University of Tasmania

equity and educational outcomes in universities

Learning from a crisis – building back better

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This is the fourth day in a series of posts on AARE education priorities for the 2025 federal election. Today’s posts are about equity and educational outcomes.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the world was living a learning crisis . . .Even worse, the crisis was not equally distributed: the most disadvantaged children and youth had the worst access to schooling, highest dropout rates, and the largest learning deficits. . . .But it is possible to counter those shocks, and to turn crisis into opportunity. . . . As the school system stabilises, countries can use the focus and innovativeness of the recovery period to “build back better.” World Bank. 

From early on in the COVID-19 pandemic there were calls not to go back to ‘business as usual’ (BAU) in education but to ‘build back better’ once school lockdowns ended.

Five years on, these calls are even more urgent. Australia faces high levels of school refusal and youth mental health concerns. Some of these concerns are attributed to COVID school lockdowns. And inequities are deepening; and as environmental crises cause disruptions to education and schooling more and more often – it can feel like the call to build back better was not heard.

Crises offer valuable lessons

Experiences during a crisis offer valuable lessons for improving educational equity. In our book  – which called for rebuilding more equitable education systems after crises like COVD-19 – we provide extensive evidence for some key lessons related to learners’:

·  material needs

·  emotional wellbeing, and

·  access to learning.

Of course, these three aspects are linked, with the learner’s family, learning contexts, education systems and structural dimensions that shape everyday life during and beyond the pandemic. All of these dimensions form a web of interconnected factors that affect educational equity. We address each dimension in turn below emphasising the ongoing impact of these factors on learners. Systems leaders can choose to focus efforts on these dimensions to improve equity in education.

Material needs

The economic pressure of COVID-19 lockdowns placed extraordinary financial stress on many families. It highlighted that material basics are essential for enhancing educational equity.

·         Breakfast clubs and free school lunches are an essential support that helps to mitigate food poverty and help prepare students for learning. Rather than the BAU of ad hoc food provision that relies on insecure funding, schools need a systematic strategy to provide healthy food in non-stigmatising ways.

·         Overcrowded and insecure housing has negative impacts on learning. Ultimately, housing is also an educational equity issue.

·         Student access to their own digital hardware and software, and to reliable internet connection, is a crucial enabler of learning. Addressing the digital divide is a core component of achieving educational equity.

Emotional wellbeing 

The pandemic made visible the essential (but previously undervalued) work of educational providers for supporting student wellbeing (see Chapters 2 and 5 of our book). Working towards enhanced educational equity requires recognition of this role, especially for already disenfranchised and traumatised children and young people.

·         The effects of crisis-related trauma on emotional wellbeing can continue for years after the event and create a ‘shadow pandemic’. Funding for ongoing collaboration between families, education, allied health services, and other agencies is vital. 

·         Students who rely heavily on schools for wellbeing and safety need additional support. This includes students who may not be safe at home due to violence, abuse, or neglect.

Access to learning 

Despite the seeming intractability of educational inequity, there have been promising signs  of commitment to change and actual improvement in the 21st century. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a significant setback to these advances.

·         The achievement gap between more disadvantaged and more privileged students widened through the pandemic. Targeted, substantial support is needed to ensure inequitable learning losses do not have deep and long-term consequences.

·         Students learn best through active, face-to-face teaching by a qualified professional with whom they have positive relationships. Wholehearted government and community support for the teaching profession is essential for student learning.

Building back better 

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted potential innovations in the education sector that could improve equitable access to learning. These include enhanced digital learning, stronger home-school connections, targeted ‘catch up’ learning programs, and increased respect for the work of teachers. 

Smoother interagency collaboration was also a feature of the pandemic. Schools and school systems, welfare agencies, and charities and other non-government services overcame barriers that usually make such collaboration difficult. This helped to quickly identify students who most needed targeted support.   

Innovative approaches to income support provided in the early stages of COVID-19 demonstrated that it is possible to lift families and children out of poverty. Ultimately educational equity will be served best by a more equitable society. No matter how hard schools work they cannot overcome the impact of entrenched poverty.

Unfortunately, back to BAU means that many valuable innovations, programs, platforms and policies that were implemented during COVID-19 have disappeared. As a result, educational inequities are becoming even more entrenched. But it is not too late to learn from the pandemic – and to systematically and sustainably introduce approaches that proved to make our education, and our society, more equitable.

Acknowledgements 

This blog piece is based on a book that was authored by Emily Rudling, Sherridan Emery, Becky Shelley, Kitty te Riele, Jess Woodroffe and Natalie Brown.

Kitty te Riele is professor of education in the Peter Underwood Centre at the University of Tasmania. Sherridan Emery is a research fellow in the Peter Underwood Centre at the University of Tasmania. Emily Rudling is a research ellow in the Peter Underwood Centre at the University of Tasmania.

Reflective supervision: woman staring at reflective glass with postit notes.

Reflective supervision: one way to address the crisis at the top

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Australia’s education system is facing a significant crisis, with school principals experiencing unprecedented levels of stress and adversity. 

A recent report by the Australian Catholic University by Paul Kidson and colleagues is alarming. It shows physical violence against school leaders has surged by over 80 per cent since 2011. Threats of violence are at an all-time high. The mental health of our principals is deteriorating, with severe anxiety and depression rates significantly higher than those in the general population. Over half of the surveyed principals are contemplating leaving their positions, a potential exodus that will destabilise our schools.

What can we do?

Kidson and colleagues’ report highlights reflective or professional supervision as an underutilised strategy to address the principal crisis. 

Distinct from performance evaluations or compliance-focussed managerial oversight, reflective supervision provides a structured, confidential space for school leaders to reflect on their practice, discuss challenges, and support the development of critical reflection. 

It takes the form of regular, planned, and intentional meetings with a trained supervisor who is external to a leader’s workplace. This is not managerial supervision whereby conversation is motivated by role expectations and performance.  Rather, supervision expands this lens to reconnect leaders with their professional purpose and values. Distinct from coaching, supervision is not primarily about improving skills and strategies, but cultivating grit and grace for ethical engagement with complex challenges. In other professions such as social work, psychology and allied health, reflective supervision is an effective means of developing clarity, confidence, and agency, particularly in roles that require a high degree of autonomy and leadership. Supervision therefore seeks to interrupt practice, rather than merely report on or judge it. 

So what might a typical supervision session look like?

Each can look very different, according to the focus topic or inquiry that the leader (supervisee) may bring, and the approach that the supervisor may take to support the leader to explore it. This can be through creative use of images or metaphors, for example, and through noticing and questioning to help the leader widen their own lens of understanding and explore the ‘thinking behind their thinking’. By building a partnership of trust, safety and confidentiality, the supervisor facilitates a collaborative enquiry to explore the impacts of the leaders’ thinking, ethics and professional practice on those around them – including on colleagues, students, the broader school community and even the profession itself. Supervision is both supportive and challenging, affirming and question-making. In all ways, the supervisee is upheld as the expert of their own practice and an agent of their own decision making.

While each session may be different, there are typical features of a session that help scaffold and guide inquiry. Contracting begins a session so both parties are aware of the limits of confidentiality and the parameters for engagement. Focusing is a process to locate the nub of inquiry that then enables exploration and expansion of it.  Sometimes this is referred to as ‘making the familiar strange’, disentangling a knot, or exploring the tributaries of a bigger river or flow of concerns.  Sessions culminate in consolidating insights, and bridging back to how they will influence or impact everyday practice.  Supervision can also occur in small groups, following a similar process of enquiry. 

Not a silver bullet

Supervision is not a silver bullet, but 2024 evaluation undertaken by Paul Kidson for the University of Sydney found that with school principals, reflective supervision appeared to be more effective than mentoring or coaching and supported senior educational leaders in ways their current systems could or would not. 

Drawing on the voices of principals, the evaluation demonstrated that the benefits of supervision are multifaceted. It offers a supportive environment where school leaders can process the many demands of their role, reducing feelings of isolation and stress. The participants saw that supervision could ultimately build stronger schools by mitigating burnout and increasing job satisfaction. The respondents believed that, by addressing issues proactively in supervision, it would contribute to higher retention rates among school leaders, as it has done in other sectors. A number of the participants in the reflective supervision program at The University of Sydney indicated that before the course they were contemplating life beyond school leadership, including strong intentions to leave education altogether as a result of workload, mental health issues and burnt out. Yet, for these participants, reflective supervision provided the encouragement and processes to reconsider their professional direction and continue as school leaders.  

A cultural shift

Implementing reflective supervision requires a cultural shift within the education system. While school social workers, chaplains and psychologists access supervision as a matter of course nothing similar exists for principals. Yet, they experience similarly complex emotional and psychological demands.  

Valuing principals’ wellbeing, professional growth and fidelity to their profession is integral to every school’s success. Providing resources for trained supervisors and integrating regular supervision sessions into the leaders’ professional learning is already proving its worth as a sustainable support that combats leadership loneliness and promotes mental, psychological, social and even spiritual wellness.

Addressing the current crisis in school leadership as the ACU report suggests will take many forms. It’s not surprising that reflective supervision featured prominently at the roundtable between the federal education minister and principals among the many challenges of modern school leadership. By investing in the well-being and professional respect and maturity of our leaders through this approach, we not only support them as individuals but strengthen the entire educational ecosystem, ensuring better outcomes for students, our schools, and ultimately our communities.

Mary Ann Hunter is associate professor in education at the University of Tasmania. Geoff Broughton is associate professor in Christian theology at Charles Sturt University..  Michael Anderson is professor and co-director of the CREATE Centre at The University of Sydney.

human connection

As the world burns, students get why human connection matters

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While teachers may struggle to understand what global citizenship means, students experience global citizenship through intercultural relationships and human connection. Recent research found that secondary school students perceive that they learn global citizenship through human interactions across cultures. 

Students reported that friends and classmates share positive intercultural moments together. Students also value intercultural exchange with teachers. This highlights how important it is to embrace culturally diverse school environments for global citizenship education. In a digital age, with so much hype about artificial intelligence, the results show the power of human connection.

Students expressed that global citizens need intercultural collaboration skills. After all, international cooperation depends on humans understanding each other. Students reported feeling a sense of belonging and responsibility to a human family. As one student said, “Everybody owes something to everyone else”. However, the students studied didn’t mention how power is distributed in this global community. This reveals a deficit in critical thinking about global histories, inequality and complicity. 

Human connection needs more time

For teachers in the study, global citizenship education is a bit of a mystery. They struggle to conceptualise it. A major result of the study was that schools don’t give GCE the priority and time that it requires. Giving teachers support to build on students’ relational foundations of global citizenship might be a good place to start. Providing opportunities for more authentic human connection and critical thinking through learning about how the world is organised could help.

These findings were part of PhD research at the University of Tasmania to find out the lived experience Global Citizenship Education [GCE]. GCE features not only in lofty global education policy, most notably as part of The Sustainable Development Goals but has also made its way into various curricula and school missions. In the process, global citizenship has also become a buzzword. GCE can be a sign of commitment to peace and understanding. It can also be code for success in the global economy. While there is no accepted definition, it is obvious that citizenship in a globalised world goes well beyond our national borders. Challenges such as environmental crises, poverty and growing economic inequalities are glaring issues that demand our shared responsibility.

Popularity of international schools and programmes is booming

I chose to conduct my research in English-medium International Baccalaureate international schools in Australia, Finland and The Netherlands. The International Baccalaureate [IB] is a non-profit foundation that offers K-12 programmes to schools for fees. There are currently 213 Australian schools offering IB programmes. An idealistic global citizenship ethic is woven into the supranational IB curriculum continuum. At the same time, a polished corporate image and the prize of internationally recognised qualifications for overseas study, make the IB a hot commodity for elite schools. The tensions between the utopia in the vision and the inequalities of elite education are stark. 

International schools are a growing component of the global education market. There is crossover between the Australian international and independent sectors. The complicated typology of international schools can include local schools with global perspectives, schools with national curricula in different countries such as French international schools, or international curricula schools attracting many nationalities. International schools are part of the strategic neoliberal response to globalisation and often the vestiges of colonialism. This makes them interesting research terrains. Despite the ethical ideals of peaceful intercultural understanding that transnational education promises, the reality can be quite the opposite. They are elite institutions for privileged young people. 

Global citizenship education through community 

In addition to connecting interculturally with peers and teachers, the Middle Years Program students in the study lived global citizenship by taking action with their communities. Through service in the local community, students recounted some empowering experiences with positive global impacts. However, there were also themes of taking action by giving to charity for unfortunate others. This was problematic as it raises the questions of who can be a global citizen and who provides a service to whom. Some responses from students showed that giving to charity can be motivated by creating a favourable image of themselves rather than altruism. The research showed that young people were not aware of positions of privilege or power differences. 

“They’re just doing what they do with their friends”- (secondary student) 

For students, global citizenship is an everyday relational experience. Care and compassion was reported as being an important motivation in relationships with peers to protect their wellbeing and to express respect, especially across different cultures. Students in the study also said that teachers model global citizenship through relational compassion. A key reported attribute was being open-minded, which aligns with the literature on emotional openness in intercultural education.

Learning how to get along together and developing critical thinking around issues of global justice should be part of contemporary schooling. We are reminded of our hyper interconnectedness everyday, across national borders, and cultures. Yet we can’t ignore that models of education are swept along in powerful forces of neoliberalism with its central tenets of individualism, privatisation, competition and performativity. Indeed, these are the very trends that have caused many of our common problems. 

Why we need a conscious global citizenship curriculum

My research shines a light on GCE within a small segment of the IB international school landscape. The research found that students can have meaningful experiences that develop global citizenship but these are not effectively built on or enriched by formal schooling. I recommend that the experiences of young people are included in whole school global citizenship discussions and greater criticality is applied through quality productive pedagogies. Making space for professional development, a conscious global citizenship curriculum and targeted teaching practices could go some way to uncover and untangle the complexities of our responsibilities in this globalised world.

Caroline Ferguson is an internationally experienced educator, lecturer in global education and consultant. She is Guest Editor of the Human Rights Education Review, Unit Planner for the Comparative and International Education Society, facilitator for early career researchers in the Academic Network on Global Education and Learning and Committee Member of the Social and Citizenship Education Association of Australia. Her PhD was at the University of Tasmania and she is currently teaching at the Education University of Hong Kong.

teacher shortages

We have a massive teaching shortage. Here’s how to fix it

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The Federal Department of Education predicts an alarming teacher shortage of 4,100 teachers by 2025. It is now more pressing than ever that we explore ways of addressing this crisis. 

Our research examined female Initial Teacher Education (ITE) completion data in Australia to identify trends around which degree types (postgraduate and undergraduate) and study modes (internal, external, and multimodal) are likely to attract more potential female ITE students, and subsequently increase the ITE completion and ultimately the teacher supply pipeline.   

The research reveals a declining trend in ITE completion by females in the internal study mode for both degree types.  On the contrary, there has been an increasing trend in ITE completion by females in the external and multimodal study modes for both types of programs.  We therefore argue that policymakers and universities should make these programs and study modes more accessible to potential female ITE students.  This would help to maximise female ITE completion in tackling the predicted teacher shortage. 

Why use female ITE completion data? 

Historically, the teaching profession in Australia – and globally – has attracted more females than males. As such, efforts to increase the number of females graduating from ITE programs would play a significant role in bolstering the teaching workforce. Supporting women’s entry and retention in the teaching profession is key to ensuring an adequate ongoing teacher supply.  

A closer look at what the female ITE completion data tell us 

Our research shows that for the period from 2001 to 2021, there was a significant decline – by nearly 40 per cent – of female ITE completion in the internal study mode for undergraduate ITE programs. But at the same time, female ITE completion by multimodal study doubled and nearly tripled for female ITE graduates in the external study mode.   

Similar observations can be seen with the postgraduate ITE programs.  The internal study mode declined by nearly 20 per cent in the same period. For the external and multimodal study modes, there were mammoth increases of 264.40% and 1089.11% respectively in female ITE completion.  

It is clear that there is a growing interest by females to enrol in and complete ITE programs in the external and multimodal study modes as opposed to the internal study mode. 

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The upward trend in the external and multimodal study modes is likely attributed, in part, to technological advancements.  The increased use and accessibility of the internet in homes would have contributed to the growth in female ITE completion in these modes of study.  

These same technological advancements facilitated the adoption of online delivery methods for ITE degrees by universities. The shift to online learning around 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic would have also contributed to the upward trend in the external study mode. 

Given the increasing trend in female ITE completion in these flexible study modes, universities would be wise to make these modes more accessible to maximise ITE completion.  We argue that policymakers, universities and schools have an important role to play in this space to address the teacher shortage. 

Policymakers should consider: 

Offering financial support, such as scholarships and financial incentives, which are specifically targeted at female students, for example: 

  1. loans or grants for female students during placements to help cover living expenses; and 
  2. needs-based support for female students from underrepresented or disadvantaged backgrounds. 
  3. Capping tuition fees to ensure they remain affordable for all female students. 

Universities should consider:  

Providing support for students balancing academic studies with other commitments, such as family duties, which disproportionately burden female students, such as: 

  1. flexible assignment extension and leave of absence policies; and 
  2. subsidised childcare services. 

Offering flexible study options, which might include: 

  1. part-time study;  
  2. evening classes; 
  3. block study; and 
  4. mixed study mode. 

Enhancing the accessibility of external and multimodal programs by: 

  1. providing 24/7 IT helpdesk support and certified training programs to aid the development of skills required for online learning; 
  2. implementing user-friendly learning management systems and eLearning tools; and 
  3. offering funding for suitable IT equipment and internet access, especially for those in regional areas.

Fostering supportive and inclusive learning environments by: 

  1. establishing peer support groups and academic skills advising tailored to external and online students; 
  2. providing networking opportunities;  
  3. mentorship programs; and 
  4. further initiatives that address the unique challenges faced by women in tertiary study. 

Schools should consider: 

Collaborating with policymakers and universities in structured partnerships to: 

  1. facilitate the establishment of outreach programs; 
  2. provide mentoring initiatives; and 
  3. promote teaching as a viable and rewarding career choice for females.

Investing in flexible, supportive, and financially accessible ITE programs, alongside broader strategies can encourage more females to enrol in and complete ITE degrees.  This would contribute to ensuring a steady supply of qualified teachers to help avert the pending teacher shortage. 

From left to right: Scott Cowie is a librarian in Academic Engagement Services at Griffith University, who has a keen interest in educational research.  Loan Dao is an Educational Designer at the University of New South Wales and an Adjunct Lecturer in the School of Access Education at Central Queensland University.  Jeanne Allen is an Associate Professor in the School of Education and Professional Studies at Griffith University and is also a member of the Griffith Institute for Educational Research.  Darren Pullen is a Lecturer in Health Science and Information and Communications Technology in the School of Education at the University of Tasmania.

Why every new teacher needs someone to trust

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In this blog, we draw on our insights as teacher-educators listening to the voices of early career teachers (ECTs) to reimagine the transition from ‘becoming’ to ‘being’ a teacher. In 2020, we began a longitudinal research project to investigate the experiences of early career teachers in their first three years of teaching. We have now worked with our participants for the past two years and four interviews have been conducted with each of the 18 participants from Australia and New Zealand.

Our interviews with ECTs reveal that there’s always more to discover about the art of teaching and the unique needs of educators. Understanding and fitting in with the cultural, logistical and administrative nuances of the education site were all sources of challenge and anxiety noted by graduates. These elements include questions like, How does the school librarian connect with my role? What is the process for organising an excursion? What are the unspoken rules of photocopying in this school? These are identified as simple yet impactful parts of being a teacher, “…it’s just things like…Where do I get that from? Who do I go to for that?” (Katie, First-year graduate, 2021). However, not all early experiences are as easy to navigate. We interpret Katie’s question of “Who do I go to for that?” as more significant than where the whiteboard markers are kept, signalling ‘Where do I find what I am looking for in this unfamiliar context?’ Multiple graduates participating in our study identified the challenges of finding support that they felt comfortable and safe to access.

“Find your support system … finding someone you can trust and go to. Even if you need to cry … having that time to be able to debrief with someone that you trust and will support you … really important.” (Sophie, First-Year graduate, Australia, 2021)

In another example, one participant was so overwhelmed by the expectations and workload of her first teaching context, she resigned from her permanent position and left the teaching profession seeking a career change, typical of so many ECTs.

“… no one could really prepare me for what that looked like [being an ECT in a remote school context]. I had no idea … it was across three grades, I was teaching … you had to do the fundraising, assemblies, all that type of thing, and so I just felt like … I was drowning … you’re a dump zone for every task that nobody else wanted to do”
(Lucy, First-Year graduate, Australia, 2021).

Lucy wasn’t able to source support in her school. She felt she was given too much responsibility as an ECT with limited experience or guidance.

 “…[I was] feeling used and abused” (Lucy, First-Year graduate, Australia, 2021).

The overwhelm impacted her health to the point where she felt that resignation and a career change were her only options.

“My mental health suffered too much. I just thought, if this is what teaching is like…I cannot be a healthy person” (Lucy, First-Year graduate, Australia, 2021).

The power structures inherent in the school system can have a significant impact on the experiences of ECTs and their capacity to advocate for their needs, as was the case for Lucy. While many schools have well-established induction and mentoring systems for ECTs, the intersection of ‘graduate’ and ‘teacher’ can be a professionally vulnerable place. The disparity in power can deter graduates from speaking up or seeking support. This is exacerbated in some Australian and New Zealand schools when ECTs may be appointed on short-term contracts and feel they have to prove themselves to gain a permanent position.

“At the end of the day you’re a first-year teacher … you want to impress and you don’t want to come across as though you can’t hack it … so you’re constantly trying to put on … a bit of a front to prove that you can do it and that they’ve made a good decision to invest in you.”

(Daniel, First-Year graduate, Australia, 2021)

Beginning teaching is widely accepted as a time of significant personal change as ECTs move into full-time employment, often leaving the family and friends who have sustained and supported them during their studies. Accessing the professional support that was available during their studies is more complicated once in school employment. Our observations as teacher educators are that currently, we are filling a gap in new teachers’ support networks. This isn’t a problem, but it is largely informal and under-recognised.

An unexpected outcome of our research was that the opportunity for ECTs to speak with a known and trusted teaching professional once or twice a year was embraced by participants. This suggests that there is a place for ITE educators in the process of a “scaffolded transition” from ITE to full teacher accreditation. The ECTs in our research valued the opportunity to share their successes and concerns during the dedicated time for dialogue. This afforded ECTs a dialogic space to grapple with and reflect on becoming and being a teacher, without fear of consequences.

We propose that initial teacher education educators are well-placed to be independent and trusted professionals who make a fertile contribution to supporting ECTs to thrive in the early stages of their careers. Notwithstanding the programs, initiatives, and efforts of so many who work tirelessly to support our new teachers already, we can do more to ensure conditions are such that all new teachers are afforded the conditions to thrive and grow.

From left to right: Michelle Parks, Academic Director of Professional Experience, University of Tasmania; Kim Beasy, Senior Lecturer, School of Education, University of Tasmania; Helen Trevethan, Senior Lecturer, University of Otago College of Education; Jeana Kriewaldt, Associate Professor of Education and co-leader of the Arts and Humanities Education Group at the University of Melbourne; Natasha Ziebell, Senior Lecturer, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne; Wendy Carss, Senior lecturer and Programme Leader, Te Kura Toi Tangata, School of Education, University of Waikato; and Bronwen Cowie, Associate Dean Research, Division of Education, The University of Waikato