The Victorian State Education System…from the inside out and the outside in
As teachers in Australia prepare for students to return for the start of another year, I sit in my new work attire of T-shirt, short and thongs, contemplating my 25 years as an educator and in particular my last 13 years with the Victorian Department of Education as Assistant Principal of Gisborne Secondary College and perhaps more notably the last eight as Principal of Templestowe College.
I am certainly not finished with education, indeed, I am more passionate than ever about contributing to build a more equitable, relevant and inspiring education system, and in my mind at least, this is most likely to be achieved through empowering students to Take Control of their own education. But more on that another time.
My thoughts today go towards my relationship with the Victorian Department of Education and Training (DET).
Establishing and leading one of the most progressive and innovative schools in Australia, and if the Finnish based HundrED organisation are to be believed, one of the most innovative in the world, I have often been asked what is my relationship with the DET. I suspect most people think it has been a fractious and difficult one, but like most relationships, ours is a complex one. People who have worked, or been involved with the Victorian DET will have their own take on this, but this is my experience.
Whilst I attended Amstel State Primary school in Clayton, Victoria, which is now a housing estate, and completed a three week round at Berwick High School during my teacher training, these were my only real experiences of the State System. Six years of Independent school education and the first 12 years of teaching and leading in traditional independent schools had made me somewhat elitist, and I was largely oblivious and ambivalent towards “The State Sector”. I knew it existed, but I am now ashamed to say I didn’t really think that good education or good teaching happened there. The exception to this perception was the select entry high schools, the staff of which also seemed to consider themselves somewhat “independent” and moved easily between systems.
I confess I entered the State System for purely pragmatic reasons, largely because I needed a job, having been unfairly dismissed from my first headship of the now defunct Macedon Grammar. What a true joy it has been to see education luminary and renowned author, John Marsden, create such a positive learning environment at the new Alice Millar School on this great bushland site. At the time I was up for a new challenge and keen to recover from my wounds in an environment I enjoyed….the classroom.
My first impression of the State System was “Wow!” These guys had far stronger professional development programs, and educational theory than I had ever seen in the Independent System. It was in the days of Daryl Fraser, the Deputy Secretary of DET who later fell from grace, but at the time had legendary, almost god-like status within the department. The DET under Daryl’s leadership wanted teaching to move from a craft/vocation to a profession. We were told we needed a pedagogical basis for what we did. Who even knew this word existed back then! He exposed teachers and leaders to educators like Professor Yong Zhao and Professor Richard Elmore. I had previously only read about their work, but here we were meeting these visionaries in the flesh. It seemed like there was far, far greater money available for staff PD and improving professional practice was taken far more seriously. We were actively encouraged to look at what was happening in education in other parts of the world, we were even paid to go and take a look for ourselves. I was on a steep learning curve. The DET under Daryl’s leadership was a dynamic and exciting organisation and Victorian State Education seemed like THE place to be.
Closer to home I saw a real dichotomy amongst the staff at my school. Some of the finest and committed educators I have met, but some highly paid and experienced teachers, well beyond their “best before date”, waiting it out until retirement. I was surprised that there was something called an LCC, Local Consultative Committee where elected staff got to contribute to the actual decision making process of the school and ensured that work was divided equitably. This was indeed a shock from the autocracy of the Independent Schools I had worked in and led. To be honest I was confused and still am, as to which was the best system. The LCC seemed like a noble and idealistic institution, but as we discussed a few extra minutes of teacher workload here and there for hours at a time, I could see two sides. I knew that good leaders in the independent system generally ruled equitably, a benevolent dictatorship so to speak, but I had also heard of schools where certain staff could be targeted and their lives made hellish with little recourse other than to leave.
The old adage of “absolute power corrupts absolutely” came to fruition and Daryl and a group of highly respected leaders brought themselves undone. The details of which were made transparent in the IBAC enquiry operation Ord and Dunham. I know it is unpopular to speak well of those who have fallen, but my impression as a relative new comer to “The System” was, as it is now, that the senior members of the DET, at least those I have encountered, were and are, all astute and highly intelligent educators who (corruption findings aside) have the best interests of the students at the centre. The unfortunate legacy of this sordid time, is that the DET now seemed somewhat paralysed to take any significant progressive action. There was a much needed cleaning house, where processes and accountabilities were quite rightly strengthened, but this has really done nothing to improve education. It seems that senior leaders of the DET are now playing it VERY safe, going for rigorous data analysis, using evidence based research and seeking improvement by refining existing processes with greater accountability. This does seems like a legitimate plan, but my fear is that with the Mitchell Institute identifying 40% of students being disengaged and PISA results stagnant for 10 years, that we need a significant “reboot” as Hattie calls it. Without a compelling and exciting new vision for education, the hearts and minds of staff in DET schools (and I suspect most schools) are drifting, uninspired by the data driven grind and without inspiration, save doing the best by their kids.
As to the specific relationship between DET and TC, well things started off quite normally. I received pity due to the state the school was in when I inherited it, particularly from the Regional staff who had been involved in various interventions along the way. In those first few years, when even I was uncertain if the school would survive, it was a little like no one wanted to be too close to the action in case the hand grenade went off. So we innovated, without asking for permission. Some things worked, others didn’t, so we modified, adapted and kept moving forwards. Student enrolments started to climb. The tipping point in the school’s fortunes came when we decided to drop reference to year levels completely. I waited for the wrath of the central office to descend….but nothing….not a peep. We had received considerable media attention, but not a word one way or the other, so we kept innovating.
When we adopted three alternative starting times to the day, 7.15am-1.15pm, 8.50am-3.30pm and 10.30am – 5.15pm, I thought nothing of it. Early one morning I was awoken by my Assistant Principal who had been called by a Channel 7 reporter about this “brave” new innovation! Doing the same stuff at a different time of day did not seem revolutionary to me, particularly given some of the other things we were doing, but somehow TC made the news cycle. There were two interviews before I left home and when I arrived at school there were three news trucks in the car park getting set up. I even had calls from friends oversees who had seen the story broadcast there. The response from Region or Central Office…nothing….
It seems to me that unless there are parental complaints, if the school’s numbers are stable or growing and your data is tracking ok, essentially DET allow you to innovate and do as you please. I have loved this level of professional autonomy and dare I say trust shown by DET in its’ Principals. Not really the ogre that people sometimes suspect. In fact many senior staff have provided me with encouragement and professional support during the more innovative years at TC.
As I leave TC I search for a suitable analogy for DET and our relationship. Perhaps a slightly remote parent, not wanting to show too much encouragement or affection, but one that in time the child learns to respect anyway. One thing that I can say for certain though, any hint that the Principals and Assistant Principals in the State system, don’t pull their weight and have the very best interests of their kids at heart is entirely false. Whilst the remuneration for teachers is similar across all three systems, Principals in the State System (and this is true of the Catholic System also) get paid only a fraction of the remuneration given to Independent Heads. This is NOT to say that Independent Heads are paid too much, but rather that leaders in the other systems are paid far, far too little given the levels of responsibility and autonomy they act with. All career educators are in my mind heroes, but given the poor remuneration for leaders in the State and Catholic systems, perhaps even more so.
Thank you DET.
Peter Hutton
No comments:
Post a Comment