[Offtopic] Points to consider including in VIT Review Response

[victor rajewski]

> Hello Stephen -
>
> Just for the info for the the few of us
> non-teachers here - is there a professional
> association for teachers along the lines on the
> Institution of Engineers Australia, the Royal
> Australian Institue of Architects, the AMA etc?
> Even though I've worked in schools for about 10
> years I don't recall hearing or seeing anything about such an organisation.
>
> The ones I mentioned are run by practitioners of
> the professions, and at least in the case of
> Engineers,  set the requirements for
> accreditation to work as an engineer (and call
> yourself 'engineer') and hence set the fields of
> study to be satisfactorily completed at a
> tertiary level, lobby the various governments on
> behalf of engineers, run PD sessions (IEAust for
> example requires 30 hours of PD a year or hand
> back your membership and the right to put MIEAust
> after your name.) If there is not such a body for
> teachers there should be imho.

It is interesting that the bodies you mention fulfill the role of what
the union does for teachers, but as Engineers, Doctors, etc are
'professionals', there is a slightly different focus in their
associations/institutes. Teachers are stuck in the middle somewhere -
we want to be recognised as professionals and I would prefer the focus
of any organisation I join to be on furthering the profession as a
whole, but we aren't treated/paid as such, so the union has to put its
energy into working conditions instead. We can dream of a day when
this is no longer the case...

vik