1. National Professional
Standards for Teachers:
Indigenous perspectives
MATSITI Conference
Adelaide
July 2012

2. o Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young
Australians
o National Education Agreement
o National Partnerships:
• National Partnership on Improving Teacher Quality
o Aboriginal &Torres Strait Islander Education Action Plan

3. o Not big
o Not government
o Not commercial provider
o Not a regulator
AITSL does have:
o a remit from all Education Ministers to ‘provide national leadership in
promoting excellence’
o an ability to broker national agreement
o capacity to add value to policy and outcomes

4. AITSL works with the education community to:
o Set and maintain standards for excellence in teaching
and school leadership
o Lead and influence excellence in teaching and school
leadership
o Support and recognise excellence in teaching and
school leadership

5. o Intended for every teacher of every child
o Define the work of teachers and make explicit the elements of
high quality, effective teaching in 21st Century schools
o Public statement
o Common understanding and language
o Dual purpose – improvement and accountability
o Map career progression

6. o 7 standards grouped into 3 domains
• Professional knowledge – 2 standards
• Professional practice – 3 standards
• Professional engagement – 2 standards
o Each standard broken into between 4 and 7 focus areas
o Each focus area differentiated at 4 career stages
(descriptors)
• Graduate, Proficient, Highly Accomplished, Lead

9. The Standards support :
o professional learning
o peer coaching / observation
o self assessment
o professional practices

10. o Graduate - National Standards and Procedures for the
Accreditation of Initial Teacher Education
o Proficient - nationally consistent registration
o Highly Accomplished – voluntary certification
o Lead – voluntary certification

13. > Objective: To improve the capacity of all new and
existing teachers to meet the requirements of Focus
Areas 1.4 and 2.4 of the NPTS.
 Pre-service component – led with Queensland DETE
 In-service component – led by AITSL
 Each component:
Research / mapping of practices
National Forum
Resource development

14. > Major findings:
– No structured national policy, particularly regarding PD
around Indigenous peoples’ rights or social justice
imperatives
– Lack of workforce level PD and little evaluation of
effectiveness of what does exist
– The approach to PD in this area is patchy
– Appears to have been a reduction in PD offered in recent
times
– Teachers are fearful and resistant about these Standards

15. > Major findings:
– There is generally an imbalance between transfer of knowledge and
development of skills
– ITE needs a new Indigenous pedagogy, balancing skills acquisition
with knowledge transfer, to be transformative
– There is a paucity of Australian and international literature
documenting the impact of racism on Indigenous educational
outcomes
– There is a correlation between universities’ marketing vigour and
their promotion of Indigenous education as integral to initial teacher
education
– There is a drive to embed Indigenous content in core ITE subjects
– The provision of Indigenous elective subjects is inconsistent across
institutions

16. Bearing in mind the requirements of Focus Areas 1.4 and
2.4 of the National Professional Standards for Teachers:
1. In your experience, what really useful Indigenous skills
and knowledge have you found in (in-service OR pre-
service) offerings?
2. In your experience, what Indigenous skills and
knowledge (pre-service OR in-service) was of no use to
you at all?
3. What has been missing from these programs that would
have been really helpful to you?

17. aitsl.edu.au
newsroom.aitsl.edu.au
@aitsl
www.facebook.com/aitsl
teacherfeature.aitsl.edu.au
youtube.com/aitsleduau
iTunes U > Australian Institute
for Teaching and School
Leadership