Zana Jabir (17671066)

Western Sydney University

“Not just anyone can teach. I know from personal experience that many people have given it
a go, but frankly, they just can’t do it. Teaching is a vocation and a profession. Through the
Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, teachers and leaders in Australia have set
very high standards about what someone needs to achieve to teach in an Australian
classroom.”

-Lisa Rogers, former CEO of AITSL, https://www.aitsl.edu.au/secondary/news-and-

media/not-just-anyone- can-teach

The quote above is from former CEO of AITSL, Lisa Rogers. She argues that the bar is high in
terms of what needs to be achieved to gain access to teaching in the Australian school
setting and adds ‘the bar is not changing.’

In 2017 a meeting was convened for all educational ministers across the nation. Realizing a
need for reform in the education sector, a team of experts then undertook the National
Review of Teacher Registration. Expert chairman of the review (Wardlaw, n.d.) mentioned a
central theme that teachers want to be united under one profession. The review provides
seventeen recommendations that ‘provide a way forward to achieve a stronger teaching
profession and better outcomes for children and young people across. The review found lack
of consistency in the requirements to meet registration for teachers across the nation, which
could possibly devalue the entry standards to teaching. Key focus areas of the review were;
1. To improve and reinforce teacher quality.
2. To facilitate the teacher registration process (author, date).
In light of the above quote this paper will evaluate teaching as a vocation and a profession,
highlighting the different historical and contemporary perspectives and discuss
professionalism through the current foundation structures of teaching, namely
The Australian Assessment and reporting authority, ACARA who are responsible for

understanding that “A profession is a disciplined group of individuals who adhere to ethical

standards. This group positions itself as possessing special knowledge and skills in a widely
recognized body of learning derived from research, education and training at a high level,
and is recognized by the public as such. A profession is also prepared to apply this
knowledge and exercise these skills in the interest of others”

This paper will examine curriculum, pedagogy and assessment in Australia’s contemporary
educational setting and
1. The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) curriculum
(400)

-What is curriculum? Satisfies the objectives of what we want school children to learn at a
particular period of time. Sets national milestone objectives.
-Illustrates complexities with the daily work of teachers
-Interrelationship between curriculum, pedagogy and assessment.
-critiques associated contemporary curriculum

2. The Quality Teaching Model Pedagogy (400)

-What is pedagogy: enacted curriculum, how teachers portray the curriculum
-Illustrates complexities with the daily work of teachers
-Critiques associated contemporary pedagogies
-Interrelationship between curriculum, pedagogy and assessment.

3. NAPLAN and Assessment (400)

-What is assessment? How we know students are learning, what we use to assess whether
students have learnt a particular objective during a particular time.
-Illustrates complexities with the daily work of teachers.
-Critiques associated contemporary standardized testing (NAPLAN)
-Interrelationship between curriculum, pedagogy and assessment.

Assessment is assessing what students know for the purpose of accountability and
competition and effects broader curriculum decisions. Educators use assessment to evaluate
students work and results are utilized as identifiers that show how a particular student or
school is performing or underperforming. The Australian Institute for Teaching and School
leadership standard 5 requires graduate teachers to ‘Assess, provide feedback and report on
criteria’ which can be demonstrated through common practices such as assessment design
and rubrics. The US No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)(2001) has paved the way for
compulsory standardized testing at regular intervals throughout schools with the original
straightforward idea that uniformity would address issues of inequity among students and
schools (Allen, 2010). The ‘Rubber Ducky movement’ (Fischetti, 2014) hit NSW shores in
2008 when The Ministerial Council of Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs
(MCEETYA) made national testing in literacy and numeracy (NAPLAN) compulsory for
students in years three, five, seven and nine. NAPLAN results are made public on the My
Schools website and this public accountability has created ripe conditions for a test-driven
curriculum. Ford (2014) uses a notion of critical race theory (CRT) to analyses NAPLAN test
results which indicate a staggering fifty percent gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous
students in NSW and NT, demonstrating inequities in achievements and that, yes Indigenous
children are being left behind in 2019 which is contrary to the initial NCLB Act.
4. Evaluate whether teaching is a profession by discussing different perspectives, arguing
for a particular position, and illustrating with relevant examples.

In order to evaluate whether teaching is a profession one must understand historical and
contemporary perspectives

5. Australian Professional standards for teachers (APST) Professionalism (400)

-What is professionalism?
-Evaluates whether teaching is a profession, arguing for a particular stance with relevant
examples.
-Interrelationship between curriculum, pedagogy and assessment.

Assessment is assessing what students know for the purpose of accountability and
competition and effects broader curriculum decisions. Educators use assessment to evaluate
students work and results are utilized as identifiers that show how a particular student or
school is performing or underperforming. The Australian Institute for Teaching and School
leadership standard 5 requires graduate teachers to ‘Assess, provide feedback and report on
criteria’ which can be demonstrated through common practices such as assessment design
and rubrics. The US No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)(2001) has paved the way for
compulsory standardized testing at regular intervals throughout schools with the original
straightforward idea that uniformity would address issues of inequity among students and
schools (Allen, 2010). The ‘Rubber Ducky movement’ (Fischetti, 2014) hit NSW shores in
2008 when The Ministerial Council of Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs
(MCEETYA) made national testing in literacy and numeracy (NAPLAN) compulsory for
students in years three, five, seven and nine. NAPLAN results are made public on the My
Schools website and this public accountability has created ripe conditions for a test-driven
curriculum. Ford (2014) uses a notion of critical race theory (CRT) to analyses NAPLAN test
results which indicate a staggering fifty percent gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous
students in NSW and NT, demonstrating inequities in achievements and that, yes Indigenous
children are being left behind in 2019 which is contrary to the initial NCLB Act.

Conclusion (200)
 References

Australian Institute for Schools and leadership, Australian professional standards for
teachers, retrieved from https://www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/standards
Allen, L. (2010). Benchmark assessment. In C. Kridel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of curriculum
studies (pp. 76-76). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi:
10.4135/9781412958806.n39

Fischetti, J. (2014) Issues in Education: The Rubber Duckies Are Here: Five Trends Affecting
Public Education Around the World. doi: 10.1080/00094056.2014.937309
Retrieved from https://www-tandfonline-
com.ezproxy.uws.edu.au/doi/citedby/10.1080/00094056.2014.937309?
scroll=top&needAccess=true

Ladwig, j. (2009) Working backwards towards curriculum: on the curricular implications

of quality teaching. The Curriculum Journal (20:3), 271-286.
doi: 10.1080/09585170903195886