Winning the 2017 Australian Teacher Educator of the Year Award

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It has been a great honour to be awarded the 2017 Australian Teacher Educator of the Year Award. The award was given in recognition for my innovation in webconference pedagogies that promote professional learning communities and scholarly teacher inquiry in online teacher education.

2017 Australian Teacher Educator of the Year: Dr Janet Dyment

“Innovation in Online Teacher Education”

Dr Janet Dyment
Deputy Head of School (Secondary & Post-Compulsory)
Senior Lecturer
University of Tasmania

I was originally hesitant to apply for the award as I am a firm believer that all teacher educators do pretty incredible work! So, I was very grateful for some caring colleagues who ‘nudged’ me to apply and convinced me that I, too, was doing some innovative work that deserved to be acknowledged. I’m so pleased they encouraged me, as it was actually a very serving and rewarding exercise to put together the application. I enjoyed constructing the ‘narrative’ around my teaching and studying the evidence of impact that my work has had over my 14 year career as a teacher educator. Whether or not I won the award, the exercise in compiling the application was a valuable and insightful one.

The award has helped me advance my career in ways I could not have imagined a few months ago. I’ve been invited to speak at several universities about my teaching and research profiled in the application; I’ve been asked to assume new and exciting leadership roles at my own university based on the experiences I profiled in the application; I’ve been asked to apply for a national teaching award through AAUT; my story about the possibilities in the online space has been featured in local, national and international media; and I’ve successfully put together a team of national researchers interested in online teacher education.

So, I hope that some of you reading this will consider applying for this wonderful award! Whether or not you are successful, the process of reflecting on your own practice is a valuable and rewarding one; and if you are successful, then I imagine many doors will open as a result! Hope to see many of you at ATEA 2018 in Melbourne.