Stakeholder involvement in the EMS adoption process

This paper summarises the findings of the qualitative part of a large study aimed at exploring the extent of involvement of organisational stakeholders (employees and suppliers) during the environmental management system (EMS) adoption process. Interviews with nine senior/middle managers from Australian manufacturing and service organisations revealed the growing awareness of the impact of their products and processes on the ecological and social environments. Moreover, implementation of an EMS or waste management system (WMS) is accepted as a learning curve by both the organisation and its stakeholders, including its employees. Organisations at the same time are also contemplating the need for certifying their existing EMS against international standards such as ISO 14001 based on the cost-benefits resulting from the certification.

Human carrying capacity and human health

The issue of human overpopulation has fallen out of favor among most contemporary demographers, economists, and epidemiologists. Discussing population control has become a taboo topic. Yet, this taboo has major implications for public health.

The silence around overpopulation prevents the global health community from making the necessary link between the planet's limited ability to support its people (its carrying capacity—see sidebar on following page) and health and development crises. In this article, I describe how popular thinking on population control has been shaped over the last 200 years, and how our failure to address the population explosion may be one cause of recent epidemics and social unrest.

Australian hackers and ethics

The aim of the paper is to look at the way hackers act and ways in which society can protect itself. The paper will show the current views and attitudes of hackers in an Australian context. The paper will also include a case study to show how a hacking incident can develop and how technology can be used to protect against hacking.

Getting abstracted: teacher educators as research writers

While the term 'early career' researcher, is a familiar identity label within competitive Australian Research Council grant writing and bidding, it is a strange appellation in Australian Faculties of Education, where many early career academics have, in fact, carried out successful professional careers in education for 10-15 years before they embark on mid-career doctoral work. In this sense, they are more mid than early career. While they are not novices, however, they are often positioned as beginners with regard to accessing the journal, conference and other discourse communities of the academy. This paper explores the tensions and anxieties experienced by mid-career researchers in teacher education as they begin to publish from their dissertations and extend the audience for their doctoral work. It focuses on the writing of abstracts, which it is argued is a rich site for both text work and identity work and a practice which goes beyond technique to questions of identity and the promotional economies of academic work.

Teacher renewal: collaboration and collegiality

This paper draws in part on findings gathered for the evaluation of the Victorian Department of Education and Training (DE&T) response to the federal Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) funded Quality Teacher Progam (QTP). The paper reports on findings from one strategy, the Local Area Project and focuses on aspects of that project that relate to teacher renewal and enhancement of professionalism. The findings suggest that the professional development opportunities offered by participation in Local Area Projects have, through collaboration and collegiality, enhanced teacher professionalism and provided an environment for teacher renewal.

Redefining teacher education through a `multiple space` model: examining the forgotten spaces that teachers work in

This paper maps the current debates surrounding school-based and university-based teacher education models, and presents a ‘multiple-space’ model of teacher education that both explores and values the many ‘forgotten’ spaces that teachers work in. It draws from a variety of research studies, including my own doctoral work, to argue for a new approach to teacher education programs. I suggest that in order for teacher education to move beyond separatist, binary models, we need to adopt a ‘multiple-space’ view of learning to be a teacher that embraces the notion that teachers do not learn about theory in a university space, nor do they simply work in a classroom space.

Global now : searching for meaning

How do teacher educators prepare students to become teachers for a world which is global in its outlook and influences? There are now strong imperatives for teacher educators to develop pre- service students' understandings about a world which is 'global'. It is not only curriculum statements, textbooks, films, videos, that are the carriers and resources in global education but teachers themselves through their own stories
and narratives and the meanings attached to these. The role of teachers' lived experiences in teaching global education is often silenced in teacher education courses, policy documents and school classrooms.

In searching for meaning in global education, it is the capacity of the teacher to reflect not only on their own multiple identities but on the nexus between their local and global worlds and the struggle often evident here. A resource teachers have to teach global education is their own stories, lived experiences of being in a global world. This comes from giving meaning to travel, of living in a multi-cultural multi-faith world of viewing and noticing similarities and differences and giving meaning to these.

Despite increasing demands from education systems and governments for teachers to teach with a global focus, many teachers do not feel confident or prepared to do so. Importantly curriculum policy statements are carrying imperatives to teach to a global world that is rapidly changing. Curriculum statements in Society and Environment area in Australia include 'global' in their rationale. However this does not mean that global education is taught nor understood by teachers who translate these documents to practice. In curriculum documents such as those
produced by the state and territory governments there is some inclusion of global education. Singh (1998) argues that there is a marginalisation of global education in official curriculum policies in Australia. Integrating global education into different subjects is really up to the creativity, expertise and experience of teachers. If it is up to teachers to teach global education as stated by Singh then it will be the capacity of the teacher to draw on a range of resources, pedagogy and approaches to teach global education. One resource is teachers' stories and
narratives and students own lived experiences and stories.

Banks (2001, p. 5) states that "teachers must develop reflective cultural national and global identifications themselves if they are to help students become thoughtful caring and reflective citizens in a multicultural world society." Teacher educators who wish to embed global perspectives in their teaching require reflective practices on their own identities, prejudices, choice of curriculum content and pedagogy.

Teaching global education requires a conscious understanding and reflection to begin the journey of self as located in the classroom. The central issue of this paper is to bring forth emphasis on the lived experiences of teachers and teachers educators in order to develop deeper global understandings in students.

Using the results of diagnostic testing to promote mathematical pedagogical knowledge

Teachers require a range of knowledge bases, including both content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge (Shulman, 1986). In recent times there have been calls from a variety of sources for teacher preparation courses to improve the mathematical knowledge of teachers, particularly primary teachers. These calls have been underlined by the recent formation of bodies such as the Institutes of Teachers in Victoria and NSW, as well as the development of teaching standards by professional bodies including the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers. Rather than simply adopt a "back-to-basics" approach, work is required that uses the results of educational research to design courses that help pre-service students to understand how and why errors are made (by themselves and by children in their own classrooms). Diagnostic testing of preservice students is the first step in the process. However, it is not enough to simply test students and to remediate their misconceptions. Instead, the aim is to use the results of the testing to improve students' pedagogical knowledge as well as their subject content knowledge. This paper outlines one approach to the use of diagnostic testing with pre-service students and how the results can be used to assist in the development of pedagogical knowledge.

Re-engaging young people through applied learning pedagogy

The Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) was developed as an innovative response to the changing context post-compulsory schooling in Australia. By combining ‘hands-on’ learning approaches with the traditions of adult learning, the VCAL seeks to cater for the learning temperaments and employment pathways of post-compulsory students who are less likely to remain at school to complete a more traditional Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE). This paper draws on my doctoral research into the schooling experience of VCAL students to explore the irony in using adult and work-based learning principles that underpin applied learning pedagogy as a strategy to reengage students frequently considered by schools to be ‘at risk’. It argues that traditional contentdriven and transmissive approaches result in some students being defined ‘at risk’ because of their failure to accept as legitimate traditional school-based modes of learning. It is proposed that teachers in secondary schools require a deeper understanding of applied learning principles and teaching strategies in order to cater for the increasing numbers of applied learning students in the post-compulsory years of secondary schools. It is argued that such an understanding is also critical to avoid many of such students being incorrectly labelled ‘at risk’.

Doing futures: futures education and enactivism

In New Times (Hall, 1996), there has been much rhetoric about school’s role in equipping students for the future. Futures education, or futures pedagogy, provides an interdisciplinary approach in which alternative futures may be explored, designed and articulated. Enactivism, as a theory of learning, affirms my contention that it is not enough to talk about the future. Rather, I propose that education must act as an agent of change, in equipping teachers and students alike, to imagine, critique and create possible, preferable and probable futures. This paper, then, explores the co-emergence (Manturana & Varela, 1992) of an explicit futures dimension, and teaching and learning drawing upon case studies of practice in schools.

Futures now - teaching futures education

In the post-modern world, it has been said that there is now greater uncertainty in life than in any previous period, simply because so much has changed as a result of the speed of technological change.

From the educational view point, Futures education is a necessity as times continue to change, in regards to both the sustainability of the person and that of the environment. It is true that uncertainty will always remain an aspect of thinking about the future, however in order to make what is ahead more accessible to everyone, educators have a duty of care to their students to facilitate or educate in regards to tools, concepts and understandings which will help students to become world shapers, and shapers of their own personal futures. This must occur as part of ongoing educator training.

A proposal for change to teacher education in and for rural and regional Australia

In recent years, much attention has been given to the preparation of teachers for rural and regional schools (for example, Marks et al, 2000, Marks et al, 2001, Jones, 2002). Rural and regional teacher education brings with it exciting opportunities for individuals and communities. However, it is also coupled with specific demands on governments, teaching staff and tertiary institutions. However, as yet little attention has been given to how to reform teacher education to address the identified issues (Green & Reid, 2004). At present, the teacher education course offered on the Warrnambool campus of Deakin University is identical to that offered on the metropolitan (Burwood) and regional (Geelong) campuses. The course is a traditional four-year course.

At the Warrnambool campus we are embarking on a project which aims to reconceptualise teacher education for rural and regional contexts. It seeks to: better understand the issues and challenges rural and regional stake holders face within the profession, including both pre-service and service dimensions; identify the context specific knowledge, skills and strategies rural and regional schools are looking for in graduate teachers; and develop and implement a revised Bachelor of Education program that reflects the needs of rural and regional education.

In this paper, we outline how we intend determining the demand for a community-based teacher education program in western Victoria and determining/negotiating community support for such an initiative.

Team teaching in teacher education: towards an interdisciplinary approach

‘Team teaching’ across disciplines at Australian universities is rare. Academics are rigorous in developing specific disciplinary expertise that often prevents collaboration outside of their disciplinary area. In pre-service primary education courses, academics often teach in traditional and exclusive disciplinary approaches. This separation is at odds however with the impetus for a pedagogical move forward towards an interdisciplinary approach in primary schools. The authors contend that primary
teacher educators must model effective interdisciplinary practice to their student teachers and unpack the processes of how to make meaningful connections together. This paper presents the work of two teacher educators who are involved in a broader, innovative, team teaching, field based collaboration with schools and non-school settings for the Bachelor of Teaching (Postgraduate) at Deakin University. In this paper, the authors firstly discuss their rationale for adopting a team teaching approach and describe how they are working towards an interdisciplinary model, bringing together the two areas; music and literacy and providing examples from their team teaching experience. The paper concludes with reflections and recommendations for future team teaching at the tertiary level.