This edition of Australian Educational Leader captures a defining moment in our organisation’s history, as we celebrate half a century since the founding of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders (ACEL). Fifty years of growth, of challenges, of successes. Fifty years of investing in the lives of those who have contributed profoundly to our profession. In this edition of AEL, and in leading up to our celebratory national conference, we honour our founders, and those who have contributed to ACEL, making it the organisation and community it is today. Those who had the courage to stand up for our profession, and speak out for education, for teachers, for students and for families, sometimes at great cost to themselves. We are where we are today because people gave of their time, their gifts, and their energy to serve a greater good, and to contribute to our profession more broadly.
It has not always been easy. Unless we pause to reflect and learn from our times of passivity, or our mistakes, we will, in the immortal words of Winston Churchill, be “doomed to repeat” ourselves. Or in our case, simply not move forward, circling instead the challenges of our time. Around, and around, and around. The same arguments, the same inertia, the same passivity.
There is, and there remains, a significant mismatch between the traditional education systems of the past, and the growing demands of a modern, extraordinarily connected, and technologically advanced world in which we live. Educators who have a foot in both camps or indeed, a society that has its foot in both camps, will eventually find the disconnect too wide to bridge. We will go nowhere, fast.
Whilst the past is our bedrock; it is not our future. The future is a map that we are creating, that we will be judged on, that we have a responsibility to ensure is going to be of benefit for generations to come. Education is never static. It is constantly evolving. We have a choice.
Leadership abhors a vacuum. As educators, we are called to stand up, to speak up, and to rise up. If not, others will take our place. Others who may not know about our profession, and the moral responsibility we have in raising the next generation to live a thriving life, to be of good character, to contribute to a strong, responsible citizenry, to have choices about who they want to be and what they want to do. It is too easy for education to be the focus politically, socially, and at times ideologically, and to be used for different agendas that often spin fast and unchecked around the world.
Our responsibility lies with raising this next generation with the skills, character, and ability to navigate this world. Educational leaders are superbly equipped to contribute to this conversation, to rely on their developing expertise, and to be a voice for the profession and for the students in their care. We have a choice.
My hope is that by watching those who have led and by hearing their stories, that you too will contribute to important conversations about education and educational leadership. That you will make a choice to rise as an educational leader. That you will bring your own history, your own perspectives, your own expertise to the table that will be heard, honoured, and respected. That you will tell your own story, and that this will, in turn, inspire others to tell theirs. That you will recognise the inherent value in being a part of the solution, in contributing to a roadmap for the future. You have a choice. We need educational leaders like you to chart the future and to help construct a blueprint for how to get there.
I commend this edition of AEL to you, as we celebrate 50 years: leading, learning, and shaping the future together.
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