If you’ve spoken to me for more 5 seconds, chances are you’ve heard me ramble about the general failings of many initial teacher education (ITE) degrees in Australia, and how they contribute to low teacher retention and our nation’s declining results (and a thousand more things). If you haven’t, it probably looks something like this:
The reason I mention this is because I’ve become increasingly passionate about doing something to improve these degrees, particularly over the past few months. Now this is all great, but with that passion comes the suspicion that perhaps yelling at clouds isn’t quite enough to make a real difference to Australia’s educational landscape and ITE.
Yesterday, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to both attend and present at researchED Ballarat. Now apart from the sheer amount of expertise in one general area, what this event brought with it was a group of educators from all around Australia, and even overseas, who genuinely care about what’s happening in the nation’s education scene. With around 300 educators, all of whom gave up their Saturday to learn how to improve their practice, the vibe of the conference was inspiring. Every conversation I had or presentation I sat through left me with a myriad of notes, contact details and all-in-all, inspiration.
I’ve been to PDs before where the most I’ve gotten out of the day is a nice view out the window - and to attend these, I’ve had to leave my classes for an entire day to learn about something that I’ll never implement. researchED was completely different to this. There was not a single session I attended where I didn’t leave with new strategies, ideas or knowledge - and once the recordings are available, there won’t be a single session I haven’t seen. Everything about the day made it into an incredible experience that I’m still yet to come down from.
researchEd mattered because it was about educators sharing and supporting each other to make sure all students have the opportunity to experience the best possible practice. It mattered because it left people feeling inspired, which can be hard when you see widespread educational fads contributing to declining national results.
And finally, it mattered because it’s the next step in something much bigger. Sure, me yelling at clouds probably won’t make all that much difference, but having an increasing number of passionate educators working towards improving the educational experience for our students just might be enough.