Annual ACELQ Awards Ceremony:
Celebrating Passion, Diversity and Herculean Commitment!
Last month, we held our annual ACELQ Awards Ceremony at Ormiston College. It was a great evening of celebration and collegial recognition. Below is my brief introduction to the evening.
At the core of ACEL’s mission is its commitment to cross-sectoral collegiality and learning, irrespective of positionality or career longevity. It is a space where the early career teacher can sit comfortably beside the distinguished Emeritus Professor. Tonight’s Awards Ceremony bears witness to this mission. We have educators from a myriad of sectors, with colleagues representative of many disparate roles and responsibilities. We are all educators on a journey to make the lives of our young people ‘better’ in whatever way we can. What an awesome responsibility.
It is an old maxim – at the heart of education is the education of the heart. In an era of standardisation and relentless criticism, we must never forget our deepest calling. After all, the ongoing development of our civil society, and everything we hold dear as a collective, rests delicately on what occurs in our classrooms.
Educational leadership is grounded in shared purpose, professional generosity, and transformative influence. It transcends role or rank, recognising that leadership flourishes wherever educators act with integrity, vision, and care. It is sustained through collegial dialogue, reflection, and a commitment to collective growth — where ideas are exchanged and interrogated robustly. Through such practices, we can inspire hope as we traverse our very complex world. Leadership is both a moral commitment and a collaborative act — one that shapes the future by empowering others to act courageously and imaginatively.
To finish, I would like to quote from our ACELQ Statement of Commitment to the Profession of Teaching:
I acknowledge that I am a member of a profession that extends to me the opportunity and the privilege to make a positive difference in the lives of young people.
Tonight is all about peer acknowledgment and the recognition of exceptional practice – practice that has enlivened the learning of our young people.
Here’s to the celebration of all that is wonderful about our noble profession.
When introducing the newly named Frank Crowther Inspiring Educator Award, ACELQ Vice-President, Adam Kuss, spoke elegantly and eloquently about Frank’s heart-encompassing concept of personal pedagogical gifts. Adam quoted from Frank’s book Energising Teaching: The Power of Your Unique Pedagogical Gift (2016), which he wrote in collaboration with Ken Boyne. Quoting from this text, Adam noted:
What if every ordinary person of modest abilities possesses their own unique gifts? What if, within each and every classroom teacher, there resides a special capacity to climb the most challenging educational mountains, with courage, skill, dignity and flair? Surely a few – maybe a lot – perhaps even all – possess important and distinctive gifts. Yet I have never heard the simple but beautiful phrase ‘my gift’ used in a school staff meeting. But surely, if it applies in an opera house or hospital, it applies to the most important institution of all – your school. (p. XV)
The concept of Personal Pedagogical Gifts offers much to inform and reinforce school culture in an inclusive, dynamic, and celebratory fashion.
This year’s Miller Grassie Award recipient, Dr Stephanie MacMahon, Program Director of the University of Queensland’s Learning Lab, delivered an inspirational oration. At the heart of Dr MacMahon’s message was the idea that creativity is essential to navigating and celebrating the complexity of learning and teaching. She posited that the Science of Learning offers a framework — a warp and weft — for understanding the interwoven biological, emotional, cognitive, cultural, and social dimensions that make education such a deeply human endeavour. When reduced to simplified strategies or singular constructs, we risk losing the richness and interconnectedness that give learning its meaning and power. Embracing complexity instead calls for creativity, adaptability, and joy — qualities that allow us to lead and teach with authenticity and purpose. Ultimately, our collective task as educators and leaders is to weave vibrant, hopeful tapestries of learning that reflect the diversity, resilience, and creativity of our communities.
Following on from one of my previous blogs, “Tell ’m he’s dreaming,” the media is reporting that the recent offer by the Queensland Government in this round of enterprise bargaining negotiations has been rejected. No doubt this is disappointing to all parties involved. Whilst it is disappointing, it is also an opportunity for some genuine bipartisan cooperation to emerge, with the hope of engineering some much-needed educational reform. The concept of a teaching load must change, as it is unsustainable. Talk of percentage wage increases only camouflages one of the most significant underlying problems.
It is time for some genuine cross-fertilisation of ideas to guide and underpin the concept of classroom teaching in an increasingly complex and challenging world. This will require imagination, bipartisan commitment, as well as counter-cultural thought. It will require cross-sectoral support and co-operation. Historically the Australian public sector was renowned for its ‘first mover’ creativity in the policy space. It is time for a round table discussion where all sectors can contribute creatively, robustly and honestly about the future of our profession. At such a meeting some of the prior reading should be Dr MacMahon’s 2025 Miller-Grassie Oration. Recently, I heard a remarkable address by the late Dame Patricia Routledge when receiving a Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Chester. She observed that she once asked a director the difference between a good play and a great play. The reply came back: ‘risk’. EB quanta are easy and in many respects are low hanging fruit. Thinking beyond them into the kernels of our classrooms is risky – there will be reward in this risk!
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