5. Educational Change Makers with Em Gentle

The Child Charmer

Teacher retention is one of the leading challenges we are facing in our current Education System, with our incredible pre-service educators not lasting longer than 3-5 years in the profession. If we are to have any hope of creating educational change within our school system, it really starts with looking at how our beginning teachers can not only 'survive' in education - BUT truly 'thrive' and actually LOVE the work they are doing with our children.

But are we throwing them under the bus? They come out of university with NO real education or training about child brain development or stress responses in children. They are not equipped to be able to cope with the rising demands of data collection, Disability Inclusion Profile applications and report writing - all of the things which actually suck a lot of joy out of being an educator.

Today's insightful discussion is with Em Gentle who is dedicating her work to supporting our beginning teachers so that, hopefully, they can stick it out long enough to actually see their pedagogical beliefs, practices and achievements really start to develop. If its one thing we know about teaching, its the kind of job that you get better at the longer you are in the classroom.

This also means that you are going to make mistakes - in fact - you MUST make mistakes to work out who you are as an educator. We are all life long learners and it's ok not to have it all worked out yet.

But how can we provide our beginning teachers with enough support whilst they 'learn on the job' and lead them towards achieving a fulfilling career in education?

You can read more about Ems amazing work here: https://www.thegradguide.com.au/about