I once heard an esteemed principal speak at an event for hospital teachers, amongst which I was proud to be. This speaker described her audience in three simple words, words which have remained with me for many years. Those three words were ‘Agents of hope’.
What drew me to my vocation in the first instance was the innate yearning to make a difference, and there is no more powerful calling than that of teaching. What perhaps is even more powerful though, is the context within which that calling unfolds.
Teaching in a hospital embodies all that is inspirational about making that difference. Each and every day we bear witness to persistence, resilience and endurance. Our job is to fan that courage and to never give up. When things become all too hard, we try even harder to inspire hope, to bring about a return of optimism, to celebrate the smallest achievement.
As a deputy principal in Queensland’s only hospital school, I am in the privileged position whereby I work with inspiring teachers every day. I am also privileged to lead their professional learning.
One of the fundamental beliefs that we hold close, is the understanding that the best teaching and learning is built upon a solid foundation of trust, respect and connection. While our students may come and go, our teachers remain the constant. Investing in our teachers in turn invests in improving our students’ outcomes. A more recent investment has done just that and paid dividends. Simon Sinek once said that when people are financially invested, they want a return; but when people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute. That was no more obvious than recently, when leading a professional learning session on pedagogical gifts.
The book, ‘Inspiring hope – personal pedagogical gifts in a world of standards’(Crowther, F. Addison, B. Fox, K. 2021.) did just that. It inspired a whole session of professional discourse and personal reflection. Using the three principles of pedagogy, curriculum, the learner and the learning, (Department of Education, QLD, 2021), teachers were guided through some reflective questions to awaken the gifts that lay within us all. Stepping through these activities, teachers considered the provocation posed by Christine Grice in Inspiring hope (2021, p.103), ‘How have my innate qualities, my personality, my education, my work, my life experiences combined to shape the teacher I had become?’
Previous professional learning sessions dovetailed into these considerations, including exploring our own critical and creative thinking, as well as emotional intelligence and cognitive biases. Drawing these notions together, with a clear appreciation of the four types of data, teachers were able to more fully explore their own inspiration and purpose.
One of the most valuable lessons learnt was to not only provide teachers with the framework to reflect upon their pedagogical gifts, but more importantly, give them the time to do so. Investing in time pays off; resulting in a sense of being valued, being heard and being able to contribute. Our teachers are our schools’ greatest assets. Their value is inestimable; investing in them, critical.
Teaching in a hospital context calls for the true essence of ‘heart and soul’. Whilst working in a standards-based, data-driven world, our teachers not only value but carefully consider all types of data, including the all-important demographic and perceptual. These data sets help paint the more complete picture of the studentand guide us further in making our pedagogical choices and more authentic connections. Sensing a return to the human aspects of the teaching profession, ‘Inspiring hope’ articulately captured the essence of being those aforementioned ‘agents of hope’.
In closing, in the words of Helen Keller, ‘Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible’. Inspiring that hope is what is needed in education now, more than ever.
Meredith O'Connor
Deputy Principal, Queensland Children’s Hospital School