What’s on show at the Melbourne Education Show?

Rebecca Cairns, Michiko Weinmann and Elvie Tamata

Elvie Tamata, Michiko Weinmann, John Cripps Clark and Rebecca Cairns at the Melbourne Education Show

The Education Show that accompanies the National Education Summit is an annual exhibition event held in Melbourne and Brisbane in June. As first-time visitors we were interested to see what was being spruiked as “the latest innovations in the education section” (The Education Show, 2024). Given the TCAP research group’s current project about the curriculum resource marketplace, it was a great opportunity to directly experience this space and meet the some of the one hundred exhibitors. In contrast to the relatively expensive conference sessions of the Summit, the exhibition was free­. Here we reflect on the experience.

Michiko

The last time I had been to the Education Show would have been over ten years ago, so it was rather exciting to walk through the doors of the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre again after such a long time. The diversity of exhibitors, resources, and programs was remarkable, and it was great to spend a few hours just walking around and exploring. I was particularly intrigued by organisations and their education programs which I would not have come across elsewhere.

If I had to name a favourite, I think it would be Note Printing Australia (NPA). I really enjoyed the engaging explanations and demonstrations of the technologies and design processes and features that go into high security bank note and passport printing. NPA offers interactive learning experiences for schools, where students can learn about the process of banknote and passport production on site. The tour can be customised to aligned with a range of curriculum areas, for example, business and economics, visual communication, sustainability, or chemistry.

As someone who loves a good jigsaw puzzle for relaxing and switching off, I was excited to see that there is an Interschool Puzzle Club, which encourages puzzling for both fun and learning. Clubs and students who want to take puzzling to the next level can also compete for state and national representation. I also really enjoyed talking to university colleagues from Deakin’s Cyber Research and Innovation Centre and the research and technology behind their Cyberninjas program. Cyberninjas is a Virtual Reality experience that uses interactive storytelling and 3D immersive technologies to engage students in developing safe online and cyber behaviours. The program is designed to align with the Australian and Victorian Curriculum..

Rebecca

Teachers love free stuff, so I was happy to go home with a goodies bag loaded with stationery, sweet treats and resources–many of which I will share with the pre-service teachers I teach. Overall, the quality and diversity of the exhibits was impressive.

As an initial teacher educator that specialises in Humanities and History education, I was especially interested to speak with the people at the Healing Foundation’s exhibit, who provided a bag that included their Stolen Generations Resource Kit (also available to download for free). This comprehensive and beautifully designed kit includes an Educator’s Guide, lesson plans, survivor stories, plug-n-play PowerPoints, booklist, posters and certificates.

The lesson plans and resources cover all year levels, beginning with Foundation right up to Year 12. One of its strengths is the diversity of the texts and resources embedded within the activities. For example, the lesson plan for Foundation uses the picture book Sorry Sorry by By Anne Kerr and Mardi Pitt to introduce young children to images and dialogue in an age-appropriate way. The Year 10 lesson plan draws on the powerful yet positive Intergenerational Trauma Animation (Healing Foundation, n.d.). The resource also includes advice for creating culturally safe spaces and materials teachers can access to ensure they develop the knowledge and understanding to be classroom ready to explore Stolen Generations perspectives and lived experiences, as well as the policies and practices that caused such trauma.

Resources like the Healing Foundation’s Stolen Generations Resource Kit reminds us of the availability and importance of quality curriculum materials created by mob, that is “resources developed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People” (AIATSIS, 2022, p.3). In order to avoid resources that are about or against mob, the AIATSIS Guide to selecting and evaluating education resources (AIATIS, 2022) provides a very helpful Resource Evaluation Framework for educators –“a critical reflection tool to assist them in selecting quality curriculum resources” (AIATSIS, 2022, p.5).

The generous and important work of the Healing Foundation also contrasted with the more commercial elements of the curriculum resource marketplace on display at the Education Show. As my TCAP colleagues are investigating in our research project Navigating the Curriculum Resource Marketplace, teachers’ capacity to access and critically evaluate the myriad of ready-made curriculum resources needs to be understood as an essential part of their complex curricular practices, rather than a ‘problem’ that needs to be ‘solved’ with suites of one-size fits all lesson plans.

Elvie

As an international HDR student and Teacher Educator from Vanuatu, the showcasing of educational materials from commercial and not-for-profit perspectives was a new experience for me. The experience widens my perception of education in Australia. I was amazed by how different groups engaged with education resourcing and how different aspects of education can generate business ideas. The Melbourne Education show further helped me to realise that education is everyone’s business, and everyone has a part to play in different ways, including developing teaching and learning resources and finding strategies to support teachers, students and principals’ self-care.

Some of the materials were great teaching and learning resources. English phonics and literacy resources were of interest to me, particularly those targeting Indigenous children. However, as someone researching literacy curriculum support in Vanuatu, I still look forward to a day when publishers create and promote teaching and learning resources that use the use local vernacular language in literacy and mathematics and better connect students to place/community as they discover their identity as they learn about the world.