Dr. Joe Travers:

I have a few observations about teacher education. We see this as along a continuum, starting with initial teacher education, induction and then teacher professional learning. We are doing a lot right as a country with initial teacher education in that we expect all our teachers to be educated to teach all children. In other jurisdictions there are separate qualifications at initial teacher education level for special school teachers or special class teachers or special education teachers. We do not have that and that part is positive. Another positive is the Teaching Council has a mandatory component in special education as part of every teacher education programme at primary and post-primary level. Thus, each college or university must show how it addresses inclusive education in its programme to get accredited by the Teaching Council, which is a positive.

We run into difficulty around the teacher professional learning component or the continuing professional development area. We do not have the same expectations there.

In other words, different to many other jurisdictions, we do not have mandatory CPD in teacher education, particularly in regard to inclusive education and special education, where it is voluntary. Teachers self-select and decide to do additional courses, and many do. There is huge interest in those courses and the ones that are funded by the Department are heavily oversubscribed. It is important to say that in order to highlight the interest that teachers have in this area. At the same time, it is not compulsory.

The NCSE in its advice requests the Teaching Council to look at standards in this area for teachers, particularly with regard to continuing professional development, which we would definitely support. There is a framework of teacher professional learning called Cosán but we are not convinced it is sufficient to address the level of specialised professional education that teachers require to meet the needs of children who require intensive support. It is a gap that we would definitely like to see addressed.

As I said, there are positives in regard to initial teacher education. The other observation I would make is that we sometimes place too high an expectation on initial teacher education. As it says on the tin, it is “initial” teacher education. It is a very important foundation but the other elements are critical in terms of developing capacity in the system across the career span of all teachers.