Transforming perceptions and responses to student difference : the journey of seven beginning teachers

Drawing on critical social theory and transformative learning, this study investigates the sociocultural factors that enable a move away from the deficit model of learning. The multicase study examines beginning teachers’ perceptions of learning and teaching for students experiencing learning difficulties. The fluid conception of identity occupied by beginning teachers was explored as the participants challenged structural ideologies and their personal belief systems. The study argues that personal factors such as, engaging in critical reflection and beliefs, and school factors such as job security and school context influence how beginning teachers respond to diverse learners and position themselves as agentive.

Control, shift, insert : living and enacting policy in teachers' day/night work

This thesis investigates the experiences of teachers who trialled an electronic curriculum and assessment tool in the wider context of text-mediated ruling relations organising their work. Problematised as policy and text, this tool is interrogated as a 'solution' to problems perceived in teachers' work in an era of increased accountability. It provides evidence that teachers' work is shaped by forces operating outside their control and mediated by the policy discourses and subjectivities available to them.

Teachers performing professionalism: A Foucauldian archaeology

Faced with the perceived need to redefine education for more economic utilitarian purposes, as well as to encourage compliance with government policies, Australia, like many other Anglophone nations, has engaged in numerous policy shifts resulting in performativity practices becoming commonplace in the educational landscape. A series of interviews with teachers from Queensland, Australia, in which they revealed their experiences of professionalism are examined archaeologically to reveal how they enact their roles in response to this performative agenda. Findings suggest that while there is some acceptance amongst teachers of the performative discourse, there is increasing resistance, which permits the construction of alternative or counter-discourses to the currently internationally pervasive performative climate.

Schooling teachers: Professionalism or disciplinary power?

Since public schooling was introduced in the nineteenth century, teachers in many western countries have endeavoured to achieve professional recognition. For a short period in the latter part of the twentieth century, professionalism was seen as a discourse of resistance or the ‘enemy’ of economic rationalism and performativity. However, more recently, governments have responded by ‘colonising’ professionalism and imposing ‘standards’ whereby the concept is redefined. In this study, we analyse transcripts of interviews with 20 Queensland teachers and conclude that teachers’ notions of professionalism in this second decade of the twenty-first century are effectively reiterations of nineteenth century disciplinary technologies (as proposed by Michel Foucault) yet are enacted in new ways.

Sessional Academic Success : A distributed framework for academic support and development

With approximately half of Australian university teaching now performed by sessional academics, there has been growing recognition of the contribution they make to student learning. At the same time, sector-wide research and institutional audits continue to raise concerns about academic development, quality assurance, recognition and belonging. In response, universities have increasingly begun to offer academic development programs for sessional academics. However, such programs may be centrally delivered, generic in nature, and contained within the moment of delivery, while the Faculty contexts and cultures that sessional academics work within are diverse, and the need for support unfolds in ad-hoc and often unpredictable ways. In this paper we present the Sessional Academic Success (SAS) program–a new framework that complements and extends the central academic development program for sessional academic staff at Queensland University of Technology. This program recognises that experienced sessional academics have much to contribute to the advancement of learning and teaching, and harnesses their expertise to provide school-based academic development opportunities, peer-to-peer support, and locally contextualized community building. We describe the program’s implementation and explain how Sessional Academic Success Advisors (SASAs) are employed, trained and supported to provide advice and mentorship and, through a co-design methodology, to develop local development opportunities and communities of teaching practice within their schools. Besides anticipated benefits to new sessional academics in terms of timely and contextual support and improved sense of belonging, we explain how SAS provides a pathway for building leadership capacity and academic advancement for experienced sessional academics. We take a collaborative, dialogic and reflective practice approach to this paper, interlacing insights from the Associate Director, Academic: Sessional Development who designed the program, and two Sessional Academic Success Advisors who have piloted it within their schools.

ICT and internet usage in early childhood education : a comparative study of Australian and Malaysian teachers' beliefs and current practices

The thesis is a comparative study of ICTs and Internet use of Australian and Malaysian early childhood teachers in terms of their personal and professional comfort with ICTs, pedagogical beliefs, and their reported classroom practice. The study discovered teachers from both countries as relatively comfortable with digital technologies and the Internet, with most teachers held positive beliefs about ICT usage. The structural barriers in classrooms include lack of Internet access and the wide gap that exists between teachers’ positive beliefs and classroom practice. The study suggests the need for strategic and targeted professional development for teachers.

Understanding VET teachers' dilemmas in providing quality education to international students in Brisbane

In the past fifteen years, increasing attention has been given to the role of Vocational Education and Training (VET) in attracting large numbers of international students and its contribution to the economic development of Australia. This trend has given rise to many challenges in vocational education, especially with regard to providing quality education that ensures international students' stay in Australia is a satisfactory experience. Teaching and learning is continuously scrutinized, teaching quality and student assessment are subject to regular audit (Takerei, 2010). VET teachers are key stakeholders in international education and share responsibility for ensuring international students gain quality learning experiences and positive outcomes, however, their experiences are generally not well understood. Therefore, this thesis, investigates particular challenges and associated dilemmas that VET teachers experience when teaching international students. The research participants were 15 teachers from several public and private VET institutions in Brisbane, Australia. The method involved responsive interviewing and inductive data analysis to identify and categorize teachers' challenges and dilemmas. The research reveals qualitatively different ways in which the 15 VET educators experienced challenges and associated dilemmas in their culturally diverse teaching context. The research shows that VET teachers experience numerous challenges and various inter-related professional, educational and personal dilemmas. These dilemmas result from ethical tensions teachers experience in their interactions with international students, teaching colleagues and their employment institutions. The dilemmas are often influenced by current economic and political conditions of international education. The dilemmas raised in the study by 15 VET teachers might be familiar to other teachers in VET and universities but to date they have received limited attention by researchers. This study's findings indicate significant implications for VET teachers, students, VET institutions and the government at a time of rapid economic, political, cultural and educational change. The findings are of potential interest to VET policy makers, managers and teachers. By giving voice to VET teachers, who are key stakeholders in the sustainability and future growth of VET, they contribute evidence for ongoing review and development of quality learning and teaching in the culturally diverse VET sector.

White teachers at a discursive crossroad

This study explored the way white teachers speak about Indigenous students and communities. The accounts of teachers working in eight schools across Australia were analysed using Foucauldian discourse analysis. The research found that deficit and colour-blind discourses dominate the ways that white teachers "know" Indigenous students and families. The data indicates that colour-blind and compensatory pedagogies are employed heavily by teachers working with Indigenous students, and highlights the complexities and tensions that exist in schools. Although there is evidence of some disruption to dominant discourses, teachers' discursive resources are limited in terms of imagining and enacting more equitable pedagogies.

Identifying leadership practices for mentoring preservice teachers

There are many forms of leadership and concepts of school leadership have evolved significantly over the last few decades. Mentoring is a form of leadership, where the classroom teacher (mentor) leads and guides the preservice teacher towards advancing teaching practices. What do school executives identify as their leadership practices and what leadership practices have inspired them? This study uses a five-part Likert scale survey with extended written responses that were coded into themes. These participants indicated they had leadership potential, which they associated with being organised, passionate and knowledgeable about education, interpersonally-skilled to build relationships, and visionary with action plans for improving education. These practices were also identified by participants as inspiring practices from leaders they knew. Generally, these participants perceived themselves as transformational leaders. Transformational practices associated with individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, and idealized influences were agreed upon by 80% or more of the participants. Mentors need to understand inspiring leadership practices and identify their own leadership practices that may lead towards reflection on practice and, hence, a way to make educationally-sound changes in leadership behaviour.

Desirable attributes and practices for mentees : mentor teachers' expectations

Research indicates attributes and practices for mentor teachers that can be used for effective mentoring. Universities provide guidelines for preservice teacher (mentee) engagement in schools generally from anecdotal evidence, however, what are desirable attributes and practices for mentees? This qualitative study gathers data from 25 mentor teachers through extended response questionnaire and audio-recorded focus group discussions about attributes and practices for mentees. Findings showed that desirable attributes for mentees included: enthusiasm, being personable, commitment to children, lifelong learning/love of learning, open/reflective to feedback, develop resilience, and taking responsibility for their learning, while desirable practices included: planned and preparation for teaching, reflective practices, understanding school and university policies, knowing students for differentiated learning, and building a teaching repertoire (e.g. teaching strategies, behaviour management, content knowledge, and questioning skills). Preservice teachers need to consider teachers’ suggestions on desirable attributes and practices that can help them achieve positive teaching experiences.

Students' academic stress and welfare as perceived by the teachers

The objective of the present study was to understand the teachers' perception about students' academic stress and other welfare related issues. A group of 125 secondary and higher secondary school teachers (43 male and 82 female) from five schools located in Kolkata were covered in the study following convenience sampling technique. Data were collected by using a semi-structured questionnaire developed by the first author. Findings revealed that more than half of the teachers (55.8% male and 54.9% female) felt that today's students are not brought up in child friendly environment while an overwhelming number of teachers stated that students face some social problems (88.4% male and 96.3% female) which affects their mental health and causes stress (90.7% male and 92.7% female). However, majority of them (79.1% male and 78% female teachers), irrespective of gender, denied the fact that teaching method followed in schools could cause academic stress. Vast majority of the teachers felt that New Education System in India i.e., making Grade X examination (popularly known as secondary examination) optional will not be beneficial for students. So far as motivation of the students is concerned, introducing innovative teaching methods like project work, field visit, using audio-visual aids in the schools has been suggested by more than 95% of the teachers. This apart, most of the teachers suggested reward system in the schools in addition to taking classes seriously by the teachers and punctuality. Reduction of load of home work was also suggested by more than two-fifth teachers. Although corporal punishment has gone down, it is still practiced by some of the teachers' especially male teachers in Kolkata. Male and female teachers differed significantly with respect to two issues only (p < .05) i.e., applying corporal punishment and impact of sexual health education. Male teachers apply more corporal punishment compared to female teachers and secondly, male teachers do not forsee any negative influence of sexual health education.

Approaches to inquiry teaching : elementary teacher’s perspectives

Learning science through the process of inquiry is advocated in curriculum documents across many jurisdictions. However, a number of studies suggest that teachers struggle to help students engage in inquiry practices. This is not surprising as many teachers of science have not engaged in scientific inquiry and possibly hold naïve ideas about what constitutes scientific inquiry. This study investigates teachers’ self-reported approaches to teaching science through inquiry. Phenomenographic interviews undertaken with 20 elementary teachers revealed teachers identified six approaches to teaching for inquiry, clustered within three categories. These approaches were categorized as Free and Illustrated Inquiry as part of experience-centered category, Solution and Method Inquiry as part of problem-centered category, and Topic and Chaperoned Inquiry as part of a question-centered category. This study contributes to our theoretical understanding of how teachers approach Inquiry Teaching, and suggests fertile areas of future research into this valued and influential phenomenon broadly known as “Inquiry Teaching”.

Reconciling dilemmas of social justice in literacy lessons : a case study of preservice primary teachers

Literacy is promoted as one factor in overcoming disadvantage. In this paper, we employ Fraser’s (1997 & 2008) framing of social justice in order to analyse the disparate agendas of literacy education for improved outcomes in national policy. We do this to better understand the dilemmas confronting preservice teachers as they prepare to become teachers in complex education contexts. We then examine what 20 preservice primary teachers say about social justice in interview responses to a scripted scenario. Our findings demonstrate that most preservice teachers are trying to demonstrate that they have a well-placed commitment to teaching for social justice, however, most of our respondents are yet to frame productive practices that might work in providing socially just education for the students they will teach. These outcomes raise possibilities for future iterations of preservice teacher courses at the case study site and beyond.

Elementary teachers’ knowledge of legislative and policy duties for reporting child sexual abuse

This study examined elementary school teachers’ knowledge of their legislative and policy-based reporting duties with respect to child sexual abuse. Data were collected from 470 elementary school teachers from urban and rural government and nongovernment schools in 3 Australian states, which at the time of the study had 3 different legislative reporting duties for teachers. Teachers completed the 8-part Teacher Reporting Questionnaire (TRQ). Multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to determine factors associated with (a) teachers’ legislation knowledge and (b) teachers’ policy knowledge. Teachers with higher levels of knowledge had a combination of pre- and in-service training about child sexual abuse and more positive attitudes toward reporting, held administration positions in their school, and had reported child sexual abuse at least once during their teaching career. They were also more likely to work in the state with the strongest legislative reporting duty, which had been in place the longest.

Teachers as researchers : a ‘fair dinkum’ learning legacy

As we encounter a policy landscape where increasingly the education lexicon includes keywords such as data, evidence, quality, standards, it is interesting to revisit Garth Boomer's contribution regarding teachers as researchers. As an early-career classroom teacher in the mid-1970s, I was inspired by Boomer's provocation to engage with research as a practitioner seeking evidence of learning (or not learning). Since that time, convinced of the power of teacher research in enhancing both student and teacher learning, I have devoted a good deal of my academic life to finding ways of supporting teachers to engage in research - from finding funds to facilitate teacher-researcher networks, through designing research projects with teacher-researchers as key collaborators, to embedding practitioner inquiry in university courses wherever possible pre- and in-service.