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1 day ago

Here are my thoughts on the 3 pre-prepared questions that will be asked at the #INTODebates tomorrow evening. #edchatie

The #INTODebates series is a really good idea where interesting issues are raised. The last one focused on the Irish language and this time it’s the role of the Teaching Council. People have been invited to send in questions using the above hashtag, and a selection are going to be read out. The INTO have pre-prepared 3 questions that will be discussed, which they have released, again a good idea. They will be live streaming the event from the Teachers’ Club tomorrow for those that can’t be there to join them in person, which again is a good idea. Here are my thoughts on the 3 pre-prepared questions (noting that these may not be the exact wording of the questions:)

1. Is a teacher-majority Council the best way to register and discipline teachers?

I’m not quite sure of the inference in this question but it would seem to me that the question is really asking should there be a majority of teachers on the Teaching Council? Given that the idea of the Teaching Council is self-regulation, to me it would seem absolutely necessary for the Teaching Council to comprise of mainly teachers. Otherwise, is it not simply another external body to oversee (and discipline!) us? Teachers are already managed by their Boards of Management, their patron body, the Department of Education, and most recently the Teaching Council. In some ways, aspects of our jobs are managed by other external bodies, e.g. Tusla, NCSE, management bodies, etc. The Teaching Council is the only one of these bodies that is supposed to be about self-regulation. We possibly should be asking how teachers are selected to be on the Teaching Council. At the moment, the process very much gives preference to those who are given an endorsement by the INTO. This is a dangerous precedent because it actually gives the INTO a dual role in how the Teaching Council works. On one hand, it is the decision maker in the Teaching Council, but it also is the watchdog of the same Teaching Council. This is a difficult, and so far, ineffective relationship. Teachers should be on the Teaching Council but they need to be independent from any external influences be they union or political.

2. Does the Teaching Council live up to INTO’s high expectations?

I’m not sure what the INTO’s high expectations are but I’m sure of my own expectations. Regular readers of these posts won’t be surprised to note that on the balance the answer is no. I think the Teaching Council could be an outstanding organisation and they do some brilliant stuff to promote the professionalism of teachers. Féilte, for example, is overall a fantastic showcase of what teachers can do. The Teaching Council need to do more to showcase the wonderful stuff happening in our schools. (Social Media can help.) However, the Teaching Council, for me, can only be judged on Droichead. If there was ever a lesson in how to have a fantastic idea and then tear it apart and make it into exactly the opposite of what it was supposed to do, Droichead is it. I believe Droichead could have been a crowning achievement of the Teaching Council. We could have had a self-regulating system for graduates going into teaching, where we could all work together to professionalise ourselves even further building on the wonderful work of the NIPT. However, rather than doing this, we’ve been left with a damp squib of an ill-thought, non-researched, compromise of a system that has put our entire profession at risk. The worst thing of all is that, in the end, our representative bodies allowed it to happen (see answer to Question 1).

3. Has self-regulation worked in the public interest across professions generally?

Of all the questions, this is one I’m not qualified to answer. My understanding, however, is that if they didn’t, then the idea of a Teaching Council was a very bad idea in the first place. I think teachers were very late to the table when it came to self-regulation bodies and it was sold to us as something that other highly-professional jobs had in place for many years. My guess is that they generally must work. What I don’t know is who the bodies actually work for. Do they work for the people on the ground or do they work for interested parties? It begs the question, what is the purpose of education and who should decide this purpose? I’m almost certain that this question has not been asked, let alone answered, in the last two decades.

Given the close relationship between the INTO and the Teaching Council, I don’t know how useful this debate will be. In any debate, it’s useful to have an opposition and I’m not quite sure if any of the expert panel feel that the Teaching Council has been a failure. It would be useful to have had someone on the panel that doesn’t believe the Teaching Council has worked and then have an actual debate. It’s something that is sorely missing these days. … See MoreSee Less

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2 days ago

#INTOdebates are looking for questions for this oddly named debate. Here is my question.

How did the INTO move from being completely against Droichead to being its greatest supporter, and why?INTO's debate on the Teaching Council & professional regulation will be held on Monday 10 Dec in the Teachers' Club. Webcast live from 6pm. Send us your questions for the panel using #INTOdebates or #INTO150Profession … See MoreSee Less

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5 days ago

This is welcome news for many principals. I have been publishing statistics from the National Principals’ Forum: Public Page over the last week and the results are terrifying. I hope the meeting included talking to representatives from this group in order that they can work together to resolve the crisis for school leaders.INTO, IPPN and CPSMA met this morning (5th December) to discuss joint approaches to reducing workload for principal teachers. Read more here: http://ow.ly/Xteq30mSccc … See MoreSee Less