Principals' impressions of Hibernia graduates

sitstill

I'm a secondary teacher but my uncle is a primary principal and I was talking to him about staff recruitment etc. He told me that he has never interviewed an applicant who had qualified with the online Hibernia College course because while he knows the Teaching Council recognise them he just feels they aren't quite as well prepared as someone with a B.Ed or who did the "proper" Postgrad. He told me a lot of his principal friends are the same and some take a similar view to teachers who qualified in the UK.

It just got me thinking about the kinds of biased views many principals must have.

Has anyone else got experience of this, especially Hibernia grads?

Powerhouse

Biased views inform much of the debate around education. Parents who have never attended a school make value judgments based on results, outward appearance, what the neighbours will think etc.

Similarly they will make judgments on an entire school based on maybe one incident they hear about second hand.

I'm sure Principals are no different. I remember speaking to one Principal who didn't "like Hibernia, but then again I know nothing about the internet".

That's how ignorant he was of the entire thing that he thought you had to know something about the internet to understand how the course was run. He could have rang Hibernia and asked them to send out details of the course - what is covered etc. but he didn't and I'm sure very few Principals would take the time to do so.

But they will happily take the time to pass judgment anyway. Perceived prestige has a lot to answer for. In fact, I always find it funny that at second-level the private fee-paying schools are considered the most prestigious, while at third level the private fee-paying colleges are considered the least prestigious.

So, to answer your question - do Principals have unfounded, uninformed and unsubstantiated views on different courses/people? You bet your bottom dollar they do. The funny thing is that in the grand scheme of things many of the older Principals are only half trained themselves and did their training when it was just a two-year diploma course. So they would refuse to interview people with the same level of qualifcations as they had themselves. Maybe they know something the rest of us don't!