B. Preparing the ground


Preparing the ground

Equally as important as the work of teachers in schools in developing curriculum, as cited in the previous Framing statement, Senior English before the VCE, was the intellectual engagement, research and advocacy of organisations committed to curriculum reform, including the curriculum and assessment authority, the Victorian Institute for Secondary Education (VISE). The teacher unions were on board, often in collaboration with parent organisations. The VSTA journal The Secondary Teacher, for example, played a proactive role in raising questions about the purposes of schooling and the education appropriate for the diverse student cohort that was increasingly remaining on to complete Year 12. Both VISE and the Education Department had subject/curriculum committees with teacher representation.

VATE, too, played a role in preparing the profession as a reading of Idiom, particularly under the editorship of Peta Heywood, who came from a technical school background, attests.

A key element in this period of preparing the ground was the cross fertilisation between this organisation and associations. Many VATE members were also union members and/or served on departmental committees. VATE Vice President, Helen Howells, convened the VISE English Subject Committee.

Chris Reynolds was a VISE bureaucrat as well as a VATE Council member. In 1984 he edited for VATE a special publication Assessment and Learning in English which canvassed a wide range of opinions on forms of assessment – external, graded, descriptive, goal based, consensus moderation, etc – then being utilised in the various senior English courses, and raised awareness of the implications of a single subject structure in an article authored by Graeme Withers. Significantly, VATE distributed the publication to all members, along with a companion piece published by VISE, Towards a revised policy on curriculum and assessment in the Victorian Year 12 HSC program.

Suggested reading list (items available in VATE office):

  1. Who owns the Curriculum? Report of the curriculum conference for parents and teachers, Monash University, August 15-16, 1980 – joint publication sponsored by three teacher unions (VSTA, TTAV, VTU), Victorian Council of School Organisations, Victorian Federation of State Schools Parents’ Club.
     
  2. Assessment and Learning in English. A collection of views about how the assessment of learning in Senior English is best undertaken, edited by C.L. Reynolds, VATE, 1984, ISBN: 0959177817
     
  3. Towards a revised policy on curriculum and assessment in the Victorian Year 12 HSC program 1984, VISE
     
  4. These two documents (nos 2 and 3) were issued to all VATE members along with: