Session Information
26 SES 12 A, Education And The Law: A Cross National Analysis of an Essential Knowledge Base for Educators
Research Workshop
Contribution
Principals and teachers now work in increasingly uncertain and challenging environments involving complex legislative frameworks (Trimble, Cranston & Allen, 2012). As the roles and responsibilities of principals and teachers change to meet new demands and capabilities, especially for dealing with safety and security issues, so too does the need for a sound knowledge of emerging legal issues in schools such as the impact of court orders, competing parental rights, and issues around children with disabilities; information confidentiality, records and the internet; accident and incident risk management.
It is becoming an essential for educators to adapt and acquire new knowledge and skills relating to education law to the school management environment. Educators are being required to gain confidence and expertise in identifying possible legal problems before and as they arise based on their knowledge of various statutory, contractual and common law duties, especially the duty to take reasonable care, which underpin the educational process. They are being challenged on a daily basis to critically examine and evaluate the legal rights and obligations of various stakeholders, including students and parents, educators and administrators associated with the role of management within schools.
To meet these needs, some jurisdictions in Australia have developed accredited professional learning. However it is piecemeal and inconsistent in quality and compliance. In Queensland the state Government’s Great Teachers = Great Results Plan outlines the future reform agenda and requires, as of 2016, those aspiring to be deputy principals or principals to possess a broader and more complex range of skills and knowledge, including aspects of the law as it applies to educational settings. The University of Southern Queensland (USQ) is currently developing a course to meet this need. In New South Wales there is a requirement for all teachers to be familiar with the Disability Discrimination Act (1992) (DDA), particularly with the Disability Standards for Education (2005), and be able to apply this on a daily basis in their classroom. The Disability Standards for Education attempt to clarify expectations and legal obligations under the DDA. All teachers in Australia are being encouraged to complete an on-line module about the Disability Standards for Education (Kilham, 2014).
These requirements on educators to be knowledgeable of legal issues are not confined to Australia. In Scotland, the General Teaching Council Standards for Leadership and Management requires, “Head Teachers work within the structure of employment legislation, national and local agreements and policies governing employment” (Standard 4.2.1). To enable Head Teachers to fulfil this responsibility, they will, “take due account of legislation” in regard to employment and, “take due account of the legislative framework” which covers “equality and social inclusion” (Standard 4.2.1). The support for school managers to develop the knowledge and understanding required is provided mainly by national and local authority professional development opportunities rather than by tertiary institutions.
In contrast, in the Republic of Ireland, Trinity College, Dublin provides a Master of Education in Leadership and Management within which there is a course, “Leadership and Management: Legal Issues”. The course considers the statutory framework within which education operates in Ireland. It aims to familiarise “participants with the principles of natural justice and appraising the role of the teacher in the common law system”. The course considers the legislation rather than the legislation translated into policy which may, or may not, properly reflect the full intent of the law.
The intention of this Workshop is to present the findings from a Needs Analysis relating to the importance of knowledge of the law for all educators, and to examine how it is being implemented in both European and Australian contexts.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Allison, G. (1983) Public and private management: Are they fundamentally alike in all unimportant respects? In Public Management, Public and Private Perspectives, edited by J. Perry and K. Kramer. California: Mayfield Publishing. Australian Government Department of Education and Training, (2005) Disability Standards for Education 2005, Retrieved from http://education.gov.au/disability-standards-education Bauer, S. & Bogotch, I. (2006) Modeling site-based decision making: School practices in the age of accountability. Journal of Educational Administration 44 (5):446-470. Collier, J. & Roberts, J. (2001) An ethic for corporate governance. Business Ethics Quarterly 11 (1):67-71. Commonwealth of Australia, (1992) Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) Retrieved from http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/dda1992264/ Eades, K. & Wearen, D. (2010) Leadership and Management in Education (LME) 1, School of Education Master in Education Programme, Trinity College University of Dublin. GTC Scotland, (2012) The Standards for Leadership and Management: supporting leadership and management development, The General Teaching Council for Scotland. Kilham, C. & Watson, L. (2014) The impact of online learning about the disability standards for education on Australian school staff, Paper read at Australian Association for Research in Education Conference, Brisbane. Starr, K. (2008) Whose risk? 'Managing' risk in the principalship, Paper read at Australian Association for Research in Education Conference, Brisbane. Trimble, A., Cranston, N. and Allen J., (2012) School Principals and Education Law: What do they know, what do they need to know? Leading & Managing, 18(2), pp.46-51. Trimmer, K. (2003a) Review of the regulatory framework: Education Department of Western Australia. Trimmer, K. (2003b) Review of the West Australian Department of Education Regulatory Framework. Paper read at Australian Association of Research in Education Conference, at Auckland, New Zealand. Trimmer, K. (2011) Non-compliance by school principals: the effects of experience, stakeholder characteristics and governance mechanisms on reasoned risk-taking in decision-making, thesis for award of Doctor of Business Administration, Curtin University of Technology. Wirtz, V., Cribb, A. & Barber, N. (2005) Reimbursement decisions in health policy-extending our understanding of the elements of decision-making. Health Policy 73:330-338.
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.