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Tag: teachers

  • Teacher graduates to be bonded to schools | Stuff.co.nz

    Labour says “on the job” placements should be a bigger focus across all teacher training courses.

    Source: Labour is keen for all teacher graduates to be bonded to schools | Stuff.co.nz

    There is a certain degree of irony as we walked the uni halls going from drab lecture to drab lecture as the guiding lecturers encouraged us in the art of teaching and using different teaching styles, making it interesting, engaging our students, using cooperative groups, and yet maintained a ‘sit down, shut up, and listen’ teaching approach themselves.

    Therefore, when we were unleashed into the real world of classrooms, with 30 sets of eyes all looking at us like we’d fallen in from a different planet, we were all too eager to get stuck in and learn as much as we could.

    I still maintain, that the majority of learning that I did in my four year degree was largely, and even solely, from the practicums that were spread out over my time at teacher’s college. Nothing was more eye-opening, or realistic, than dealing with students, encouraging thinking, facilitating learning, and learning the ins and outs of actual schools, their rules, their expectations, and all that comes with them.

    Bonded to Schools

    I’m not really sure what Labour is hoping to achieve with this. Firstly, most schools are fully staffed. Taking on a student teacher, not only to be training them, but then supplying a job for them later on, is a little too much for schools to commit to, especially for first time teachers.

    Obviously there would need to be a generous amount of sorting this out, and will directly require universities to work a lot closer with the Ministry, and with the placement schools.

    What do you think? Are the current systems good enough? Will ‘bonding’ student teachers to schools lead to an equal opportunity for all applicants to positions?

  • Kiwi Teachers among best in the world

    Newstalk ZB Article
    Finally. Some worldwide recognition. Sick of not getting it from the NZ Government, we’ve thrown caution to the wind and worked tirelessly for our tamariki; our future. We’ve done what we know is best, despite a climate of data, testing, judgements, and dictatorship. It’s almost like we’ve just set the world record for the high jump, all whilst having a four poster bed strapped to our ankles.

    And yet, as New Zealanders, we’ll humbly accept it, acknowledge it, forget about it, and resume normal life in about an hours time. After all, life doesn’t stop just because the world rates us highly. There’s still children to feed, hungry minds to teach, and the odd attention seeking kid to deal with as the class falls into chaos again on Monday.

    Yet as the article suggests that there needs to be more done from the Government to “improve support for teaching research and professional networks.”

    The Minister for education scrambles for cover, and quickly puts together a front and an excuse about Investing in Education Success, saying that their Community of Schools are already in the pipeline and will address these issues; despite the initial findings that all the Community of Schools will do is cause division among schools, and boards; principals and staff. Current principals all fighting for Lead principal roles, and schools not wanting to “take orders” from a Lead principal who does not know a school or its community. Some principals want nothing to do with it, sighting they don’t want to be the one to go into other schools, and weed out ‘poor’ teachers from that school. The additional workload does not match the addition in pay, especially for lead teachers, and so I struggle to see how this promotes “teaching research and professional networks”. Instead it creates competition, in-fighting, corruption and will create a climate where schools all end up teaching a very narrow curriculum in the same way as each other, which restricts any kind of teaching research.

    Aside from this, it is quite interesting to see the initial responses to the news. It’s hard to determine if these are people from the sector, or general members of the public, but they sure are following a similar theme.


    I don’t even care to know about what the Education Minister has to say about this. It has been quite clear through all of her speeches, her written letters, her policies and ideas, that teachers need to work harder. Yes, on the odd occasion she mentions what a good job teachers do, but always, ALWAYS, has followed that premise with “but they need to do more” statements to put the kaibosh on any feelings of accomplishment they might be having.

    No, instead, let us celebrate that even if we’re not recognised by this country, we are seen as up with the world leaders in teaching internationally. Let’s face it, a World Record is worth much more than a National one anyway!

  • Teachers with Mental illness investigated


    Firstly; I’m a teacher.
    Secondly; I suffer from depression.
    Thirdly; I’m a teacher with depression.

    Yes; every part of my life is affected by my mental illness. That does not stop me from being a good teacher, nor does it make me an incompetent teacher – just as a broken arm wouldn’t stop me from being a good teacher, or an incompetent writer/journalist.

    I don’t even know where to begin with yesterday’s article “Nearly 100 mentally-ill teachers investigated by the Education Council in the past six years“. Aside from having the longest headline in history there was stunned silence from my normal full of thoughts head. Shocked. Appalled. There are just so many false correlations and connections being made that simply fly in the face of all that is good and healthy for de-stigmatizing mental illness.

    Teacher Incompetence

    There is a complete and utter misconception here that mental illness correlates to teacher incompetence. It doesn’t.

    Obviously there are choices people make; especially around drugs and alcohol, that have no place in the classroom. But this is teacher incompetence, and would be (hopefully) dealt with regardless of whether that teacher had mental health issues or not.

    Taking your issues out on children in the classroom is teacher incompetence, not a mental illness.

    Not all teachers with mental illnesses display any signs of incompetence. Not all incompetent teachers have mental illnesses.
    The two are individually occurring instances.

    Yes; there have been times where I have doubted my ability to teach with my depression. I have raised it with my Principal on more than one occasion. But that’s my depression speaking through my lack of self esteem. My Principal and colleagues assure me otherwise.

    Stigma around Mental Illness Alive and Well

    In a time where stigma around mental illness needs to be addressed, this type of article does nothing to help or even show some sense of understanding at all. It’s disappointing to have to stand up and speak out on two of my passions under attack; mental health awareness and teaching

    The only piece of common sense in this article comes from a Masterton principal when he says:

    School boards employed people “fit for the job in every sense”, and people with mental health problems could still be good teachers with the right support.

    Mental

    Furthermore, I can’t believe that someone would be so naive as to include aspergers and ADHD as ‘mental illnesses’. They are not. They are syndromes; disorders. They are not ’caused’ by anything but instead are pervasive developmental disorders. With illnesses, such as depression, there is always the sense that you can get better. From my understanding there’s no getting better from aspergers, autism, or ADHD. Sure; you learn to cope, with experience, medication, and other means, but it is always there.

    Raising awareness and understanding

    I’m not sure what experience Caleb Harris (the writer of the article) with mental health, and I don’t like to presume anything, but the way in which this article is written is incredibly insensitive to those who currently suffer from mental illness, as well as those who are great teachers.

    A message I received from a friend summed it up for me.

    “To anyone suffering with Mental Illness; You are one badass mother f***** because nothing is more terrifying than battling with your own mind every single day.”

    We keep on keeping on. Every day we already deal with our own thoughts, the last thing we need is more stigma attached by articles like this one, which make broad sweeping statements about the mental health of the profession

    Sweeping Statements

    Those that have been investigated, have been investigated because their mental health has affected their ability to act rationally and suitably for a teacher. Their mental illness has taken its toll, and for some, it has been deemed necessary to terminate their ability to teach in a school.

    Let us not also forget that the statistics expressed in the article are of the express minority. 100 teachers over six years, works out as 16 per year. 16 out of the 100,000 registered teachers is a very small percentage. 0.016% in fact.

    To imply then that teachers with mental illness are a liability and should be investigated is antagonising to say the least, especially considering that, according to the Mental Health Foundation, as many as one in five New Zealanders have, or will experience, mental health issues each year.

    Teacher’s are people too, and so if we apply this ratio to our 100,000 teachers, that is approximately 25,000 teachers. Of those 25,000 teachers, only 16 per year have been investigated.

    When you look at that statistic, it amplifies the problem with this article. Instead of seeing the positive, Mr. Harris has gone about to vilify teachers suffering from mental health issues. Many have mentioned that it is a lot easier to de-professionalise teaching if the current workforce is seen as ‘unfit’ for the job. Even members of the public took to the comments section to try and tell teachers that there is stress in every job and to get over it (which is completely unrelated – besides; stress is not a mental illness, it is a factor that leads to mental illness).

    Higher praise

    Instead, the article should have focused on the 24,984 teachers who, though suffering with the demons inside their heads and battling them within themselves daily, still manage to hold down their job, working day in and day out, turning in long hours (especially during report writing season), being role models and mentors for the children in their class and their school, and have survived another year. Least of all it should congratulate the whole teaching profession for doing what very few can do; teach the next generation, be patient for the ones who struggle, be understanding to those that think differently. Day in and day out you have all worked hard for your student’s, to see them be the best that they can be, even when they’re at their worst, and you’ve seen them do better. You’ve laughed when they’ve laughed, and hit your head against a brick wall when you’ve had to tell them to put their hand up for the thousandth time, and yet for every single child you can see the potential, and tell them that they can be whatever they want to be, and encourage each of them to pursue their dreams no matter the cost.

    Even if that dream is to be a Masterton based journalist.

     

    See – it doesn’t feel very good, does it Mr. Harris?

     

    If you know of anyone, or see symptoms that they may be struggling with mental illness, please encourage them to seek help. If you can; be a friend – sit and listen.

    National helplines

    Lifeline – 0800 543 354 or (09) 5222 999 within Auckland

    Suicide Crisis Helpline – 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO)

    Healthline – 0800 611 116

    Samaritans – 0800 726 666

     

  • Updating the Education Act 1989

    Earlier this month, the Minister released a public document surrounding the public having their say on the updates this government are wanting to make to the Education Act. In it, they outline what they need to do to change the landscape of the education sector in this country. It is worded in an incredibly positive way, and they have been more than inclusive by ensuring the use of the word “may” throughout the document (which is at least an improvement on how they made changes with National Standards, Class Sizes, Christchurch School Closures, and Novopay!) However, there are some issues within it. Quite concerning things, that if passed, will allow for a lot of changes that we may or may not be interested in, but our chance to have a say will have gone. I’ve gone through and highlighted some of these things to hopefully shed some light on what is really being said.

    Achievement and Accountability

    The Education Act changes all centre around supposed “child’s pathway” through school, and focuses on “raising their achievement”. While a growth mindset is healthy for every classroom, at some point, there is a ceiling on what can be achieved. By having a law written that says that raising achievement levels is paramount, it means that there could be issues if a child HAS achieved, or schools already raise the achievement levels beyond any reasonable expectation. As will be an issue that comes up all through this, there is the ongoing issue around how this is measured. No doubt the Government will rely on data gathered through National Standards reporting, yet we already know that this is clunky at the best of times. In the seventh paragraph, the changes suggest that it will outline in law ‘who is responsible for what’. This seeks to allow the government to lay blame on individuals should things not go to plan. This may be a board, a principal, or a teacher. Of course, they are also quite clear that any submissions that suggest changes that would increase government spending on education will not be considered. Quite clearly the government thinks that it is already doing enough in this regard.

    IMPROVING THE WAY BOARDS PLAN AND REPORT

    Improvements can be made to the way school and kura boards plan and report on how they make sure the right things are being taught, how they are informing parents, whānau and communities about what they are doing, and how well children and young people are achieving.

    Red tape around planning and reporting could be reduced so that boards are able to focus on what is important in promoting student achievement and wellbeing. There are some things that are a ‘must do’ for boards, such as developing a strategic plan, providing annual performance information, and meeting statutory reporting requirements. But there are other requirements that could be removed, and some complexity could be reduced. For example, high performing schools could move to a four-year planning cycle.

    It may also be useful to let groups of schools and kura work together when they are planning and reporting. This would help a community plan more cohesively, share expertise and reduce administration. It could particularly benefit Communities of Learning and small or isolated schools and kura.

    In Other Words…

    In this section, it mentions ‘red tape’ which is very vague in what it means. Essentially, I think, they want to get rid of some of the bureaucracy that gets in the way from making decision and making changes. But as always, they label this as a way for Boards to focus on other things, such as improving student achievement. In the example, they state that ‘high-performing schools could move to a four-year planning cycle’. By “high-performing”, we can assume that they mean “high-achieving”. In the following paragraph, it says that it ‘may also be useful to let groups of schools and kura work together…’ making reference to their Communities of Schools model. We can safely assume that the word ‘let’ could also be taken to mean “make”, especially when schools are ‘not achieving’.

    RESPONDING MORE EFFECTIVELY TO PERFORMANCE

    With better and more timely information, parents, whānau and communities can have an active role in helping to improve achievement for their children and young people. The Act could allow for a set of indicators to be established so schools and kura know what areas they need to report on.
    For example how well students are doing, and how the school or kura is managing its money.

    The Update could enable schools, kura and Communities of Learning that are doing well to get more freedom and extra decision-making rights. This would be balanced by monitoring schools, kura and Communities of Learning carefully and clearly saying what will happen if things go off track.

    Responding More Effectively to Performance

    Firstly, what does performance mean? No doubt, when the Ministry talks about performance, they mean achievement. Regardless of “better or more timely information”, parents, whanau, and the wider community can all have an active role in a child’s education. It does not have to be made into law through the Education act. It’s called parenting. It’s called raising children. It’s called childhood. A set of indicators that the change proposes are either National Standards, or a new set of KPI for schools. The suggested example of “how well students are doing” jumps up and screams “League Tables”, seeing as this is talking about reporting to parents and the community. This is public information that will be out there for everyone to see and compare, even though there is no doubt that these KPI will not show the value and worth of a school. This section goes on to include the Communities of Schools who do well will get more freedom – rewarding the “high achieving” schools once again, with more decision making rights. It then makes it clear that, in balance, poor performing schools would have such rights taken away and decisions would be made for you “if things go off track”. Which is exactly what we want as a school who’s students’ struggle, we definitely need an outsider coming in with a top down approach of “you will do better”; tongue firmly in cheek. Page 10

    Enabling Collaboration, Flexibility and Innovation

    This pare of the document just looks at the idea of Communities of Schools that the government has brought about through the IES. Under Alternative Governance Arrangements, they state that some schools who are working in a Community of Schools, “…may want to share their governance arrangements”. This is already happening with the property side of funding in some areas. Also, as is with earlier parts of this document, where it says “may want to”, it is also saying that some schools “may be forced to” share their governance. In terms of flexibility, it is interesting that the only reason why schools would be wanting to have different intakes at different parts of the year is largely to make National Standards reporting easier in Years 1 to 3. Their anniversary reports would all be at once, rather than spotted throughout the year, and it would tie in with the senior reports a lot more often. The question really is, is if your child misses out by a few weeks for the intake, they might essentially miss out on 3-6 months of schooling. What’s more, if a school down the road isn’t having intakes at set times, that family may decide to take their child elsewhere. Isn’t it already compulsory for children to attend school? What’s more, how is the Ministry going to enforce this, especially when funding for truancy officers has been cut, and the Government doesn’t want to spend any more on education? No doubt it will be one more thing that schools will have to chase up on in their own time.

    What is a “great” school?

    What makes a school great?
    How is this measured?
    There is no question, given the rest of this document, what the Minister sees as a “great school”. High achievement.

    But the word “Great” or “Greatness” surely encompasses so much more than this?
    Take for instance a local school in my area. A well recognised and renowned school, with parents and whanau driving from up to ten minutes away to send their child there. It is a decile 8 school and has about 330 students on its roll. 75% NZ/European and 17% Maori. Their ERO cycle is on a four to five year review. From the latest review it states that “Most students are achieving at or above the National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics.”
    One would say this is a great school.

    At the school I currently work at, the same can’t be said. We are about half the size, and fit in a decile 2 bracket. We have about 60% Maori students, 10% Pasifika and 20% NZ/European. We recently managed to scrape through and get a three year ERO review, which we celebrated like we just won the Rugby World Cup. Half of our students are below or well below the National Standard across all three areas.

    However, this year, both these two schools had their 50th Jubilee. Both of them started in 1965, the same time that Porirua officially became a city.
    At our school, we had close to 180 ex-students come and celebrate over the course of Labour Weekend, 2015. Old students came from all around the country, from Auckland to Timaru. We even had some fly in from overseas to come and visit their old primary school. We had a school gala which had cars parked along the street as far as the eye could see. The atmosphere was buzzing and our school was the centre of it all.

    In stark comparison, the other school had to cancel it’s celebrations due to lack of interest.

    I leave you with that question to ponder. Which is the greater school?

    Making every school and kura a great one

    Every school and every kura has to be a great one, and while most are doing well, a small number need more help to get there. Some more options could be put in the Act to help schools and kura get back on track. These could include an improvement notice, or an audit of one part of a school or kura. At the more serious end, a board could be asked to have different people on it.

    Naughty, Naughty!

    In this section, the Act turns its attention to the so-called ‘off track’ schools. The Ministry will help them get ‘back on track’, through the use of an “improvement notice” (similar to an infringement notice, I guess) or an audit (ERO visit). The serious end, the Ministry can remove a board if a school is REALLY ‘off track’, and no doubt choose (or appoint) the representatives on it.

    Creating a Set of Guiding Principles for Opening, Merging and Closing Schools.

    What an interesting thing to amend within the Education Act. I wonder why this could have occurred? Maybe the Minister had too much trouble closing schools in Christchurch. Maybe she also had some difficulty merging some schools. And maybe they want to be able to open up new charter schools whenever they like. It has also made the provision for students to be forced to go to certain schools, and force certain schools to take certain students. Page 12

    In Conclusion…

    It is interesting the timing around this change. Reports are due, schools are winding down, half of the secondary schools are gone with exams, principals are drowned in end of year rollover for Novapay, and end of year activities. So it is unlikely that those who are working in the sector will have time or energy to fight the changes being proposed.

    No doubt we need to though, if we are unhappy with the proposed changes.

    Below are the details for how YOU can make a submission in answering the questions within the document.
    You need to do this. Answer, respond, challenge, debate. Talk over your ideas. The more responses they get, the more they might listen.

    Related Readings

    An easy way to make your submission is online at consultation.education.govt.nz. Here you will find an introductory video from Education Minister Hon Hekia Parata. There are questions to get you started, or you can upload a submission from your computer. You can also email your submission to education.update@education.govt.nz or write to: Education Act Update Ministry of Education PO Box 1666 Wellington 6140 New Zealand Submissions close on Monday 14 December 2015.

    PERSONAL INFORMATION AND CONFIDENTIALITY

    Submissions and documents associated with the consultation process meet the definition of official information and are therefore subject to the Official Information Act 1982. Please clearly indicate in your submission if you do not want your name to be included in any summary of submissions that we may publish.

    FURTHER INFORMATION

    If you have any questions about making a submission, or would like more information about the update of the Education Act 1989, please email education.update@education.govt.nz

  • No to League Tables

    “Have we introduced league tables? No.” Hekia Parata said this in a meeting at a school as she rattled off a number of things ‘scaremongers’ had said would happen in regards to GERM. This included things like Performance Pay. This statement on league tables is also in addition to this article from 2012.

    League tables: Hekia won’t take on teachers

    Obviously however, John Key wants them; and so he gets the media to do the dirty work, even encouraging them to do so in the aforementioned article.

    And respond they did. Whilst Fairfax’s “School Report” has been out for a while now, it is now being advertised, with words like ‘rate’, and ‘compare’ being bandied about like red paint on a fire engine.

    Why are teachers and schools so against league tables?

    David Shearer (Labour Leader at the time) touched on a few of the concerns in the earlier article. It goes further than just what he addressed though.

    Take a small school. Decile 1 or 2. Even 3. Lots of poverty in its community. Health issues due to poor living conditions, damp houses and cold, harsh nights in the middle of winter. Families split, both parents working full time to break even. The kids love the school.

    The teachers work hard. They’re trained. They undertake PLD. They genuinely care and want the best for the kids; not just the ones in their class, but all tamariki that come through their gates. There are major success stories, but are generally few and far between.

    The teachers are good teachers. Children who have started life on the back foot and who are facing continual struggle in life are making amazing progress each year, but are still “below” the untrialled and untested National Standards that this government hangs its hat on. The children wouldn’t make the same progress if the teachers weren’t any good.

    But along comes Fairfax media and their “School Report”. It shows that this school is ‘failing’ compared with School B down the road (who may or may not be inflating their National Standards results). Their teachers may be good, but also might have a community where students aren’t walking down struggle street, and achieving at school is the number one priority. The amount of progress that they have to make is minimal in comparison, and their teaching staff may be able to relax and not work as hard in order to maintain certain results.

    Parents of the first school compare and begin to buy into the league table problem. They leave school A with its hard working teachers, whose progress and dedication to their students is unrivalled, yet don’t show up in the broad umbrella of “below”, and go to greener pastures.

    School A loses students. The roll decreases. They lose a classroom and a teaching position. Eventually another leaves, and another. The school gets smaller, and the results don’t change, to the point where it is forced to merge or become one of the government’s heralded Charter Schools.

    This is why league tables are dangerous. They compare apples with shackles, oranges with hairties. They force assumption that schools with poor results have bad teachers, when quite often the opposite is true. A lot of teachers would simple cave under pressure, give up, or be eaten alive in School A with the requirements of it’s akonga. They would equally struggle to not only raise the achievement level, but just maintain it.

    So when I see an advertisement to compare schools while I’m reading the latest news, I get annoyed. Frustrated. Because I am a good teacher. I work hard for my students and my students work hard for me. They are a challenge, but the hard work brings reward. They make phenomenal progress each year while they are in the shadows of elephants in the room that no one wants to acknowledge; but these improvements, no matter how amazing, fail to show up in a simple pie graph showing banded results. Some of these students will go from a reading age of 5 and a half, to a reading age of 7; yet because they are 8, are still below.

    The public compares schools. School A must be rubbish, with dead-beat teachers. I don’t want my child going there.

    Thanks Fairfax. I’m sure John Key appreciates the dirty work you’ve gone and done for him.

     

  • One Hundred and Fifty

    150teachers

    In response to:

    An ongoing glut of new teachers causes job search headaches – Dominion Post – 27 July 2015

  • Copyright for New Zealand Teachers – The Creative Commons solution.

    Back in June I was made aware of an issue surrounding Copyright and teaching. Essentially, any resources created for teaching, by teachers, are actually the rightful property of the Board of Trustees of that school. For any teacher to share or use those resources outside of that school is breach of the copyright, and permission needs to be sought.

    You can read the whole article here:
    Copyright for New Zealand Teachers > Unleash Education

    The Creative Commons solution

    Now; being a creative with my own views on copyright, and my own works that hold copyrights, I am very interested in the whole process. To me, as I move through my teaching career, I often see ideas, or think of ideas, and then go about doing my best to make my own resources that are better; whether through advancing functionality or simply putting my own aesthetic improvements on existing ideas.

    I also would want to be able to share these, and use these in any future teacher positions I might hold at other schools.

    So I quickly went about searching for solutions. In the process, it also surprised me how many teachers have no idea that this was the law.

    The solution as it turns out is actually relatively simple, but requires the board to make a deliberate policy change or addition. Creative Commons have made a ‘in schools’ page which outlines the issues quite well, but on top of that, they have developed a policy template for schools to use. I recommend using the ‘annotated’ version first, to get your head around the language of copyright, which can be relatively technical if you’re not used to it.

    Our board is currently in the process of adopting this policy for our school. I hope that this makes the situation around copyright for teachers clear for you, and that you can encourage your school to check its policy around this.

     

     

    The Policy

    This is a copy of the policy template that Creative Commons has provided. It includes the annotations, which I have tried to make a little clearer using fuller sentences than those provided by Creative Commons.

    Preamble

    SCHOOL wishes to encourage the open and free exchange of information, knowledge and resources, and support the collaborative production of copyright works that are freely available to all. SCHOOL encourages both staff and students to support free and open access to copyright works.

    The preamble gives the general purpose for the policy.  It also states the school’s position that it will be using Creative Commons licences to share copyright works.

    Policy

    The Board of Trustees of SCHOOL:

    1. Recognises that the Board of Trustees holds first ownership of copyright of works produced by the Board’s employees in the course of their employment.

    This states that the default ownership settings for copyright works produced by teachers and employees of the school under section 21(2) of the Copyright Act 1994 (NZ) belongs to the school/Board of Trustees.

    2. Applies by default a Creative Commons Attribution Licence to all teaching materials and policies in which the Board of Trustees of the school owns copyright.

    This is the key part of the policy, as it is referred to throughout the rest of the document below.
    It limits the default application of Creative Commons licensing to teaching materials and policies. While these are broad categories, the clause is intended to refer to those teaching or policy resources that would be of use to other schools, and is not intended to apply to every copyright work produced in the school.
    Note also that ‘default’ means that the school can make exceptions to the policy at its discretion.

    3. May apply a Creative Commons Attribution licence to other copyright works, aside from those described in (2), with the express agreement of the Principal. 

    This gives the school flexibility, should it decide to openly release works other than those outlined in the second (2) clause.

    4. May make exceptions to 2) at the discretion of the Principal. Any such exceptions should be limited by a specific time period and should consider the application of other, more restrictive Creative Commons licences, as opposed to simply reserving all rights in a copyright work.

    This will give the school some more flexibility, should it decide to be more restrictive than as outlined in the second (2) clause.

    5. Will transfer to the original creator the copyright in created works licensed by the school under a Creative Commons Attribution or Creative Commons Share-Alike .licence

    The Board of Trustees recognises the benefits of using the most open Creative Commons licences, and provides an incentive to employees to embrace the use of such licences.

    6. Does not make any claim over the ownership of copyright works produced by students. The copyright to these works remains with the creator.

    This simply clarifies that the school has no rights over copyright works produced by students, since they are not employed by the school.

    7. Recognises that this policy only applies to copyright works, and not to any other forms of intellectual property.

    This simply clarifies that Creative Commons licensing only applies to copyright works.

    8. Recognises that the copyright in works produced by an employee other than in the course of their employment by the Board of Trustees of the school remains the property of that employee. Where this is unclear, the process for dispute resolution, outlined below, shall apply.

    This is key for me and other creative type people. It recognises that there may be some uncertainty as to what constitutes a work produced in the course of one’s employment. It is intended to assure teachers that the policy only applies to works that are owned by the school, and to point to the dispute resolution process, below.
    For example; a teacher who creates a drawing or artwork at school, but hasn’t been “employed” or asked to do this by the school, the teacher owns the copyright. This applies to creative works outside of school; such as works created at home as a hobby or secondary employment, such as musical pieces or photography works.
    This also applies to written articles, such as those found on this website; which while are inspired and influenced by my teaching position, are not part of my employment, and so I retain the copyright.

    Definitions

    Creative Commons: An international non-profit that provides free open licences that copyright holders can use to share their work.

    Teaching Materials: Copyright works produced by employees of the school for the purposes of teaching.

    Policies and Procedures: Copyright works that determine, and provide guidance around, a course of action adopted by the school.

    The definitions around what is and is not covered by the policy should be adjusted by the school, as required.

    Disputes

    Where the first ownership of copyright in a given work is disputed or unclear, the following process will apply:

    1. In the first instance the dispute should be documented and presented to the school Principal. 
    2. If the dispute is still not resolved then the documentation should be presented to the chairman of the Board of Trustees. 
    3. If the dispute is still not resolved following 1) and 2), mediation with an appropriate authority will be undertaken.

    This should be replaced with the school’s dispute resolution process, where appropriate.

  • First in class: No gold star for top Kiwi teachers?

    Our best and brightest young teachers are leaving the profession because of frustrations over too much paperwork, insufficient pay and a lack of career options in front of classrooms. A Canterbury University…

    Source: First in class: No gold star for top Kiwi teachers?

    This is an ongoing problem in our schools. Retaining teachers needs to be a priority, however, because expert teachers and experienced teachers cost more money for the government to employ than beginning teachers do, there will be no intensives to stay on in education more than one can put up with.

    Education certainly isn’t as it used to be, and I wouldn’t hesitate to say that even in the five years I have been teaching, there has been a heightened emphasis on assessment and data than ever before. And it’s not making teaching any better. It merely just takes up time and effort. Something that is becoming increasingly difficult to find these days.

    It has come to the point where I don’t think I would go out of my way to encourage anyone to become a teacher today. It’s a pretty sorry state when those in the business can’t recommend it to others who could, or even should, become teachers.

  • Copyright for New Zealand Teachers

    So this week I was introduced to a concept that I was completely unaware of as a teacher.

    And by concept, I mean law.

    As a creative, I have different fingers in different creative exploits including art, photography, web design, and music. Needless to say I thought I was rather familiar with the rules around copyright. Especially in it’s purpose to protect the creator of the work in question. I’m very familiar with the understanding that anything created for a company or corporate, being paid for by the company or corporate, then the company or corporate hold the copyright for that work, unless otherwise agreed upon. However as a teacher, I feel it’s slightly different, especially since so much “personal” time is invested in creating resources, planning lessons, or creating avenues of learning.

    However, I was completely unaware that under the 1994 New Zealand Copyright Act, schools fall into the same sort of category as a company or corporate; meaning that the copyright to works that teachers create is owned by the Board of Trustees. This means that, when teachers share, collaborate, and take resources they’ve made from one job to another without the Board’s express permission, they’re breaking the law.

    This is slightly concerning. I know of many teachers who have moved around to different teaching positions. It happens all the time. I know of at least 7 teachers who have moved in and/or out of at my current school during my 6 years there. It is also concerning given the nature of teaching, and teacher willingness to share, collaborate, and work together to have a greater impact on the world around them, by influencing and helping other colleagues, whether they be at the same school, the school down the road, or the school at the other end of the country.

    In different conversations around this, I received an email from Carolyn Stewart, who has been a principal for many years, and is now involved with Network 4 Learning. In it she explains the law very clearly and concisely in a way that if most laws were written like, the majority of us would have some chance of actually understanding them!

    She says:

    “The copyright for any teaching and learning resources, that is clearly linked to the daily employment of the resource creator, whether in school time or not belongs to the Board of Trustees who are their employer…  A teacher should only share resources outside their school boundary with the permission of their Board of Trustees – this includes taking resources when they move from school to school. Practically this is quite difficult to manage as we all know that deep within NZ teachers’ DNA is the propensity to share with others to improve learning for all NZ children.”

    Many schools and teachers do not realise this. I was one of them.

    TKI outlines it very clearly for teachers – but obviously we are incredibly busy and don’t like to use our time trawling through every webpage on TKI. In the page about Teachers and contractors copyright, it says

    As I did a little more investigating, it raised more and more questions.

    • How does this work for the Registered Teacher Criteria, that requires teachers to gather evidence of meeting the requirements of an effective teacher? Am I able to take this portfolio of my work with me and use it in another teacher role?
    • How does this work with templates or reports we have developed and shared with other schools, and vice versa?
    I do find it all very interesting and I believe many teachers will need to know this, especially when they come to the job or leave the job. Essentially the BOT could ask for all materials, resources, templates, planning from a teacher when they leave.
    I’m not saying they would.
    But I am saying they could, by law.
    I guess as a teacher, I don’t want to leave my current school and have to start from complete scratch again because I developed my own planning templates, lessons, resources, printables and others under my current school’s banner.
    As I see it, the school pays for my time as a teacher; not necessarily for the things I make for myself to help me teach.
    Beyond this, we already know the lines between being paid as a teacher and personal time are blurred beyond anything Robin Thicke can come up with. So where does the Board of Trustees ownership begin and end? Is a lesson I create at home automatically property of the school? What about something else, say, an artwork? Obviously we would say it has to be teaching related.
    Okay – so what about this article? Or any of the countless other articles I’ve written about teaching? Are they owned by the school, even though I’ve written them all in my own time? There seems to be more questions than answers!
    This is different to things resources like equipment that the school buys. The topic of resources leads to another interesting conundrum.
    If I purchase equipment, resources, or even software personally, I’m allowed to take those with me. They belong to me.
    If the school purchases equipment and resources etc., obviously they stay with the school.
    If I created a resource (because I’ve seen something and reckon I could do a better job making it instead of buying it) surely that’s me saving my own and/or the schools money. Because let’s face it, if the case is any resources I need I can’t take with me, then I’m going to be charging the school for. Why would I bother making it myself? If it’s staying at the school because of copyright, then I may as well purchase an existing (albeit inferior) one.

    The Solution?

    To me there is a very obvious solution to this conundrum the copyright law have left teachers in. Rather than having to ask permission of each and every Board of Trustees I work with in my career as a teacher, my suggestion would be for each school Board of Trustees to make permission to take ‘Teacher made’ resources a policy of the school. This would be a relatively simple statement waiving the right to withhold teachers taking their own resources, materials, planning, units, with them. As copyright holders, they can make the rules of who is allowed to use the copyrighted material or not. By making it open and allowing teachers to do so would be a very welcome policy in most schools, I would suggest.

    What others are saying

    So, the usual process when something like this comes up, is I hit Google and do a bit of a search to see what others are saying about this issue I previously knew nothing about.

    Most interestingly, only a year ago, this article slipped through the news. In it, Matt McGreggor of Creative Commons in New Zealand says

    “There’s a real absurdity in most schools at the moment where teachers don’t hold the copyright to their resources,” he said. “What that means is that teachers who share all the time are breaching the copyright of their board of trustees.

    “Every school in New Zealand should fix that problem by passing a Creative Commons policy.”

    So even those who work in the copyright industry say that the rule is stupid, but there is a very simple solution, similar – if not better – to the one I suggested earlier.

    Covering all the aspects of this is a webpage created by Creative Commons that outlines all that I discovered in the course of this article. It outlines the issues, as well as advocates on behalf of teachers for all boards to make a policy change so that Teachers are able to legally share their resources or take them with them as they move to another school. They have even created a template, making it easy for boards to implement a new policy.

    With it, they have made a couple of videos as well.

    I know for me, I will have to add another item to the next Board of Trustees meeting agenda.

    Related Reading:

  • I am Man: Male teachers teaching males

    Download full article (PDF – 1.9 Mb)

    I am man

    Male teachers teaching males .
    A study into the influence of male teachers on the education of boys at primary school.

    A lot is made about the education of boys and the problems surrounding them.
    We continue to see female students outperform their male counterparts year in and year out when it comes to academic ability. This happens mostly in secondary education, but is often assumed this starts earlier in life, when students are in primary school.
    In conjunction with this is the ratio of male teachers to female teachers, which is about 1:5. Only 16.5% of primary teachers are male (according to 2013 data), which compares to only 41% in secondary school [1]. When we begin to look deeper into these numbers it becomes even more interesting.
    For instance, we can discount principals from our data, as very few of these are full time teachers in a classroom. In 2012, the number of male principals was more than female principals by just 67 (compared with 437 more in 2004). Continuing this trend is somewhat inevitable, and we would expect by now that there are more female principals than male principals.
    There are 1,961 primary schools in total (including full primary, intermediate and contributing schools). The number of male teachers (excluding principals) in these schools is 3,633 [2].
    If all the male teachers were equally distributed across the country, there would be only 1.8 male teachers per school. Let’s be humane and round that up to 2 male teachers per school on average, just so we don’t have to remove 0.2 of one of our male teachers. Obviously, some will have 2, some may have 3, some even 4, while others will only have 1, or more concerning, none.
    Add in to this the specialist teachers in Intermediate schools who teach woodwork, art, music, computers, design, and other technology options, many of whom are usually male; thus bringing the number of males as classroom teachers down. In fact, you wouldn’t be wrong in saying there are less than two male teachers in the average New Zealand primary school.
    To me, it’s not good enough. 
    Take an average New Zealand primary school of 300 pupils for example. Based on the government’s current ‘ideal’ class size of 28 students, there would be 11 classrooms at this school. Of those 11 classroom teachers, we can apply the 16.5% of teachers being male. That leaves us with 1.8 teachers. Now I’ll be generous and make that two. Two male teachers in the school. That means there are only 56 out of 300 students who have a male teacher for that year. That’s only 18% of the school on any given year.

    If we extrapolate this further, we can work out some probabilities of students having a male teacher. For this, we will assume that there are no male teachers in the new entrants class at this school – as is the case for most schools around the country. This raises the percentage of male teachers to 19.8% given we are eliminating one year of teaching.

    Warning: Complicated mathematics approaching!
    Now, with this higher percentage, we can calculate the probability of having a male teacher at some point during your primary school years – Year 2 to 6. (This excludes Intermediate given the complications around tech teachers, as well as varying class sizes.)
    The formula is:

    Y = Possible years with male teacher (5) n = No. of Male T’s

    F = Female Teacher % M = Male Teacher %
    Yt = Total years at Primary School (6) n = No. of Male T’s

    So with that, we have the table of the probability of having ‘n’ number of male teachers during primary school. The chance of not having a male teacher at all is about 26%, and there is only a 32% chance of having only one male teacher in your primary school years. Not surprisingly, the chance of having multiple male teachers during your six years of primary schooling is even lower, and the probability decreases rapidly the more male teachers we put into the equation.

     

     

    We can take this even further when we start to place this into a real life situation, where most schools these days are splitting year groups up, and combining them into one classroom. We usually see this around mixed classes of year 3-4 and year 5-6.

    This shows us that having two female teachers for these two years (where year levels are split) is more than twice as likely to happen than having a male for one or both of them. It’s nigh on 70% chance that primary school students will have a female teacher for both years. This assumes of course that students have the same possibility as the first year (i.e. half the year group changes teacher). This becomes exponential when we throw the same probabilities for the following two years in 5 and 6. In the table below (Table 1) (filled with yet more complicated mathematics), we can see how the probability changes as students go through the education system today.

    Some interesting points to note:

    • There is nigh on 50% chance of not having a male teacher for Years 3-6.
    • During years 3 – 6, students are making the most neuron connections in their brain than they ever do in the rest of their life. This is a critical stage in the development of their personality, knowledge, emotions, health, and well-being. This can be seen in Figure 2 below. The connections are at their most dense at the age of 7, which is when a student heads into year 3. From there, the important connections that have been made grow stronger, and those that have been made upon misconceptions disappear.
    • We can see that there is less than 40% chance of having just one male teacher during these formative years.
    • That drops significantly for students to have two male teachers. Given that we have established that there would be 2 male teachers (on average) at a 300 pupil strong school, there is only 11.4% chance of a student being taught by both of them over the course of 4 years.

    I could spend hours going into the complexities of why men don’t want to be teachers. We can look at all the excuses. We can blame money or abuse claims. But to me it’s more than that. I want to put it back to the kids. That’s why I got involved in teaching. It’s not for me. Not for my benefit. I’ve had my education, filled with influential male teachers that to this day I still look up to and admire, and am infinitely in debt to for their impact on my life. No. The reason I am a teacher is for the kids.
    In a NZ Herald article by Nicholas Jones, he interviewed Phil Harding, the Principals’ Federation president, who said that ‘many schools struggled to hire male teachers, and there were good reasons why a more even gender split was desirable.
    “Look at the percentages of children that are living with no father in their daily lives. We see the fallout from that with boys that have lost their way, are desperately unhappy, and don’t feel like they can talk about it with mum.
    “So that all gets bottled up and rebounds in the playground in anger – deeply seated stuff.” [3]
    These kids need male role models in their lives – boys and girls alike – but especially boys. Some are lucky to have them. Fathers who love their wives or partners, and who adore their children give their kids someone to look up to. Some have grandparents who were born in a different and more disciplined era. Some have uncles who they admire. But all too many have no one. A father who is in prison. An uncle doing crack. A grandfather who passed away last week. They come to school and the only other male influence they have in their lives is a little brother who they had to make lunch each morning.
    This is the reality for many of our students today.
    I have a colleague who makes a good point when it comes to male teachers; and that is that a good teacher is a good teacher, regardless of gender. This view is upheld by Dr. Graham Stoop who says “Evidence tells us that the most important factor in lifting achievement is the quality of teaching, not the gender of the teacher”.
    But as a male teacher, there is something more to it. I agree that a good teacher will teach well. But there appears to be a different bond between males to males that don’t exist between males and females, and this begins at a very young age. I am speaking from experience; both as a boy learning from male teachers at primary school, and as a male teacher teaching in a primary school.
    I have seen that the boys gravitate more towards me, they watch and they learn from me in a way that they don’t with my female colleagues. I’ve seen them become engaged, and felt included as a guy, rather than just another student in the class. I’ve seen them try out their sense of humour because they know that it is safe to do so with a guy. I’ve seen them take risks and give things a go in physical education, because its the guy thing to do, and as a male teacher I have encouraged the bravado within the safety of the classroom or school grounds.

    There is no suggestion that females can’t or don’t do these things and provide the opportunities to do it, but there is something unknown going on when there is a male teacher who is able to engage and inspire the boys in his class.
    Think of it as a child version of when four men can go round to a mates place, slouch down into a range of seating options, say nothing at all to each other and yet have an entire conversation at the same time. No one can explain it, not even men themselves; but it exists.

    In almost an uncanny concurrence, we are forever hearing about the falling rates of boys achieving academically, being left behind in educational dust by their female counterparts. For a long time, girls have always been more academically inclined than boys, and this has shown up in New Zealand assessment results for decades. It would seem that boys have given up on education long, long ago, and would rather be out playing sport, building things, making things with their hands, and having a bit of rough and tumble.

    But there is more to education than academic results, right? We already know that the success of education rides on the ability of the teacher to engage and inspire, motivate and challenge, as well as, build relationships with their students. We know that there are many circumstances that hinder progress, but in the same way, there are many circumstances that foster it.

    Could it be possible that there’s a small chance that the key to improve boys educational success lies in male teachers? What if the difference that needs to be made in order for boys to become both academically successful, but also become valuable and responsible members of society is directly (or otherwise) linked to the influence they have from male teachers? What if the way of building up and equipping tomorrow’s men with the knowledge, skill, resilience and determination to be better men; be better husbands or partners; be better fathers; to stand up and say “I Am Man!”; was to present itself in the way of today’s men being an everyday influence on today’s boys. One of the most powerful ways, but certainly not the only way, to do this lies in teaching. Every day for six hours you have tomorrow’s men attention and engagement to make a difference.

    But how strong is this link between men in teaching and boys’ achievement in education.
    I’m certainly not the first to wonder about this. It is “One of the more common themes… that a relationship exists between boys’ achievement levels and the numbers of male teachers (Sunday Star Times, 1 Aug 1999).” [4]

    To do this, I want to look at the results of boys achievement at various stages through New Zealand education history. I then want to match these points in time with the decline of male teachers. Potentially, we may see a trend beginning to happen, where the achievement (or non-achievement) of boys is directly linked to the number (or lack of) male teachers.

    Because there is no national assessment data for primary schools like there is for secondary schools in the form of NCEA, or in years gone by School Certificate and Bursary, I have offset the years by five, accounting for the fact that those sitting NCEA Level 2 in 2009, for example, would have been leaving primary school in 2004, and therefore affected by 2004’s male primary teachers.

    Statistics around male teachers across the decades was initially obtained from Harker (2006) [5] who got his data from the Ministry of Education website at the time.
    We can see a downward trend from the 1970’s, to a plateau from 1991 onwards. Meanwhile, the number of female teachers has steadily increased over this time, and thus, the percentage of male teachers in classrooms continues to drop.

    In the following few pages I have made a series of charts and tables of information surrounding school leavers highest attained academic results.
    I have included students that have left with no qualifications at all, as well as, those that have achieved Higher School Certificate, NCEA Level 2 or higher. Comparing these with the numbers of male teachers should give some indication around the effect less male teachers has on the students.

    The table here shows the truth behind some common assumptions that are well known. Firstly, that there is a decline of male teachers in the primary sector. Secondly, it shows us, in two different ways, that females are outperforming boys when it comes to secondary school education achievement. In the ‘No Qualification’ columns, we see that more males are leaving school with no formal qualification than females.

    At the other end of the spectrum, we can see that from the mid-80’s onwards, more females are achieving Higher School Certificate or NCEA Level 2 than males.

    From this, it does not look good for the theory that the lack of male teachers is having an effect on boys academic results. In essence, if this were the case, we should be seeing the rate of males leaving with no qualifications increasing as the number of male teachers decrease. Along with this, we should see those male students passing with Higher School Certificate or NCEA Level 2 decrease at the same rate as the percentage of male teachers in schools.

    However, we see the opposite of this, and is only highlighted by the graph, where school leavers with no qualifications is slowly declining at about the same rate as the percentage of male teachers.

     

    There is only one glimmer of light that goes along to mirror the impact of male teachers. Whilst I have been purely looking at the performance of boys at secondary school, it is important to look at the comparison against females, as that tends to be what they are compared with each and every year. This is what tells us that there is a problem.

    The way to compare the two is to take the lower away from the higher to give a marginal difference and measure the gap between the two genders.
    From the graph above, we can see a range of differences across the decades which is to be expected. But if we imagine a trendline on the difference line, it might look a lot like the gray line that is representing the percentage of male teachers in primary schools. However, this is not nearly enough evidence to suggest that the lack of male teachers in primary schools is having a detrimental effect on the state of secondary school leavers attainment rates.
    It is hardly surprising, thinking back to my high school years, that primary school teachers have any effect on the exam and assessment results of teenage boys.

    DATA SOURCES
    1976-1986: No online copies available. See ‘Education Statistics of New Zealand Booklet’ for these years.
    1990: 1990 Education Statistics of NZ Booklet.pdf
    1996: 1996 Education-Statistics of NZ Booklet.pdf
    2000-2006: Education Statistics Downloads – Years 1999 to 2009
    2010: Highest Attainment Numbers

    Until there is measurable and reliable data on the progress and achievement of primary school students, there will be little way of actually proving that male teachers benefit male students more than female teachers. And even then, I am not sure that it would be that cut and dry.
    Some would say – ‘Why don’t you use National Standards to see the effect?’. Well, firstly, National Standards have only been around five years. The standard deviation for any percentages would eliminate any rate of drop for male teachers during that time. Secondly, the National Standards are still ‘being developed’ in the sense that teachers have only just gotten an understanding around them. Even the government admits that the figures are ‘ropey’ and cannot be relied upon to help use determine if there is any link between male teachers and male student performance. Without the National Standards being more robust, gathering any information around student performance at primary school is far too difficult.

    But what if, like many key areas of learning that go past unnoticed, the impact of male teachers on male students cannot be measured through student assessment? For instance, how does one actually measure influence? Or motivation? Or engagement? All of these aspects we agree would lead to students learning more and understanding more, but none are easy to calculate or measure so as to be compared with the declining percentage of male teachers in the classrooms.
    What if the impact of male teachers on students doesn’t make itself known until much later on; years after they leave school, decades, even generations later? Otherwise, why is there such concern over the dwindling numbers of male teachers in our primary school classrooms?

    I did a Google search for “male primary school teachers nz”, half expecting (but not really) to see articles about role models, positive posts about great male teachers, the range of skills needed etc.
    Instead, of the 10 results that were listed on page one, six of them were about the lack of male teachers.
    Even the article I featured in, which had all sorts of positivity around being male and being a teacher in a primary school had a negative headline leading the charge – “Wanted: Male primary school teachers” – as if we had suddenly reached dire straits and desperately needed more male teachers in Wainuiomata. While even more male teachers would be welcome, it isn’t as if there is a shortage.
    For me, it comes back to the unmeasurable factors that males bring to teaching that provides students with a balance. Without male teachers providing that important balance, education becomes very ‘one sided’ and female dominated.

     

    Role models. People we look up to for inspiration, encouragement, example. Someone we try and emulate and better ourselves to be like. Research in 2008 in the UK, carried out by folks who have more time for this kind of thing than I do as a practising teacher, have interviewed a sample of 800 males in the United Kingdom[6]. They found that over half consider male teachers they had in their schooling years to be a ‘fundamental role model in their life’. In addition to this, over a third of these men also thought they were challenged to work harder at school because of having a male teacher.
    In the article, Dr. Tanya Byron says “Male primary school teachers can often be stable and reliable figures in the lives of the children that they teach.”

    All of these factors mentioned in the article are not at all academic based, but definitely contribute to the overall education of students; in this case boys. While evidence explored earlier in this study shows that male teachers have little impact on the academic outcomes of boys at secondary school, we can definitely see how other factors could be definitely influenced by having a stable, reliable male role model as a teacher.

    We are forever debating around the other influences that affect our students every day, and what impact they have. Teachers get told that we are just making excuses for the students not learning at a hypothetical expected level, when in reality, these are completely real for our students. Things like poverty, nutrition, hygiene, and hunger are all massive influences on our students every single day.
    So it should come as no surprise that male teachers can have some (positive) influence on our students lives, even if there aren’t any ‘academic benefits’ because of this. We can certainly assume that any positive influence provided by any teacher will improve student well-being.
    In turn, we can also say that any positive influence from male teachers will have a profound and meaningful impact on boys.

    Providing this role model becomes vitally important when considering the number of families with fathers who are no longer a part of their child’s everyday life. In 2006, Auckland University looked at the change in family situations in New Zealand based on the Census taken over the years [7].
    They found some interesting calculations regarding income, education, and other factors that make up whanau around the country. Using their data, I looked at those families that had dependable children (unable to earn, and therefore dependant on their parent/s) with two parents, and families that had dependable children with only one parent.
    In 1981, only 14% of these children who depended on their adults came from one parent situations.
    In 2006, that number has doubled to 28%. That’s nigh on one third of our kids who are living with only one parent, usually their mother.
    Please note, I am completely aware that some of these ‘one parent families’ will be solo dads who are looking after their kids, and who are providing an awesome role model for their children. But in my experience, I would say that in nine out of 10 cases, it is the mother who ends up looking after the children after a breakup. And while most fathers still remain in contact with their children, it is very rarely a consistent or sizeable influence that a child is experiencing day in and day out, such as that which a male teacher would have for example.

    It therefore becomes vitally important, especially for these 28% of students in our classes, that they are getting the input from male role models into their lives, in some shape or form, and male teachers can be the most influential of all the options. You can see a nine year old boy coming from a broken home where Dad has left the scene and Mum is working, doing the best she can, just how important a male teacher might become in his life. It may not make a blind bit of difference to him academically, but to his well-being, his confidence in himself as a young man, and his perception of men in his life, the influence that teacher could be on his life may be one of the most important things that happens for that child.

    In this same time period where we see more one parent (usually mothers) families, we also see the decline in male primary school teachers.

    From this table we can see how the number of male teachers goes down, while the number of single parent families goes up. Because the single parent family usually (but not always) means the mother, we can assume that the number of male role models is also decreasing at home. The number of stable, reliable, male role models for this generation has deteriorated considerably over the last 35 years.
    The impact that this has had on society as a whole is difficult to determine. It may not become evident until many years, even decades down the track. We often say that children these days are less resilient, less disciplined. But then, people have been saying that for generations, and there’s nothing to suggest that male role models instill any more discipline in individuals than females. This is why it becomes difficult to see the impact that the decline of male role models has had on children of today, and on society as a whole.

    Conclusion

    In summary, I have found out some interesting insights into the struggles that education faces now in the current climate in regards to the imbalance of gender in schools, especially primary schools. Fighting with some complicated statistical equations, we found that there is a 26% chance that your child could go through their primary education without having a male teacher at all. There are less than two male teachers in the average New Zealand primary school.
    Are you okay with that?

    There seems to be an unwritten anomaly that occurs between adult males, and this is something that happens instinctively. This made me think that, as a boy at school, there is something more about having a male teacher. There is an intrinsic link that is difficult if not impossible to put your finger on. This led me to believe that there is something beyond being a good teacher that makes male teachers an important part of a child’s education, especially for boys.

    But none of this can be backed up by figures. So looking at academic results, one has to look at secondary results, as nothing quantifiable, or reliable, is readily available on a
    national level for primary school students. Going back to the 1970’s, I compared the academic results with the decline of male primary teachers. I used a five year offset to see the impact that a 1971 primary teacher has on a 1976 secondary school student, to no avail. There is no evidence to suggest that the lack of male primary teachers is having any effect on secondary school results. In fact, if anything, the opposite is true (though I don’t believe for a moment that male teachers are hindering any academic progress on our generations).
    As we head on into the future, the number of male role models in students lives are diminishing, and this should be a concern to all of us.

    So it comes down to that intrinsic link between males. Be it macho, be it strength, mana, boldness, or the old adage of boys will be boys, the fact is the only ones who know what it’s like to be a boy at school are men. And the only ones who can go about helping these boys become tomorrow’s men with understanding and experience are male role models. There is no doubt that many, many females have had an amazing impact on each and every man going through school. There have been numerous females who have focussed their entire careers around the education of boys. One that comes to mind immediately in this country is the late Celia Lashlie.

    Celia’s work stems from prison and the system and process around the journey boys get set on to end up there. It was with a bit of a shock that we heard of her passing in February this year. Such a strong advocate for boys and men around this country, her shining light snuffed out at such a crucial time.
    But one of the quotes I read of hers when summing up her work, she said:
    ‘My job was only to collect the stories and hold up the mirror, it was not then, nor is it now, to translate for men what they are seeing in the mirror or to tell them what to do next.’ [8]
    In a sense, this is exactly the outcome of my study in the preceding pages. In a sense, only men will know how important it is for boys to have male role models. Females know the importance of it, and are becoming teachers to be role models for them (and all students of course). But they can’t be male role models for them.
    So here I am, telling you what to do next.
    Male teachers who are reading this: keep strong. You chose this profession for a reason. Or if you didn’t, you have surely found one along the way. Hang onto that reason. Don’t quit just because the going gets tough. One of my favourite, and most influential quotes for me from the first season of “The School”, or “Educating Essex (2011)” [9] as it is formally known by in the UK, is from Mr. Drew, who says:

    “I like young people. I find them interesting. I find them exciting, I find them invigorating. I just think it’s so grotesquely critical of adults in the modern age to
    say that young people today are worse. They’re not worse, they are products of what we as a society create. And they have less opportunity to be children.
    So, yes, it’s hard work, but why is hard work a bad thing? Hard work is surely what makes people better. So, yeah, it’s hard work, but okay good, thank you, I like hard work.” [10]
    Ever since hearing that, I’ve kept it. Yes, it’s hard work. But I like hard work.

    If you are male and thinking of becoming a primary teacher; do it. Don’t worry about the attached stigma, or what people think about you. If you feel that you’re going to be a good teacher and want to make a difference in tomorrow’s men, there is no better way. The pay isn’t as much as you could get in the private sector, but its a living, and the rewards are so much greater than anything money can buy anyway.
    The reality is, the difference you can make today, is going to benefit generations to come.
    I can’t and won’t sell teaching to you. It has its benefits and its pitfalls just like any other career path. But you will know if you have the teaching bug. Its a little bug that grows inside. It buzzes with enthusiasm when it sees learning happening. It flutters with excitement when you pass information on to others. It gets a kick out of seeing eyes light up. Its a passion deep inside, and without it, teaching won’t be for you. But with it, you will be the greatest thing that happens for some students that will go on to affect them for the rest of their lives.

    References

    [1] (2014). Efforts to get more male teachers failing | Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved May 7, 2015, from http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/64375435/Efforts-to-get-more-male-teachers-failing.
    [2] (2012). Teaching Staff | Education Counts. Retrieved May 7, 2015, from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/schooling/teaching_staff.
    [3] (2014). Lack of male teachers ‘affecting boys’ – National – NZ Herald … Retrieved May 7, 2015, from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11359588.
    [4] Major, Dayle. “Male Teachers and Boys’ Achievements.” (2000).
    [5] HARKER, R. (2006). Teacher Numbers in New Zealand: Attrition and Replacement. Retrieved from http://www.teacherswork.ac.nz/journal/volume3_issue1/harker.pdf.
    [6] (2013). Male teachers vital role models for boys – The Guardian. Retrieved May 19, 2015, from http://www.theguardian.com/education/2008/sep/30/primaryschools.malerolemodels.
    [7] (2010). Measuring Changes in Family and Whānau Wellbeing Using. Retrieved May 19, 2015, from http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/people_and_communities/Families/changes-in-family-using-census-1981-06.aspx.
    [8] (2015). A life lesson from Celia Lashlie – Bevan James Eyles. Retrieved May 19, 2015, from http://www.bevanjameseyles.com/blog/2015/3/4/a-life-lesson-from-celia-lashlie.html.
    [9] (2011). Educating Essex – Channel 4. Retrieved May 19, 2015, from http://www.channel4.com/programmes/educating-essex.
    [10] (2014). Jul. 18, 2014 – adrienne santos. Retrieved May 19, 2015, from http://adriennesantos.com/post/92143214503/i-like-young-people-i-find-them-interesting-i

    Acknowledgements

    A huge thank you to my sister, Dr. Bridget Ingham who helped with the ‘mathemagics’ that was going on in part two. There is certainly no way that I would have been able to extrapolate that level of statistics to bring the probability of getting a male teacher at primary school without it.

    Thank you also to my current place of employment. You took a risk and employed a fresh faced young male teacher and gave me a start into teaching. There’s not a day that goes by that I am not grateful for the opportunity I have to be an influence in the boys and girls at our school.

    Thanks to my wife who has put up with a semi-unresponsive husband as I work late into the nights typing up my findings. Your ongoing support gives me the strength to face each day.

    Lastly, thanks to the late Roger Mexted, who taught me as a boy, and taught me as a student teacher in his class. Your role model has left a permanent impression on my life, as a teacher, as a person, and as a man.
    Edited by Al Ingham, Bonnie Macbeth and Ruth Hastings. Many thanks.

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