?

Graduating Teacher Standards: Aotearoa New Zealand

These standards recognise that the Treaty of Waitangi extends equal status and rights to Māori and Pākehā alike.

Graduates entering the profession will understand the critical role teachers play in enabling the educational achievement of all learners.

Professional Knowledge 
Standard One: Graduating Teachers know what to teach

1. have content knowledge appropriate to the learners and learning areas of their programme
2. have pedagogical content knowledge appropriate to the learners and learning areas of their   programme
3. have knowledge of the relevant curriculum documents of Aotearoa New Zealand.
4. have content and pedagogical content knowledge for supporting English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners to succeed in the curriculum

Standard Two: Graduating Teachers know about learners and how they learn

1. have knowledge of a range of relevant theories and research about pedagogy, human development and learning.
2. have knowledge of a range of relevant theories, principles and purposes of assessment and evaluation.
3. know how to develop metacognitive strategies of diverse learners. 
4. know how to select curriculum content appropriate to the learners and the learning context.

Standard Three: Graduating Teachers understand how contextual factors influence teaching and learning

1. have an understanding of the complex influences that personal, social, and cultural factors may have on teachers and learners.
2. have knowledge of tikanga and te reo Māori to work effectively within the bicultural contexts of Aotearoa New Zealand.
3. have an understanding of education within the bicultural, multicultural, social, political, economic and historical contexts of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Professional Practice
Standard Four: Graduating Teachers use professional knowledge to plan for a safe, high quality teaching and learning environment

1. draw upon content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge when planning, teaching and evaluating. 
2. use and sequence a range of learning experiences to influence and promote learner achievement.
3. demonstrate high expectations of all learners, focus on learning and recognise and value diversity.
4. demonstrate proficiency in oral and written language (Māori and/or English), in numeracy and in ICT relevant to their professional role.
5. use te reo Māori me ngā tikanga-a-iwi appropriately in their practice. 
6. demonstrate commitment to and strategies for promoting and nurturing the physical and emotional safety of learners. 

7. Standard Five: Graduating Teachers use evidence to promote learning
8. systematically and critically engage with evidence to reflect on and refine their practice. 
9. gather, analyse and use assessment information to improve learning and inform planning.
10. know how to communicate assessment information appropriately to learners, their parents/caregivers and staff.

Professional Values & Relationships
Standard Six: Graduating Teachers develop positive relationships with learners and the members of learning communities

1. recognise how differing values and beliefs may impact on learners and their learning.
2. have the knowledge and dispositions to work effectively with colleagues, parents/caregivers, 
3. families/whānau and communities.
4. build effective relationships with their learners.
5. promote a learning culture which engages diverse learners effectively.
6. demonstrate respect for te reo Māori me ngā tikanga-a-iwi in their practice. 

Standard Seven: Graduating Teachers are committed members of the profession

1. uphold the New Zealand Teachers Council Code of Ethics/Ngā Tikanga Matatika. 
2. have knowledge and understanding of the ethical, professional and legal responsibilities of teachers. 
3. work co-operatively with those who share responsibility for the learning and wellbeing of learners.
4. are able to articulate and justify an emerging personal, professional philosophy of teaching and learning. 

Source: NZTC Website

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Why I am standing for the NZTC and why you should vote in the upcoming election!

You can join my campaign page here to keep updated

First up, why am I standing for the New Zealand Teachers Council?

My reasons are two-fold. 

The first being that I believe I would be a great addition to the New Zealand Teachers Council. I am passionate and well informed about educational issues and am constantly seeking ways that I can both support and challenge NZ educators to be future-focused, sharing and reflective as well as being recognised by the wider community as the hardworking professionals that they are. I believe New Zealand educators desire to be both supported through ongoing professional learning and rigorous appraisal systems and challenged to be adaptive experts who are expected (and supported) to evolve their practice constantly to ensure they are meeting the needs of all of their learners. I believe that if I were to be elected to the NZTC I will be a positive and passionate voice for secondary educators.

My second reason is that this is the last chance (if the current plans proceed) New Zealand educators will have to elect their own representatives on the teachers council...even when it is the teachers' registration fees that actually fund the council. As many of you will be aware the NZTC is due to be disbanded in the near future (most likely next year) and will be then be replaced by Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand, otherwise know as EDUCANZ. Irregardless of several rounds of consultation and many many educators voicing their concerns, plans have proceeded pretty much unchanged and there are many areas of deep concern. The two main issues I would like to raise awareness of are:

• The new EDUCANZ will be formed through undemocratic means, teachers will lose the right to elect members as they can at present. Instead all members of EDUCANZ will be appointed by the Minister of Education.
• EDUCANZ will replace the aspirational 'Code of Ethics' with what I believe to be a patronising 'Code of Conduct'.

I believe if I were to be elected as the secondary representative on NZTC I could use this opportunity (even if it is short-lived) to highlight issues surrounding the transition to EDUCANZ that I believe have not been heard or listened to during the consultation period. It is simply not good enough that an entire sector of highly qualified educators are not being recognised as the professionals they are. I believe my presence on the NZTC in it's final months will give all secondary educators the opportunity to have a loud, articulate voice to communicate how we feel about the formation of EDUCANZ. 

Why you should vote!
Of course I hope you vote for me, but irregardless of whether you can or do, the most important thing is, that if you are a registered educator - you must vote! This may be the last chance to challenge the perception that educators do not care about having the opportunity to elect their own representatives. We must show that we value this right and that we deserve to maintain the right to vote in at least a proportion of our own council.

Please share this post widely and ensure all registered educators are aware of the changes afoot. Below is the information from the EDUCANZ transition website that outlines the changes that are planned and the differences between the current NZTC and the future EDUCANZ.

Broader Scope
The proposed EDUCANZ remit is wider than that of the current Council and would include leadership as well as quality teaching across the early childhood education and schooling sectors.

EDUCANZ would be independent of Government
Unlike NZTC, which is a crown entity, EDUCANZ would be an independent statutory body and would be able to make independent comment on education policy. This would enable EDUCANZ to lead the public debate on education.

The EDUCANZ Council would set its strategic direction in consultation with the sector.

The EDUCANZ Council would be skills-based and all appointments made by the Minister
The new Council would have less members (nine versus the current 11 on NZTC). Candidates would be sought through an open nominations process based on specific criteria, that as a minimum would include taking in to account candidates':

• Knowledge of Education

• Experience of governance

• Leadership experience and skills

• Financial skills

• Understanding of the partnership principles of the Treaty of Waitangi

At least five candidates from this nomination process would be appointed by the Minister together with the balance being selected by the Minister. In making appointments the Minister would also be required to have regard for the collective skills, experience and knowledge making up the overall Council.

A minimum of five of the members would be people holding teacher registration and a practising certificate.

By comparison, the NZTC Board has 11 members, with four members directly appointed by the Minister of Education, three members appointed by the Minister following nomination by NZEI, NZSTA (School Trustees Association), PPTA and four members elected by the sector.

Registration and Practising Certificates would be separated
Currently, registration (to recognise membership of the profession) and practising certificates (focussed on assessing on-going competence of teachers) are combined. It is proposed that separate registration and practising certificates would be issued, in line with other professions.

Limited Authorities to Teach (LATs) could be linked to a person
Currently, LATs are issued for a specified position, location and time period. Under the proposed legislation LATs can be applied to a person as well as a specific position.

Changes to disciplinary proceedings
EDUCANZ would be able to investigate matters without having to wait for a complaint to be raised and all matters of serious misconduct would be automatically referred to the Disciplinary Tribunal. A member of the governing board would not need to be on the Disciplinary Tribunal, which is a current requirement.

Code of Conduct
EDUCANZ would develop a code of conduct to replace the current code of ethics.

See the EDUCANZ transition website for more details: 
http://www.educanztransition.org.nz/about-educanz/what-is-the-difference-between-educanz-and-nztc/

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