The first 100,000 words: Writings on Education by a Teacher

Teacher Representation 2.0 – The media, global education and the unions role. In my previous blog, the first of 2019, I outlined the difficulties that I see for teaching as a profession in Australia, with a specific focus on teacher representation and leadership. Based on what can only be called an impressive response, I have now learnt many things that add to and challenged my earlier thoughts. The exploration of these ideas may well be something that I continue, as I feel that too frequently ‘teacher voice’ and ‘teacher representation’ are things cited freely without the associated awareness of the difficulties and complexities that are present. These difficulties and complexities need not be explored because the likelihood of a sudden change of direction that allows teacher voice to be possible or allowed is not within sight. A special thanks to Jelmer Evers and Howard Stevenson, whose work reminded me of something I completely failed to mention, the role of the Educa...

Ranting, raving and complaining Hattie and the tenor of debate within Education I agree with the contention that Australia is within the grip of a movement described as “the Cult of the Guru” with John Hattie as the visible figurehead and Visible Learning as the corporate and commercial arm. It is worth noting that the emergence of Hattie within Australia closely mirrors the rise of Dylan Wiliam’s in the United Kingdom and more recently the USA. Wiliams’ Classroom Experiment and Hattie’s Revolution School TV programs, Wiliam’s Learning Sciences International and Hattie’s Visible Learning bear much in common, though their agendas differ. So, it is clear that this is not merely an Australian trend, but one aspect of the broader ‘Global Education Reform Movement’ (Sahlberg 2006; 2016), a trend whose examples I am sure others more qualified than I could add to. The critiques of Hattie’s methods are numerous and robust (Bergeron & Rivard, 2017; Higgins & Simpson, 2...

Teachers of all countries unite!   by Jelmer Evers Anyone who reads on Twitter and reads newspapers and has something to do with education cannot have failed to notice that something is going on in education. There is much discussion about the representativeness of teacher organisations. The Education Cooperative has the motto "From, For and By Teachers", but that has not always been the case in recent times. We need what Dennis Shirley calls "the promise of the present moment" A manifesto in six points: More democracy More organizing and networking More active teachers on boards Increased us of new technologies A merger of all trade unions. Membership to ‘Education International’ Trade unions fight inequality and promote democracy I think it is good to first determine something: trade unions are a democratic necessity. I have often heard such a disdain towards trade unions. Unions, who needs' em? Right? Wrong. We cannot do without tra...