Good evening, everybody, and welcome to Teaching Journey for Australia’s Youth.
It's a webinar about education pathways into teaching for Victorians.
Before we begin, I'd just like to start by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land that I'm joining you from and joining me from the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation.
And I pay my respects to the elders, past, and present.
And I would like to acknowledge as well in the work that we do, all of us, that there is still much to do in the work of reconciliation and acknowledging the real history of this country as well and supporting our First Nations brothers and sisters.
So, we'll just move into the webinar.
This evening, of course, I'd like to just give everyone here an understanding about what it is that we are going to go through today, who we are and what is the various pathways into education and teaching that we will be able to explore through this webinar.
So, my name is Sherry-Rose.
I am a consultant with Culture Spring.
So, Culture Spring is a youth-led arm of centre for multicultural youth that seeks to empower multiculturally young people to participate in all aspects of modern Australian society by creating opportunities for employment, representation and safe spaces for multicultural young people to thrive.
So, often we do work on projects such as this, where we support different organisations.
Perhaps they might be government departments, they may be businesses who are wanting to better engage,
collaborate with and support multicultural young people to really have agency leadership and really thrive in all aspects of societies as mentioned earlier.
Now, this webinar is being run by Teach the Future.
Teach the Future is a teacher recruitment campaign delivered by the Department of Education
Victoria.
The Victorian Government is looking for new teachers to fill the growing demand across the state and are investing in making sure teachers have better pay, greater professional development possibilities and more diverse career opportunities than ever before.
So, for more information about them, you can visit www.vic.gov.au/teachthefuture where you'll find heaps more information on different pathways and opportunities that relate to education and teaching as well.
And some of those things we’ll actually be able to explore through this webinar.
So, the purpose of today really is to give everyone here a really confident and clear understanding information about various pathways that they can take into teaching and education more broadly.
So hopefully by the end of this webinar it will have very relevant information about careers in teaching.
You will have a really confident understanding of how to enter the teaching field.
You’ll also have the opportunity to hear from current teachers, from diverse backgrounds and educators about their experience, both in teaching as well as their journey through teaching.
And we're hoping that, really, you're going to be at least inspired, more confident to consider and pursue a teacher, a career in teaching. If that's your ambition.
Throughout this webinar, throughout the webinar, if you have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to message one of the team, the hosts, and we will also be answering quite a few questions throughout the webinar as well.
So, we'll just start first with a couple of teaching myths.
So, as I've mentioned earlier, we're hoping to answer most of your questions today, and these are some of the common questions that we get about teaching.
Some of these include what qualifications do you need to become a teacher?
How long does it take to become a teacher? Who can become a teacher?
What are some of the benefits of a career in teaching?
At what age you can pursue a career in teaching?
And what the most important skills that are necessary to become a teacher.
So, through some of the stories that we're going to hear, as well as some of the information that we're going to share by the end of this webinar, all of these questions should be answered.
But as I mentioned earlier, if you do have any other questions we go through the webinar, feel free to drop them into the chat.
Part of the reason that we're embarking on this education webinar is because we have identified that there are a number of barriers that many people experience, whether from diverse cultural backgrounds, whether they are school leavers or whether they are coming from other careers as mature or already professionals wanting to transition into a career in teaching.
There are a number of number of barriers that many people experience to not actually pursuing a career in teaching. Some of these include lack of representation.
So, for example, young people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, also called CALD backgrounds don't often see themselves represented in school settings or in, as all others see teachers who look like themselves in various education spaces.
And it can be quite difficult to envisage yourself pursuing a particular career when you don't necessarily see yourself or people who look like you in those spaces.
Similarly, we have, if there are very few examples perhaps in your community and your family or network.
It can be daunting to take a pathway that seems quite unfamiliar.
We know that people are very prone to pursuing careers in industries and sectors that are very familiar to them or to people around them.
So, you may be the first in your family maybe to even consider further education, higher education or career in teaching or in education more broadly, and thus not having the right information, not seeing yourself in those spaces can be quite, quite a barrier in itself.
Secondly, having a real lack of information about teaching is something that we come across really commonly.
One of the most challenging things is not knowing where to start, really, not knowing, again,
if you are unfamiliar with that career or industry, not really having any information about where to begin, where it is that you should start, what is the information that is going to actually help you prepare to either go into that field of study to be able to gain those qualifications necessary to enter a career in teaching.
So, the only way that we're able to overcome some of these barriers is to be able to have access to that information.
So, finding out what are the prerequisites perhaps, or what are the correct pathways that you can pursue to enter into a teaching career.
Having a lack of guidance or mentorship as well is also a significant barrier as far as lack of information and pathways into teaching.
As in many careers, having someone who can advise you or having a place to go or resources, information or people that you can converse with is a really, really helpful mechanism and a huge motivator for many people when deciding what kind of careers to pursue.
So we're hoping that some of the information that we'll provide today will help to at least mitigate
some of those barriers when it comes to knowing about pathways into teaching.
And finally, particularly from people from diverse backgrounds, there are a lot of experiences perhaps of bias or racism that can be a huge deterrent for those wanting to pursue a career in education and teaching, having negative judgment and poor treatment from people based on race or sex or background or other factors can really impact one's motivational desire to go into certain spaces and environments, let alone into a particular profession or industries where you might not see yourself represented or you are heavily in the minority.
So, coming from diverse backgrounds and being discriminated can be a major reason why many multicultural young people and many individuals of CALD background more broadly may not pursue or remain in a career in education. It can feel quite belittling, hurtful, even embarrassing, and lead to a lot of lack of confidence and a lack of motivation if you do feel unsafe and therefore you feel discouraged from wanting to pursue a career in this field.
There are many anecdotal stories sometimes that we hear of teachers or teacher trainers feeling undermined from students or colleagues or superiors and this can be demoralising, particularly when you don't see yourself often in that space.
These experiences of bias and racism can be huge deterrents to one of to pursue a career in the teaching and education sector.
Now, though we have some of these barriers, just to iterate, I suppose, again, though we do have some of these experiences, the best way I think that we can actually learn is often to hear from the stories of others about their own journeys and about how it is that they've been able to either navigate or overcome and therefore find themselves in teaching, particularly for those who are finding themselves in a position
where they don't see themselves commonly represented in the education space, or they don't see many teachers who come from the same or similar background as them.
So, this evening we have the privilege of having some fantastic educators who are going to share their own journeys and stories and experiences with us, and then I'll have the opportunity to do a Q&A with all of them once they've had the opportunity to share their stories.
I encourage you to keep any questions that you have in mind or put them in the chat that we can ask them later on. But they've all very generously agreed to share with us their experiences.
So, I'm going to first introduce Irene Bakulukira. Irene is from the Democratic Republic of Congo originally.
Her family fled the war in Congo and settled in Kenya before she arrived in Australia as a refugee, and she's been here for 13 years now.
As a little girl, it was always her dream to pursue a career in teaching and she's been on quite a journey to be able to now have done her Bachelor of Arts and then Masters in Teaching, and is currently a humanities and drama teacher at Manor Lakes P-12 College.
So please make her welcome and to share a story.
Thank you, Irene.
Hey, thank you for this opportunity.
Yes, I work at Manor Lakes at the moment and, and Sherry has just said a bit about my story and my journey to teaching started from a dream that I've always wanted to be a teacher growing up.
It was difficult to say because I didn't know how that would be possible considering the environment and the condition that I was living at before I came to Australia.
Making my way to Australia, it started coming to light and I've enjoyed every step of the way.
Despite having that joy in me. There was definitely some challenges that I did face in the teaching degree as well, and those challenges were things that pushed me, let's say, to be like this is something that I hold strongly, this is something that I've always wanted to do, and it's pushed me to be who I am today, where I am
today in my teaching degree.
And I, the journey was not easy.
Obviously, it was quite difficult because being in the university classes, being the only African in those classes at the time, I'm not sure about now, but at the time I would always question – what is going on?’
I would always question and that would be something that would make me question my abilities, like am I,
you know, am I going to be able to do this?
I don't look like anybody else that is in this field.
But I always remembered that dream.
And I'm like, I am working for me. I am pushing my dream.
I am going forward to do what I've always wanted to do and which is what I'm doing right now, which is very exciting.
Yeah.
Thank you for sharing that.
I just want to hear a little bit more about your journey.
So, you said that you had always wanted to pursue this dream, and this was a career that you had always
wanted to and aspire towards, but what was it like, kind of finishing school, going into teaching itself?
Did you go directly into university to study teaching with that as your first degree?
What was the pathway that you took to enter into teaching?
We’ll start with that.
Yes, that's actually really interesting. With my pathway, I had teaching.
As I say, teaching was what I always wanted to do.
I got to a point in year 10 and I was like, it's quite interesting because in year 10 you get to try different bits of pieces and other things.
And then I did try a bit of business in year 10. I did a bit of business and which I liked, but I didn't quite enjoy.
I think for me to do something has to come from deep within.
I like to the basis of it.
So, the journey forward, when I finished year 12, I had the preference of, teaching was the first one, and then I think I had business or accounting following them.
And yes, so I got accepted into the teaching degree at Burwood.
Anyhow, I did go straight to uni, I didn’t take a gap year.
So, there was other interest that popped up, but regardless of that, I think when you really have something that you're really aiming for, no matter how you forget, it's always going to turn around and come back.
May I ask, what was the most challenging part of your career, your course, when you were going into teaching at the time?
The most difficult one for me, I would say was language barrier.
Not being in Australia for a while, I think, in 20, during that time, I think I was not in, I wasn’t in Australia for a long time and so I did find a bit of challenges with the language because obviously in teaching you have to do a lot of comprehending and you have to have a lot of prior knowledge of reading between the lines of,
you know, as somebody that has lived in Australia, has experienced the life in Australia.
So, I did find that to be challenging. But I guess I would say I just pushed through to get to get there.
And another challenge that I faced in the course as well that would somewhat make me question the teaching degree, not so much within the content, but more about the people, the people in the community or the friends or these questioning.
Like, are you really going to be able to do that?
I think you should try something else.
This is not for you.
So, I think that those voices and listening to that would somewhat take a bit of power.
But as I said, there's always that reminder of that.
And I think with that challenge and, you know, I think with another challenging aspect of my teaching journey was when I came to the point of, you know, looking further, like finding a job or wanting to work somewhere, I think it was difficult.
But I did find my place, which Manor Lakes and they did accept me in that space. Yeah.
Wow. Amazing. Thank you for sharing.
I want to ask you, what were, what are some of your favourite things now about having pursued a career in teaching and become a teacher?
Because, obviously you've gone through that journey, you were able to overcome those challenges, like you said, by maintaining a really strong mindset as well.
And I assume you also had really great support around you.
So now that you've entered into your teaching career, what are some of your favourite things about it? What are you really enjoying?
I love seeing the success in the students that I'm teaching.
When I see that they are enjoying what they're doing in class and actually learning and sitting and being there, that's a win for me. It's such a joy.
In education – because education is very powerful.
And that's one thing I don't take for granted for myself and which I believe that the kids in the classroom don't take it for granted as well.
And my favourite thing is that I am part of their life in creating their dreams come true, in making a pathway for their future, because one day they're going to remember that class.
And that's my favourite thing that I'm influencing positively with what I am teaching, one way or another. It's going to be impactful in their lives.
Amazing. And it's true.
It really is impactful.
The impact that a teacher can have on a young person's life. In saying that, what are some of the challenges that you've had since becoming a teacher?
I think the challenge since becoming a teacher is that you don't I didn't have a lot of experience in the classroom with the students.
Obviously, with placement, I didn't get a lot of, let's say, 25 days. That's not a lot of time to be like, I know these students, I know how they learn.
I think the challenge was understanding the school, understanding the students, understanding how they learn.
It does take time and it does take time to understand, understanding how they learn and knowing who they are as well.
Because you don't know what those students are dealing with.
That is something I had to learn to, to be able to identify that I am not in the lives of these students in my classroom.
I don't know what's going on at home.
So, I had to train myself to understand that as they're walking into a classroom, I need to be in the perspective of understanding them as students and knowing that they do have a life.
And that was a challenge to know, because in school we are taught A, B, C, D, and then when you come to school A, B, C, D is not going to work for one student, It's not going to work, sorry, for all students. For one student, it's going to be A, B, C, D. But for the other, it might be D, E, F, they’re all different.
So understanding the uniqueness in each student was a bit challenging. But as we’re saying teaching is all learning. I am learning, they’re learning. And that's what I always say in my classroom. Yeah.
Just two more questions before we wrap up your interview.
What is one of the key skills that you feel you have gained as a teacher?
Obviously, you've talked about being able to really understand and learn your students and also learning through the process.
But for someone who might be considering a career in teaching, I'm not sure if they have the skills.
What are some of the key skills that you think are necessary?
I think being able to collaborate.
Collaboration.
And being able to, like emotional intelligence is what I was talking about.
Being able to understand the emotions of the students and how that can affect their learning and teamwork as well.
Working in teams in teaching, is what, it's not all about you.
You're going to be working with other people within a cohort to delegate and work within the content materials.
So, teamwork is really important for me and emotional intelligence, just identifying different emotions and also, what's this one?
I'm forgetting one more, but yeah.
That's the key.
If I remember, I'll bring it up.
No problem. And one final question.
What is something that you would like others to know about teaching or you would share with someone considering a career in teaching or may not have even considered it before?
What's something that you wish they know?
One thing I wish that they would know is it's a rewarding career, even though it comes with a lot of challenges.
You need to think about the positivity and the impacts that you are doing in the lives of the students that you're going to be teaching.
And it's very rewarding.
I wrote something here so I'm just going to look. You’re changing lives. That's a key one.
One day, a doctor is going to be in hospital and you're going to be one teacher they're going to remember.
Somebody working in nursing or somebody in office, somebody becoming a teacher as well. You're going to be part of that journey, whether you had them for one lesson, whether you taught them for the majority of the year, you're changing lives.
You've been impactful.
And yeah, that's just give it a go, give it a go.
It's challenging. I'm not going to say it's easy.
It's not a piece of cake, but you just got to try and it's very rewarding and you would know and really look deep in your heart and find that love for young people, love for learning. And then you’ll find your thing.
Thank you so much for sharing, Irene.
Really, really insightful, and I'm sure that the participants have gotten a lot out of that, whoever is watching this as well, and we might have some questions later.
Yeah, that's all good.
Thank you.
I would now like to introduce Awan.
Awan was born in present day South Sudan and has faced numerous challenges in their education journey but embarks on a new professional chapter as an Education Support Officer / Student Support Mentor at Manor Lakes P - 12 College.
They're looking to become a classroom teacher and are currently about to embark on that journey as well.
So, they're going to share with us their experience of being an Education Support Officer and how it is that they've now decided to embark on a career in teaching.
So, Awan, welcome. Thank you. Thank you.
I’d like to hear a little bit about yourself.
You can introduce yourself and share a bit about your story.
Thank you so much, Sherry-Rose.
And thank you, everyone.
Can you all hear me?
Awesome.
Look, thank you so much.
It's an honour to be on this great panels and to share my personal story.
I never had a chance to share my education journey, but I thought today would be a testament to the
formative, transformative power of education and the profound impacts teachers can have on the lives of their students.
So, I'm just going to go down the history of my childhood education.
So, my journey from a child, started under a tree shed in South Sudan.
I embarked on a teaching career in Australia to a resilient hopes and undeniable influence of the dedicated educators.
So, my education journey, as I said, began in 1994 in the humblest of the classroom, beneath the shade of a tree in Sudan, amidst the backdrop of civil unrest and the challenges of the ongoing Civil War. My pursuit of knowledge was constantly disrupted.
My education also was interrupted many times due to the Civil War.
So, we had to walk sometimes 2 hours to go to school.
I was telling some of my students before that my education journey because one of the students walked this morning and was complaining about this mum had to let him walk to the school.
I was telling him I used to walk 2 hours from my house, from my village to school, which is not close to where I lived. And you go to school sometimes without food, so you go to school with an empty belly or hungry, and then come back home later on and eat one meal a day.
So, it was a challenging time.
So, I think I got the longest years of primary education than most of you, all of you I can say so
my education, my primary education took me 11 years to finish primary school from 1994 to 2005.
So, in 2002, I decided to migrate to the refugee camp in Kenya, northern Kenya, in a refugee camp
called Kakuma Refugee Camp in northern Kenya to pursue my education because as I said before, my education was kept getting interrupted by the war, the Civil War.
So, I left my family behind and joined my brother, who migrated to the refugee camp before me, and I resettled there as a refugee for 4 years while I was pursuing my education, my primary education.
So, in 2006, we migrated to Australia where I started on my high school journeys, started on the 29th of May 2006.
I remember the date clearly.
That's when I started my high school at Forest Hill Secondary College. So, I started year 10. It was a very challenging moment because the education system was completely new, the new environment, English as a second language, and you know, as you mentioned before, discrimination, of course, it's everywhere.
So, it was very challenging to finish high school. I finished year 12 VCE in 2008.
And then I was struck with another hurdle, and that is a career choice.
I didn't know what to study, so it took me a while.
Every time I met with a career counsellor, they always tell me to think about consider basketball or modelling, which was then wasn't possible.
What I was actually looking to hear, looking forward to hearing from the teacher, from the career counsellor.
So, I put everything on hold and I took a gap year in 2008 or 2009, so I moved to South Australia, to work there to support my family.
So, while I was working, I was trying to, you know, to get my head around what to study. After a year and a half working in various factories and a lot of labour jobs, I thought of coming back to Melbourne to pursue my education.
I still wasn't clear about what to study, so I did some short courses from here and there. I did a Technical Security Certificate III in technical security, which is installation of alarm, CCTV cameras and communication cable.
And then I didn’t really work in that field and then I started on doing the IT course again.
So, I started a Bachelor of Computer Networking at MIT, which is Melbourne Institute of Technology in 2012.
And I was in the middle of it.
And then I met a lady who actually changed my life in 2014.
So, we're performing somewhere in Sunshine, going to South Sudanese dance group that I'm part of.
So, while we were dancing, I met this lady called Alice Read from Migrant Spectrum Resource Centre.
While we were conversing, she was telling me that I was doing a wrong course because everything that I was telling her is actually community development, which I never heard of when I finished high school in 2008.
So, I went back, I went back home and look at the community development work related to me.
I found the course related to me, so I consulted with her again and then she gave me some positive advice
on how I can apply for the course.
And that's how I got myself into the right course.
I enrolled at Victoria University in 2016.
First, I did a dual diploma, community Development and Community Services, and then from there I was advised to apply directly for the Bachelor of Community Development at Victoria University.
And I was, you know, I was offered the course, was so excited.
So, I started 2016 and graduated in 2019.
So, while I was studying, I was studying part time. I was working full time in Maribyrnong Council.
So, it wasn't easy juggling full time work and part time studies, it was a hell of a work, so I had to go to
university after school and study there until late in order for me to finish my assignments. As I graduated in 2019, as I said, I was fortunate to get a job at Melton City Library as a Youth Engagement and Program Facilitator where I went there for 4 years.
So, during the COVID chaos I was working there. And then in 2022, I was offered a great opportunity to work here in Manor Lakes College as a Student Mentor or Education Support Officer, helping young people who are disengaged in the classroom, those who are experiencing some challenges that have behavioural issues or something, having academic issues.
So, I came to school to motivate, to inspire young people so that they can actually find their rightful careers and also make a better life, better choices in life so that they can be better people.
I also came here to share my own experience as well, because if I can make it, I think they all can achieve
whatever they want to achieve in life. You know?
So it was, it was a kind of a, you know, a blessing for me to be here because I could have never thought
of working at school.
I thought I would be working somewhere else.
But, you know, careers always change and you can find yourself in the right area that you actually never thought of.
But, you know, you can also be inspired by some of the people that you can look up to.
One of the things that actually inspired me to become, to consider becoming a teacher is when I was studying at VU, studying Bachelor of Community Development, as I mentioned earlier, and was studying the power of various critical theories of education called the Pedagogy.
There's a book by the same title: Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
And Paulo Freire, who was one of the Brazilians philosophers of critical education, he defined education into two terms, that education is either for liberation or domination.
And he proposed what he called the logical approach in which a student become active agents in their life on education.
So, I thought that's really powerful and it makes a lot of sense to me. It resonates with who I am.
So, I thought of, you know, becoming a teacher will actually give me that opportunity where I can actually make the changes in education, but also in the life of a student as well, where they can actually understand the importance of education.
As I mentioned earlier, one of the reasons why I dedicate my life even to take that step of coming to Australia to pursue my education, it was because we were told when we were in primary school in Africa learning under the tree that education is the key of life.
So, I came over here to chase to look for that key, and I think I finally found the key that I was looking for.
So, that's the reason why I came here, to make sure I can share that testimony with a student that education is the key of life.
And if you work hard for it, you can actually achieve anything in your life.
Wow. That's a little bit about me.
I think it's taken me long time. Thank you Sherry-Rose.
That's great.
Thank you so much for sharing your story, Awan.
And I think you actually answered a lot of questions already in there.
But one of the things that I would like to know, because you did talk about having a few challenges and you,
unlike our previous speaker, you have to, you know, figure out exactly what it is that you wanted to go into, where it is that you wanted to go.
So, I'd like to know, how did you kind of overcome that challenge?
And then what really made you sure that, actually, yes, I want to pursue a career in teaching, become a teacher or an educator.
Thank you so much. Yeah.
So, as I said before, working as a mentor actually opened up the opportunity for me and also gave me
clarity on what I can do, I can actually do in the classroom. Because I work with some of these students
who are having some challenging situation, such as behaviour, behavioural issues.
Some of them are having, lack of motivation.
And I thought, you know, coming to to be a classroom teacher or becoming a classroom teacher, I can actually, you know, adjust my teaching style in order for me to actually motivate a student. It's all about communication, how you can communicate, convey the message to the student, and also understanding that each and every student have their own learning barriers and how you can adjust or model your teaching style
in order for you to do to cover the whole contents and also to reach out to those who are actually in need.
Also, when I was at uni, I realised there were a lot of female students.
Nothing wrong with that, but it seemed like there's something wrong with the boys. I don't know what's going on, but I've read some book and someone actually wrote a book called The Boy Crisis: Why Our Boys Are Struggling And What We Can Do About It.
Dr. Warren Farrell and Dr. John Gray co-authored a book. And I realised a lot of boys are behind academically. And it showed that, of course, there's a lack of role models there, and that could be the reason
why they're not in the education system. So I thought coming here and being that representative and a role model, I think I can actually inspire some other young boys as well to consider that.
And also seeing other Africans actually who can actually join us and become teachers as well, because there's always a fear of unknown.
People don't understand anything about this profession.
So having someone who relate to them, who look like them, they can actually ask someone, they can go to and ask. And that's the reason why I thought of becoming a teacher, because I think I can make that, I can bridge that gap.
And I think that's the reason why I came here.
Awesome, thank you so much, Awan, and thank you for sharing your story and your insights.
And I'm definitely sure that someone is receiving that and hopefully being inspired as well. And good luck as well with your teaching journey and your mission to become an educator.
Thank you so much.
You're welcome.
I'd now like to invite Annah Chikukwa.
So, Annah has been an educator for about 20 years.
So, she has extensive experience in the field.
She currently teaches English and Religious Studies and went into teaching straight when she started the university and is teaching as well at Manor Lakes P - 12 College, Year 7, 8 and 10.
So please make Annah welcome.
Annah, I would love to hear a little bit about your journey, how you became a teacher and your experience and story so far.
Thank you, Sherry-Rose.
Hi, everyone.
Yes, my journey into teaching was pretty much a bit straightforward, so I graduated and like Awan,
and Irene, I actually graduated back in Africa, so I had a Bachelor of Education, in Zimbabwe and initially,
sorry people, initially I, when I finished school, I actually didn't want to become a teacher.
That wasn't my first preference in terms of profession.
I wanted to become a lawyer and I wasn't able to get into law school.
I missed it by one point.
And so, you know, they suggested to me, the university said to me, look, if you go and do a different degree for about a year, after a year, you can come back and we will, you know, you have a place where you can study law.
So, that's why I actually and I thought, well, I'll just, you know, do teaching.
So, I went into teaching for one year and at the end of that year, towards the end of that year, I had to go back on teaching practice.
And when I was on teaching practice that I actually decided, you know what, I actually want to become a teacher.
You know, it was just through that experience on its own, you know, just watching students learn, you know, just watching them grow, watching them succeed and seeing some students that were coming back and had all these success stories, that did it for me.
And I found it extremely rewarding.
So, I thought, you know what? I'm definitely just going to continue with teaching.
So, I graduated and immediately after graduating I decided to relocate to the UK.
And when I was in the UK, I think I started with CRT, which, yep, CRT basically.
And that was just because I wanted to see what the education system was like.
Having graduated in Zimbabwe, it was slightly different in the sense that especially in terms of behaviour management and so I had heard so many stories about, you know, teaching in the UK.
So, I was a bit yeah, I was a bit concerned that without being able to hack it with my background.
And so I started doing some relief teaching and I was doing it for about almost a year.
And one of the schools that I was doing relief teaching at offered me a permanent job.
I was the only black teacher in that school.
I was the only black relief teacher and I was the only black teacher overall in the whole school.
There was only two black students in the whole school.
We’re talking about 800 students.
So, it was quite interesting being in that environment.
I did take the permanent post and I always thought that maybe, you know, the reason why there wasn't a lot of black teachers, maybe it was because of how black people are being perceived you know, in the UK.
But I later on realised that it wasn't that at all.
It was actually us black people that had this perception of ourselves and because of that perception that we had, we were actually stopping ourselves from getting into that sector because there weren't any barriers stopping people from actually getting into education in the particular school that I was in.
So yeah, I taught in the UK for almost 20 years and I decided to, or my husband decided to relocate to Australia.
So, me and the family relocated to Australia. And I also started doing relief teaching again so that I could just see the environment, compare what my, you know, my experiences to those in the UK, because that was my first teaching job.
And I went to a couple of schools doing relief and then Manor Lakes. And it was when I was at Manor Lakes that a lot of students, especially the girls, kept approaching me and saying, Ms., can you please come and teach here?
We need a black teacher, we need somebody who looks like us.
And they repeatedly, every time I saw them, that's the story they were telling me.
That's why.
And I thought, you know, the school had offered me, you know, permanent teaching for quite some time.
And I kept saying not now.
But, I must say the kids did grow on me. And I mean, that's the, those students were part of the reasons why I actually said, you know what? Yeah, I'll take permanent teaching and I'll become a teacher here.
And yeah, that's how, that's my journey.
Wow, that's really amazing.
Thank you for sharing.
And it's quite a cross-continental journey as well.
And you've had so much experience.
I think one of my first questions for you is what do you know about teaching now and your experience
in teaching that you would love for young people to know?
And you mentioned especially young people maybe from African backgrounds who might not have considered it. You know, as you've gone through your journey, what have you learned or experienced?
Well, I think the most fulfilling thing is just the fact that you are empowering people.
You know, you are empowering generations. You know, you want to ask yourself, do I want to live in a society in a generation that is ignorant and hopeless?
And if the answer is no, then it's your responsibility to make sure that you empower that generation, that you, you know, make sure that that generation is not ignorant.
So, yeah, I mean, the power is in their hands. And teaching, I think is one of the most fulfilling careers that anyone could get into because everybody came from a teacher.
It doesn't matter how many millions the making in their engineering jobs and, you know, their billionaire jobs, they all came from, through the hands of a teacher.
So that is the most powerful profession I think, that you should get into.
Wow, that's quite bold and quite accurate. Yes.
Because every one of us, I think in this meeting either in school, have gone through school or have really been impacted by a teacher or an educator, that has definitely shaped us and where we're going.
My final question for you is, what is, what would you say are some of the really key skills that you need as a teacher and I'm saying this like I said, because you have such experience, you have taught here, you have taught overseas and back home in your home country.
What are some of the things that you think are essential skills for teachers, someone wanting to pursue a career in teaching?
I think one of the skills that you need as a teacher is to be very patient.
I think patience is the key to teaching. Patience and empathy.
Because you are coming across a vast group of people, multicultural, from all areas of life, that experience,
you know, totally different things every single day of their lives.
And you need to be somebody who is adaptable that is able to patiently understand another human being,
be able to put yourself in the shoes of another human being.
And once you are able to do those things, you are more able to help them.
You are more able also to cope because it is not an easy job as well.
And as much as it is fulfilling, it is very challenging because you're dealing with human beings and at any given point when you're dealing with human beings, you know, things become difficult.
So just having that, just being adaptive, being patient, being empathetic, I think if you have those skills,
then you will do well in that career.
Thank you so much, Annah.
Thank you for sharing your story and thank you to all of our speakers.
I just want to mention again, if you do have any questions, there will be contact at the end of this webinar, but also feel free to drop them in the chat and hopefully we'll have a moment to answer them.
I'll now move on to our myth-busting questions that we started with.
Obviously, from hearing the stories of some of our speakers, I'm sure now you have more of an idea of what it actually takes to become a teacher.
So, before we delve into that, we're going to look at what are the pathways that were discussed here that one can require or take when they considering a career in teaching.
So, the first one.
So, similar to Irene, you might start off and go straight into teaching and I'm sure that's also a pathway Annah would have taken back home.
You can go and go straight into teaching.
So, teaching here in Victoria, a Bachelor of Education is 4 years full time with a minimum ATAR of 70 to get in and with this particular qualification, you can teach and learn primary, secondary or specialist education.
And there are a number of institutions, 11 of them here, that actually provide this particular course as well.
There are many scholarships available for secondary teaching in 2024 and 2025, and scholarships and other bursaries are really important.
They often go un-claimed because not many people think that they are available or that they will qualify to apply for them.
So, I highly encourage you if you do see a scholarship or bursary available or opportunities there, definitely look into them and apply for them.
Second option is to go into a Masters of Teaching.
So, often if you have a prior qualification in just about any field, if you have an undergraduate in whether it's in science or arts or any other area, and you want to consider or pursue a career in teaching, you can then do a two year Master's degree Masters in Teaching, which is two years full time.
You must, of course, have an undergraduate degree to be able to pursue this particular pathway.
But as I said earlier, you can come from a variety of backgrounds and you can also have the opportunity
to specialise in a particular topic or area of interest if you do want to study a Masters in Teaching.
During your teaching course as well, similar as the former pathway, there is always going to be opportunities for placement where you can actually gain on the ground experience.
But definitely there are many, many different pathways that you can take that will lead you to be able to study a Masters in Teaching and to be able to pursue that pathway.
And finally, as we've discussed and as you've heard, there isn’t one linear pathway to get into teaching.
So, if you are like someone like Awan, you might have prior work experience in a similar or unrelated area of field and decide that you want to pursue a career in teaching or want to take a different path because you might have not gotten the right ATAR or had the right prerequisites.
There are TAFE courses and certificate pathways that you can take to actually help lead you into a teaching course through which you can then pursue a career in the education sector.
The Victorian Institute of Teaching offers a number of programs as permission to teach or candidates with skills or prior knowledge, wanting to specialise in particular subjects also.
So, there are not, there aren’t limited pathways, there are actually a number of pathways that you can take.
I just want to note that we also have people from the Department of Education on this webinar and you will have access to their contact at the end of this webinar.
So, if you do have more specific questions about what pathways you can take or pursue or how you can enter the teaching field, the resources are available to you as well to be able to explore.
Now, back to our frequently asked questions.
Like I said, by the end of the seminar, we really wanted to make sure we answered all of the frequently asked questions that we get about teaching.
The first question that we had was how long does it take to become a teacher?
From what we've heard, from what we've learned, it takes typically between 4 to 7 years.
That's the typical timeframe, depending on what pathway you choose to become a teacher.
And this can come straight from when you leave school or you can enter into teaching as a mature age student through other pathways.
Who can become a teacher?
Again, as we've learned, anyone really, who has a passion and interest or desire and is willing to take on some of the further study and learning that is required to go into the education field can become a teacher.
You don't need any specific background, and regardless of your background, regardless of even your education and experience, there are opportunities for you to consider and pursue a career in teaching.
If it is something that you desire, it's something that you're passionate about.
And as I mentioned, because this is something that the Victorian Government is wanting to encourage, there are now a number of resources, information, scholarships and opportunities open for you to actually support you to pursue this particular career pathway.
What are some of the benefits of teaching?
Definitely from our stories from Annah, Irene and Awan, you've heard that there are a lot of benefits to teaching.
One, some of the things that we don't often hear about though, is that teaching is quite a secure career.
Teaching is considered a government role and because as an educator, it is something that is always going to be needed.
As Annah mentioned, everyone just about everyone, regardless of their current career or profession, has encountered or likely gone through schooling.
And therefore encountered teachers in their education journey.
So, it is a very secure career in that regard.
Of course, things like school holidays that we get off are really important.
Oops, sorry, we skipped ahead.
At what age?
If we can go back just briefly, I know we're just about to finish off.
Our school holidays and ample time off are important, but some of the other things we want to name is the impact that you can have on young people, the fact that you're always learning as well.
And that's something that Irene had mentioned that there are opportunities for your own personal growth and development and opportunities for you to also pursue different areas of interests.
At what age can you pursue a career in teaching?
As we’ve learned, at any age.
Post your education through primary and high school, you can go straight into teaching, straight out of school, or you can pursue it as a mature age student, what are some of the necessary skills?
I think we've heard that emotional intelligence, adaptability, self-awareness and teamwork are some of those core skills, but also patience and empathy are also really core skills, because you are working with people,
with students.
And like all of our educators have mentioned, everyone is coming from different backgrounds and experiences.
And in order to be able to support and shape students, you have to have the ability to understand where it is that they are coming from and to be able to nurture them or support them through the learning styles that will help them reach their full potential.
And finally, just these are the key takeaways from our session today.
One, teaching is a highly accessible career and is really open to anyone.
There are, of course, a number of pathways into this career that you can take and it is highly rewarding.
Even though we've heard that it can be challenging as you are managing and dealing with people and students.
And it does take work as far as learning and educating oneself as well.
It really is a career that can have a huge impact on the lives of young people.
And finally, representation really does matter in the education sector.
As Annah mentioned, one of the reasons that she ended up at Manor Lakes is because the students really petitioned for her to become a teacher at their school.
And as Awan also mentioned, he hasn't seen many young men from African backgrounds who will pursue a career in teaching.
But it seems that there is a real need for mentorship and representation in that space.
And just like Irene as well, when you are, when you see other students and you see the impact they are having, and you can see yourself as well and you can see how it is that they feel having you representing them as well, it's really impactful, is really inspiring and actually motivates you in your career.
So, this is one of the reasons that we're running this seminar and this webinar as well is so that you have the information that hopefully gives you greater confidence and helps you feel empowered to pursue a career in teaching.
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