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Teachers' Professional Learning Conference, Solomon Islands
Teachers presenting a role play to an appreciative audience at the conference.
Caroline Smith
For the past three years, 5 teachers from the Diocese of Sale (Victoria) as well as Caroline Smith (ACU), have spent 10 days in Honiara, Solomon Islands developing and running a three day teacher professional learning conference with our partners in the Solomons, the Catholic Teachers’ Sodality.
The conference aims to address the dire lack of teacher professional learning in the country. The 2008 conference focussed on secondary education, leadership and well-being. The team members put together a comprehensive book of readings for participants which provided a substantial resource generally unavailable to Solomon Island teachers. The conference has become widely known in the Islands and more than 100 teachers attended from many different schools and from as far afield as the islands of Malaita and Makira. The sessions were all planned and co-presented with local teachers. In recognition of the status of the conference, the closing speech and certificates of participation were presented by the Director of Secondary Education, who indicated that participation in this conference would be of benefit to teachers in their annual review for their salary increment.
One very exciting development is the provision of credit by ACU. Suitably qualified participants who successfully completed the three day conference and an assessment task set and assessed by ACU are eligible to be granted credit. This credit, in the form of a letter from ACU, and at no cost to Solomon Islander participants, will count towards either an undergraduate or postgraduate unit in education at ACU.
We hope that funding will be found to continue this very worthwhile partnership for two more years, after which the Solomon Islands teachers will be in a position to run it themselves.
