Australian academics and teacher educators have recently taken aim at the government-funded organisation in articles published on the AARE blog, arguing AERO is fundamentally harming teachers’ autonomy and being used by governments to push a ‘neoliberal’ agenda in classrooms.
Dr Greg Ashman, author and deputy principal at Ballarat Clarendon College in Victoria, says he’s in no way surprised that education academics are so vocally opposed to AERO and the work it does.
The organisation wouldn’t be needed if these commentators were doing their job properly, he contends.
“AERO has kind of eaten their lunch, in the sense that it’s doing what they should be doing, which is providing practical advice to teachers.
“That’s something that they’ve … failed to do over many years.
“That’s not unique to Australia, that’s education academics across the world, really.”