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  • Kylie Chatfield

    Kylie Chatfield

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Kylie Chatfield

Graduate Diploma of Education (Secondary) (2019)

For Kylie Chatfield, as is becoming increasingly common, her career path has not always been a linear one. What has remained consistent throughout her career is a passion for the world of marine science.

In a career spanning over 20 years with the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Kylie worked in a variety of roles, spanning from a technical lab-based role to program management and training field responders.

In 2016, Kylie took up a role as the Indian Ocean Territories Community Education Officer, delivering fisheries education programs within local schools, and realised how much she enjoyed educating school aged students.

This led to Kylie enrolling into a postgraduate Secondary Education degree at ECU. Whilst completing her degree, Kylie sought an opportunity to complete her final professional experience placement on Christmas Island, and was offered a position as the science teacher on the island straight after graduation.

Over the past few years, Kylie has established a career as a teacher at Christmas Island District High School and was recently recognised for providing exceptional learning opportunities for remote students in the 2022 Commonwealth Bank Teaching Awards.

Kylie was named one of 10 winners from across Australia in the Early Career Teacher category.

Kylie has been able to bring her wealth of industry knowledge and practical skills into the classroom to enhance the learning experiences for her students.

“I am passionate about marine science education and sharing my experiences from an industry perspective, but also after being in the classroom there is no other job that is as rewarding as observing a student being fully engaged and developing their understanding with your support,” she said.

For Kylie, who was already developing and delivering community and schools-based Fisheries education programs prior to studying teaching, her degree helped connect the dots between her industry knowledge, the school curriculum and how students learn.

But it’s proven to be more than just a pathway to become a teacher.

“I feel like I am continuously exploring ways to educate students from inside the classroom as their teacher, to outside of the classroom as an industry expert. An education degree is a ticket to so much more as there are many avenues it can take you,” she said.

“I’ve been able to transition between developing and facilitating industry adult training programs, to teaching students in the classroom, to developing industry led schools-based learning programs to initiating collaborations with other schools to start developing virtual environmental tours. This just demonstrates the flexibility of a teaching degree.”

“My own personal circumstances will see me moving States early next year to re-engage with industry-based Fisheries education programs, but I am already developing projects and collaborations to maintain active connections to WA Education Department and Christmas Island District High School - and who knows what other opportunities I will find!”

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