Belinda Vickers - EDU6009 Teaching in Australian Schools

In response to the question "What are the two most significant

educational issues for teachers in Australian Schools today?", the two
most significant educational issues for teachers in Australian Schools
today is the number of students with learning disabilities/special needs
and the lack of aid support in the classroom for those students and
especially for those who do not qualify for the funding. The other issue is
the teachers quality challenges, such as the pressure for teachers to excel
their students at a significant rate, as well as the pressure that lies on the
teacher to educate the class through external standardised test and
parents. Both of these issues are drastically creating a more stressful
environment for Australian School Teachers and at times can help to move
in the right direction as schools become more occupied with performance
(Naidu, 2011). Teachers have a large demand of roles in and outside the
classroom every day and these issues can impact on their workload and
cause them to neglect other areas of their work. A combination of the
issues for teachers in Australian Schools today must be
addressed/improved to create more opportunities for those teachers to
develop their professional practice and modeling of the right classroom
based activities and the motivation to include parents and stakeholders in
the development of the students(Leichsenring, 2010). Schools currently
now are measured intrinsically and measure the teachers effective
delivery which can reduce the amount of creativity and ownership that
they hold within a classroom (Galton, 2008). Therefore these issues are of
high importance for teachers in Australian Schools and effect how the
teacher teaches and their students learn.

With the ever growing number of students presented in classrooms that

show signs of learning disabilities and special needs displays a even
greater challenge for that teacher in that class. Students within the
classroom all have varying levels of understanding and support needed,
but students with learning disabilities/special needs require more time and

attention to be on a similar level as their peers. Those students who do

not qualify for financial funding are often left with no other option but to
gain assessment from external professionals such as psychologist and
speech therapist. This alternative for families can be time consuming and
a financial burden and leaving the reports confusing and difficult to
interpret for teachers understanding in the classroom environment (Skues
& Cunningham, 2013). The solutions of using school finances or funding
to hire teaching assistances in the classroom is a complex and Miller
(2005) describes the system of teaching assistance and aids in schools as:
"unravelling in the face of political and bureaucratic inertia ... [a]
once-innovative
program ... struggling after years of inadequate resourcing and
professional training,
departmental and specialist staff cuts, poor accountability and budgetdriven tightening
of eligibility criteria"
Often there are students within a class that are classified as special needs
and along with the Education System they now have specialist assistance
within a mainstream school with the option to withdraw from mainstream
or obtain within class assistance (Soto-Chodiman et al, 2012).

Yet with the increasing number of special needs students entering into
the mainstream education the funding is not matching with that number,
leaving schools to discover and implement ways to meet the needs of
those students (Abawi & Oliver, 2013). The Australian Bureau of Statistics
in 2013 stated that
"All Australians with a disability...290,000 (7.2%) were children aged
0-14 years'. In addition, almost two-thirds (61%) of children aged 5-14
years with a disability had an intellectual disability and of this number
three-quaters of boys, and just over half of the girls, had a mental or
behavioural disorder. Nearly 98 percent of school-aged children (5-14

years) with a disability attended school in 2009. Autism and related

disorders were the most commonly reported"(ABS, 2013)
The Disability Standards for Education (2005) implies that education
providers must take the right steps to ensure that the students with a
disability have the opportunities to reach their individual potential on the
same basis as the students without disability and not subject to
discrimination(cited: http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/F2005L00767).
Therefore with the growing number of special needs students entering
into primary schools the educational issue for teachers in Australian
Schools today is ever growing and needing more support and solutions to
be more equipped to teach the students with special needs (Forlin, Keen,
& Barrett, 2008).

The issue for teachers in Australian Schools with not enough support and
solutions to teach students with special needs can neglect the educational
opportunities for those students as well as the rest of the class. The
teacher with a student in the classroom who has special needs and is not
eligible for funding can leave the teacher feeling that it interferes with
their instruction time, an increase in paperwork and lack of general
support for their workload (Brackenreed, 2008). As per the teachers role
they will try to educate all the students in their class, where assistance for
individuals with learning disabilities is at the best of times a necessary to
lead the way in inclusive education. The teacher assistant has become a
crucial asset in the classroom supporting the teachers and the students
with disabilities, especially with disabilities such as intellectual and autism
(Giangreco, 2013). The teacher who has a student who qualifies for
funding to have access to an assistant who's role has been to support
individual students with the right care, mobility and to work alongside the
classroom teacher and others to support the student to access a modified
version of curriculum. This in time enables those students with special
needs to have a successful integration and inclusion into mainstream
environment (Bourke, 2009). Therefore some of the roles the teacher may

not have time/capacity in order to support the individual student where

the role of the assistant can fulfil those needs.

Students with learning disabilities are seen in the classroom to display

difficulties in areas of basic school learning that they can lack responding
to the usual teaching strategies and as seen by the school principle to
need support of a trained individual to assist them (Andews, Elkins, Berry
& Burg, 1980). For students to be eligible for funding according to Walker
et al (1988) in many situations the support that once was available to the
student and families becomes more assessments and availability, leaving
the families back onto another waiting list . For students with special
needs and their families;
"The nature and extent of the advocacy of parents of children with
special education needs can be both more complex and more challenging
than the role required of most other parents" (Ryan & Cole, 2009).
Where the teacher is unable to support the student with special needs due
to their own time constraints and understanding as teachers are usually
guided with their assumptions about the problems associated with
teaching students with disabilities (Rice, 2006). Upon the teachers
perceptions they can often move those students with mild
disabilities/learning needs to the special education discourse (Florian,
2010). Therefore students who are granted funding to have access to an
assistant has a positive outcome as stated by Vygotsky (1926/1997) that
it is not the focus on the disability but on the individualisation of the
student that is the way to educate children and adjust the pedagogical
practices accordingly regardless of any disability (Roberts & Griffin, 2009).
A solution to developing more support and assistance for teachers of
students with learning disability would be for the school to apply for
further funding for specific students or find ways to alleviate the teachers
workload in the classroom.

The second significant issue that Teachers in Australian Schools today is

the pressure that is placed for teachers to excel their students at an rapid
rate. National testing in areas such as the NAPLAN that have a focus on
testing performance can influence the teaching practice within the
classroom and often deter teachers from using alternative practices
(Hardy, 2013). There are more external pressures placed upon teachers
such as changing socio-economic structure and schools lacking in the
ability and training for students to be equipped for labour markers and the
new global economy (Apple, 2001; Green, Hodgens, & Luke, 1994; Kamler,
1997). Students who are lacking in current literacy skills can cause
parents and public to blame the teacher, teaching quality and if the
teachers education produces literate teachers (Zipin & Brennan, 2006).
The increasing pressure prevent teachers to have time to reflect upon
their teaching which can result in the decrease in creativity in the
classroom (Groundwarer-Smith & Mockler, 2009; Hargreaves, 2003) It can
also mean that the pressure to educate students and excel them
academically teachers may forgo learning experiences/lessons that they
feel are relevant to their own classroom situations (McRae et al., 2001).
Therefore the external pressure placed on teachers to excel students at an
rapid rate can reduce how much creativity and planning the teacher has
within such a short time frame.

The pressure placed on teachers to educate students should also be

reflected on the student and their families who are under the impression
that all learning is conducted at school. Through comprehensive research
there is a significant link between consistent engagement that parents
have with their children for learning activities at home that can have a
positive effect on their academic and social development at school (Harris
and Goodall, 2007; Mulhuish et al., 2001). Those teachers who are under a
great amount of academic pressure placed onto them could mean the
difference between handling students social, emotional and behavioural
issues within the classroom. As seen by Kanevsky and Keighley (2003)
students appreciate and learn best from a teacher who gave them

challenges and cared about them, but the absence of social and emotional
attributes in the students education had significant underachievement
and becoming school leavers ( Folsom, 2005). Focus on academic success
could also result in the teacher losing emotional intelligence and
awareness for student issues such as bullying at school. Lareau and
Weininger (2003) stated that when teachers focus on only academic
achievement it becomes a form of "cultural capital" and they do not pay
attention to the ways that dealing with social and emotional can result in
the students learning more by making use of those skills (Jennings &
DiPrete, 2010). Therefore pressuring teachers to focus on academic
outcomes and results can cause greater issues such as the students
emotional intelligence and being equipped to deal with their peers and
society outside of school.

The NAPLAN (National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy) is the

most current form of external pressure placed on teachers and the
classroom. The NAPLAN is once a year test that all school students in year
3, 5, 7 and 9 must complete to test their skills against the school
curriculum. The results are used to act as a indication of the National
performance as well as individual schools. This can be seen as
unnecessary pressure for those teachers to ensure their students are
prepared for this testing. Deleuze (1992) suggest that schools are moving
from a disciplinary society to a controlled one, that schools are in the
middle of a "general breakdown" and resulting in education being
empowered by business rationalities . NAPLAN can create false promise to
stakeholders, voters, parents, principles and teachers that the test results
is key to the improvement of students education outcomes (Thompson &
Cook, 2012). Teachers and school leaders feel that one test such as
NAPLAN should not perform an accountability function to determine the
students learning, the teachers ability or the schools quality (Dreher,
2012). Doecke and Parr (2009) state that when teachers feel more
accountable with results on standardised tests they can fail in their ability

to respond to "local difference and diversity" in students. Reflecting the

teachers onto ability from national tests such as NAPLAN can create
concern and unnecessary pressure in schools, teachers.

My School (cited: http://www.myschool.edu.au/MoreInformation)which

aligns with the NAPLAN was established in 2008 is seen to allow public
and parents to compare primary schools based on the schools
numbers/location and test results. The My School looks to improve those
high performing students and bridge the gap between high socioeconomic
backgrounds and those less financially wealthy, as well as focusing on the
indigenous students (Gorur, 2013). This external pressure of such
information can force teachers to alert parents and public to not blame
them for students academic success, but to look wider at different ways to
locate areas that interfere and effect students lives learning (Smyth,
2013). School education and teacher performance can really be
understood by those that are engaged in it (students) and influenced by
its experience, they are more capable to explain the practice they are
involved in and how they have seen it successful (Hardy & Boyle, 2011).
Therefore both NAPLAN and My School are potential pressures to the
teachers pedagogy and perspective on how to best teach the class.

The two prevalent issues for Australian Teachers has a significant impact
on what occurs within the classroom and can cause other crucial areas for
students development to lack attention and guidance. Current culture of
school expectations has meant that the much more important tasks that
are taught which provide a rich range of information for teacher about
students as individuals and their needs as well as the pedagogy plan is
often ignored or diminished compared to the external and high stakes
testing performed (Perso, 2006). Teachers lacking in support for their
students who may have special needs/learning disability but not eligible
for more funding for teacher assistance can struggle to teach those

students at the same ability as their peers. With the students in the
classroom the student with the learning disability has been seen to alter
the teachers beliefs and understanding, especially about learning
disabilities and lead to a change in their classroom behaviour and impact
the students learning outcomes (Woodcock, 2010). Standardised tests
such as NAPLAN can impact the teachers plan for the classroom and
impact on curriculum and the classroom pedagogy, where teachers
indicated they spent more time teaching for the test and less on the
curriculum areas that are not assessed having a negative impact on the
students development (Thompson & Harbaugh, 2013). Therefore these
issues can have a significant impact on both teacher and student in the
long run causing teachers to lose initiative and students to miss out on
valuable school experiences and lessons.

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