Master of Teaching brings up to 100 to Warrnambool

Up to 100 new student teachers from across Australia will spend four weeks in Warrnambool in a new partnership designed to attract inspirational teachers to disadvantaged areas.

The School of Education at Deakin University has recently been awarded a tender byTeach For Australia to deliver Master of Teaching in secondary schools across Australian states and territories for three cohorts of teachers, known as Associates. 

The new Associates will be officially welcomed at the Deakin University Warrnambool Campus from 6pm on 27 November.

The Associates will undertake studies at the Deakin Warrnambool Campus and spend time working with teachers in local schools as part of their preparation for teaching in schools in low socioeconomic communities across Australia in February 2015.

Associates will complete their Master of Teaching degree over two years with extensive support through Teach For Australia, Deakin University and in-school mentors. 

The joint initiative is expected to bring increasing numbers of post-graduate students to Warrnambool over each of the next five years.

Teach For Australia recruits outstanding graduates and professionals from a variety of backgrounds and transforms them into exceptional teachers and inspirational leaders to teach in disadvantaged schools. The program is designed to meet the needs of schools in low socioeconomic communities as well as the broader education system.

Deakin University TFA Academic Coordinator, Associate Professor Bernadette Walker-Gibbs, said the joint initiative has the potential to change the way teacher education is delivered and was a boon for the Warrnambool area.

"It will be so good for the Campus to host people over summer, a time that is traditionally quiet for the university," she said.

The visiting Associates will spend two weeks in intensive teaching programs on the Campus and two weeks in local schools where they will be supported by Deakin and Teach for Australia staff along with teachers in the schools.

The Associates will stay in the Campus accommodation and experience life on the Warrnambool campus.

"We campaigned for Warrnambool to be included in the program as it is a great opportunity to introduce the students to our facilities and the local area," Associate Professor Walker-Gibbs said.

"It gives them an opportunity to experience our regional schools before being placed into schools more permanently. They get to work with local kids and experience the local area. Having an embedded rural experience gives them the opportunity to understand this region.

"It will break down myths about what it's like to work in rural and regional communities."

"It's a new way of training teachers and bringing people to hard-to-staff schools and rural and regional areas," Associate Professor Walker-Gibbs said.

Head of the School of Education, Faculty of Arts & Education, Professor Christine Ure, said the new program recognises that there are many pathways into teaching. "For Deakin this extends our reach in supporting disadvantage in education," she said.  Associate Professor Walker-Gibbs added that the program supported Great South Coast initiatives to attract and retain people in this region and to improve school retention rates.