I welcome Alwyn Poole's interest on improving access to secondary teaching (Unpaid training contributes to teacher shortage). We need to maximise the number of graduates who see secondary teaching as valuable and rewarding work. Having spent more than 40 years of my life connected to teaching, including 14 years as a secondary teacher, I understand the long-term impact for good that great teachers can have on the well-being and life chances of young people.
But the solutions to improving access need to be based on more than personal anecdote and partial information.
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Alywn claims "New Zealand desperately needs direct and paid pathway into teaching". We have had one of these for five years through a partnership between the University of Auckland and Teach First NZ that has graduated more than 70 teachers. Although the university is no longer a partner in the programme, Teach First NZ is continuing and has recruited strongly for 2018.
But this is not the sort of supply solution Alwyn seems to envisage. As he correctly notes such programmes, which place graduates immediately into classrooms, need to be supported by a rigorous selection process. More than 25 years' experience in teacher education tells me that only a small proportion of graduates are suited to immediate classroom teaching. Most, like me when I trained, need time to develop their teaching knowledge and skills prior to taking on full classroom responsibility.
Which brings me to the second flaw in Alwyn's argument. He claims that having spent 17 years in the education system, graduates know a thing or two about learning and about what makes a good teacher. They do. But what they know is what made a good teacher for them and for people like them. Teachers need to know what makes a good teacher for each student, and especially for students who are not like them.