There is a significant shortage of early childhood teachers in Australia, so removing barriers to obtaining the degree are welcome. Sue Osborne writes.
At the end of 2022, the IEUA NSW/ACT Branch held a Reality Roundtable, attended by Federal Early Childhood Education Minister Dr Anne Aly.
During the workshop, teachers talked about the difficulties they faced obtaining their degree, having to do unpaid practicums, and ending up with HELP debts they struggle to repay.
Pathways to teacher qualification range from a four-year full-time degree at Macquarie University in Sydney to a one-year online course at Swinburne University in Melbourne. Some courses focus on the 0–6 years age group, while others cover 0–12 years.
At face value, a one-year course sounds like a good option, bearing in mind the financial burden a degree places on a teacher. However, the IEU opposes anything that undermines the professional standing of early education teachers and threatens the quality of the education they provide.
Associate Professor Marianne Fenech, Program Director of Early Childhood Education at the University of Sydney, said, “In the absence of an evidence base about which approaches to initial teacher education (ITE) courses best prepare teachers, the impact of the introduction of fast-tracked courses as a solution to the crisis is unclear. It may prove effective for the pipeline, but how will it affect the quality of the pipeline?
“In an Australian study that investigated employer perspectives of how well prepared graduates are to teach in early years’ settings, participants indicated a preference to employ graduates of 0–5 rather than 0–12 programs. Participants also noted the value of these graduates having vocational training, yet what is not clear is whether upskilling from a diploma to a teacher qualification in one year is enough to ensure quality graduates,” Associate Professor Fenech said.
“The recent Exemplary Educators in ECEC study highlighted key differences in what informs the practice of diploma educators and degree-qualified teachers. While their dispositions and skills informed the practice of participants from both groups, teachers notably also drew on knowledge and theory.
Diploma v degree
“The Australian Qualifications Framework stipulates requirements for each qualification level, including diploma (level 5) and degree (level 7) qualifications. Importantly, the Framework sets a pathway for progression, not duplication. In other words, degrees are to support greater cognitive and more well-developed graduate attributes than diploma qualifications.
“It is unclear whether experience in the sector as a diploma-qualified educator translates to the achieving of intended higher-order outcomes for degree-qualified teachers. Given high attrition rates, and variability of quality across services, to suggest that experience as a diploma educator can be translated to teacher-equivalent knowledge and skills, requires investigation.
“Without a clear evidence base, there is a real danger that fast-tracking will diminish the profession; the need for rigorous and specialist teacher preparation; and potentially in the minds of politicians and the public more broadly, the need for teachers in early years contexts,” Associate Professor Fenech said.
“Research that addresses these knowledge gaps is urgently needed. Currently there is a paucity of research to inform ACECQA’s decision making about which programs should be accredited, and what features initial teacher education programs need to have to be accredited.
“There are also calls to water down ECEC teacher requirements in NSW, due to a perception that they are not making a difference. These findings beg the question of whether the diverse approaches to initial teacher education programs all support quality graduates, and if not, which ones do and which ones don’t.
“The ECT workforce crisis requires multiple, creative, and innovative approaches to not only building the supply of the workforce in Australia but building the supply of a quality workforce. And we need an evidence base to inform this critical work,” Associate Professor Fenech said.