Chair’s Report to TEFANZ Annual General Meeting Agenda – July 19, 2019
University of Canterbury, Rehua Building
Te Moana nui a Kiwa on the 2nd floor
Christchurch
Since our last AGM, July 5, 2018 in Melbourne, initial teacher education (ITE) has remained prominent within education policy development in Aotearoa. Many of the current government’s #Education Conversation | Kōrero Mātauranga policy pieces include reference to ITE. Reform of, accessibility to, and development within the sector are hot topics as workforce matters, system performance, and so-called mirror of society issues persist. As new programme requirements begin to embed themselves into the field, the tumultuous context of our work continues unabated. I urge members to keep track of directions and suggestions, keeping a close eye in particular on recommendations and comments made about ITE in various strategies and reviews to date, such as:
- Early Learning Strategic Plan: Recommendation 3.2 – Strengthen initial teacher education
- Vision for the Education Workforce 2032, EWSG Co-Designed Vision, 5 March 2019 – notes issues of fewer people attracted to teaching, gaps in teacher expertise, lack of cultural competency amongst teacher workforce, slow to engage with digital technologies and so forth.
- Tomorrow’s Schools Independent Taskforce: identifies issues of graduate variability from ITE programmes, too few non-traditional pathways into teaching, poor graduate capability to address all learners’ needs, gaps in teacher expertise (e.g., te reo Māori teaching, STEM), and new graduate teacher retention.
New requirements for ITE programme approval and review came into effect on July 1. All providers will be undertaking some form of programme review and/or new qualification development in these next 2-3 years. It is a huge body of work for the Teaching Council to manage and for us as a sector to support each other with. It was with great appreciation that I heard from the Teaching Council in June that many expressions of interest were made by teacher educators putting themselves forward to support the Council’s approval and accreditation panel processes. Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou.
Many TEFANZ member institutions participated in one or both of the Teaching Council ITE workshops held in June. While the workshops did provide colleagues who’d not yet engaged with the new policy, a solid chance to pre-view what is coming, there remained several significant questions about the policy and its forthcoming implementation. At the Auckland meeting, which I attended, participants are looking forward to further advice about pre-entry literacy and numeracy screen processes for ITE applicants; for clarification about the detail of documentation needed for approval applications, especially with respect to assessment information; and for some system-wide discussion about prospective methods for assessment and supporting student teacher of te reo Māori over the course of qualifications.
Finance and administration
The TEFANZ financial report is tabled. The EXEC approved the report at their meeting of July 18. The responsibility for financial management of the Association has been with the University of Waikato Te Kura Toi Tangata Faculty of Education during Bev Cooper’s tenure as Chair, Amy De Toni has administered the records on our behalf. I would like to thank Bev and Amy for this service and acknowledge the University of Waikato Te Kura Toi Tangata for the stability they’ve provided us in this respect. Following this year’s AGM and close off of accounts from the TEFANZ Forum, the financial records and funds will be transferred to the University of Otago College of Education.
The 2014 AGM agreed that membership subscriptions would be tied to ITE EFTS not institutional EFTS.
$1000 for institutions with fewer than 500 teacher education EFTS and $2000 for institutions with more than 500 teacher education EFTS.
Motion: 2020 member subscriptions remain at the current level.
Constitution and Election of Officers
The Executive consists of Beverley Cooper (University of Waikato, Immediate Past Chair); Fiona Ell (University of Auckland); Bev Norsworthy (Bethlehem Tertiary Institute); Sally Hansen (Massey University); Tracey Hooker (WINTEC), Alex Gunn (Otago University, Chair), Robin Averill (Victoria University) and Misty Sato (Canterbury University, seconded for 2019, replaced Letitia Fickle who was seconded for 2018). No election of executive members is due this year. In 2020 at the Conference AGM, terms for Bev Cooper, Robin Averill, Sally Hanson, Tracey Hoker, Fiona Ell expire. An election for up to four members will be held.
On behalf of the Association I would like to thank Bev Cooper once again for the service she provided to us in her role as Chair. As per the revised constitution (due for discussion today) Bev moves into a role as immediate past chair now until the elections in 2020.
I thank you in advance for your consideration of the revised constitution being put forth in today’s AGM. This revision is the accumulation of about 3-years of work and if passed, will modernise the rules of the Association and provide for solid succession planning in the leadership of the group.
Executive Committee Meetings
This past year the executive met on 25 October, 28 March, 18 July. Reports of the executive meetings were circulated as newletters after each of those hui and can be found on the TEFANZ website for ongoing reference.
TEFANZ Current Member Organisations (financial members 2018-19)
AUT
Bethleham Tertiary Institute
Eastern Institute of Technology
Laidlaw College
Massey University
Open Polytechnic
Te Rio Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand
Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology
UNITEC
University of Auckland
University of Canterbury
University of Otago
University of Waikato
Victoria University of Wellington
WINTEC
TEFANZ Preparedness to Teach Survey
The final iteration of the survey was administered at the end of 2018. This means two whole cohort of 3-4year programme ITE students were invited to undertake the survey and several year’s worth of one-year programme students, including Masters programmes were surveyed. We continue to work on transfer of the data set from the contracted survey administrator back to TEFANZ and Bev Cooper is leading an exploration of the data with a view to future publications from it.
The executive is considering ways to move forward with new research and to that end has put together a draft of a policy for research funding and proposal development for us to consider in the coming year.
TEFANZ representation and liaison
The executive committee continues to liaise and work with key education stakeholders in ITE. In many cases this has occured through active participation by TEFANZ members on working groups and in committees.
We have TEFANZ reprsentation on the Teaching Council’s ITEAG (with thanks to Bev Cooper)
NZCER Electoral College
*MESHguides (Mapping Educational Specialist Knowhow) [*foundation member but not currently noted as this or associate member]
TEFANZ was invited to be part of a networking and relationship building trip to Australia led by the NZ Council of Deans of Education. The trip is in August and Tracey Hooker is attending from TEFANZ. I am also traveling in part as Associate Dean Teacher Education at the University of Otago, but also TEFANZ Chair.
While our representation has been excellent, it has sometimes been ad hoc, and so the executive considered a policy/procedure about representation at it’s last meeting. Once this is more developed we will be communicating with members over the initiative through the newsletter.
We held professional meetings with PPTA on 26 October, 2018 and 29 March, 2019. We conducted the same with NZEI on 20 November, 2018 and May 21, 2019. These continue to be valuable hui for our members to interact directly with advocates in the profession and to network and liaise over matters of mutual interest. Thanks to Bev Cooper for her liaison with PPTA in this regard, and Fiona Ell for the same with NZEI. Our appreciation is extended to PPTA and NZEI for hosting our hui and for their generosity and welcome.
Submissions
Draft ITE Programme Approval and Review Requirements (September 2018)
Website
The University of Waikato’s Faculty of Education technology team have continued to provide generous support in the maintenance of the TEFANZ website. We are committed to making this a more dynamic space but for now it serves mostly as a repository for newsletters, meeting minutes, notices around TEFANZ events and the suchlike.
2019 Forum and 2020 Conference
Our thanks go to Assoc. Prof. Misty Sato and the team from the University of Canterbury for hosting the 2019 TEFANZ Forum: Tight but loose regulation of teacher education in Aotearoa. The invited panel, speakers and other discussions have been lively and robust. We look forward to a joint TEFANZ/ATEA conference in 2020 in Auckland.
The 2018-19 year has indeed been a busy one for our organisation and us as a collective body of professionals and academics invovled in ITE. I wish you well for the remainder of 2019 and look forward with you to our biennial conference in Auckland, July next year.
Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou
Alex Gunn
Chair