Mike Elliott to Launch Study into Public Education

	News Release
		2001 News Releases index
Mike Elliott Leader Australian Democrats Member of the Legislative Council		Education News

Friday 5^th October 2001

INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC PUBLISHES LIFE WORK

Internationally renown academic, Professor John Smyth, will today launch "Critical Politics of Teachers' Work: An Australian Perspective" a book that is the culmination of over twenty years research into public education.

Professor Smyth is the director of the Flinders University Institute for the Study of Teaching and as chief investigator for several Research Council projects has critiqued the marketisation of public education in Victoria and South Australia.

"It is a great honour to be asked to participate in the launch of such a significant life work," Australian Democrats leader, Mike Elliott, said earlier today.

"As director of FIST, John has shaped the Institute into a strong advocate for the central role of quality public education in a healthy democracy.

"Under John’s direction the Institute has also fought to maintain social justice in schools and promote greater respect for the teaching profession.

"As a parent of children who attend public schools, I have been greatly encouraged to hear John standing up for public education at time when public schools are increasingly under attack.

"John’s rigorous analysis of the recent trends within public education has also been telling and timely.

" As a parliamentarian I have greatly appreciated John’s research and its provision of a theoretical construct from which to assess the devolution of schools.

"John has warned that P21 risks giving governing councils more responsibility but no more real power.

"John’s research is vital in understanding that forcing students to stay at school for an extra year without improved resources or pedagogy helps neither them nor their classmates.

"This book is a must read. Not only because it grapples with the fundamental issues facing public education today, but because it also maps out a more compassionate and just future for education in this nation."

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Mike Elliott

FLINDERS INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF TEACHING

Director: Professor John Smyth, School of Education, Flinders University, South Australia, Australia

email:John.Smyth@flinders.edu.au

Media Release

VALUE OUR TEACHERS OR SINK IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

"Australia is in deep trouble, educationally speaking," says Director of the Flinders University Institute for the Study of Teaching, Professor John Smyth.

"A teacher shortage is no longer looming - it is upon us in crisis proportions.

"Without skilled, committed, and valued teachers, we will become victims of globalisation.

"The survey just published by the Australian Association of Secondary Principals found significant teacher shortages and has pegged the problem, but not the underlying issue.

"As the Melbourne Age noted (in its editorial of 3/10/01), in this rapidly changing global economy ‘only those mid-sized countries with the greatest edge in information and technological knowledge will reap the rewards’.

"And, herein lies the depth of the problem: as a community and a society we simply don't value the work of teachers, and support it in the way that it deserves.

"Numbers are certainly not irrelevant here, but we also desperately need educational policies and reforms that overcome the distress and reverse the degradation of the work of teachers that has been underway in Australia for more than 20 years."

This is the message in a new book by Professor Smyth, entitled "Critical Politics of Teachers' Work: An Australian Perspective" and published by Peter Lang Publishing, New York.

"The book draws on evidence showing that we have been heading in the wrong direction," says Professor Smyth.

"Far from celebrating the work of teachers in public schools, governments around Australia have taken the narrow and short-term view of mistakenly believing:

that schools and teachers can be forced to shape-up in particular ways;
that schools should be required to operate more like businesses;
that policies should emphasize competencies, outcomes, testing, managerialism and vocationalisation of the curriculum.

"'Low trust' policies of this kind convey the message to teachers that their work is not valued and that they must change direction, often against their better professional judgement.

"What this book argues is that we need to:

find another way out of this policy mess;
find less muscular and more inclusive ways;
and, focus on more imaginative and egalitarian possibilities that value the work and worth of teachers.

"We need policies that provide the kind of professional development and support needed for teachers to genuinely learn.

"We need to substantially shift the reform agenda away from the focus on budgets, management, accounting and governance.

"We need a reinvigorated culture of debate around teaching, learning, curriculum and social justice.

"Teachers are being dangerously undervalued, and the complex issues surrounding this are not being addressed. It’s time for the confusion and policy dithering to stop, and to bring teachers back into the discussions.

"This book argues that these are no longer matters of choice. Tackling the deeper underlying malaise that has been forced upon our schools and teachers, is a national priority affecting all of our futures; and it requires a totally different mind-set."

The book will be launched by the Hon. Mike Elliott, MLC, Parliamentary Leader of the Australian Democrats in South Australia

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