Australian Education Blogs

In 2015, 1.8 per cent of the total Australian domestic commencements in medicine were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. The Healthy Futures report found that building trust and developing supportive relationships through personal contact and community engagement was the most important factor in encouraging the enrolment and graduation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

Engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experts, families, networks and organisations builds a strong basis of support for Indigenous students. At the enrolment stage, these relationships encourage potential Indigenous medical students to see a place in the profession and supports prospective students through their admission journey. The development of the knowledge in this community engagement can be supported through school and university visits. The Healthy Futures report identified university visits by primary and high school students as an important factor in engaging potential Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander medical students.

I am exhausted, we all are really. And I don’t want to write about this, but I have to, because it happened. And it happened not twenty minutes after my I did it post. Something is going on, and I don’t like the feeling of what it might be. To say I am scared in an understatement. I am terrified. Like some half-alive roadkill on the Stuart Highway that is watching an impending road train. It’s coming.

I thought that it had already passed. Everyone said that I was going so well, that I had my confidence back after being away and the new medication, so I was confident coming home. I am taking my time getting into this post by putting all the bells and whistles on as I go. As if by taking my time, it might change how I am feeling. But it happened, and I need to accept that and move on.

Yesterday was a busy day. After playgroup I had a friend visit so that I could have some respite and eat lunch. I was feeling good and waved my friend goodbye as I went in to change Master X’s nappy for a nap. He was tired, all the signs were there, and so I placed him calmly into his cot for sleep.

But Master X did not want to sleep and so I began dragging us around my old path of

sleep? not sleep, play? not play, sleep? etc etc etc Hungry? not hungry. Sleep? Not sleep. Play? Not play. Nappy? Not nappy. Gums? Not gums. Sleep? Cuddles? Rocking? Hungry? Play? Sleep? Play?

Yeah, so this was pretty tiresome, but I did stop to do some personal check ins to see how I was faring and all seemed well. Or maybe I just wanted it all to be well. I wanted to have our first day at home as a good day. An achievement. An ‘easy’ day.

ClassCover’s professional learning programs are designed to support relief teachers in their career journeys. Casual teachers are those who work to fill either day-to-day vacancies, or short contacts with a maximum duration of one week. I began my career relief teaching, and learnt a variety of skills and cross-curriculum knowledges, however found specific training for casual educators difficult to find in my jurisdiction. As a teacher educator I found that many recent graduates in the ACT still begin their teaching careers as relief educators, and my sister was a relief teacher in NSW for almost five years after completing her degree!

I completed the three hour online course titled Introduction to Relief Teaching for Graduates to provide an honest review of a free training package for pre-service and graduate teachers, and early-career educators who are in the casual cycle of employment. The training is facilitated by Open Learning for Class Cover who also offer membership to the Relief Teaching Association ($89 for 1 year membership). Besides the introductory training session, ClassCover also offer another free professional development course titled Effective Use of Interactive Whiteboards and a plethora of free association member courses (or $20 for non-members).

The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers details graduate teacher competencies and knowledge specifically related to Indigenous education, and informs the training of pre-service teachers at Australian universities. This article describes how five pre-service teachers at similar stages of completion in their course at an Australian university responded to case studies on Indigenous education topics such as government policies, developing relationships and teacher attitudes in the final assessment of a core unit of study. The case study approach was embedded across the pedagogy and content delivery in an intensively taught Indigenous education core unit with the intent of encouraging pre-service teacher understandings to move beyond prior knowledge through dynamic scholarship. The data consisted of an in-depth examination of five pre-service teachers’ assignments for levels of reflective language, and degree of orientation towards discourses in Indigenous education as associated with the assessment criteria. The findings support prior research by asserting core units in Indigenous education for pre-service teachers as paramount for developing teacher competencies, and argues for careful consideration when deeming a graduate ready to teach according to the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.