Macro, Meso & Micro Policies

In my role as a secondary educator, I engage with a number of educational policies at the macro, meso and micro levels. Some of the policies I use and am familiar with in the

Information Communication Technology (ICT) context are - the Australian National Curriculum, specifically the Information and Communication Technology Capability learning continuum, published by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority and (ACARA, 2013); the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL, 2011); as well as local school policies at different institutions I have been contracted to work for. The level to which these are implemented across various local schooling context varies, where some may be clear and specific, others lack direction and are left completely to teacher interpretation, as such there is no singular, effective approach. In my experience, I have not seen a working, consistently successful model of ICT use in a school context so far.

Recently in Australia, the roll out of the Australian National Curriculum has placed more importance of Information Communication Technology implementation in the educational context. Specifically with embedding key ICT skills through its ICT Capabilities Framework, which aim to “develop (student) capability in using ICT for tasks associated with information access and management, information creation and presentation, problem-solving, decision-making, communication, creative expression and empirical reasoning” (ACARA, 2013, p.1). Whilst the aforementioned policies attempt to address the growing effect of technologies on education and future learning progression, there is a distinct lack of cohesion across the board, specifically at the meso & micro levels. For example, whilst ICT is evidently a globally growing phenomenon, in the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, ICT proficiency only features once across the domains, with the vague statement that Proficient educators should “use effective teaching strategies to integrate ICT into learning and teaching programs to make selected content relevant and meaningful” (ATSIL, 2011, p.11). This does not reflect the complexity of embedding relevant and meaningful sues of ICT across the educational context.

Furthermore, the challenges that Younie (2006) identifies in the current policies surrounding ICT from macro to micro levels, including; a lack of communication across regions; too much choice in external training providers; and lack of directives for linking pedagogical outcomes, are mirrored in my educational context. Whilst we have some excellent emerging research and findings to support ICT implementation, such as the Australian Educational Centre for Research (ACER) suggesting that “ICT enables richer, more engaging learning environments to be developed” (Ainley & Engers, 2007, p.8). As well as the Digital Educational Advisory Group (DEAG) recommendations that, “enhancing teacher capability is key to accelerating successful digital education in schools” (p. 8, 2013), there are huge disparities across the meso and micro (local) levels of implementation.

The implementation of ICT policy at the micro level is further problematic due to the competitive nature of schools, as well as individual leadership aspirations of principals. As we are still in a realm where the external assessments of our students are predominantly lacking ICT incorporation, for example, the current Higher School Certificate (HSC) is made up mostly of hand written exams; it presents issues with the value of using ICT in the classroom in the pedagogical sense, especially when it takes away from content delivery.

Sergis, Zervas & Sampson state the importance of providing strategic planning and support for implementation must be contextualised to suit the needs of the organisation, and this is to ensure that the attributes of the educator are in harmony with the ICT affordances and directions of that school (2014). However, as many school leaders still lack the ICT competencies to lead it effectively, it makes it difficult to implement consistently and uniformly at the grassroots level of the classroom (Younie, 2006). In my direct context, many teachers simply ignore the ICT aspect of teaching and learning, or feel that it is being covered elsewhere. As this element is not audited by the executive team at our school, many teachers do not strive to develop their knowledge and skill set in the area of ICTs, instead focusing on other challenges such as literacy and numeracy capabilities, which are more directly measured and discussed across the professional learning networks in our school community.

Overall, at each level, whether macro or micro, policy must be understood by the leaders attempting to implement it, additionally it should complement current researched pedagogical practices, be simplified to subject specific contexts, and also be valued by the whole school community to ensure a dedicated commitment to making it work.

References

Ainley, J., & Engers, L. (2007). Student use of, and engagement with, information technology. Australian Council for Educational Research. Retrieved from https://research.acer.edu.au/digital_learning/11

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2013). Information and Communication Technology Capability learning continuum. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/media/1074/general-capabilities-information-and-communication-ict-capability-learning-continuum.pdf

Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL). (2011). Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. Retrieved from https://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/apst-resources/australian_professional_standard_for_teachers_final.pdf'

Digital Education Advisory Group. (2013). Beyond the classroom: A new digital education for young Australians in the 21st century. Retrieved from http://apo.org.au/system/files/34413/apo-nid34413-41181.pdf

NSW Department of Education. (2018, Jan 8). Teaching Standards in Action – key information, links and professional development [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMb6RUX7Kfg

Sergis, S., Zervas, P., & Sampson, D. G. (2014). A Holistic Approach for Managing School ICT Competence Profiles towards Supporting School ICT Uptake. International Journal of Digital Literacy and Digital Competence (IJDLDC), 5(4), 33-46. doi:10.4018/ijdldc.2014100103

Younie, S. (2006). Implementing government policy on ICT in education: Lessons learnt. Education and Information Technologies, 11(3-4), 385-400. doi:10.1007/s10639-006-9017-1