Welcome to the final edition of AEL for 2023 – our final nod to our golden jubilee - 50 years since the founding of ACEL. As a result, our focus this year has been on honouring the past, acknowledging and giving thanks for the present, and looking to the future.
Fifty years pales into insignificance compared to our country’s Indigenous history. Our first teachers, our first educators, and our first storytellers have set the direction and the tone for our nation – the wisdom around “two-way learning,” listening before speaking, and slowing down to engage in the complexity inherent in any community. Taking the time to honour those who have gone before, and learning all we can from our elders, helps to inform, shape, and influence our future.
And we recognise our future, the future of education in Australia, is full of challenges. Challenges around inequities in educational opportunities and outcomes, rapidly changing all-pervasive technology, and the intractable global political landscape that we are having to acknowledge, around our nation, and around the world.
Education, though, is more than addressing our political context or our environment. It is about recognising the role of wisdom and grace in raising the next generation. And not just the next generation of students, but the next generation of educational leaders. And it is this group, that we recognise our key role – to raise and invest in the next generation of educational leaders so they can take the baton and continue the good work that has begun.
In the words of President Lyndon B. Johnson (1964):
If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them something more than the miracles of technology.
Indeed, fifty years on, two of our founding fathers of ACEL – Professor Emeritus Frank Crowther and Professor Emeritus Brian Caldwell have, along with others, left us a legacy, a monograph of our history, and a guide for our future direction, acting as a reminder of all that has been achieved to date. This guidance goes far beyond the complexities of AI, or state politics, or of teacher retention.
Fifty years on, ACEL holds true to its original premise. It represents all those in education, in all educational sectors, in all states and territories, across this beautiful nation. It is a unifying organisation committed and dedicated to our profession, engaging with the challenges, celebrating the victories, and proactively leading in whatever educational sphere we find ourselves. We park ego at the door and live the maxim: “the total is greater than the sum of the parts.” All of us, are better than one of us.
To this end, I encourage our current leaders, our academics, our practitioners – to own your space and do not waste time with imposter syndrome, with false humility, or by minimising your voice. The world needs you, as you are, with your story, your experience, and your knowledge. The world needs more than those who comment on the sidelines or who critique those in the arena. We need leaders.
Our profession needs anyone who is willing to engage, who wants to learn, and for those growing in courage to speak up and out even if, at times, the predisposing narrative is one of silence or defeat or negativity.
This profession is far from dead. Education in Australia is not perfect, but it is a profession of which we should be very proud. We have a long way to go but we have also come a long way. Where we need to reflect and improve, we will do so. But we will not buy the narrative that our system is in failure, our teachers not very bright, and our children suffering.
In contrast, it is a profession that is growing, adapting, dealing with all sorts of challenges - social, global, technological – but if the next generation of educators is anything to go by, it is a profession to be respected and valued and one in which we must heavily invest. And this investment isn’t just about money and resources; it is also about wisdom and time. Our profession needs strong, wise, kind leaders who will proactively engage and invest in the next generation, who will make evidence based and evidence informed decisions, and who will listen, contemplate, and mull. Leaders who will step up, speak out, and who willingly advocate for those who cannot speak for themselves, for whatever reasons. These leaders are you.
For us, in these roles now, we recognise, in the words of Newton (n.d.), slightly paraphrased, “if we have seen further, it is because we stand on the shoulders of giants.”
We acknowledge and honour the past, reflect on our present, and invest in our future. I commend this edition of AEL to you, and extend my gratitude to those who are in the arena, adding to the voices in our profession, and willing to invest in the next 50 years.
Reference
Newton, I. (n.d.). Isaac Newton quotes. goodreads. Retrieved November 14, 2023, from https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/135106.Isaac_ Newton
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