Transforming Education Australasia

One VOICE,Many Choices

TEA is an umbrella group, whose collective voice aims to advance the work of learner-centred, democratic, progressive and alternative education across Australia, and encourage conversations about educational choices.

01.

Get to Know us

TEA meets monthly and includes representatives from Montessori Australia (MA), Steiner Education Australia (SEA), Australasian Democratic Education Community (ADEC), Global Education Innovations (GEI), Future Schools Alliance, university educators and homeschooling networks.  For more information about these organisations, please click below.

02.

Mission

TEA aims to inform the wider community, including parents and young people, educators and government representatives, about the diverse and innovative educational choices available in Australia. We encourage conversations around diversity of options and we will work to increase the influence of these organisations in the context of Australian education.

03.

Our Presence

TEA focuses on bringing together diverse groups working in alternative, progressive and learner–centred spheres in a spirit of collective support. We aim to embrace our differences and highlight our similarities in order to promote a wider variety of options for young people’s education in Australia. Our work within the three pillars of community awareness, advocacy and research is detailed below.

Member Organisations

Montessori Australia

The Montessori approach offers a broad vision of education as an ‘aid to life’. It supports the full development of the human being (intellectual, spiritual, physical, social, emotional) by following the developmental natural tendencies and sensitive periods for learning through which every child passes from birth to adulthood. Based on a model of scientific observation and experimentation, commonalities across cultures of human development and how to harness the unique interests and learning style of each individual have been revealed.

Future Schools

Future Schools brings together 100+ of  some of the most innovative educators and schools worldwide to explore and demonstrate what is possible in education. Its team, including Peter Hutton, brings much resilience to schools

Steiner Education Australia

Steiner education fosters the human spirit in children and young adults, allowing them to flourish in a holistic learning environment that is oriented towards moral growth, social consciousness and citizenship. Steiner education is recognised as a highly valued approach to helping young people develop flexible, agile thinking alongside an ability to collaborate and thrive in a 21st Century world.

ADEC (Australasian Democratic Education Community)

ADEC (Australasian Democratic Education Community) is for all those interested and involved in democratic, progressive, and alternative education. It is for learners and educators regardless of age. It is for all in the community who seek to share and extend their experience and knowledge of such education.

Home schooling in Australia

There is a trend towards homeschooling and there are at least 7 different types, from following Distance Ed to Unschooling and all in between. Each state has different rules. Both on Internet and on Facebook there are MANY possible sources of information.

Innovative Education with Impact

GEI supports and grows innovative solutions to a wide range of educational challenges. We hope to support regional and rural communities and are specifically targeting partnerships that will build capacity in these areas. A related priority is investigating technological solutions to make reaching this target market a realistic proposition. GEI is currently well-progressed in developing the Innovative Educators Alliance (IEA)

Our 3 Pillars

Advocacy

TEA advocates on behalf of educational organisations and member bodies to achieve educational reform and change.

ONE VOICE MANY CHOICES!

Community Awareness

TEA aims to make the wider community aware of the diversity of options available in the Australian educational landscape. We want to spotlight innovative practices across our member organisations for parents, teachers, media and the wider community.

We are planning a range of community awareness programmes, including future face-to-face and online events.

If you would like to highlight one or more of our member organisations in a positive news story, please contact info@tea.org.au. If you are a film-maker looking to make a documentary about educational alternatives in Australia, we would also be happy to talk to you!

Research

TEA is committed to research in supporting, reflecting on and strengthening our practices.

Click on the 'Resources' button to access some recent work which we update regularly. As more research is done, we will post it on

the news

Blogs

faq

Frequently Asked Questions

TEA stands for the Community of Innovative Educational Leaders. It is a community of educators and school leaders who are dedicated to transforming school communities and empowering learners to explore their holistic potential.

Testimonial

Join TEA

TEA is an umbrella group for organisations to work together on common issues in education that impact our different sectors and schools. If your organisation is looking to be a part of this exciting venture and participate in our meetings and projects, please contact info@tea.org.au. Currently, membership of TEA is free. 

We are looking for active members who would like to work on projects within our three pillars of advocacy, research and community awareness. 

If you are an individual looking to connect with a particular schooling sector, please contact the individual organisation from our member organisations. They are always keen to include new members.