School of Education Statement of Strategic Intent

There are four strategic goals that guide us in our work.

Equity and access: We will provide a variety of entry points into high-quality programs that will qualify students for employment in a wide range of educational sectors. Our priority is to ensure that all Australians, especially Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, can pursue a successful career as an educator. We continue to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and organisations in all our endeavours to enrich our research approaches and findings.

Culture: Our work with students, colleagues and communities is underpinned by a culture of being accountable, connected, innovative, and caring.

Engagement: We’ll form deep and long-term connections with our students, educational sector partners and communities, both locally and internationally. Impact: We will create high-quality graduates and conduct research to improve educational outcomes for people and communities.

Recognition: We will build capability and continuous improvement in research and teaching to make us a pre-eminent School of Education, locally, nationally and internationally. We will be known for our national and international experts in education who are committed to improving educational outcomes for all.

The culture of the La Trobe School of Education is one that emphasises accountability, connectedness, care and innovation. These qualities are at the heart of everything we do and help us stand out as an employer of choice. We promote equity, diversity, and inclusion in our workplace, which makes us an attractive place to work. Our collaborative culture drives innovation and best practice, and our partnerships with students, colleagues and stakeholders are crucial to advancing education outcomes on a state, national and global level.

KPI

We will know we have succeeded in our goal to develop a positive culture when we continue to improve the Employee Experience as measured by a La Trobe Employee Experience Survey.

La Trobe’s School of Education is committed to the recruitment, retention, and capability development of a high performing academic and professional staff workforce in which all staff are intrinsically aligned with our strategic intent. The school will develop systems and procedures to enable each of our goals with optimum professionalism and efficiency that supports our reputation internally and externally and maximises our potential across all strategic capabilities.

KPI

We will know we have succeeded in our goal by meeting all our strategic KPIs as a collective team working towards aligned goals.

We will know we have succeeded in our goal when we provide optimum efficiency for academic staff to undertake teaching and non-teaching duties.

High quality education improves health, productivity, and wellbeing.

We will be known for being the finest Initial Teacher Education provider in the nation. Transforming educational practice and how students learn through evidence informed teaching is central to a future focused Initial Teacher Education program. We will graduate high-quality professionals, who employ evidence-informed approaches to designing learning and are committed to understanding social disadvantage and social justice to drive change in all education settings. We will drive lifelong enhancement opportunities for existing teachers to further develop their education practices and deliver enhanced outcomes for all students.

Our graduates will be digitally literate and culturally safe with a strong understanding of contemporary education practices that are sustainable and climate friendly. We will champion an outstanding education culture founded on teaching quality, innovation, and evidence-based practice. Our cross-curriculum priorities in Indigenous education will enable learners to promote key drivers of Respect, Relationships and Opportunities. Our programs combine in-person and online learning to improve quality, flexibility, and accessibility. We will work with our industry partners to expose students to real-world experiences and evidence-informed mentoring on quality teaching.

Our professional experience and learning models offer students supportive, cohort-style placements augmented by quality mentoring and peer support. Our model encourages students and experienced teachers to build collective knowledge to strengthen future employability options for our graduates and ensure that they are employees of choice, regardless of geographic location. We will produce Simulation Lab facilities to foster novel approaches in developing teacher practice competencies in learning instruction, creative practices and learning design that will allow our students to develop these practices throughout their Initial Teacher Education Coursework.

Students benefit from opportunities to adopt a local and global focus on education through exchange and virtual programs. We will build a culture of research by offering research pathways into our courses that support students to explore graduate research options. We are committed to Outdoor and Sustainability Education and the impact of climate change, Indigenous sustainability, ecological justice, land-based education and treaty work, on how we live and learn outdoors. We are the only Education School nationally with a standalone outdoor education program and offer a climate change major in the course. We are in a unique position to become a leader in Outdoor and Sustainability Education and to influence the understanding of climate change, and positively influence the way people live in the world.

KPI

We will know we have succeeded in our goal to ensure quality of teaching when we achieve top 12 nationally in teaching in the Student Experience Survey for Teaching Quality and Overall Experience, and an overall employment rate of graduates >95%.

We will lead education reform through evidence-informed practices which will be driven by our researchers in our School and in education contexts. We will invest in applied research programs which are impactful and translational and will work towards understanding and providing value to educators and education communities.

We will work collaboratively with our partners to meet their educational challenges and lead the translation of education research into evidence-informed practices to impact change and make way for future innovations.

Our research areas are directly aligned with our teaching disciplines and include:

The scientific understanding of learning, which investigates how learning happens and uses this knowledge to enhance classroom teaching approaches.

Impactful pedagogies, which examines and develops methods and practices of teaching.

Social justice and diversity, which explores the role of education in addressing social advantage and disadvantage for learners from diverse populations, including First Nations communities.

Our research outputs and collaborations position us as thought leaders in education transformation. We prioritise research that continues to make a difference to all learners and educators.

Our distinctive industry research collaborations will deliver high impact research outcomes that make a difference to education communities. Fostering research collaborations that align with our areas of strength and expertise enables the school to grow researcher capacity at all career stages. Our impact will be measured through quality publications, increased research income and commercial opportunities.

We deliver high-quality research training, skills development and research support to local education professionals, supervisors, students, and external stakeholders. We recognise that high-quality research training is about ensuring we have the best researchers to build future collaborations with our partners and to impact change through research.

Our contribution aligns with La Trobe’s research themes, including healthy people, families and communities and social change and equity.

KPI

We will know we have succeeded in our goals to contribute to create impact and achieve recognition when we reach a research ERA ranking of 4 (above world standard) for the Field of Research 39 - Education.

We will know we have succeeded in our goals when we establish a successful, targeted approach to securing Category 2-4 research funding for problem based, impactful and translational research

The School of Education is an outward facing education provider committed to partnering with government, industries, schools and other education communities to co-construct curriculum and professional practice. We educate future professionals and develop research that is impactful and translational. We will be known as the trusted advisor in education. La Trobe University will lead the way in developing learning innovations and contemporary curriculum design to impact educational change.

We will consolidate our partnerships with schools and education industries and develop more meaningful collaborations that are beneficial for all partners involved. We will create opportunities for research that will be translatable to all stakeholders and will help prevent educational dilemmas in the future. Our partnerships will have a lasting impact on transforming education practice through research and course development.

We will take a proactive approach to co-designing Initial Teacher Education curriculum with our chosen partners to build a teacher workforce that is reflective of the needs of the profession and the most current and evidence-based pedagogical strategies. Our partnerships have led to the development of new and innovative approaches to education, sharing best practice and disseminating research findings. These successful partnerships are our foundation for transformation in education. We will be first choice for placements for our pre-service teachers and early childhood graduates and will respond to our partners’ needs for professional development by harnessing the school’s expertise.

We will increase our presence in schools in regional Victoria as well as our status in metropolitan Melbourne. We will also target new educational partnerships with independent schools, non-traditional educational settings and with community education programs. In our commitment to social justice in education we will also foster opportunities for community organisations to work alongside the School of Education to improve educational opportunities for the young people who need it most.

The La Trobe School of Education is committed to partnering for impact Our partner database will see exceptional growth both in numbers, depth and in quality partners equally dedicated to transforming education and mutually developing high quality educators of the future.

KPI

We will know we have succeeded when we have increased our partnership network, with no less than 180 quality partners and guaranteed placements. We will have increased opportunities to codesign education programs in Initial Teacher Education and professional experience models.

We will know we have succeeded when we have established mutually beneficial government and research partnerships that continue our work in research translation and transformation of education.