Implementing the Australian Curriculum - Report Example

Name: Tutor: Title: Implementation of the Australian Curriculum, Professional Development and Leadership in Schools Date: Implementing the Australian Curriculum Introduction Australia implemented the first national curriculum after debating about it for many years. The debates were regarding the practicality and validity of undertaking the Australian Curriculum. It is although widely agreed that what the teachers make of the programs and policies have great effects to education (Haberman 1992). A lot is not known about the perceptions of teachers on the Australian Curriculum. Their prior mandatory curriculum reform is also not known even as they start to engage in the unique reform. The ACARA (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Agency) was established in 2009 May under Kevin Rudd, the then Prime Minister in the federal government of labour. ACARA continued the national interim’s curriculum board’s work and created the Australian Curriculum. An outline of leadership and management issues as highlighted by Australian Curriculum The curriculum of Australia sets national standards that are consistent so as to improve the learning results of every young Australian (Watson 2007). It defines what a student should achieve as well as what he or she should be taught as he or she progresses through school. The curriculum does so through achievement standards and content description. It forms the basis for active participation, growth, and future learning in the communities of Australia. The Australian Curriculum is developed by ACARA through the consultative national process that is rigorous. Teachers’ leadership is a paramount skill in serving the various students’ needs as well as the needs of the teaching profession and the schools (Watson 2007). Leadership and management skills of quality provide directions; it is vision-directed and value-based hence involves intentionally influence process. As much as it’s essential to equate faculty and principles leadership, it is essential to recognize the leadership variety roles in schools. According to Watson (2007), the Exploratory Consortium of the teacher leadership and management invites the stakeholders, the public, and the profession to get involved in dialog regarding the various teacher leadership dimensions and forms. It also analyses the many contexts that leadership of teachers can be crucial in attempts to serve the teaching profession and the students’ needs. The new Australian Curriculum has been used as a tool of guiding the experienced teachers’ preparations to assume the roles of leadership and management (Wise & Bush 1999). The management roles include instructional specialists, resource providers, classroom supports, curriculum specialists, school team leaders, mentors, learning facilitators and data coaches. The curriculum as well provides for the reinforcement of the higher education role in the preparation of the pre-service teachers to becoming professional learning community members. It also encourages the teachers to establish the facilitation, communication and inquiry skills. There is enough evidence that a principal has an indirect but salient effect on the outcomes of the students through the established goals and the fostered learning environment quality (Wise & Bush 1999). There are, however, complex roles and demands placed on the shoulders of the leaders. The roles are purported to be contradictory and even multi-dimensional (Wise & Bush 1999). School leaders experience expectations that are competitive in their management roles as well as their roles as education leaders and marketers. The growing accountabilities and competing expectations have had impacts on professional and workload satisfaction of school leaders. It has been hence challenging to make recruitments of quality leaders. Leadership and management that is effective is responsive to adaptable and context in the faces of changes. There is never a particular model of school leadership that perfectly work in recovery situation or circumstance. According to research, school leadership is a dilemma negotiating process, and it shows the effectiveness of principals and teachers practice collegial, team-based and contingent leadership. Quality school managers and leaders set directions by articulating and identifying a high expectation of performance and vision (Wise & Bush 1999). A quality leader and manager develop a person by providing individual support, providing staff care and offering intellectual stimulation. Such leaders need to establish a process of collaboration, provision of teacher leadership opportunities, debate reflection, and professional learning. Managers leaders and should have a clear understanding of the community of their school and in that respect, create a concrete partnership with key stakeholders including school linkages (Wise & Bush 1999). The Australian curriculum has made the managers and leaders empower and value students. The curriculum encourages the school community and teachers to value the cultural and social capital of students. This is met by a shared support of students as leaders and decision making. Principals, in the previous decades, had to use a lot of their time attending to addressing accountability requirements and managerial responsibilities. It is agreed that administration and management are fundamental successful school leaders’ responsibilities that are needed to enable the efficient school operation. The academic and social outcomes of a student is can be improved by the educational leadership. Effective leaders of schools have a commitment to improve the teaching quality as well as equipping and encouraging staff to concentrate on the outcomes of the student learning. He principal of a school must not necessarily be an outstanding teacher but rather ensure that the main focus of the school is educative. The curriculum of Australia describes and identifies different strategies of leadership. The curriculum provides leadership strategies that include: Educative, pedagogical or instructional leadership, where a leader assumes responsibilities for the development of teachers professionally, is employed. There are students learning outcomes and resource deployment to realize the goals. Managerial leadership where a leader manages the key tasks and functions in a similar manner a profit making business is operated. Transactional or transductive leadership where leaders and followers achieve goals that are interdependent through a relationship of a traditional ‘effort-for-results’. Emotional or interpersonal leadership. This places a high value of a relationship that is of quality. Moral leadership that has its focus on beliefs and values which gives a school the sense of purpose. Contextual or contingent leadership whereby a range of leadership styles and strategies are employed depending on the contemporary challenges. It as well depends on the context and the school development stage. Another management and leadership issue arising from Australian Curriculum is the social management. It refers to the respectful and effective interaction of students with a range of peers and adults (Wise & Bush 1999). Induction of staff The education system of Australia strives always to uphold teaching practice, and effective induction is supposed to make fundamental contributions. Schools, through effective induction, can assist in ensuring that a teacher starts his or her teaching journey having the best foundation and benchmark (Quinn 2005). This helps the teacher to establish a very strong basis for an effective and firm teaching career. The induction quality when considering an appointment towards a teaching position is very essential. It is among the most fundamental self-perception determiners that a new teacher holds as a professional practitioner. The future performance of a new teacher is to a great extent determined by what happens to the teacher during induction (Youngs 2007). Induction, therefore, evidently affects the wellbeing of a new teacher and in that sense, it should then be done perfectly. The period of induction is a very big test of the level of interest and commitment of the profession, school leaders, and employers to the school teaching quality (Liu & Johnson 2006). Australia, like any other nation, aspires to establish an education system that is high performing. Both globally and locally, education sectors understand the relevance of induction as a fundamental process that supports and improves school teaching qualities (Darling-Hammond & McLaughlin 1995). In fact, teacher inductions, the best practice that is evidence based is so superior compared to any other profession or rather, the cooperate sector. This insinuates that the education system that mentors newly recruited teachers in very important. The induction issue hence is never one of design but rather an implementation issue. It should focus on converting theory to practice and giving it a common approach to each Australian school (Desimone, Smith, & Ueno 2006) The educators in Australia have an amount of knowledge that is very significant that the education sector can draw from (Carver & Feiman-Nemser 2009). The challenge, however, is implementation. It hence requires a concrete culture and leadership that gives support to the process that is to be implemented. The challenges new leaders face in establishing their careers are big issues in attrition growing rates among the neophyte teachers. If the Australian government is focussed to improving the Australian profession, it is critical to focus on the implementation of a robust process of induction that suits to the culture and context of each distinct school. This helps the education system in building a cohort of teachers that will be delivering the quality of education students need to face the 21st-century challenges. Offering the best future to the students should always be the key goal of every leader and manager in the system of education. Induction helps in the determination of the new relationships, balancing and cooperation of both the organization's needs and the newcomers’ needs. Induction acknowledges that a particular organization in need of new staff that could help it in achieving growth and sustainability in line with the goals and strategies of the organization. It as well recognizes that a new employee needs help in reducing the complexities encountered in joining new organizations. This is so because the new employees need to start contributing to the wellbeing of the organization as soon as possible (Youngs 2007). On-going Personal and Professional Learning Formation and Growth (OPPLFG) and Curriculum Leadership The teacher personal and professional development is an issue of interest because it affects the learning process of students and teaching of teachers (Cardno 2005). To understand the conditions that the acquisition and use of new skills and knowledge are enhanced indicates the understanding of professional development effective models. To achieve new knowledge or information that relate to the achievement of a student can be accessed and debated differently. This can be achieved through the partnerships of schools which create powerful and entirely new knowledge (Parr & Ward 2006). They can particularly produce more practical, theoretically informed practice that is broadly grounded. Teaching is a demanding and complex work that needs very specialized knowledge and skills to significantly impact on the learning of the student. The field of education is embracing school leadership as a very fundamental reform ingredient that is worth investing thoroughly on. The principal must be well prepared to improve instructions and change schools rather than just being managers who manage budgets and buildings. That is important in facing the pressure of having students to meet the high district and states standards. It is the principal's responsibility in ensuring that teaching and learning are done excellently in each classroom. According to Mitgang (2012), there is no evidence, according to research indicating any improvement of students where talented leadership does not (Mitgang 2012). Processes put in place to evaluate the effectiveness of the actions undertaken To evaluate the effects of induction, one should compare new workers that have not been taken through the process to those that went through the process in whichever organizations. The differences should be determined in terms of the delivery and the adaptability of the different employees. To know that induction is very important, the new employee that has been taken through the process feels more at home and comfortable in their new jobs. This means that they will be more productive compared to those who did not experience the induction process. In education sector, for instance, it is very essential to take new teachers through the induction process because that helps the delivery of the teacher. A delivering teacher according to the Australian curriculum helps children to learn efficiently and effectively. Relating my commentary to my current workplace and system The Australian curriculum relates very much to my workplace because of the management and leadership system. Leadership is very important in any organization. A good manager without proper leadership skills is not good for the well-being of the organization. An organization cannot thrive if the manager has bad leadership skills. For the organization to effectively deliver there should also be the induction of the new workers. My organization does induction to each new worker. It has always paid back to the organization. The new workers have an easy time in knowing the culture of the organization. This way, the new workers effectively deliver. Induction reduces office anxiety of new workers. Conclusion In conclusion, the Australian has helped in improving the education sector of Australia. The curriculum has helped schools develop leadership and management skills that are very effective. A principal of a school is not just a manager managing the building and the budgets of the schools. To the contrary, they should ensure that the teachers are delivering quality teachings to students in every classroom. Induction is also very fundamental in making a new employee fit comfortably in the organization. Lists of references Read More