Avondale students teaching creatively at a school in rural India. Credit: Andy Matthes.

Avondale’s Faculty of Education aspires to “a greater vision of world needs.” Service to others is central to its program. The Faculty promotes service to the profession, the church and the community, and seeks to create challenging and life-transforming service opportunities for its students, many of whom feel called to teaching because they want to make a difference.

Service to the teaching profession

The Faculty of Education has established the Ministry of Teaching website to affirm and inform practicing teachers and to encourage people considering teaching as a career. The TEACH Journal of Christian Education, published biannually by Avondale Academic Press, contains refereed research articles on teaching and other aspects of education, as well as reflections and experiences of Christian educators. Several Christian education organisations regard TEACH as one of Australia’s most significant Christian education journals.

A new initiative in 2010 is the provision of professional development short courses for teachers. The New South Wales Institute of Teachers requires all teachers to complete 100 hours of professional development every five years to maintain their accreditation. In 2010 Avondale is offering twenty-four short courses endorsed by the Institute to satisfy this requirement. The Faculty of Education regularly provides workshops and other professional support for Adventist Schools Australia.

Lecturer Bev Christian is directing a study, supported by a $10,000 grant from the Australian Union Conference, to assess the impact of the Encounter Bible Curriculum newly implemented by Adventist Schools Australia. Other research by the Faculty will seek to define more precisely the special character of Adventist education, and to develop processes to help schools assess their effectiveness in transmitting Adventist Christian culture and ethos. Senior lecturer Barbara Fisher, together with contributing authors Bev Christian, Sandra Ludlow and Dr Jean Carter, has published a book entitled Developing a faith-based education: a teacher’s manual (David Barlow Publishing, 2010).

Service to the community

All teacher education students are expected to complete ten days’ community service related to the teaching profession. In 2009 two staff members and nineteen students provided technical expertise and support for seventy Gilson College students and staff on an expedition through the Tasmanian wilderness. Outdoor Education lecturer David Low is currently doing PhD research on the value of outdoor activities in building resilience and other positive qualities in teenagers. Jason Hinze, coordinator of Avondale’s secondary teaching program, is also doing PhD research on the values of service learning. Both are enrolled in Avondale’s PhD program

International service opportunities

In 2009 lecturers Andy Matthes and Lyndon Darko accompanied eleven teacher education students for a three-week teaching practicum at a remote rural school in the north of India. The Avondale students taught in 45-degree heat while their lecturers provided professional development to the local teachers. After school the Avondale group painted the school buildings. During the past three years Avondale students and the student organisation One Mission have raised over $30,000 to assist the school. The student teachers described their service at the school as a life-changing experience. “We go with the idea of giving, but we get so much in return.”

In 2009 the Dean of Education, Dr Peter Beamish, and lecturer Jason Hinze accompanied twenty teacher education students on an equally challenging teaching practicum assignment at the Wat Pheah Yesu orphanage and school in Cambodia. Thirty-five of the 350 students at the school are HIV-positive. In the mornings the Avondale lecturers ran professional development programs for the local teachers. In the afternoons the local teachers observed creative classroom practices by watching Avondale’s student teachers in action. After school the Avondale students interacted with the Khmer students and repaired school facilities.

Challenging experiences such as these give Avondale students greater resilience and a larger world view. Research shows that students who participate in service activities are less likely to engage in high-risk behaviours and are more likely to stay in church and contribute to their church community. One student teacher said, “This trip has shown me the great value of Christian education to the world. The world needs me.”

Dr Peter Beamish/Dr John Cox
Dean, Faculty of Education, Avondale College/Editor, Reflections