Significance Matters
Education is not just a profession; it is a calling to do work of significance. Every lesson you teach, every heart you touch, every teacher you enable, and every mind you inspire holds the power to shape a brighter future. In your hands lies the potential to ignite a lifelong love for learning, to cultivate empathy and resilience, and to empower generations to come.
This month’s ACEL WA newsletter is focused on the theme of significance. Please read further to find out how this theme connects to:
- Networking at the ACEL National Conference
- The next ACEL WA Educational Leadership Book Club
- Our last Leading Innovation in Education Network
National Conference
The ACEL National Conference is taking place from the 27th – 29th of September in Brisbane, during the September/October school holidays. If you have never been to an ACEL National Conference, it is a truly uplifting, thought-provoking, professionally-enriching experience where significant bonds are forged across states, sectors, phases and levels of education. The theme for this year is Learning from the past, leading the future as we celebrate the 50th year anniversary of ACEL. I still remember when I attended my first ACEL national conference. I couldn’t believe there were so many people around the country “speaking my language”, equally passionate about student learning, teacher learning and building significant, purpose-driven school cultures. I felt I had found my tribe. I love the egalitarian nature of ACEL conferences where hierarchies and differences disappear in a joint celebration of the sophistication, hope and significance of the teaching profession. Please follow the link to find out more about the stellar line-up of speakers at this year’s conference. If you haven’t booked a seat for the conference yet, there is still time to jump on board.
If you are attending the conference, we are hosting a pre-conference social networking event for West Australian delegates on the eve of the conference on Tuesday the 26th of September from 5.00pm at the Southbank Beer Garden (a 7 minute walk from the Brisbane Convention), Centre River Room, Shop 30BA, Stanley Street Plaza, South Brisbane QLD 4101. Please join us if you are in Brisbane on Tuesday evening.
Educational Leadership Book Club
Our next Education Leadership Book Club will be on Thursday the 5th of October in Perth or online via Zoom. The book we are reading this term is: “The Song of Significance: A New Manifesto for Teams” by Seth Godin. I am enjoying reading the book at the moment. Godin asks the driving question: What if we created the best job that people ever had? He explains that significance is a choice and explores how leaders can create conditions where others can thrive as they live lives of meaning. Key to shaping workplaces of significance, Godin explains, is to celebrate the humanity of those we work with: “Humans aren’t a resource to be bought, used and discarded — they are the point of the workplace, the life essence of innovation, growth and success.” Please join us for the book club discussion around these themes and for some collegial networking, even if you have not had a chance to read the book. The conversations at our book club meetings are always enlightening and enriching. Find further information and book your spot here.
Reflection from our last Leading Innovation in Education Network
Our Leading Innovation in Education Network meetings always create opportunities for rich discussions about the joys and challenges of leading change in diverse settings. At our Term 3 event we heard from Carol Daniels, Foundation Principal at Piara Waters Senior High School, Andrea Holloway, Director of Innovation and Melanie Wallis, Head of sparc, at Perth College, Emma Janeczko, Deputy Principal – Education at Irene McCormack Catholic College and Maxine Galante, Deputy Principal at Challis Community Primary School. Maxine shared her experiences of co-creating a school culture where humanity and significance is celebrated when she was part of the foundation leadership team at Margaret Hendry School in the ACT. Her talk resonated with the topic of this newsletter and the themes in Seth Godin’s book, so I am sharing the introduction of Maxine’s talk here, with her permission. It captures beautifully the significant role that we as educators play in shaping environments which embrace the significance of every person.
“Innovation in education. This phrase alone could divide a room. For those who are working hard to improve outcomes, meaning get the grades or scores, and possibly more so for those who have the results to reflect this success, why change? School is working… right? But this notion of success; one that is held by our general society, informed by standardised testing and enmeshed within political agenda and reform, creates a false binary of those who can and those who can’t. And as a result, we have a system within which certain groups of learners are predisposed to fail before they even walk through our school gates.
At this point, it must be flagged that first and foremost, I am a primary school teacher. A primary school teacher who has solely worked in government schools grappling with socio and economic disadvantage, so a possible bias may skew my perspective. Most often, we hear about innovation and change within P-12 settings or the later years of schooling when prerequisite skills may have been acquired. Some may further argue that innovation in schools is most prominently facilitated and celebrated in the independent sector. But what about for our littlest of people? Or for our most vulnerable? When they first set foot inside a school, what message are we sending? And what we are trying to nurture or instil within our youngest members of society? For some, our system tells them within their first few years, “you are failing”, because we are using numbers to determine how successful we have been. How is this the current paradigm?
People sit at the heart of schools. Children with intricate complexities that ebb and flow as life happens; young people with hearts and minds. And so with this in mind, at Margaret Hendry School, we wanted to enact meaningful change to shift this paradigm. Our vision was to realise a personalised pedagogy. Meaning, we were aiming to holistically consider both the social and emotional, physical, cognitive and cultural needs of the individual, as well as the local and global context, to create an authentic and responsive learning environment.
We wanted to develop personalised learning pathways to ensure each child was empowered to feel as though they could achieve success in a way that was meaningful and relevant to them. We still held the moral imperative of ensuring every child could read, write and be numerate, but in a nutshell- student voice and agency at the core with collaboration as our key mechanism for change. My own stance: If education is essentially a human endeavour, then a human-centred approach (instead of the factory) is required.”
Maxine Galante
Significance Matters
I hope that this Term gave you lots of opportunities to appreciate the wonder and power of education. Embrace the significance of your role, for it is in your unwavering commitment to education that you become the architects of hope, the builders of dreams, and the bearers of transformation. Your work matters profoundly, and it is a legacy of significance that will forever endure.
Enjoy the holiday break.
Mathilda Joubert
ACEL WA Branch President