The popular saying that He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.

(Shaw, 1903)

perpetuated in traditional societies. This expression defines teachers work as a less

demanding position, and teachers are those who are not capable of doing constructive things.

However, teaching is developed over time. This essay is going to discuss that the

professionalism, which distinguishes teachers from other groups of workers, is not only

famed by teaching traditions and norms but also engendered gradually by organizational and

professional controls in Australia through pedagogical strategies (NSW Quality Teaching

Model), National Curriculum and National Assessment Program; In addition, this essay also

emphasizes the relationship between those factors and point out that teachers should critically

examine those requirements in order to maintain a high industrial standard.

Most importantly, teaching is a qualification by possessing the characteristics of a

profession to a large extent. Using explanation of Professional Standard Councils (n.d.), the

first criterion of a disciplined group is certainly without doubt when applied to teachers

since they not only consistently commit to an efficient, responsible and accountable

individual work also work with colleagues (Day, 2002). In addition, since teachers make

moral decisions in their everyday practice (Clark & Pittaway, 2014), it is undeniable that they

adhere to ethical standards. Apart from that, concerning the criterion about serving

interests of others, no one could question teachers altruistic trait as it is known to us that

teachers shoulder an essential responsibility to prepare young people success (Day, 2002).

The criterion of possessing special knowledge and skills is a focal point of teaching since

classroom activities are mostly based on knowledge, along with the criterion - research,

education and training at a high level. And those two criterion are emphasised by the

establishment of the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL), since

the teacher quality was required by the government and was measured by professional
standards known as Australian Professional Standards for Teachers(APST). According to

AITSL (2011), teachers are required to not only respond actively to students based on

professional knowledge and research, but also make sure the engagement and meaningless of

the learning process. In this light, the APST aims to offer a framework for teachers, by which

they can critically reflect their professional capabilities, aspiration and achievements (AITSL,

2011). As it is evident-supported that teachings quality exerts great influence on students

performance (Hattie, as cited in AITSL, 2011). Therefore, improving teachers quality is

regarded as a part of educational reform, making Australian student competent and provide a

worldwide recognised educational system. Nevertheless, based on the fact that teachers are

relatively independent from their employers educational department, it is difficult to

measure their performance and also balance between the potential indoctrination by

educational department and teachers autonomy in class (Clark & Pittaway, 2014). Despite

the difficulty, the establishment of AITSL are essential to ensure the quality of teachers and

ensure the professionalism of teachers.

The professionalism is not only framed by APST for teachers but also engendered by

teaching guidance - National Curriculum. Curriculum which presents planned and sequenced

approaches is designed to guide teachers have coherent and purposeful teaching and also

include guidance of knowledge and skills aimed for certain grade level (Clark & Pittaway,

2014). A well-designed Curriculum could equip teachers with necessary skills in the ever-

changing 21 centuries. With the goal to increase competitiveness and cohesion, Australian

government reorientated teaching from value based to a result driven one. In this light, at the

beginning of 2011, the government stimulated the one-fit-for-all National Curriculum (Clark

& Pittaway, 2014). Although whether the advantages of National Curriculum outweigh its

advantages remain a controversial topic among academics, the national standards aim to
provide content and achievement standards for all the students, narrow the disparity between

states and make Australian schools compete internationally (Clark & Pittaway, 2014). Apart

from all the core and formal curriculum the Australian Curriculum covers, teachers along

with parents and schools are supposed to offer what left in the curriculum, including chosen

curriculum and meta- curriculum which mean combine the preferences of individual

students and the activities, events arranged by schools (Hill as cited in Clark & Pittaway,

2014, p. 77). In addition, Australian Curriculum highlighted seven general capacities to

support students learning (ACARA, n.d.). For teachers, since their focus is on content listing,

how they could incorporate those general skills into their pedagogical strategies and

assessment is also a challenge for them (Clark & Pittaway, 2014). National Curriculum

provide a framework for all the teachers in terms of what, when, and how teachers should

teach. Teachers themselves should be conversant with the documents and also be critical

since curriculum is designed by a range of stakeholders, its underneath values in the

documents need to be examined critically.

The third factor, which contributes to professionalism of teachers, is that holistic

pedagogical strategies could provide teachers with modes of working and guide their

practice. According to Ewing (2013), pedagogy contends a wide range of strategies and they

are required to devote time and energy into learning in order to meet students differentiated

learning styles. In 2003, New South Wales adapted the NSW Quality Teaching Framework

(NSWQTF), which includes intellectual quality, quality learning environment, and

significance those three dimensions (Clark & Pittaway, 2014). In the opinion of Gore,

Butcher & McDonald (2007), the NSWQTF aims to offer guidance and support to the

development of teachers in terms of what students could complete in classroom and the depth

and meaningless of learning. It constantly requires intellectual work lesson content and
activities design from teachers accordingly. In addition, the Quality Teaching material it

provided could inspire teachers to become a critically reflective teachers and analyse their

own practices, which intents to improving pedagogy in a long run (Gore et al., 2007).

Nevertheless, how teaching strategies are utilized in class is affected by variation and hybrids,

under such circumstances, along with the idealised framework, teachers are required to

engage in lesson planning with regard to curriculum, and acquire the capacity to interpret the

pedagogical strategies themselves.

Furthermore, teachers professionalism is framed by the standards of accountability by

the application of standardised assessments. The reason why assessment is of great

importance is that teachers need gather information constantly about students in order to fully

understanding their needs. Besides, teachers are accountable for student, parents and

communities, for their work affects the learning of students and achievement directly (Ewing,

2013). In order to make students engage into class and passionate about their achievement,

teachers are required to use assessment tools to evaluate. In addition, instead of marking

based on standard answers, teachers should be aware of what students have done in the

assessment tasks and make adjustment based on the needs (Clark & Pittaway, 2014). In

Australia, assessment is characterised by nationally standardised test Literacy and

Numeracy (Clark & Pittaway, 2014). Although it is argued by Wyatt-Smith and Cambell (as

cited by Clark & Pittaway, 2014) that there is no solid evidence to support that standardised

test could result in higher student achievement, the test could work as benchmarks for

measurement and accountability, and also provide feedback for teachers and make

improvement of their work accordingly.

Among those factors which contributed to teachers professionalism, curriculum provide

a broad instruction for teachers by providing details about goals, teaching methods and
assessment, while pedagogy and assessment are about how teachers could convert the official

curriculum into daily practice and evaluation (Ewing, 2013). Apart from that, how well the

curriculum is implemented depends on teachers quality, different assessments design

(Ewing, 2013); In turn, curriculum, pedagogical strategies and assessment play a role in

promoting or inhibiting professional standards among teachers. Under such circumstances,

there is a strong interconnectedness between professionalism, curriculum, pedagogy and

assessment, none of those factors could work without the other ones. Within the current

Australian educational framework, assessment-led reform as part of curriculum changes

provides solutions for unprecedented challenges in an ever-changing new world (Clark &

Pittaway, 2014). The National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)

provides assessment and feedback for quality teaching pedagogy and the design of

curriculum. However, the downside of the effect by standardised test is pronounced. The high

risk testing requires intense preparation of students, as a result, teachers pedagogy is

restricted to focusing mainly on the content of test instead of learning material required on

the curriculum (Thompson & Harbaugh, 2013). The curriculum, accordingly, reduced in

subject diversity by emphasising on testing (Polesel et al. as cited by Thompson &

Harbaugh, 2013). Given the fact that those factor intertwined with teachers professional

expertise, teachers should react critically to those changes in order to maintain a high

industrial standard.

Take indigenous students as an example. Australian National Curriculum, Quality

Teaching Model and National Assessment equip teachers with related professional knowledge

and understanding to address the special learning needs of indigenous students despite some

flaws embed in the documents. As a requirement for teachers, APST highlighted that teachers

must be capable to design and implement effective teaching strategies that are responsive to
the local community and cultural setting, linguistic background and histories of indigenous

students (AITSL, 2011). Along with professional requirement, Cross-Curriculum priorities,

which include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures were imbedded in

the curriculum (ACARA, n.d.), and it was integrated into every learning area, aiming to

increase the understanding of indigenous culture of teachers. However, it also a challenge for

teachers, due to the lack of cultural awareness (Keddie, Gowlett, Mills, Monk & Renshaw,

2013), and how to embed those priorities into classroom practice remains difficulties for

many teachers as for some certain learning areas, such as Mathematics, it is hard to make

connections. In addition, under the Framework of National Pedagogical strategies, teachers

are suggested to use culturally responsive pedagogy to make quality teaching salient to

Indigenous students (Craven, Bodkin-Andrews & Yeung, 2007). That is, linking quality

teaching into indigenous cultural identity and making leaning material or method more

relevant to their culture (Boon & Lewthwaite. 2016). The suggested modification of

pedagogy aims to contribute to positive leaning environment for indigenous students and

increase the culture awareness of teachers in the process of designing the courses.

Furthermore, when designing assessment, teachers should take students linguistic and

cultural diversity into consideration (Clark & Pittaway, 2014). As mentioned above, Australia

launched NAPLAN as National Assessment Program. Despite the official claim about

improving the equity of students, the exam adversely affects students achievement and

indigenous students are labelled to be under-achieving educationally (Ford, 2013). The

problem lies in the design of exam which posed extremely pressure on teachers, and

accordingly they have to adjust their pedagogy into focusing on addressing the content of

exam (Thompson & Harbaugh, 2013). Correspondingly, one-size fits all approach worked

as a hindrance for indigenous students who came from non-standard English speaking
background and the tests are usually based on culturally assumed knowledge which is unfair

for indigenous students. (Wigglesworth et al., as cited in Thompson & Harbaugh, 2013). In

addition, curriculum is also likely to be squeezed into test oriented, there is concerns about

loss of creativity and individuality of students and also the implementation of cross-

curriculum priorities (Thompson & Harbaugh, 2013). As for indigenous students those

concerns are of great importance since they are suffered from lack of cultural recognition, and

they require not only teachers equally treatment but also an understanding. In this light, it is

pronounced that teachers professionalism is not only engendered by those organizational

frameworks but also react critically to the modification to certain group of students and

special learning needs.

In conclusion, teachers professionalism is generated by many factors, including current

curriculum, pedagogical strategies, and assessment. Moreover, those factors intertwined with

each other to engender teachers professionalism within new policy framework. In order to

maintain a high industrial standard, teachers should critically examine those requirements and

cater for differentiated learning needs.

References

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