Kevin Rudd's revolution

Critics of TFA argue that there is an “underlying question of whether TFA members stay around long enough to make a real difference” (Alexander Russon, Huffington Post, January 24, 2008). The two-year tenure and the high burn-out rate (some suggest as many as 30 per cent don’t complete their tenure) mean that any gains are transitory and fail to spread across the system.

TFA is resented by many teachers for undermining the professionalism of teachers. One blogger writes: “Equally denigrating to the profession is the notion that teaching is something you can ‘dabble in’. Oh, do it for a couple of years, assuage your (usually white/suburban/privileged) guilt and then get on with your ‘real life’ in law school or business school or wherever. Teaching, you see, isn’t all that important and anybody can do it for a couple of years …” (Norm’s Notes, Why I Don’t Like Teach for America, December 10, 2007).

TFA is also seen by some as providing proof for conservatives that structural inequality and inadequate resourcing are not the issue: “… each successful TFA teacher builds this consensus: all teachers have to do is work harder, longer, better, and more passionately on behalf of children, and we can close the educational achievement gap ourselves” (Transform Education, Teach for America’s Popularity Grows, May 26, 2006).

Teach First

Given that the UK does not have a Peace Corps tradition on which to base its version of TFA, its originators went straight to the heart of Gen Y aspirations and named their scheme “Teach First”. The idea is unashamedly that if you are bright, white (predominantly) and upwardly mobile, then a two-year stint in an inner-city slum school will be good for your resume and will enable you to provide evidence of your leadership skills and ability to reach or exceed performance targets.

The TF website explains: “Teach First supporters consistently identify communication skills as being the greatest weakness of the graduates they hire. As a result of a rigorous recruitment process and their time in the classroom, Teach First participants demonstrate strong communication skills, as well as planning, organisation and creativity. In addition, they have all excelled academically. The results show that they are making an (sic!) significant impact in England schools. What could they achieve in your business?”

Wessex Scene Online adds: “Teach First hopes to demonstrate to applicants how the skills they gain while teaching will enhance their careers in the long-term, as well as offering fast-track recruitment from the sponsors of the project.”

TF shares the same flaws as TFA: its recruits are not qualified, they are there for the short term, whatever altruism they possess is tempered by a preoccupation with later corporate employment, and they just don’t perform as well as experienced and qualified teachers.

Conclusion

Rudd has picked up the Teach for Australia baton from Noel Pearson who first proposed it as a scheme for addressing disadvantage in remote Indigenous communities.

The speech to the National Press Club was short on detail and it is all too apparent why “programs of this kind” might appeal to a politician wanting to put some flesh around the bones of an “education revolution” that to date has had little else to offer.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I hear Elvis singing, “Fools rush in …”