Teacher Education Forum of Aotearoa New Zealand (TEFANZ) Te Rauika Titohu Kaiako o Aotearoa
2014 Annual Report
July 9th 2014
General
Since our last Annual General meeting in July 2013 there have been many issues for ITE providers to face. Many institutions have been through or are facing restructuring which has a great effect on moral. We need to support our colleagues in these unsettling times.
The award of Exemplary Postgraduate ITE programmes through a contestable process has been unusual to say the least. In the first round Programmes at Master’s level were awarded to the University of Auckland and Otago University and Waikato University in partnership and now all University providers of ITE have been awarded exemplary programmes all at Masters level from 2015. This is an exciting development but the introduction in such a short timeframe has put enormous stress on programme developers in the various ITE institutions. Meeting NZTC and CUAP approval deadlines has been stressful.
The Request for Proposals soon to be released for Māori Medium and ECE programmes at Postgraduate level is a long awaited development. TEFANZ endorses the inclusion of these two vital groups that contribute to high quality teacher education.
The Education Amendment act currently being read in the House has implications for ITE particularly in relation to the proposed Education Council Aotearoa New Zealand (EDUCANZ). The TEFANZ submission was well received and is available on the TEFANZ website. Our oral submission focused on the removal of the status of provisional registration form the Act and the composition of the new Council.
TEFANZ also made a submission to the Ministry of Education related to the Draft Strategic Plan for Science in Society 2014-2017. In our opinion we were not convinced that the draft strategic plan recognised the complex nature of the systemic reform required in the education sector in order to support teachers. The report drew on a limited pool of research and literature to support its case.
Finance and Administration
The TEFANZ Financial Report is tabled. The Executive approved the report at their meeting on 25th March 2014 in order to meet the requirements for an incorporated society’s year-end reporting. The finances have been managed by the University of Auckland, (at no cost) through the Faculty of Education. The responsibility for financial management/oversight is aligned with the TEFANZ Chair’s institution. The account is now in the process of being transferred to the University of Waikato under the same arrangements. Sincere thanks go to Judy Robinson and Bevan Iles for the additional work they have under taken undertake on behalf of TEFANZ.
The 2013 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: 2014 member subscriptions remain at the current level.
Constitution
Further work has been completed on the constitution since the last AGM.
Executive Committee
The Executive has met face-to-face twice over the past year: 25th March in Wellington, and in Hamilton 7th July in conjunction with TEFANZ Conference. As usual, communication has also been via email and telephone.
The revised TEFANZ Constitution recommends an Executive comprising seven members, including the current and past Chairs. It also gives Executive power to co-opt up to three members to ensure Maori representation, and sector and institutional spread. The Executive for 2013/2014 comprised: Barry Brooker (University of Canterbury); Beverly Cooper (University of Waikato); Lexie Grudnoff(University of Auckland); Bev Norsworthy (Bethlehem Tertiary Institute); Mary Simpson (University of Otago); Cheryl Stephens (Te Whare Wananga o Awanui a rangi), Sally Hanson (Massey University); Jenny Ritchie (Unitec, New Zealand), Tracey Hooker WINTEC.
Members of the Executive whose terms will come up at the 2014 AGM are: Barry Brooker; Lexie Grudnoff; Bev Norsworthy; Cheryl Stephens; Sally Hansen; Mary Simpson.
We call for nominations for 3 positions
TEFANZ Member Organisations
- Auckland University
- Auckland University of Technology
- Bethlehem Tertiary Institute
- Laidlaw College
- Manukau Institute of Technology – new member
- Massey University
- New Zealand Tertiary College
- Open Polytechnic/Kuratina
- Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa/NZ Childcare
- Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi
- Unitec Institute of Technology
- University of Auckland
- University of Canterbury
- University of Otago
- University of Waikato
- Victoria University
- WINTEC, Waikato Institute of Technology
Special Section of Waikato Journal of Education
Following the 2012 TEFANZ conference the Waikato Journal of Education a refereed journal, published annually, based in the Faculty of Education, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand agreed to publish papers from the conference in a special issue of the 2013 journal: Reclaiming and reframing teacher education in Aotearoa New Zealand
Edited by a Massey University team led by John O’Neill, Sally Hansen and Peter Rawlins.
Thank you to the University of Waikato for supporting this initiative on behalf of TEFANZ.
TEFANZ Conference
Many thanks to WINTEC and Ako Aotearoa for their generous sponsorship of the 2014 Conference. A special thanks to Tracey Hooker and her team for their superb organization of the conference.
TEFANZ Preparedness to Teach Surveys:
You will recall from the last AGM that following three years of iterative piloting, the TEFANZ Entry and Exit Preparedness to Teach surveys for ECE, Primary and Secondary student teachers were fully implemented for the first time in 2013. Information from the 2013 surveys will be presented at the 2014 TEFANZ Forum. Papers related to the design and testing of the surveys have been presented at AERA 2012; ATEA and TEFANZ 2013; ECER 2013.
In developing the surveys, TEFANZ aim was to develop a robust set of national data that, over time, would provide ammunition to counter negative anecdotal comments regarding ITE. Another aim was for each participating institution to have access to their own data set which could be used to support programme review and improvement, and highlight areas for further investigation. The NZTC has confirmed that the surveys will meet their requirement re providers gaining information on their graduating students.
It has been agreed that the entry and exit surveys will be administered cyclically. In 2013, students in one -year programmes had the opportunity to complete the entry and exit surveys. Student teachers in three or four year programmes could complete the entry survey and will complete the exit surveys at the end of their ITE programmes, either in 2015 or 2016. Participating institutions with sufficient respondents have received their individual reports and the exit survey reports will be completed soon.
2015 survey administration:
The agreement around cyclical implementation means that entry and exit surveys will be administered to students entering one-year programmes in 2015. Exit surveys only will be administered to those graduating from three-year qualifications in 2015.
We encourage as many TEFANZ member providers as possible to support their students to participate in the 2015 iteration of the surveys. There were fewer participants in the 2013 exit survey (N=374) than in the final pilot undertaken in 2012 (N=811). While the results indicate what is possible with a robust, longitudinal survey, the sample size needs to be sufficient to enable necessary statistical testing.
TEFANZ will cover the costs of the 2013 institutional and aggregated reports. We believe that this is one tangible outcome/benefit of being a member of TEFANZ.
We encourage as many TEFANZ member providers as possible to support their students to participate in the exit surveys. TEFANZ will cover the costs of the institutional and aggregated reports for this year. We believe that this is one tangible outcome/benefit of being a member of TEFANZ.
Other Research
With regard to other research initiatives, TEFANZ Executive is developing an RFP for a literature review around Employer satisfaction surveys. This will inform the development of an Employer Satisfaction Survey that will be able to be administered nationally by TEFANZ members. The RFP will be released shortly.
Education Futures Collaboration
TEFANZ is a foundation member of the Education Futures collaboration. We welcome Marilyn Leask to the conference who will run a workshop related to MESH, the Mapping Educational Specialist knowHow initiative. I hope that TEFANZ will be able to engage in the development of a MESH guide.
ITE teacher registration – The Council of Deans has been working to develop a common template to evidence Registered Teacher Criteris in an ITE setting. This has been led by Mary Simpson with contributions from other TEFANZ organisations. Hopefully we are close to resolving the current issues we are having renewing full registration in an ITE setting.
TEFANZ Representation and Liaison
The Executive aims to continue with the strong efforts made by key people since TEFANZ commenced to ensure its position as the national voice for teacher education in the policy arena. In many cases this has been achieved via active participation in committees/working groups and meetings with key policy and teacher groups such as the MoE, NZTC, PPTA, NZEI.
Since the July 2013 AGM TEFANZ Executive has met with:
General Deputy Secretary Rowena Phair – to discuss her view of where ITE is heading.
The New Zealand Teachers Council – Barbara Benson to discuss current issues for the Council
PPTA – Judie Alison and Angela Roberts to discuss the politics of teacher education and PPTA’s views of future policy directions.
Representation:
TEFANZ is represented on the Tertiary Teaching Awards by Mary Simpson.
TEFANZ Awards
This year we have had a large number of high calibre nominations for the two TEFANZ awards Emerging Teacher Educator and Sustained Excellence in Teacher Education awards. Any of the nomination were worthy of the award and we encourage further applications from unsuccessful nominees.
Website
The University of Waikato’s Faculty of Education computer support have continued to provide generous support in the maintenance of the TEFANZ website.
TEFANZ Events
TEFANZ sponsored the Site Regional Symposium in Christchurch 28- 29th April. The theme was Inspiring with digital technologies in 21st century teacher education. TEFANZ sponsorship of NZ$ 4000 was used to support representatives of New Zealand ITE programmes to present research into the successful implementation of ICT in initial teacher education and its challenges in the 21st century. One of the outcomes/actions from the symposium was that organisers and other participants work in conjunction with TEFANZ to ensure teacher educators/ion is recognised by the Ministry of Education (and others in education) as essential and critical player in NZ’s education system (some key statements yet to be word-smithed). Deb Struthers from the Ministry (Director Learning with Digital Technologies) was supportive of acknowledging/enhancing the role of teacher educators.
2015 TEFANZ Forum
AUT has offered to host the 2015 Forum – thank you Lyn Lewis.
2016 TEFANZ Conference
We invite expressions of interest to host the 2016 conference.
I would like to acknowledge the Executive for their support and for the work that they undertake to ensure that TEFANZ is on the policy radar and that the biennial cycle of Conferences and Forums continue to take place despite the increasing pressures on teacher educators and providers. We are fortunate to have passionate teacher educators who undertake the work of the Executive as a service to TEFANZ, and to teacher education.
I would also like to give a big thank-you to members for your participation in TEFANZ matters and events, and for your commitment to our organization. The growth in member institutions over the last few years is fantastic- without you there would be no Teacher Education Forum of Aotearoa New Zealand (TEFANZ) Te Rauika Titohu Kaiako o Aotearoa.
Ngā mihi nui