Goodbye Graduate Diploma in Teaching at Otago University ...

I've just read that Otago University are cutting teacher training for what appears to be fiscal reasons.  The courses that are set to go are the one year Graduate Diploma in Teaching and the four year Bachelor Degree in Education Studies.  I don't know much about the four year programme, but I do know a heck of a lot of good teachers that have graduated from Otago with the Grad Dip in Teaching.  This one year programme was an excellent way for those with degrees to choose teaching as a career path.  'What's the problem?' I hear you ask.  'Isn't the brand spanking new Masters of Teaching and Learning also a one year course?  And wouldn't you graduate with a lot more learning, kudos and bang-for-your-buck than from its poor sibling Grad Dip?'  In theory, yes.  But I think the emphasis should be on the 'brand spanking new' part of that discussion.

The Masters of Teaching and Learning is a good idea.  But, in practice, it is a newborn babe who keeps waking in the night to tired parents and a dark sky.  Nobody expects a new programme to be perfect from the start - everything new needs time to grow. Sound pedagogy and understanding needs reflection and support.  It is precisely because of this that removing the tried-and-true Grad Dip whilst the Masters finds its feet seems, to me at least, to be a dire mistake.

I have a Masters student in my classroom.  Not much - I'm certainly not what I or they would truly call a 'mentor teacher', but that suits me fine - for the above reasons.  I'm happy to support my lovely student when she comes into my classes three times a week.  But I also know that it was a casual arrangement from the organiser of Masters students at our school.  Casual in a 'let's try this - we've never done it before, but it MIGHT work out okay,' kinda way.  At three times a week, I can cope with that.  But it's all been pretty laissez faire. I guess I'm okay because I'm sure that this course will improve with time, wisdom and support.  But also, crucially, because I have thought a lot about how much I will allow in my classroom beyond observing.  I also know (well, let's now make that PAST tense now - knew)that the Grad Dip programme is there (WAS there) pumping out (excuse the crass term) fabulous teachers in a tried-and-true programme that was rigorous, challenging and that supported working teachers to help student teachers learn. Please don't get me wrong - my Masters student also appears to be fabulous.  But the vision and goals of the course frankly seem opaque and neophytic.

There are many schools here in Dunedin who have questioned the administration and expectations of the new programme, and think them unrealistic and unsustainable (in their current form).  A teaching colleague of mine at another school in Dunedin described the rejection of the Masters programme at her school as the Principal standing up and saying 'who would like to take on a Masters student (or two), with all the marking and mentoring that goes with that level of instruction, for pretty much no pay?  On top of your teaching?  Anyone?  No-one?  Good, let's move on with today's morning briefing, then.'

Again, I repeat, I am not saying that the Masters of Teaching and Learning will not be all that it's cracked up to be.  It may.  But at the moment it has glitter, it has sparkle, it has those high heels on that everybody wants to wear.  The Grad Dip, in its sensible, flat, reliable shoes, can't complete with that new glamour.  I worry that this fun-time girl may not be all she is cracked up to be.  That may just be because she is underage at the moment, but removing what works and limiting choices because the bucks need saving is utterly ludicrous and stinks depressingly of a distinct lack of foresight.