In our research on the quality of teaching in VET,340 we recommended a structure for the VET teaching workforce that differentiated teachers and the qualifications they need by the level of responsibility they have for teaching and assessing. Basically, we recommended that all teachers be required to undertake induction training including industry experts who only teach intermittently, while teachers who take on greater responsibilities would be required to undertake an entry level qualification upon entering teaching and higher level qualifications appropriate to their responsibilities as they progress. This is in contrast to the existing model whereby all teachers are meant to acquire the Certificate IV TAE (but in practice, many don’t do so) and there are mostly no further requirements after that.341 At the moment, VET teachers are not differentiated and even though there is a deficit discourse about VET teachers and teaching nonetheless, all VET teachers are expected to be experts in
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
334 For an example of the latter, see the Productivity Commission, 2011. 335 Smith & Keating, 2003, 241.
336 Kell, 2006, 32. See Billett (2004, 22) for a discussion of ‘teacher-proofing’ in Australia. See Harris (2002) for a discussion about the changes to teachers’ work and their responses to this.
337 Smith, at al., 2009, 23.
338 Schofield & McDonald, 2004, 33.
339 See also Guthrie et al. (2006); Guthrie (2009); and the 2008 OECD review of VET (Hoeckel, Field, et al., 2008) for discussions about the need to move away from compliance cultures.
340 Wheelahan & Moodie, 2010. 341 Wheelahan & Curtin, 2010.
110
a range of roles (which is one reason why deficits are routinely found), despite the Certificate IV TAE being the only mandated qualification.342
VET needs to be able to attract industry experts to teaching, and consequently, the entry barriers must not be too high. Insisting that VET teachers have high level teaching qualifications upon entry would represent such a barrier, and so there needs to be a scaffolded approach that allows VET teachers to obtain an entry level qualification when entering teaching and higher level qualifications as they progress. A nested framework of qualifications would enable appropriate qualifications to be developed for different types of VET teachers, support new VET teachers from industry who enter VET teaching as a career to gain the skills they need, and prepare them to undertake higher level VET teaching qualifications as they progress.
This model does not necessarily imply a linear pathway or a single set of VET teaching qualifications. Teaching qualifications should enhance teachers’ industry or disciplinary focus and capacity to teach in their area. This means that teachers may require different qualifications, or it may be that qualifications are of the same type but comprise different elements. It is also possible to build qualifications
pathways for teachers who have different types of initial industry/professional/disciplinary qualifications. This may result in the development of a suite of teaching qualifications in VET and higher education undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications. Some teachers in VET who have not obtained higher-level qualifications themselves may need support to develop the knowledge and skills and sometimes the literacy and numeracy skills they need to study at an appropriate level. Teachers will need higher-level knowledge and skills and literacy and numeracy if they are to support their own students, trainees or apprentices, or staff they are supervising.
Key to this approach is acknowledging that there is no single type of VET teacher and teaching; there are many different types of teachers and teaching. Those who teach primarily VET in schools need to be highly skilled teachers with well-developed understandings of adolescent development, classroom management and teaching foundation skills; they are more likely than other teachers to teach students who are regarded as at risk or who already are disengaged from education. Those teaching refugees with low levels of literacy and numeracy will need different knowledge and skills to those teaching high level qualifications in accounting or other professional fields of practice, or in the traditional trades. Higher education teachers need to engage in scholarship in their professional or disciplinary field. Recognising this diversity is essential in professionalising the VET workforce.
In Australia, VET teacher education programs and most continuing professional development (CPD) programs are generic; they do not include specialist training in teachers’ industrial or disciplinary fields of expertise and how to teach in those fields. In contrast, effective school teacher preparation and CPD ensure teachers have access to a shared knowledge base about teaching and learning, but they also focus on what teachers have to teach and how to teach it.343 VET teacher preparation in countries such as in the United Kingdom and many European countries have greater emphasis on teachers’ specialist fields,344 and there is growing recognition that Australia needs to move beyond generic training for its VET teachers to deepen the vocational focus of their preparation by including studies in their specialist field and how to teach in their specialist field. Research shows that teachers need pedagogic content knowledge, which is knowledge about how to teach in their content area, and support to deepen the underpinning knowledge of their content area.345 There is considerable support for this approach.346 For example, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry347 argues that:
There would also be considerable benefit in establishing a national professional development strategy that concentrates on knowledge and skills development in their industry area along with developmental pedagogy to assist VET practitioners in delivering skills and knowledge to learners.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
342 Guthrie, Perkins, et al., 2006; Mitchell & Ward, 2010. 343 Ingvarson, Meiers, et al., 2005.
344 Wheelahan, 2010. 345 Shulman, 2004.
346 Wheelahan & Moodie, 2010.
111
VET teacher preparation and CPD should try to engage teachers in the same industry, professional or disciplinary field to help develop networks, but also to support collaborative learning focused on what teachers have to teach and how to teach it. It helps to build shared and public understandings about quality and standards, and provides the basis for peer learning. It also helps teachers to develop their own professional capacities, particularly in developing teaching and learning and assessment materials.