Here is the first of our monthly newsletters.
Kia ora,
Welcome to the first edition of Collective Matters.
Firstly, thank you so much for the support and interest in our kaupapa over the last few weeks. It is fair to say, we are a small team of volunteers and the level of interest has made it hard to respond to you all in a timely manner.
What we are hearing repeatedly from many across the education sector, given the direction in education right now, it is the profession needs to come together and lead. This is not the time for us to feel powerless but this is the time for us to stand up and speak out.
So what is it that you are going to hear from us? We plan to talk about the following themes:
Te Tiriti needs to be central in developing education policy that will work in Aotearoa.
A one size fits all model doesn't work in education, never has.
The profession should be leading discussions, assessing research and its impact on learning around curriculum, leadership and pedagogy, not politicians.
The role of politicians should be to ensure that education has the investment needed to develop the workforce.
We cannot ignore the effect of inequity and poverty when forming education policy.
Only this week we are seeing Professional Learning and Development allocations being narrowed down to what the current government believes is paramount rather than the strategic needs that have been determined by school leaders, staff and their local communities. We are also seeing job cuts within the Ministry of Education and do not yet know how this will impact on our children. What we do know is that we are seeing increased need in our schools and therefore we need greater investment particularly in the areas of learning support and curriculum. The idea that you can cut public servants without impacting front line support doesn't pass the sniff test.
We welcome new collective members, Clare Amos, Maurie Abraham, Paul Engles, Paul Heyward, Jan Gaffney, and Vivienne Anderson.
These are challenging times however we do know that when we stand together and speak out with our children at the heart, we can make a difference.
But we need to hear from you:
How would you like to engage with AEC?
Are the above themes the right ones?
How you can help
We are wanting to work alongside people to create content for the blog. You do not need to agree with everything the Collective has said. But we do want to create a place for wide reaching professional discussion. You can see more info here.
Become a collective member. Be listed on our website as a collective member and help build this movement.
We cannot keep up with the interest that has been pouring in. Support us financially to employ administration support.
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