I am delighted to share with you now some exciting news about developments in the Christian Tertiary Education space – the detailed planning of which has intricately involved some members of Donvale Christian College’s leadership.

There are new Bachelor of Education (BEd) and Master of Teaching (MTeach) degrees set to commence in 2024 –fully approved by tertiary sector regulators as appropriate and meeting all professional preparation needs of the future teacher/educator.

What makes these degrees different is that they adopt an apprenticeship model for instruction and experience gathering. Lectures are compressed into a day or two in the week - jammed tight, in fact; students are apprenticed to schools for two days of the week; the remaining days are for study (and assignment completion).

This is an incredibly welcome development, one that has been led (in fact, initiated) by Australia’s Christian tertiary providers, of which Eastern College Australia (ECA) in Wantirna South is one.

Donvale Christian College has partnered with Chairo Christian School, Waverley Christian College, Flinders Christian Community College and Hillcrest/Rivercrest Christian Colleges to form the Christian Initial Teacher Education Alliance (CITE Alliance).

Leaders from all these schools have met and planned with the leadership of ECA to provide a strong structure around students who wish to undertake studies using this model for delivery.

From the very beginning of their degrees, students will be working two days in a Christian school, paid to work as learning assistants (or similar level roles – in roles that engage directly with students and the school’s classrooms).

They get to develop professional relationships with Christian teachers, alongside whom they work throughout their entire degrees. As they progress through their degrees, the “apprenticeship” matures – they have mentors from within the school’s staff who offer help, support and practical demonstration to their mentee. These students are immersed in the Christian school’s culture, its teaching practices and its community's expression as God’s people working together for the sake of all students and their families.

This is an investment of our time and expertise into the future of Christian education, both at our school and throughout our wider Christian schooling networks.

One of the prevailing themes at many Christian principal gatherings – those involving principals from the two main Christian schooling groups, Christian Education National (CEN) and Christian Schools Australia (CSA) – is the increased difficulty in sourcing teachers to appoint to staff who are Christian. So, this initiative is a protection against this.

But there is an added benefit. This experience of university ensures that the Christian teacher is prepared for their work with a Christian worldview lens that will be deeply integrated into all that they teach and do in their professional futures.

We will be a school that takes on these “apprenticed” tertiary education students; at any given time, it is likely we will have between three and five students from the CITE Alliance/ECA partnership on our staff, studying at Eastern and working here.

I know our community will welcome their work, as they do for all our appointed staff, with open embrace. The Alliance will seek to place about 25 students in its founding schools (named above), as well as into other Christian schools across Melbourne and Geelong. This number could grow to about 40 as other schools become more deeply involved.

In the first instance, we are likely to have the minimum three “apprenticed” BEd/MTeach students on staff in 2024. Opportunities for mentoring for those current DCC staff interested in a more active participation in the program will emerge as the students confirm their preferred teaching methods and progress through their degree.

My hope is that this approach to preparing to be a teacher will be an exciting possibility for many Donvale students in the future. Our collaboration with the other schools in the CITE Alliance means we will share around the students we take on – so, a Donvale student could work for a year or two with us, either before or after they spent time at another CEN or CSA school nearby.

Christian schools modelling cooperation with one another and collaboration with the tertiary sector, to mutual benefit, for the greater good of our movement – this is an exciting and intoxicating possibility.

And a powerful witness to the broader schooling and tertiary sectors; if we get this right (and I have every confidence to think we will), it could make a profound difference to the future strengthening of Christian schools, ourselves included, across the nation.

As a school community, therefore, may I ask you to pray for a thriving start to the new coursework at ECA in 2024; for a good number of strong candidates that the CITE Alliance will take on as its first cohort.

Our Year 12s will soon get details about how to apply. In the end, we ask God to raise up the next generation of Christian teachers – young men and women who will continue a great inheritance, equipped to act for their Lord in an increasingly antagonistic world. That’s the part we can play – to pray and then to act in faith that this will come to be, in God’s good timing.

Principally Thinking

'Act justly, love kindness, and walk humbly with God'

Issue 9 · 20 Jul 2023

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