What relationship should there be between Wellington Teachers' College and Victoria University?

What is the use of a degree to a Primary school teacher, or a kindergarten teacher?

These are some of the questions being discussed by various joint committees of university and teachers' college people at the present time. A joint report has been produced that strongly supports increased "cooperation" between the two bodies in the teacher training process. Basically, it supports a degree-based course. This is a very alarming move which brings up several important issues that must be considered.

Firstly, a teachers college has a purpose to fulfill, that is to supply a teacher with the necessary vocational skills for a classroom. This is a different function from training other groups, and a totally different purpose from the academic orientation of university.

What Use a Degree?

The fundamental question which no-one has answered in any country on this issue is what difference does a degree make to a teacher? Practical circumstances show that in many cases it can actually have a detrimental effect.

Look at the skills needed by teachers. Human relationships are an extremely important part of teaching. Teachers are involved everyday with a large number of children who come from a wide cross-section of the community. Different class and cultural backgrounds effect the nature of children and create many different personalities all requiring to be pulled through the school system.

Teachers need to master classroom organisation, curriculum development, and how to cover basic subjects such as mathematics and science. Along with this the teacher must have ideas on how to create a learning environment which enables children to learn and develop as individuals in society.

The theoretical side of education must be covered as well. The development of the child, the effect of the environment and different educational theories must also be introduced to teacher trainees.

WTC Changes

Does Wellington Teachers' College offer all these things to its students? No, it doesn't. The realities of the situation are that the course is not fulfilling the needs of Year One teachers, as many of them will testify. But nonetheless the college has the power and ability to change the course as it sees fit. At the end of 1977 the course structure went through a major upheaval aimed at making it more student orientated.

Over 50% of the intake this year at Wellington have had experience out of secondary school. This is a widely recognised advantage in the recruitment of teachers. Although the new "units system (i.e. the reorganised course) has many teething problems, it is at least an effort to improve the training. The college has the right and the autonomy to do this without restrictions and criteria being enforced by any other body.

Degree Dangers

The dangers of the degree based course have been proven at many of the colleges involved in a university/teachers college course. All the colleges apart from Wellington and Auckland now have a course based on a Bachelor of Education. This of course has major effects on students and the courses offered to them.

An important fact to note in each of these partnerships is that as the university is the degree-awarding authority, it calls the tune and the college inevitably has the least power and recognition.

A degree based course has higher academic content which makes a stumbling block for teacher training, as there, is no advantage in having a tremendous theoretical understanding of a subject when the reality is teaching children.

The important goal is to generate in children the desire and ability to understand and learn about a broad range of things. The translation of knowledge from an adult level to a child's level is no mean feat, and not necessarily a desirable approach anyway. The emphasis should be placed on helping children discover knowledge themselves, by equipping them with skills to do this.

The inevitable academic orientation that must come with a degree based course could only be to the detriment of the college. Similar courses at other colleges show a move away from teachers college controlled courses to exam based courses. Within a degree based course there would be less scope for teacher trainees to diverge into the broad range of subjects and levels that they do at present.

At Wellington Teachers College the evaluation system is based on a non-comparative pass/fail system, which assesses individual students on the value of their own work. This encourages co-operation between students, an ideal in the teaching process. Students and lecturers at WTC have valued this aspect of the training. An atmosphere relatively free from tension created by exams is developed. These would be lost with the introduction of a degree.

The Job Market

The students at WTC have recently been confronted with the argument that they will be disadvantaged in the job market if Wellington Teachers College doesn't accept a degree for teacher trainees. This is nothing but a red herring! There is no evidence to prove that this is happening, or will happen in the years to come. At present only 15 — 20% of teacher trainees graduate with enough of a degree to allow them to complete their degree in a full-time year at university.

The assessment of teachers applying for jobs is made on the basis of their years of experience, personal qualities and recommendations. Such criteria will not be waived easily.

Status-Seeking

Why is there a move towards a degree for teachers? The main thrust of it seems purely to be part of a drive for status. There is a forceful move amongst those who've been involved in teaching and teacher training for some years to push for teachers to be recognised as professional people of a "high-standing". The NZ Educational Institute has policy supporting this drive towards professionalism and a four-year degree.

This is a tremendous blow to qualified teachers. The desire for this elitist trend can only do harm to education in NZ. As well as alienating teachers from the community, it could well alienate them from children. The emphasis today is on a much greater co-operation between the school and the community. Degrees will only serve to widen the existing gap between teachers and parents, by putting teachers in a different group, similar to doctors and lawyers.

Alternatives

The powers that be at Wellington Teachers College have offered no valid reasons for amalgamation with the university. Auckland Teachers College has decided recently not to accept the pull of the university, and has adopted an improved cross-crediting arrangement. There is no reason why Wellington shouldn't adopt the same position.

The regional quota system which means that colleges must draw students from within their own area could easily be changed to a national quota system. This would enable students to select the type of course they wanted, and thus eliminate any feeling that those at Wellington or Auckland are disadvantaged.

Last year students at WTC came out strongly opposed to any greater university involvement. Now students are being asked again to voice an opinion, but due to our apparent non-acknowledgment by the decision makers last year, many students are disillusioned with the value of their participation.

Ideally students-are the ones who should be central to the discussion as they are the recipients of the system. They must fight to be heard and recognised as authorities, as must ex-students of the college, and present teachers.

Students at university also have a vested interest in ensuring the future of WTC is the best for teacher training and education as a whole. The resources which would be allocated to the college must come from somewhere. With the present economic situation and the education cuts there is unlikely to be an increase in this area. Who would lose out?

Get the Priorities Right

Above all, the empire building of the university, and the status-seeking of the college must not be at the expense of teacher education and the future education of New Zealand children.

Teaching needs people from all age-groups groups, with a wide range of economic and cultural backgrounds. It must encourage everyone who wants to become a teacher.

The degree based structure would exclude a large number of people from this field.

Let's fight for good education for our children!