Teacher professional conversations – the oz- Teachers story

The oz-Teachers listserv, an email list for teachers, ran continuously for 20 years, from 1995 to 2015. It provided the technical infrastructure for professional communication with the majority of its members being Australian teachers based in classrooms across the country. An analysis of the list archives provides us with interesting insights as to how teachers learn from and within communities of their peers and how such communities offer social and educational affordances to allow teachers to generate and enhance their own learning. This paper begins with a brief review of the response to the announcement of the list’s closure. It then moves to a report of the types of communication which emerged from the list over time with comparisons drawn from extant research, namely, an early analysis of email lists and a more contemporary study of teacher communication through microblogging. We identified 14 categories with eight of these being paired, namely, as asking/seeking and responding/giving. The key finding of this analysis was that the list, and its professional discussions, were sustained through reciprocity and collective intelligence, that is, sharing of information and resources and that this was evident through the life of the listserv.

The dynamics of individual teacher autonomy: A case study of teachers' work in a Queensland secondary school

The emphasis on collegiality and collaboration in the literature on teachers' work and school reform has tended to underplay the significance of teacher autonomy. This thesis explores the dynamics of teachers' understandings and experiences of individual teacher autonomy (as contrasted with collective autonomy) in an independent school in Queensland which promoted itself as a 'teachers' school' with a strong commitment to individual teacher autonomy. The research was a case study which drew on methodological signposts from critical, feminist and traditional ethnography. Intensive fieldwork in the school over five months incorporated the ethnographic techniques of observation, interviews and document analysis. Teachers at Thornton College understood their experience of individual autonomy at three interrelated levels--in terms of their work in the classroom, their working life in the school, and their voice in the decision-making processes of the school. They felt that they experienced a great deal of individual autonomy at each of these three levels. These understandings and experiences of autonomy were encumbered or enabled by a range of internal and external stakeholder groups. There were also a number of structural influences (community perceptions, market forces, school size, time and bureaucracy) emerging from the economic, social and political structures in Australian society which influenced the experience of autonomy by teachers. The experience of individual teacher autonomy was constantly shifting, but there were some emergent patterns. Consensus on educational goals and vision, and strong expressions of trust and respect between teachers and stakeholders in the school, characterised the contexts in which teachers felt they experienced high levels of autonomy in their work. The demand for accountability and desire for relatedness motivated stakeholders and structural forces to influence teacher autonomy. Some significant gaps emerged between the rhetoric of a commitment to individual teacher autonomy and decision-making practices in the school, that gave ultimate power to the co-principals. Despite the rhetoric and promotion of non-hierarchical structures and collaborative decision-making processes, many teachers perceived that their experience of individual autonomy remained subject to the exercise of 'partial democracy' by school leaders.

Shaping (reflexive) professional identities across an undergraduate degree programme: A longitudinal case study

In our complex and incongruous professional worlds, where there is no blueprint for dealing with unpredictable people and events, it is imperative that individuals develop reflexive approaches to professional identity building. Notwithstanding the importance of disciplinary knowledge and skills, higher education has a crucial role to play in guiding students to examine and mediate self in relation to context for effective decision-making and action. This paper reports on a small-scale longitudinal project that investigated the ways in which ten undergraduate students over the course of a three-year Radiation Therapy degree shaped their professional identities. Theories of reflexivity and methods of discourse analysis are utilised to understand the ways in which individuals accounted for their professional identity projects at university. The findings suggest that, across time, the participants negotiated professional ‘becoming’ through four distinct kinds of reflexive modalities. These findings have implications for teaching strategies and curriculum design in undergraduate programs.

The role of professional identity & self-interest in career choices in the emerging ICT workforce

The influence of professional identity and self-interest on the educational and career choices of the emerging Information and Communications Technology (ICT) workforce is considered in this thesis. Interviews were conducted with 52 ICT students from four Australian tertiary education institutions and the findings indicated that professional identity and self-interest should be considered together, rather than separately, to understand career decisions in relation to the ICT industry. Professional identity is associated with the accrual of symbolic resources including status and esteem, mastery, sense of belonging and attachment. By contrast, self-interest is associated with the perceived likelihood of the accrual of material (economic and social) resources.

Lessons to be learnt from two professional development programs

The involvement of teachers in any process which seeks to enhance classroom pedagogy is vital. In this area, professional development (PD) for teachers can be effective in developing and broadening classroom practices, but the process takes time. Teachers need time to reflect on their practice and be confident in implementing new programs and strategies by taking risks and employing different approaches in their pedagogy. There are various ways of initiating professional development which also take into account time for reflection. One is by the use of professional development to improve knowledge and skills. Another way is by teachers observing the practice of their colleagues before reflecting and modifying their own practice. This study discusses the findings of a case study where two different PD programs in a single secondary school were implemented with the assistance of two University Lecturers. The study revealed that although there were positive reflections on the development of knowledge and skills from the PD, factors such as collegiality and time and infrastructure constraints impacted the teachers involved in both the Reflective Practice and the technology PD programs. The school was part of the Brisbane Catholic Education Office (BCE) in Queensland, Australia and the researchers were both Senior Lecturers at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane.

The health professional behind the syringe: Benefits of a pharmacist vaccination program

Background: The Queensland Pharmacist Immunisation Pilot (QPIP) which ran in 2014 was Australia’s first to allow pharmacists to administer vaccinations. An aim of QPIP was to investigate the benefits of trained pharmacists administering vaccinations in a community pharmacy setting. Methods: Participant demographics and previous influenza vaccination experiences were recorded using GuildCare software. Participants also completed a ‘post-vaccination satisfaction survey’ following their influenza vaccination. Results: A total of 10,889 participant records and 8,737 satisfaction surveys were analysed. Overall, 1.9% of the participants reported living with a chronic illness, and 22.5% were taking concomitant medications. As part of the consultation before receiving the vaccine, participants acknowledged the opportunity to discuss other aspects of their health with the pharmacist, including concerns about their general health, allergies, and other medications they were taking. It was worth noting that 17.5% of people would not have received an influenza vaccination if the QPIP service was unavailable. Additionally, approximately 10% of all participants were eligible to receive a free vaccination from the National Immunisation Program, but still opted to receive their vaccine from a pharmacist. Conclusion: The findings from this pilot demonstrate the benefit of a pharmacist vaccination program in increasing vaccination rates, and have helped pave the way for expanding the scope of practice for pharmacists.

Taking an evaluative stance to decision-making about professional development options in early childhood education and care

This article builds on our ongoing work in conceptualising an ‘evaluative stance’ framework to assist in understanding how leaders in the field of early childhood education and care (ECEC) make decisions about the selection of professional development options for themselves and their staff. It introduces the notion that evaluative mindsets can be considered in terms of attitudes towards decision-making that are based on personal epistemologies. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews, it explores the mindsets of six experienced leaders in two long-established ECEC organisations in Australia with respect to their decision-making about professional development. The article concludes with a consideration of the potential utility of the framework and the coding template used in this exploratory study.

Openness to experience as a predictor and outcome of upward job changes into managerial and professional positions

In industrial and organizational psychology, there is a long tradition of studying personality as an antecedent of work outcomes. Recently, however, scholars have suggested that personality characteristics may not only predict, but also change due to certain work experiences, a notion that is depicted in the dynamic developmental model (DDM) of personality and work. Upward job changes are an important part of employees’ careers and career success in particular, and we argue that these career transitions can shape personality over time. In this study, we investigate the Big Five personality characteristics as both predictors and outcomes of upward job changes into managerial and professional positions. We tested our hypotheses by applying event history analyses and propensity score matching to a longitudinal dataset collected over five years from employees in Australia. Results indicated that participants’ openness to experience not only predicted, but that changes in openness to experience also followed from upward job changes into managerial and professional positions. Our findings thus provide support for a dynamic perspective on personality characteristics in the context of work and careers.

Twitter as a medium for professional networking

This study aims to explore the use of Twitter for professional purposes. The researcher discovered that Twitter is widely perceived as an information ground in online spaces. Information grounds are social settings where information, people, and places come together to create an information flow within a physical environment. Twitter provides a sense of place as well as a sense of belonging that enables IT professionals to use Twitter for professional development. The data for this study were collected using online observations and interviews. The online observations helped the researcher to distinguish the ‘information behaviours’ (the objective and observable actions) of the participants. The interviews were used to understand the way IT professionals use Twitter for professional purposes through their own individual perspectives. The data were analysed using a constructive grounded theory. The findings show that building professional networking is extremely important to IT professionals; rather than the information-seeking and information-sharing aspects of Twitter. Building professional networking in microblogging has a significant influence on an individual’s professional development. The results also demonstrate that IT professionals are more likely to exploit their weak-ties rather than their strong-ties on Twitter. In short, these users experience Twitter as a real place or ‘information grounds’ where they meet and socialise with experts.

“Come in and look around.” Professional development of student teachers through public pedagogy in a library exhibition

This paper describes a public pedagogy project embedded into "The Global Teacher", a subject within the Bachelor of Education program for student teachers at an Australian university. The subject provides a global perspective on socio-political issues that shape education. In 2013, The Global Teacher introduced an approach that asked student teachers to create a museum-style exhibition depicting six global education themes. This exhibition was displayed in the State Library and the public were invited to engage with the installations and the student teachers who created them. Our paper describes how the project was implemented by means of close collaboration between the QUT teacher educators, curators at the State Library of Queensland (SLQ), and student groups working on visually translating their understandings of global educational issues into a public exhibition. We discuss what was learned by our students and ourselves, as teacher educators, by engaging in this public pedagogy.

More equal than others?: Meeting the professional development needs of rural primary and secondary science teachers

It is often assumed that teachers in rural and remote schools are at a disadvantage when it comes to accessing professional development. But is there sufficient evidence to support this assumption? This paper reports findings from two national surveys comparing the professional development priorities of primary and secondary science teachers from metropolitan, provincial and remote schools. The research found that while teachers' unmet needs for some PD opportunities increased significantly with school remoteness, this was not the case for all opportunities. In teasing out the different PD priorities of primary and secondary science teachers, the paper provides evidence to help education authorities and professional organisations address the specific needs of teachers in different locations.

Understandings of higher education curriculum in Vietnam

The Vietnamese higher education context is characterised by state control including the state’s development of curriculum frameworks and materials. Institutional autonomy has been ratified by the government, however, in practice universities seem to have little control over curriculum. In order for universities to develop more ownership of curriculum, it is necessary to explore the foundational understandings of curriculum held by stakeholders. Thus, this paper explores the understandings of curriculum expressed by a group of senior staff, academics and students at a Vietnamese university. We found a diversity of understandings that tended to be product-focused, teacher-focused and textbook-driven. We propose that our findings can be used as a starting point for developing more innovative and student-focused understandings of curriculum.

Transitioning from university to the workplace: Stakeholder perceptions of academic and professional writing demands

This study provides a detailed insight into the changing writing demands from the last year of university study to the first year in the workforce of engineering and accounting professionals. The study relates these to the demands of the writing component of IELTS, which is increasingly used for exit testing. The number of international and local students whose first language is not English and who are studying in English-medium universities has increased significantly in the past decade. Many of these students aim to start working in the country they studied in; however, some employers have suggested that graduates seeking employment have insufficient language skills. This study provides a detailed insight into the changing writing demands from the last year of university study to the first year in the workforce of engineering and accounting professionals (our two case study professions). It relates these to the demands of the writing component of IELTS, which is increasingly used for exit or professional entry testing, although not expressly designed for this purpose. Data include interviews with final year students, lecturers, employers and new graduates in their first few years in the workforce, as well as professional board members. Employers also reviewed both final year assignments, as well as IELTS writing samples at different levels. Most stakeholders agreed that graduates entering the workforce are underprepared for the writing demands in their professions. When compared with the university writing tasks, the workplace writing expected of new graduates was perceived as different in terms of genre, the tailoring of a text for a specific audience, and processes of review and editing involved. Stakeholders expressed a range of views on the suitability of the use of academic proficiency tests (such as IELTS) as university exit tests and for entry into the professions. With regard to IELTS, while some saw the relevance of the two writing tasks, particularly in relation to academic writing, others questioned the extent to which two timed tasks representing limited genres could elicit a representative sample of the professional writing required, particularly in the context of engineering. The findings are discussed in relation to different test purposes, the intersection between academic and specific purpose testing and the role of domain experts in test validation.

A study of professional advisers in Australia

Since 2002, ACPNS has been surveying professional advisers to affluent Australians intermittently to seek their views and experiences around client and personal philanthropy. Why?: because professional advisers on finance, wealth management, law, accounting, taxation, estate management and beyond are an important nexus with people who have the capacity to channel significant funding into community need. Overall, this study suggests a slight shift away from advising affluent clients on philanthropic matters. It also highlights some perceived lack of organisational and professional association support and the feeling of many advisers that they do not have the expertise yet to advise in this area. These results provide thought fodder for advisers, their organisations and sector bodies.