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FACULTY FOCUS who will be the right kind of teachers for the schools they ’ ll be teaching in : really passionate and knowledgeable and strength-based in their orientation .
Do you see what you ’ re doing in this program being adopted more widely in Australia ? I think so . First of all , because teacher shortages are being anticipated . There ’ s a real issue , particularly post-COVID , but even prior to that I think there have been real concerns about teacher shortages and the teacher workforce . So we know that there ’ s a huge need , particularly in some areas , the ones you would expect : maths , science , English as a second language , and other areas too , depending on the school and where the school is .
In that respect it ’ s a program that ’ s only going to become more important , and I think the employment-based pathway is also attractive of course , because it ’ s hard to [ afford to ] study .
So it has a lot of capacity for growth and reach and breadth . In some ways , we like the fact that it ’ s a smallish cohort because it means we can support people individually , but on the other hand , now that it ’ s tried and true in probably the most difficult year to begin a new program in the history of teacher education , we can see that it works . So I think we can start to look at its impact , and we know its successes mean that it ’ s ready for some growth .
Hannah Lynch was one of the first graduates of this program . How do you think she ’ s benefited from it ? Hannah ’ s just one awesome example of the kind of teacher we ’ re graduating . Hannah lives in Mildura , so she ’ s from a regional area that historically finds it hard to staff teachers . She was a veterinarian , so a professional , a young woman with a young child and a young family who wanted to stay in her own hometown . She saw this is the perfect opportunity to make a career change
The main point of it is to prepare social justice-oriented teachers who really understand the communities they ’ re teaching in .
because she still had a little bit of an income , knew she was going to get a job at the end of it , but even more than that , Hannah was a perfect candidate in that she ’ s just so hard working and committed to those kids .
If we can think of a good example of a teacher that ’ s gone through the program , Hannah meets the bill in all ways and was willing and always able to step up when there were school closures and when things were more difficult . She ’ s just a hundred per cent committed to becoming a teacher , and that ’ s the kind of teacher we want . ■
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