Recognising Accomplished Teachers in Australia: Where have We been? Where are We Heading?

In 2008, the Council of Australian governments (COAG) agreed to a set of reforms focused on teacher quality. These reforms aim to make teaching a more attractive career, lift the quality of teacher training, retain and reward quality teachers, promote effective professional learning and support workforce mobility. Australia has made several attempts to develop a system for identifying and rewarding accomplished teachers, as a means of furthering such reforms. This paper traces efforts from the 1970s to strengthen the role of the profession in developing a system of professional certification and outlines some issues that will need to be dealt with if such a system is to gain professional support and meet the aims of the COAG reforms.