Nathan worked in ACE. I met Nathan by chance and a short time later overheard him make the comment I don’t think I’m cut out for VCAL which prompted me to invite his participation in my research. He had been teaching VCAL for a total of two weeks when I invited him to participate. The interview took place about a month later.
After leaving school, Nathan spent a year writing and undertaking casual employment. He then completed a two year course at TAFE in professional writing and editing which led to his enrollment in a Bachelor of Arts in writing and literary studies. Nathan then completed a Graduate Diploma of Secondary Education. My interview with Nathan took place in November of the following year.
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After graduation and before being successful in getting his current position he had applied, over a five month period, for heaps and heaps of secondary school jobs (he suspected some were “ghost”, or non-existent, jobs) and achieved one interview. He then obtained two part time teaching jobs: one teaching VCE at a provider where he had completed his teaching placement the previous year during his teaching course and one teaching VCAL to young people at the ACE where he spoke to me.
Nathan told me that he was the students’ third or fourth teacher since July (he and I spoke in November). When I asked why the students had so many teachers, Nathan replied
… I don’t know exactly I think they found it really hard to find a teacher … I assume that I was the only applicant for what I am now teaching, so that says a lot I think.
Nathan was referring to his perception that educators may not necessarily want to teach in provider settings such as ACE where students are often
characterised as extremely disengaged and have potential to demonstrate very challenging behaviours. It is also possible that a lack of understanding about undertaking senior years study via non-linear pathways and a lack of awareness about VCAL contributed to the lack of applicants. I also know through my work that a number of teachers do not wish to teach VCAL. The combination of the position being both in an ACE setting and involving the teaching of VCAL may also have deterred applicants.
Nathan started his employment with the ACE provider at the beginning of term four. VCAL curriculum had not been covered in his secondary teaching course. He had heard of the program because an extended family member completed it several years previously. He completed some research of VCAL prior to his employment interview to overcome his lack of knowledge. To do so, he
searched online including accessing VCAA documents to see if secondary schools had uploaded examples of VCAL programs. Nathan wanted to be knowledgeable,
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prior to his interview, as to the type of tasks included in a VCAL program and how they were enacted. He said it’s not a good thing to admit, I still kind of don’t … completely [he appears to change his mind as to what he was going to say] and continues
… I understand it now but maybe it took four weeks to really get my head around it … but still turning the outcomes into entertaining practical assessment I still … I don’t think I’ve been doing a good job with that so for that kind of stuff I have been looking on the internet as much as I can to see what other teachers and schools are doing.
After he was offered employment he was allocated the Work Related Skills Strand and the Personal Development Skills Strand to teach. He became worried that he would not have adequate basic knowledge of the curriculum. Ironically he found that his rigorous experience of looking for work helped him with devising content for learning outcomes in the Work Related Skills strand. Nathan drew on his own recent experience to inform teaching and learning about
resumes, cover letters and interview techniques. He explains
… I understand their positions at their age regarding their resumes. My resume is only now starting to look good when I have a few degrees on there.
As a result of Nathan’s experience in searching for work he feels he is able to bring empathy to similar situations his students may experience:
… I know what it is like to do a Centrelink [government welfare
organisation] application … I can tell them that it is not a nice thing and their aim should be to not have to deal with them as soon as possible … I think in teaching literacy I will be able to use a lot more of my English as Second Language and writing skills … I think it is a process I have been going through as well to recognise my own abilities to present, negotiate, engage with those outcomes.
It appeared that at the time of the interview Nathan was still coming to terms with constructing a response to the requirement for applied learning
pedagogical approaches in his VCAL practice. Searching for information about VCAL was not confined to preparing for his employment interview, he continued to search for teaching resources once he was employed. He commented
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… there still aren’t a lot of resources on line…for the VCE I teach there is a wealth of resources on line. I have heard of the principles of applied learning but ask me to say any of them and I can’t.
He was critical of his teacher education course
… in my graduate course last year it [applied learning] was like a
meaningless term. It was dropped in the middle as if they had to drop it in to cross off a box. If they knew what it was they had an extremely bad and flawed way of teaching it, making it an apply-able thing in itself, making it something we could base a lesson plan on, or adapt something from or to.
Nathan’s frustrations were further exacerbated by his inability to attend professional learning due to his two part-time teaching jobs. He commented that he found it
… difficult to go to professional development sessions because of my schedule … I don’t know what would help me” [Nathan doesn’t yet know what he needs to know]…. I also have little faith that I would benefit from them so there is reluctance … [to attend].
Teaching across two different senior years’ curricula in two different provider settings to two differing student cohorts prompts Nathan to reflect on his practice and his students in each context. He explained how the two cohorts differed
… in VCAL more than anywhere else rapport is important … in my VCE class the students are self-motivated and see a future for themselves and the learning will take place regardless of their relationship with me… in this cohort [his VCAL class] there is a concentration of young people who struggle with self-esteem, self-image, self-belief and self-consciousness. Nathan accepted that students with challenging behaviours are found in all education settings, but explained the situation in his ACE setting this way, first acknowledging there are
… individual problems for every individual student, and these are problems that you might get in a secondary school, but it will be across the secondary school not all compacted into one class … we have got five or six classes and all of them are similar in that they have all got students who have been expelled or had to repeat so they come here, or got
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pregnant so they weren’t allowed [back into their school] or [have] disability or mental disability.
Nathan perceived a discontinuity between the support for teachers in schools and the support for teachers in ACE where there is a higher concentration of young people with challenging behaviours or learning needs
… in a secondary school there is the support and here, there is definitely some level of support but for example they are getting a social worker here next year – so that will be a help, but in a secondary school it is at least a given they have a counsellor.
Nathan explained how he approached forming pedagogical relationships with his students
…when I started with this class, I can’t (like a lot of other teachers might) I can’t come in and be the strictest, authoritarian (and that’s not my style anyway) … there is mutual trust now, that comes from building a rapport, letting them know that I don’t assume they are degenerates and I don’t assume they are going to rob my phone if I leave it on the table [or] spray paint my shoes and that has helped with that kind of stuff.
Despite Nathan’s assertions above, our conversation revealed that Nathan had, and continue to, negotiate challenges. He was reflective when he described his early experiences teaching VCAL in the ACE setting
… first weeks were a bit rocky.The lucky thing for me is that this class has the first term next year to finish unit 2, so I didn’t have to – I tried to concentrate more this term on indoctrinating them as to what is required at senior level, cause they are intermediate level at the moment and I’m building a rapport, which next year if I have the same group, which I hope I do I can build upon the rapport I have made and the pressure will be on them, because the funny thing is, when there is a deadline set, when they do understand they risk failing most of them will, you know, their heads will be out of their bags during class and they will raise the standard. I had two students today request extra work from me so they could get ahead and not so much stress in term one ‘cause I warned them about that. An important thing for me was not to judge them immediately as to what they are often called in the community or referred to in the
community… [eg] they are the underclass and dole bludgers and they are here because they failed miserably elsewhere [Nathan did not want to reinforce stereotypes]. I have spoken to another teacher who has started here recently and I think that is going to work against her which is funny because she has got 30 years of experience under her belt and I wouldn’t
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have thought she would have done that [reinforce stereotypes]. Also [what] to expect – I spoke to them all individually today and I have throughout the term, once I got to know them, just letting them know that I do expect good things from them, to pass, to care about the quality of their work and to care about how they present themselves which I see as a big part of what VCAL should be doing, again it comes down to personal development – the name of the subject says it all and I think that has worked in making the class run a bit smoother.
Nathan believed the wider community held perceptions of VCAL as a “lesser” senior high school pathway. However, he said it is not necessarily an easier curriculum with which to become familiar or teach. Nathan explained
… the learning curve for VCAL is much larger than even for VCE which is supposed to be, is looked at as a higher level of education, I know some people use the word alternative but it is the mindset that VCAL is down here [gestures towards the floor] and VCE is up here [gestures towards the ceiling].
In Nathan’s case, teaching in VCAL changed his own previous perception of the program. He said
… during the first few weeks I was kind of questioning whether I believe in VCAL or not and I think today what you have seen – the painting [students were painting murals on external walls in a sheltered courtyard] and that is what has made me believe in it, before that I was still a bit … I think it had to do with the little amount of work happening and the ease for the student not to do it that I was reluctant to not think that it was an easy ride, so to speak, but that is probably more to do with me having traditional education beliefs anyway.
Nathan, as a teacher of both VCE and VCAL programs, firmly believed the VCE and VCAL programs were different and teaching in VCE did not necessarily convert to an ability to teach in a VCAL program and the differences were often not understood by education professionals
… the same way that someone who has taught English in a secondary school for 25 years or 50 and then [teaches] maths, it’s a similar dichotomy [teaching VCE and then teaching VCAL] and I don’t think there is any appreciation of that … by many in the teaching profession itself.
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Nathan felt his allocated work load including the requirement to meet compliance demands was made more difficult by working with
particularly needy and challenging young people. He said
… the most challenging – even after a short period of time I am so sick and tired already of all the administrative garbage and bureaucracy for example - the way the [VCAL] results have to be cover sheeted for audit down the track. This is draining and takes away from the reason I wanted to become a teacher. I’m a teacher not an admin assistant.
The uncertainty of knowing how many students would attend his lessons each day impacted on Nathan. He teaches in Work Related Skills and Personal Development Skills and sees the same group of young people for each skills strand for both, which is a total of two complete days per week. There are 18 students overall and he rarely sees more than 10–11 students at one time and 8 – 9 students is the norm.
… There are some classes where at the end of the day I just think ‘what the hell am I doing I really need to get out of here, but that was early on, the last few weeks have been good. I feel a societal responsibility to the students. Even after the first class I felt that to a degree because all of them have some sort of issue.
… I [have gone] home in the last few weeks knowing there is some benefit from the program and good work is being done. I have found a way to keep that thought [I don’t think I’m cut out for VCAL] but also do my job to a degree of quality.