Belief Statement. Domain 3, Professional Engagement.

The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL, 2014) expects that as a teacher I model effective learning by identifying my own learning needs as I analyse, evaluate and expand my professional learning collegially and individually. When groups of people come together they bring with them a wealth of knowledge, but there are also gaps in the members’ collective knowledge. Churchill et al. (2011) believes that to be truly effective these groups of people need to go outside themselves to the experts and research literature to broaden their understandings. I aspire to engage with the wider school community, internally and externally as I see this as an opportunity to enrich the educational and life contexts for my students.Like Churchill et al. (2011) I believe that a pre-service degree alone inadequately prepares me for a full teaching career and is only the first stage of my professional learning and entry point into the profession. Given the speed with which knowledge and understandings change, I accept that ongoing professional learning is an absolute necessity.

Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. 

Domain 3.Professional Engagement. 

Standard 7. Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/ carers and the community. 

7.1 Meet professional ethics and responsibilities

• Understand and apply the key principles described in codes of ethics and conduct for the teaching profession.

7.3 Engage with the parents/ carers

• Understand strategies for working effectively, sensitively and confidentially with parents/carers.

The situation/ task called for me to present an assignment for a course of study titled ‘Communication and Collaboration. The first assignment centred on a scenario where I as the teacher had requested an interview with the parents of a difficult student. The objective of the assignment was to plan, conduct and reflect on a hypothetical parent teacher interview with the child’s father in reference to the communication processes and protocols which would be appropriate for a meeting of this nature (Artifact 1). In planning the meeting I was expected to account for anticipated apprehensive behaviours of the parent and make reference to Education Queensland’s code of conduct and The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers and a school’s Complaints Management Policy (Artifact 1).

The  action I took was to consider the parents and the potential for them to feel unsupported, misunderstood and overwhelmed by the demands placed on them due to information overload which may be ambiguous or complex (Artifact 1). Like DeVito (2014) my intention when planning a meeting of this nature is to brainstorm win-win solutions focusing on areas of agreement and convey to the parents my willingness to compromise where appropriate. I planned to contact the father by phone and convey to him positive messages to come and set goals for the meeting whilst avoiding jargon or overly complex terms. This fictional scenario was set in an Education Queensland school and therefore I am expected as a teacher to abide by the principles of integrity, impartiality, promoting the public good, commitment to the system of government and accountability and transparency (Department of Education and Training, 2011). Throughout a meeting of this nature I would engage professionally with the parents by establishing and maintaining a respectful collaborative relationship regarding the student’s learning and wellbeing. During a recent practicum placement I had the opportunity to sit in on parent teacher interviews. My mentor at the time noted that I shared positive learning experiences with parents and made valuable contributions based on my experiences during my time at the school (Artifact 2).

As a result of this assignment and my interaction with parents I learned that communication skills are not solutions to problems, however they are tools for solving problems (Porter, 2008). I also learned that set up and planning of the meeting are essential components to the overall success of parent teacher meetings. I agree with Porter (2008) who posits that parents need schools and schools need parents and neither can work in isolation. DeVito (201) endorses self reflection and seeking feedback from parents about my negative and positive traits as a teacher to improve my practice.  In congruence with Gonzalez and Jackson (2013) I believe that as a teacher it is my role to maintain and even increase communication and develop strong links between families and school as better student outcomes are the likely result.