In this episode of Talking Teaching, Professor Jim Watterston, Dean of the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, and Professor Yong Zhao discuss the education system post-COVID-19 and question whether the role of education should be more than simply preparing students for the workforce. Yong Zhao is Professor of Educational Leadership at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education and Foundation Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas School of Education.

In this episode of Talking Teaching, the University of Melbourne's Larissa McLean Davies - an Associate Professor in Languages and Literacy Education - hosts a panel discussion on the importance of reading in our lives, and how to make the teaching of English more inclusive, particularly in terms of decolonising the curriculum.

Laureate Professor John Hattie reflects on the effect of COVID-19 on the education system examining what we should keep from what he calls the 'great experiment'. Speaking to Talking Teaching on the eve of his retirement from the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, John stresses the need to focus on the existing expertise we have in education and the need to upscale success.

On this episode of Talking Teaching Kamilaroi woman, Dr Melitta Hogarth, the Assistant Dean, Indigenous at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, discusses the challenges facing the education sector in building an inclusive school culture and environment for Indigenous students in Australia. To achieve this, she says, we need to flip the narrative and address the significant gap in non-Indigenous Australians' understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, cultures , knowledges and people. We also speak to Josh Cubillo, A Larrakia man educated in the Darwin area who is now pursuing his dream of improving the knowledge of non-Indigenous teachers and their understanding of the concept of country.

In a traumatic year of bushfires and a global pandemic young people in Australia have faced increasing uncertainty and anxiety. How do schools support their students through these times and how can they help them deal with the trauma to ensure that they thrive? On this episode of Talking Teaching Professor Helen Cahill, a leading innovator in school-based wellbeing interventions, discusses the ways that social and emotional learning programs in schools can assist young people to deal with traumatic situations and mitigate the effects of trauma, before they happen, if already implemented in schools.

Teachers, students, parents and entire school communities have been through a tumultuous time having been forced to switch schooling from the classroom to remote learning and back again in the space of a few months. So, what's worked, what didn't and what are schools going to take with them into the future? On this episode of Talking Teaching: two leaders of two very different schools share their insights. Plus we speak with Professor Janet Clinton, who was commissioned by the Australian Government to report on 'Supporting vulnerable children in the face of a pandemic', about the potential effect COVID-19 may have on vulnerable students.

A global pandemic and devastating bushfires - these major events are going to affect people's lives and wellbeing for a long time. Their ramifications are forcing people to deal with uncertainty, stress and loss. On this episode of Talking Teaching: Professor Lindsay Oades, Director of the Centre for Positive Psychology at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, tells us how we can find resilience in a pandemic - and we meet the Principal of Clifton Creek Primary School, Sue Paul, who's rebuilding her school and community after it was destroyed by bushfire.

In this final edition of Talking Teaching for this year Maxine McKew talks to David de Carvalho about the national NAPLAN picture and what it is really telling us. The ACARA chief regrets that NAPLAN is too often seen as the sole measure of student achievement and that national testing needs to be augmented by more granular assessment.

And we hear from Professor Marcia Langton about the University of Melbourne's new schools' resource material for the teaching of indigenous history. Professor Langton explains how a new generation of students is curious for truth telling about a culture that we know is 65,000 years old.

The Prime Minister says that TAFE is as good as university and wants to encourage young Australians to consider taking up a trade. But how fit for purpose is the sector? After a troubled recent history of dodgy providers and high upfront fees, enrolments are plummeting. Can this be reversed? In this edition of Talking Teaching Professor John Polesel and Professor Peter Noonan consider the policy changes needed to alter the perception that VET is a second class option.

Guests:

Professor John Polesel - Centre for Vocational and Educational Policy, MGSE

Professor Peter Noonan - Professor of Tertiary Education Policy, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University

Emeritus Professor Barry McGaw has spent a lifetime advocating for greater equity in Australia schooling. In this interview with Kerry Elliott he considers recent funding policy failures and regrets the way Australian schooling has become so segmented and stratified. The founding chair of ACARA, Barry McGaw also makes some important distinctions about the teaching of 21st century skills, emphasising the continuing importance of disciplinary knowledge. A compelling interview with one of Australia's top educators.