Consultation submission form for education organisations

Communities and learners expect that their teachers will work to a high standard and encourage our children and young people to achieve their best in their learning environment. Teacher registration, practising certificates and limited authority to teach requirements need to reflect that expectation.

Through this submission you can have your say on the proposed changes to the policy for Registration, Practising Certificates and Limited Authority to Teach, and what it means to be part of the teaching profession.

This submission form is for education organisations to provide feedback on the proposed changes.

  1. What is the name of your organisation:
/
  1. Which settings does your organisation represent?
  2. Early childhood
  3. Primary and/or Intermediate
  4. Secondary
  5. Tertiary
  6. Not applicable

  1. Which language mediums does your organisation represent?
  2. Māori medium
  3. English medium
  4. Not applicable
/
  1. Does your organisation require any employees to hold a current practising certificate?
  2. Yes
  3. No

Deadline for submissions

Please return this form by 12am on Monday 23 April 2018

By email
/ By post
Registration and Certification Policy Review
Education Council New Zealand
PO Box 5326
Wellington 6145

We’ll publish a summary of the feedback from this consultation on the Education Council website, without identifying your organisation. If you’d like to be contacted directly with the outcomes of the consultation, please provide your email:

  1. Our Code, Our Standards

The Code of Professional Responsibility and the Standards for the Teaching Profession are the foundation for everything we do in our profession and so they are essential in the registration and certification process. The Code sets the expectations for behaviour and the Standards set the expectations for practice.

We are interested to know if the Code is a good way to help describe ‘good character’ and how new people entering the profession might signal their commitment to the behaviours in the Code. We are also interested in how people view the balance between assessing a teacher’s capability using the Standards and time-bound measures such as length of teaching experience.

Please provide your submission here:

  1. Bicultural capability

The profession has pledged to demonstrate a commitment to tangatawhenuatanga and bicultural partnership and practice in the learning environment. Sector stakeholders have told us that one of the ways to strengthen this commitment and to address disparities in educational outcomes for Māori is by continuing to take professional and personal responsibility for engaging with Māori learners and communities through a Māori world view.

In particular we are seeking the professions’ views on the proposals for:

  • New teachers entering the profession to commitat their application for registration, to the development of tereo me ngā tikanga Māori (language and culture) capability throughout their careers
  • Ongoing development of te reo me ngā tikanga Māori for the issue and renewal of practising certificates

Teachers who gained their teacher education overseas are required to have comparable qualifications and education for the grant of registration and a practising certificate. Eligible overseas educated teachers are generally granted a provisional or subject to confirmation practising certificate to provide them time to understand the New Zealand cultural context and our diverse learning needs. Some teachers educated in Australia may be granted a full practising certificate at the first application.

While current policy requires at least one year of induction and mentoring in a New Zealand school, kura or centre, we propose asking overseas teachers to commit to specific professional learning on the Standards for the Teaching Profession standard ‘bicultural practice and partnership’, within the first 12 months of their education employment in New Zealand. This is to help them reach similar levels of knowledge of New Zealand educated teachers.

We are interested to know your views on this proposed policy change and the positive impact it might have on our learners and particularly educational outcomes for Māori.

Please provide your submission here:

  1. Flexibility

It’s important to get the right balance with this policy so it supports professional leaders to be responsible for making judgements about individual teachers, while collectively preserving the reputation of the profession, building capability, and keeping learners safe. We have heard that the decisions are best made by professional leaders on whether a teacher meets the Standards (supported by the appraisal process) but that there are times when time-based requirements, such as a specified length of teaching, are also important.We’re interested to hear your thoughts on what the best balance is, emphasis on appraisal using the Standards or on time-bound requirements such as length of teaching service, and whether this mix changes for each practising certificate type.

Please provide your submission here:

  1. Currency of knowledge

There is a statutory requirement that all teachers renewing a practising certificate have completed satisfactory recent teaching experience (two years in the last five years). Currency of knowledge is also an indicator of quality. We are asking the profession how long an experienced teacher can be out of teaching before they need return-to-teaching support, and what that support might look like. We are proposing that return-to-teaching support might enable experienced teachers without any recent teaching experience, to gain that experience while on an extension to teach, so they can then renew their practising certificate once they meet the requirements. Current knowledge will also support quality and safe teaching.

Please provide your submission here:

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