| Teaching in Australia is acknowledged as a profession. The public, however, generally perceives teaching as a poorly paid occupation whose practitioners exert little control over their own standards of practice. Consequently, the professional status of teachers is low, and very few of the most capable school leavers and high ability university graduates are attracted to teaching as a career. Furthermore, teachers' perceptions that the public does not appreciate their work have led to low morale, high rates of resignations, and early retirements among experienced practitioners. These factors will contribute to serious shortages of teachers in the new millennium.; In the past Australian employers in both government and non-government school sectors have attempted to circumvent teacher shortages by reducing qualifications required for teaching. This anti-professional practice has contributed to a belief that teaching is something that anyone can do. Preventing employers from reducing the professional qualifications required of teachers is possible only when standards are protected by statutory teacher registration boards that are representative of the profession. At the end of the 1990s only two states, Queensland and South Australia, had registration boards to establish and protect standards for teachers in all schools.; It is argued in this thesis that the status of the teaching profession in Australia must be enhanced if teaching is to attract capable new recruits and retain knowledgeable, experienced practitioners. This could be achieved by giving teachers greater responsibility for their profession's standards through a system of statutory regulatory boards, comprised largely of practising teachers. The boards would be responsible for establishing and enforcing standards for registration of teachers, accreditation of teacher education, and provision of advanced certification. Furthermore, such regulation of the profession should be on a national basis to ensure that all children in all schools in Australia have access to competent, professionally qualified teachers, and to overcome problems of interstate mobility of teachers.; An examination was made of how teaching has been regulated in Australia and a number of overseas systems. Attributes that were considered necessary or desirable for inclusion in a system for regulating teaching in Australia were identified. Then, a model for regulating the teaching profession in Australia was developed.; Senior representatives of significant interest groups in New South Wales---where a recent attempt to legislate for teacher registration failed in parliament---were interviewed in order to evaluate the model. Most of the respondents supported the model, with few amendments. However, all respondents from the independent school sector were strongly opposed to the introduction of teacher registration that would limit them to employing as teachers only people who held accredited teacher education qualifications. The respondents expressed doubt that national regulation of the profession would be introduced into Australia because state governments would be reluctant to forego their constitutional powers for education to the Commonwealth and, further, because they perceived the present conservative Commonwealth Government to be ideologically opposed to giving teachers profession-controlled registration.; The thesis concludes by calling on all stakeholders to acknowledge teaching as a full profession. This could be achieved by accepting that teachers should regulate their professional standards in the same way that other professions do, and the model developed in Chapter 7 is offered as a way to achieve that end. |
