A curriculum review. Another curriculum review.
I consider myself extremely change positive and constantly strive to improve and adapt resources and strategies to support teaching and learning. So do the vast majority of educators I know. But the looming specter of another curriculum review, and of the subsequent avalanche of changes to assessment items, unit plans, teaching and learning resources, and school document makes me genuinely nauseous.
A recent The Saturday Paper article acknowledges that such "endless shifting of the goalposts" not only exhausts schools but that it is also where "a significant part of the education budget goes." QUT's Dr Nick Kelly elaborates that "never-ending" reviews detract from essential areas such as "quality teaching time, the nurturing and retention of good teachers, mentoring, student resources". He further argues that the "neoliberal business approaches that have been imposed on schools (turn teachers into) middle managers". The authors also note that the increases to school funding so proudly detailed by federal Minister for Education Alan Tudge is far from equitable distributed and that "the extra money went to the schools that need it least." As a teacher in a significantly disadvantaged school, this is all too true. And all too painful.
In an effort to transmute my rather severe change fatigue into useful outcomes for students and teachers I have compared my unpacking of the current Achievement Standards (vertically aligned to show skill progression) with the proposed changes. This is very much a work in progress, but hopefully it will assist with forging a path forward as we adapt once again to the shifting curriculum landscape (and hopefully the changes could even mean great new PD on teaching historical skills!)
References
Olsson, K. (2021, May 15). Australia’s falling student rankings. The Saturday Paper. Accessed via https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2021/05/15/australias-falling-student-rankings/162100080011667#hrd
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