Educational Leaders

A tale of two teachers

Tessa McGavock

Time and support make a dramatic difference for Educational Leaders, writes Lucy Meyer.

It’s been over a decade since the Educational Leader position was introduced to the sector in NSW. Established in 2012 by The Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA), it’s now a critical role in early childhood centres across NSW. But the experience of being an Educational Leader varies as widely as the conditions.

While some Educational Leaders receive extra pay, hours, and support from their employer, many others don’t.

Tessa McGavock is the Educational Leader and Director at Western Sydney University Early Learning Penrith. The IEU member, who has been teaching for over 46 years and working as an Educational Leader for 12, receives no additional pay for the role. The enterprise agreement for her centre was approved before the Educational Leader allowance was introduced in late 2022. McGavock is not alone, with many centres falling into this category. McGavock feels strongly that all Educational Leaders should be compensated for the work.

On the other side of Sydney, another IEU member, Kirsten Hoolahan is working under very different circumstances. Hoolahan, a teacher at Gordon Community Preschool, has served as the Educational Leader for just over a year. While her workplace doesn’t have an enterprise agreement, thanks to the backing of her director, Hoolahan receives an allowance on top of her teaching wages.

Hoolahan also credits her director with allowing her to work directly with children three days per week and as an Educational Leader for the other two — a proposal Hoolahan advocated for. When asked whether it’s possible to do the work in less than two days, Hoolahan responded: “I’d say it’s possible, but not possible to do it well.”

You need time, she believes, to keep up to date with the latest research and professional development, guide other teachers, be a sounding board for colleagues and communicate with your team.

“The role of an Educational Leader is to support, nurture, mentor, role model and empower your educators.”

As a director herself, McGavock takes pride in championing and motivating her staff. She would love to see all employers step up to support Educational Leaders. What’s needed, she said, is adequate compensation, release time, less pressure, and regular training with enough time to really develop skills. She’d also like to see ACECQA make some changes. “I think they need to be more realistic,” she said.

While their experiences in the role of Educational Leader differ, McGavock and Hoolahan share a passion for teaching and a belief in the potential of the Educational Role to make a real difference for their teams.

To McGavock, “the role of an Educational Leader is to support, nurture, mentor, role model and empower your educators”. Hoolahan believes every service can make the position their own. She views it as “an opportunity to advocate for the sector” and to be a “professional disruptor” who gets people thinking.

“No matter what, the union believes it’s important that all Educational Leaders are paid properly,” said James.

What’s more, the role needs to be “resourced properly so teachers actually have time to be Educational Leaders, and to fulfil all of those important responsibilities.”

Kirsten Hoolahan

Time is of the essence

The amount of time Hoolahan has for the position is rare, said Early Childhood Education and Care Organiser at the IEU’s NSW/ACT Branch, Lisa James. Inadequate time is the single biggest problem James hears about from members in the role, with many only allocated the minimum two hours in the award to fulfill their duties. “Reviewing documentation of children’s learning, overseeing the program for the centre, mentoring the other teachers and educators and researching best practice in two hours is just an impossible thing to do,” James said.

McGavock is not given any additional time for her Educational Leader work. “It’s part and parcel of what you do as a Centre Director here,” she said. She works full-time as a Director and Educational Leader while completing a PhD at the University of Western Sydney and contributing to academic work at the university.

To McGavock, there’s a discrepancy between what is expected of Educational Leaders and what is possible on any given day. When she read through ACECQA’s Educational Leader Resource Guide, McGavock was surprised to see that a sixth of her time is supposed to be spent on research, a sixth on mentoring, and so forth. In the fast-paced and unpredictable environment of early childhood education “you can’t really break down a day like that,” said McGavock. She’s passionate about evidence-based research, but she knows research takes time. “I don’t get five minutes uninterrupted in a month.”

While McGavock has the skills, dedication, and experience to manage it all, she knows that less seasoned teachers often don’t. “I just see these youngsters, these young, mostly young women trying to negotiate this exceptionally stressful space, with very little support from management quite often.”

Teacher burnout

According to McGavock, the stress and burden of the Educational Leader role are contributing to teacher burnout and the loss of good teachers from a sector that desperately needs them.

McGavock is a member of a Facebook group for Educational Leaders. Teachers share experiences, ask for advice, and pool resources. Too often, McGavock said, she sees posts from young Educational Leaders who are clearly drowning.

“I’m so new and so lost,” wrote one member recently. “I’m doing everything at home as I never get time off the floor and [I’m] mentally struggling.”

McGavock has seen too many posts of Educational Leaders not getting paid, not getting any time off the floor, and not getting any support from management.

She thinks the frequency of such posts speaks to a wider problem with the Educational Leader role. “I just have to actually disengage from that forum completely because it makes my blood boil,” she said.

By contrast, Hoolahan has been fortunate to have a very rewarding and positive experience as an Educational Leader. “I think the role is very different in every service,” she said. Hoolahan has some layers of support many lack.

Her director encouraged Hoolahan to join an Educational Leaders networking group, which has been an invaluable resource. She also spoke with the centre’s Board of Management about the significance of the role, advocating on her behalf for more time. Hoolahan has a director who is “great to bounce ideas off or ask for advice or support if and when you might need it, however she also allows you the freedom of being a professional”. It’s a refreshing experience for Hoolahan, who hasn’t always enjoyed such autonomy in the workplace.