Image: Instagram, @topublichealth
by ABHA HAVAL
Teachers in New South Wales are at risk of being deskilled due to government policies, a new study has found.
The study, carried out as part of a collaboration between researchers from UNSW Sydney and University of Technology Sydney (UTS), looks into the NSW Government’s Quality Time Program.
The Quality Time Program was launched in 2021 and aimed to simplify the administrative process in schools and provide teachers and staff with improved support.
But some have argued that reducing core work, such as lesson planning, for the sake of efficiency might actually prevent teachers from developing their own teaching methods.
Dr Meghan Stacey, lead author and senior lecturer and researcher at UNSW School of Education, has pointed out that government policies may “reduce the quality of teachers’ work by taking away essential tasks such as lesson planning.”
As teachers buckle under the pressure of mounting workloads, it has become increasingly important to understand how policy responses are attempting to deal with this issue.
Dr Stacey told City Hub that one of the main reasons for the ongoing shortage of teachers is linked to increases in teachers’ workloads.
“We’ve seen a lot of recent media and policy around this issue that there is a connection between the workload and teacher shortages. It is one of the top reasons that we’ve seen for teachers leaving the profession,” Dr Stacey said.
However, Dr Stacey has expressed her concern that policies like the Quality Time Program could undermine the professionalism and autonomy of teachers, and has called for more critical scrutiny of efforts to reduce workload.
Policies found to be deskilling teachers
The research has argued that the Quality Time Program fails to address the root causes of teachers’ workloads, which are largely caused by the lack of resources and support.
But reducing core practices like lesson planning, a complex task, might lead to deskilling teachers, despite the intentions of the policy.
While the teachers welcome additional support in lesson planning like the ‘Introduction of the Universal resources hub’ for teachers in the Quality Time Program, it also might deskill the teaching profession.
Dr Stacey said, “I think its important to remember that they actually enjoy and highly value the creative work involved in planning their classes for students and that is what teachers need to do, and we need to make sure that what is actually brought in is going to actively support that.”
“Probably the number one thing that needs to be done is the vigorous engagement with what the profession wants,” she said.
Organisational reforms needed to address the workload
Dr Mihijla Gavin, co-author of the paper, and senior lecturer in employment relations at UTS, has called for a system-level solution towards policy formation in the future.
“Our previous research found that years of revolutionary reform and school autonomy policies have increased the workload and administrative burdens on public school teachers in NSW,” Dr Gavin said.
“The scale of the workload problem facing teachers needs a system-level solution, so understanding how policy responses are attempting to address this problem is vital.”
While the government’s efforts to address the workload of teachers has been welcomed, researchers suggest not enough is being done to reduce the burdens placed on teachers.
Referring to the study, Dr Stacey said, “We were surprised to see that many of the changes were about improving efficiency of processes, rather than reducing the load itself.”
“It’s been fantastic to say that there have been efforts to actually look at the processes that are in place, but that might be creating its own administrative load for teachers,” she said.
“I think it’s important that we do pay attention to the details of these policies which are trying to address teacher workload to make sure that the teaching job that we see at the other end of those processes becomes one that teachers actually want to be doing.”
“Nothing but a PR exercise”
Amber Flohm, acting Deputy President of the NSW Teachers Federation spoke to City Hub.
“The teacher shortage, and the crushing workloads that came with it, are a direct consequence of the previous Coalition government’s wages cap which artificially suppressed the wages of NSW public school teachers below comparable professions and jurisdictions,” she said.
She criticised the government’s program, saying “The Quality Time Program was nothing but a PR exercise that failed to addressed this core problem while simultaneously insulting the profession.”
Ms Flohm also emphasised the importance of fair pay for teachers: “Last month a historic salary agreement between the Teachers Federation and the Minns Government took effect. It is a big step in the right direction, making beginning and top of scale teachers the best paid in the nation. Rebuilding the profession will require more resourcing to address the unsustainable workloads of teachers and this work has begun. Our schools must be adequately staffed with the qualified permanent teachers they need.”
