🤔 If only politicians focused on the school issues that matter. This election is a chance to get them to do that

At a symposium in June 2020, Keith Heggart and Steven Kolber asked teachers, principals, politicians, journalists, education researchers, parents, public intellectuals and community members to discuss democratic issues faced by Australian schools. The two authors have compiled a soon-to-be-published edited collection based on the symposium. They summarise key issues as:

• teachers’ rapidly increasing workload
• lack of trust in teachers and their professional judgment
• lack of scrutiny of the expensive adoption of new technology
• the quality of research used for so-called evidence-based policy.

Suggested approaches for tackling these issues include:

• more effective and personalised professional learning for teachers
• more parental and community involvement in schools
• more targeted support for early-career teachers by linking them to professional networks and teaching communities
• a revitalisation of teacher unions, including a return to grassroots work with members, but also through expanding connections with the broader education community, including parents, professional associations and think tanks.

Underpinning all of these issues was a central theme: teachers must have the flexibility, trust and quality of research essential for education that serves local needs.