This webpage sets out the New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association / Te Wehengarua (PPTA) aspirations for secondary teaching into the future. These aspirations are extracted from Secondary teaching into the future (2007), which also sets out fundamental principles about learning, about how education systems should function, and outlines PPTA's preferred future scenario for secondary education.
Secondary teaching into the future - learning principles
Secondary teaching into the future - education system principles
Secondary teaching into the future - PPTA's preferred future scenario for secondary education
Defining the future of secondary teaching
Change in secondary education inevitably means change for secondary teachers. Change is something that secondary teachers are very familiar with; in fact, it is a constant in their professional lives. The list below, however, is not so much about change. It actually encapsulates PPTA’s longstanding aspiration for the professional role of secondary teachers: trained and qualified teachers who have equitable access to high quality ongoing learning.
Secondary teachers - Highly qualified on entry to the profession
Secondary teachers - Willing and able to continue learning
Secondary teachers - Knowledgeable specialists in their curriculum area(s) but able to make links across disciplines
Secondary teachers - Highly versatile in their teaching practice
Secondary teachers - Able to make connections for students
Secondary teachers - Highly qualified on entry to the profession
They will need to be graduates of high quality initial teacher education programmes that prepare them for the new challenges of 21st century teaching, and that enable them to continue to be inspirational teachers.
Secondary teachers - Willing and able to continue learning
Teachers will need to be continuing their professional learning throughout their careers. Learning will be needed across a range of areas, e.g. subject, pedagogy, student guidance, use of ICT, and new demands that we are not even aware of yet.
Secondary teachers - Knowledgeable specialists in their curriculum area(s) but able to make links across disciplines
The ‘knowledge society’ does not mean that secondary teachers’ specialist knowledge of subject content and pedagogy will be less important, quite the reverse. At the same time, part of this specialist role will increasingly be to make links across the curriculum in order to provide coherence to student learning.
Secondary teachers - Highly versatile in their teaching practice
Teachers will need the flexibility to adapt to the changing cultural contexts of schools. They will need to be able to cater to increasingly diverse learning needs, both in the mainstream and in specialised programmes. This will require support systems for students so that even students with the most complex learning needs and the most challenging behaviours can have opportunities for success. Teachers will also need to be enabled, through high quality and accessible professional learning, to move into an increasing diversity of specialist roles as teachers. Roles which are already evident or emerging include working with other teachers as adult learners, e.g. in pedagogy, curriculum change and use of ICT as a learning tool, working with students with special learning needs, and working across schools using new technologies.
Secondary teachers - Able to make connections for students
Teachers will need to be able to facilitate learning opportunities for students with the wider community, other learning institutions and other agencies. They will also be able to make connections between the sectors, to ensure smooth transitions for students between primary and secondary education, and between secondary education and tertiary education or employment.
Secondary teaching into the future - learning principles
Secondary teaching into the future - education system principles
Secondary teaching into the future - PPTA's preferred future scenario for secondary education
2007 Annual Conference Paper Secondary teaching into the future
OECD Schooling Scenarios
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