Contemporary Issues in Secondary Schooling

Research Essay
Undergraduate

“Describe, discuss and explain the legislative, administrative and organisational requirements
associated with the South Australian teaching profession.”

Teachers play an extremely large and invaluable role in ensuring the progression and success of
society as we know it. This is done via the planned and effective education of our youth as they
progress through the schooling system. Along with the immense importance of these teachers
comes the high standard they are held to. These can be seen in many forms ranging from the literal
standards for teachers, to some of the legislative and administrative requirements such as first aid
training, RAN etc and even organisation or school specific teaching, learning and behavioural
guidelines. The following research essay will detail many of these requirements specific to South
Australian teachers including some of the reasons behind this and how it impacts the profession.

Administrative

A majority of the administrative requirements associated with the South Australian teaching
profession relate back to child safety. This is for obvious reasons a massive focus point for the
education system and schools as students are minors for the majority, if not all of their time at
school and therefore need to be provided with an especially safe and nurturing environment. When
a teacher or even a coach has a class of students, they then take on full responsibility for those
children and for this reason there are a number of barriers preventing just anyone from taking on
one of these rolls. These usually come in the form of required certification before entering a sight
with children and being put in a position of power and can be things such as RAN, first aid training,
WWCC or a number of others (Department of Education, 2020).

The RAN, or Responding to Abuse and Neglect, certificate is a requirement for all south Australian
teachers and can be acquired via a one day course covering a wide range of information regarding
everything from identifying abuse and neglect, to methods for dealing with it and the appropriate
people to contact due to specific scenarios. This is also backed by research with numerous studies
describing the importance of continuing to develop teachers’ abilities to identify and respond to not
only physical abuse but also mental abuse (Toros, 2016). Another required certification is the
WWCC, or Working With Children Check, which is essentially a police clearance acknowledging that
the educator is someone who their students will be safe to be left alone with and under the
supervision of. By ensuring that all employees have had a background check the education
department can decrease the risk of any unlawful, irresponsible or neglectful behaviour being
present within schools. Child safety goes hand in hand with the next certification with this being first
aid training. This is quite self-explanatory as the person responsible for their students, a teacher
must be able to recognise and react accordingly to a medical emergency. This could range from
simple injuries to knowing how to use an epi pen during an allergic reaction.

As a professional it is also important to remain engaged and appropriate when participating or

planning any school related engagements such as parent meetings, staff meetings or curriculum
requirements. Although meetings are common in many professions achieving curriculum standards
in quite unique to teaching and requires the educators planning for each class to be extensive in
order for them to effectively set up the students for success with regards to meeting these
requirements (Akyuz, 2013).

Daniel Barker Student id: 2186451

Contemporary Issues in Secondary Schooling

Organisational

Some of the most important organisational requirements for teachers come from the schools that
employ them. Every South Australian school has specific policies directed towards their own goals,
intended learning outcomes and behaviour management strategies of which their employed
teachers need to follow and strive towards. Using the school’s behaviour strategies as an example
these can be a great way to effectively target potential issues within a specific environment. If these
behavioural approaches were standardised within the entire state for example, they would be
significantly less effective as each school has different resources, facilities and
advantages/disadvantages when tackling punishment for negative behaviours or reward for
positives. The research shows that a school’s implementation of an effective behaviour management
policy/program can have significant positive effects of the school community with effects ranging
from attendance to engagement, achieving learning outcomes and can even positively effect staff,
parents and of course students (Hallam, 2007). Not only do these school specific behaviour policies
help increase effectiveness within the site but having a good understanding of them can be essential
for teachers for a number of other reasons as well. One of the main ones being legal requirements
and parental interactions. For example, if a student was suspended or kept in at lunch time for a
reason that does not align with the school’s policy then the teacher could be put into a difficult
position if the issue was raised by a parent or supervisor. Overall, a quality, specific and specialised
behavioural policy being designed by a school and combined with an in depth and knowledgeable
understanding implemented by a teacher is necessary to achieve the best outcomes.

Legislative

As far as the legislative requirements for teachers go there are a few crucial areas that must be
adhered to. The first of these is mandatory reporting which linked back to the RAN course and
certification that was discussed earlier. Mandatory reporting refers to the responsibility for an
educator or other person in a position of power to report possibly signs of this abuse/neglect that
they may have come across. If this mandatory reporting is not taken seriously or actioned
appropriately there could be serious legal obligations forced upon the teacher as it is part of their
responsibility with duty of care to report these things to the government in case further action is
required, such as the rehoming of the child etc.

In order to become a registered teacher in South Australia the educator in question must also prove
that they have demonstrated an ability to achieved each of the thirty six standards for teachers.
These cover essential abilities that a teacher must be able to display through planning and practise
within classes and can range from providing engaging work, to demonstrating the ability to
differentiate for diverse students, being inclusive of multicultural students, understanding how
students learn and many more. This is one of the most important steps to becoming a teacher as it
demonstrates all that has been learnt and shows prospective employers that said educator is
capable of effectively teaching a class and achieving the school and governments intended learning
outcomes.

The final legislative requirement to be discussed for south Australian teachers is that of assessment.
It is required by schools and government that all teachers submit official assessment of each student
and their progress within specific subjects. This data contributes to a number of aspects such as
school achievement levels, student differentiation and is crucial in ensuring parental figures and
future educators know where the student is at in order to adjust future content accordingly.
Students also require this formal feedback so that they can gauge their own work, understand what
they are doing right/wrong and continue to learn because of this. It is important that assessment

Daniel Barker Student id: 2186451

Contemporary Issues in Secondary Schooling

remains a valued part of educational legislation as it provides unmatched data/ feedback which is
invaluable in improving learning outcomes (Orrell, 2006).

Conclusion

In conclusion, there are a significant amount of administrative, organisational and legislative

requirements that need to be met by teachers within South Australia and all across the world even
more so than the ones mentioned within this paper. These requirements all play a crucial roll in
providing the students, our future, with a positive and safe environment that allows them to be
pushed in the direction of success and provides them with the tools they need to grow and develop
throughout the schooling process.

References

Akyuz, D., Dixon, J. K., & Stephan, M. (2013). Improving the quality of mathematics teaching with
effective planning practices. Teacher Development, 17(1), 92-106.

Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. (2020). Australian Professional Standards for
Teachers. Retrieved from: https://www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/standards

Hallam, S. (2007). Evaluation of behavioural management in schools: A review of the behaviour

improvement programme and the role of behaviour and education support teams. Child and
Adolescent Mental Health, 12(3), 106-112.

Orrell, J. (2006). Feedback on learning achievement: rhetoric and reality. Teaching in higher
education, 11(4), 441-456.

South Australian Department of Education. (2020). Working with us. Retrieved from:
https://www.education.sa.gov.au/working-us/responding-abuse-and-neglect-training/ran-ec-
training-requirements-non-department-providers

Toros, K., & Tiirik, R. (2016). Preschool teachers’ perceptions about and experience with child abuse
and neglect. Early Childhood Education Journal, 44(1), 21-30.

Daniel Barker Student id: 2186451