Meet Kowsiha Thayananthan

Recipient of the 2023 CCSP Pre-Service Teacher Award

For several years CCSP has been proud to provide a scholarship to a pre-service teacher at Australian Catholic University (ACU). 

The scholarship acts as an incentive to further the recipient's understanding and subsequent application of parent engagement in their teaching role.

Kowsiha Thayananthan was our 2023 scholarship recipient, and she said this about her teaching goals:

My goal has always been to help people and make a difference in society in the best way possible. My search through life's journey and challenges brought a newfound desire to assist children through education. My passion for teaching is also attributed to years of volunteering at a community language school. Following homeschooling my own children through the COVID-19 pandemic, and a desire for career and development growth, I decided to re-enter studying and undertake a Master of Teaching (Primary).

In contributing as a teacher, my goal is to give students the foundation to thrive and achieve their potential. As a family worker (part-time) and working with refugees and migrants, this experience has broadened my knowledge of the challenges and needs that families and children face in accessing a better education and better life. Hearing of their challenges and limited access to support has provided me with strategies to tailor services that help address their individual needs.

I believe that education is a partnership between schools, teachers, and parents and this partnership is vital to the success of a student. Establishing open and authentic communication with parents will help give teachers broader knowledge of a student's learning ability, motivation, behavior, and attitude toward education. This in turn creates a strong relationship, between teachers and parents, of trust and a united approach that will benefit their child's educational success.

I encourage parent feedback and implement evaluations as they are useful for greater teaching/learning pedagogy and environment. I want to support parents by helping them understand the education system, its benefits, and how to access information. I want to provide parents with the tools to support their children through information sessions, workshops, and community-building relationship programs that will provide educational opportunities for individual students and their needs. If the support required is beyond a teacher or education facility's capacity, then we need to be able to provide community connections for additional support.