Training for the new work order : the adult classroom as a site of class(ed) work

This paper reports on a qualitative case study that investigated how the professional identities of trainers in the adult sector in Australia are shaped by intersecting relations of social class, ethnicity, gender and the discourses of vocational adult education. Interviews with two trainers as well as observations of them at work are analysed and presented here to illustrate how social class, considered in relation to gender and race, is played out through the trainers' identity investments in discourses of nurturance and care and economic rationalism. Such identity investments shape the relationships the trainers develop with their students and the training strategies and practices they privilege. The paper argues the need for trainers to develop critical reflective practices and to interrogate how their investments in particular classed identities shape their views about learning for work and training for work. It also argues the need for more research around social class and trainer identity within the adult sector.

In our own image? The socialisation of journalism`s new recruits

This paper examines the role of a key group of primary refiners in the socialisation of new entrants to journalism: that is, the trainers, generally called cadet counsellors or editorial training managers. While the paper highlights the historical and structural tensions still current in the training of young journalists in Australia, it identifies the two main determining forces as technology and the increasingly virulent commercial imperative driving modern journalism. This paper also taps into continuing and current debates surrounding accreditation and professionalism. It confirms the fundamental identity crisis for trainers: should they confirm and consolidate current practice or be innovators and catalysts for change within the newsroom?

Research designs and scientific identity in marketing journals: review and evaluation

Purpose - This research is based upon the assumption that the empirical research designs and the scientific identity of a journal are related. The objective is to review and evaluate the empirical research design of papers to determine the scientific identity of a selection of academic marketing journals. Design/methodology/approach – The journal sample consists of the Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ), the European Journal of Marketing (EJM) and the Journal of Marketing (JM). The review and evaluation considers a six-year period, namely 2000-2005. The content analysis consisted of 811 papers. Findings – The scientific identity of JM may be seen as built upon quantitative research designs and the North American paradigm of research values. The scientific identity of AMJ is based upon a mix of empirical research designs and the Australian paradigm of research values. The scientific identity of EJM is also based upon a mix of empirical research designs, but a multi-continental paradigm of research values. Research limitations/implications – The leading continental journals in marketing maintain a scientific identity based upon the continental paradigm of research values. If it is driven to the extremes, a paradigmatic myopia and inertia of research designs may evolve that limit the scientific identity to be dogmatic and narrow-focused rather than variable and broad-focused. Originality/value – A cross-continental eview and evaluation of research designs and scientific identity of academic marketing journals is presented.

Sharing good teaching practice: Practical strategies to integrate ICT into the classroom

Situated in regional areas of Victoria, a group of 16 primary and secondary teachers participated in an intensive program of professional development designed to assist them in embedding lCT into their classroom practice. Most teachers made significant changes to their teaching practice becoming risk-takers and problem solvers.This paper reports on the strategic innovations introduced by the teachers including training, preparation, curriculum planning, software evaluation and selection, classroom management strategies, cooperative learning strategies and embedded assessment tasks. The paper will explore the ways these innovations responded to a variety of constraints including limited resources, time and support.

Technology and teachers in rural schools : diversity and similarity

This paper reports on a project situated in regional areas of Victoria in which 16 primary and secondary teachers participated in an intensive professional development program designed to assist them in embedding Information Communications Technology (ICT) into their classroom practice. The project provides some insight into the availability and use of current technological resources in the rural schools and examines the impact of an intensive professional development program on the implementation of ICT into the curriculum.

The results identified a large diversity of circumstances experienced by the schools in the project, not only in terms of ICT availability and use, and teacher experience, but also in more general issues of cultures of curriculum planning and integration, size, communication, and pedagogical presumptions. The successful integration of ICT into their pedagogical practice was influenced by a complex of factors including the availability of ICT resources, the teachers’ ICT skill level, the teachers’ ability and opportunity to integrate ICT in classroom, the level of support provided, both technical and pedagogical, and the curriculum requirements.

The results of the project have been positive with evidence of increased networking among the teachers, changes in teaching practice and increased teacher proficiency and awareness of ICT resources. The project has highlighted common difficulties that teachers experienced including frustrations with the unreliability of technology and a lack of time for necessary training and preparation. In response to the constraints, teachers have been resourceful and inventive in developing pedagogical strategies to aid the integration of ICT into their classroom practice.

Once you get into the box you can't get out : Schools managing at risk students and their post-school options

This paper explores student and teacher understandings of what it means to be 'at risk' in a Northern metropolitan Melbourne school located in the area of high cultural diversity and unemployment. The research team undertook a range of interviews with 20 Year 10 students and their teachers as part of a research project investigating teacher and student attitudes to the role of the school in how at risk young people understand their futures. Drawing on Bourdieu's notion of habitus for a conceptual framework, we describe three 'anecdotal cases’ that exemplify the 'static' nature of the relations between the school, the teachers, the students and the community. The cases highlight the following paradoxes: (i) a teacher discourse of care that fails to address student motivation and attempts to change; (ii) a lack of agency for both teachers and students when dealing with at risk categories and attempts to best manage post school options; and (iii) the apparent alienation from the school of parents in an otherwise cohesive local community. These tensions were manifestations of staff composition and dynamics, cultural attitudes, and a limited sense of location that worked against resilience, mobility and capacity building for the students.

Teacher perceptions of the role and value of excursions in years 7-10 geography education in Victoria, Australia

Excursions are extremely important to the education of students in the geography curriculum. However, personal observations demonstrated a lack of readiness to conduct excursions in secondary schools. This apprehension of the teachers in this school to implement excursions in geography education was the basis for this study. The study addresses the importance of excursions in education and the roles and values that teachers place on excursions in years 7-10 geography curriculum. Quantitative research was conducted in the form of a questionnaire on a wide range of Study of Society and Environment (SOSE) teachers in secondary schools. The research population consisted of 60 teachers from both rural and urban schools across Victoria. The findings of this study showed that teachers conduct on average one to two excursions per class per year, teachers understand the importance of excursions in geography education and they find planning difficult, but work collaboratively with other teachers to overcome these issues. Other barriers include transportation, student behaviour and cost. With a firm grounding in the conceptual theories and state-level policies of geography education, the conduct of excursions was found to be both difficult and rewarding by teachers in Victoria.

Experienced teachers' perspectives on cultural and social class diversity : which differences matter?

This article reports on a pilot study that investigated the beliefs, values, and pedagogies of experienced high school teachers who worked with student populations of non-English speaking and economically disadvantaged immigrants or refugees in Australia. Qualitative research methods, including focus groups and in-depth individual interviews with teachers, produced data that were examined using Critical Discourse Analysis. Close reading of the teachers' comments suggests that there are a number of key discourses that teachers use to make sense of differences among culturally diverse and economically disadvantaged groups of students. Specifically, teachers distinguish between cultural groups on the basis of students' life experiences prior to arrival in Australia; students' collective and individual educational experiences; and the different social class positioning of students within the same ethnic group. In their comments, teachers at times categorised students in generalised and stereotypical ways but also were able to critique and reflect on their personal assumptions. An analysis of the teachers' reflections provides insights into how they made sense of “diversity” and how, as teachers, they try to work productively with ethnically diverse and economically disadvantaged students.

‘Outsiders’ and ‘others’: ‘different’ teachers teaching in culturally diverse classrooms

This article draws on data from two separate qualitative research studies that investigated the experiences of Indigenous teachers and ethnic minority teachers in Australian schools. The data presented here were collected via in-depth individual semi-structured interviews with teachers in 2004 and 2005. Data analysis was informed by poststructuralist discourse theory and the data were examined for broad themes and recurring discourse patterns relevant to the projects’ foci. The article explores how teachers who are not from the Anglo-Celtic Australian ‘mainstream’ use their cultural knowledge and experiences as ‘other’ to develop deep understandings of ethnic minority and/or Indigenous students. I suggest that the teachers’ knowledge of ‘self’ in regards to ethnicity and/or Indigeneity and social class enables them to empathize with students of difference, to contextualize their students’ responses to schooling through understanding their out-of-school lives from perspectives not available to teachers from the dominant cultural majority. I raise in this paper a number of important implications for teacher education including the need to recruit and retain greater numbers of teachers of difference in schools, the need to acknowledge their potential to make valuable contributions to the education of minority students as well as their potential to act as cross-cultural mentors for their ‘mainstream’ colleagues.

Academic staff take the lead : experimenting with social software at Deakin University

This paper reports on a two staged staff development exercise to help new academic staff to integrate Web 2.0 technologies including web-based communication and some digital technologies into their curricula. It involved professional development for the teaching staff in the first stage followed by these teachers providing professional development for the course participants. The teachers engaged in a blended community of inquiry with face-to-face sessions and online work while the professional development for the course participants included technical support, training and a peer group environment with formal allocation of time for the course, finally leading to an institutionally recognised qualification. Evaluations conducted through focus group interviews revealed that collegial networks and time were important for effective professional development. The paper reflects on the successes and limitations of the model and its potential for further development. It also highlights the importance of providing professional development in a safe environment for academics to adopt technologies for teaching and learning.

Structural and biochemical characterisation of the oxidoreductase NmDsbA3 from Neisseria meningitidis

DsbA is an enzyme found in the periplasm of Gram-negative bacteria that catalyses the formation of disulfide bonds in a diverse array of protein substrates, many of which are involved in bacterial pathogenesis. Whilst most bacteria possess only a single essential DsbA, Neisseria meningitidis is unusual in that it possesses three DsbAs, although the reason for this additional redundancy is unclear. Two of these N. meningitidis enzymes (NmDsbA1 and NmDsbA2) play an important role in meningococcal attachment to human epithelial cells, whilst NmDsbA3 is considered to have a narrow substrate repertoire. To begin to address the role of DsbAs in the pathogenesis of N. meningitidis, we have determined the structure of NmDsbA3 to 2.3 Å resolution. Although the sequence identity between NmDsbA3 and other DsbAs is low, the NmDsbA3 structure adopted a DsbA-like fold. Consistent with this finding, we demonstrated that NmDsbA3 acts as a thiol-disulfide oxidoreductase in vitro and is reoxidised by Escherichia coli DsbB (EcDsbB). However, pronounced differences in the structures between DsbA3 and EcDsbA, which are clustered around the active site of the enzyme, suggested a structural basis for the unusual substrate specificity that is observed for NmDsbA3.

Investigating the factors of professional development programs that effect change in the classroom

This paper reports on the implementation of two professional development programs designed to support ICT based pedagogies in Victorian (Australia) schools. In both programs the teachers participated in an intensive program of professional development designed to assist them in embedding ICT into their classroom practice. There was a large diversity of circumstances experienced by the schools, not only in terms of ICT availability and use, and teacher experience, but also in issues of cultures of curriculum planning and integration, size, communication, and pedagogical presumptions. Both projects were successful in implementing change; however there were teachers in both projects who failed to take advantage of the PD. Some of the limitations with both studies include the high expectations of time comittment by the teachers – who are already fully committed with full teaching loads, and the high expectations of the change that will occur in the teaching and
learning as a result of the PD, wthout consideration of the time needed to learn and adopt new pedagogical practice. In some cases, teachers and the school did not appreciate the necessary commitment to take full advantage of the opportunity being provided. This was compounded by the lack of support and recognition by school management.

Educating for the future : technological advantages?

Educating students for the future involves providing them with skills to cope with technological change. Schools and teachers have been adapting their practices in mathematics and science to incorporate information and communication technology (ICT) as a routine aspect of learning. However, recent research indicates that not all students have equal access to the technologies they need. A number of reasons are investigated: the location of the schools (regional and rural settings), the capabilities of the teachers and access by staff and students to high quality resources. This paper presents the findings of this research.

Ontological possibilities the rethinking teaching on the "nature of science"

An extensive literature documents teachers’ failure to include ideas about the 'nature of science' (NOS) in their classroom programmes, despite widespread advocacy for this as an essential component of more inclusive science teaching. This thesis frames much of the existing NOS literature as a deficit literature that focuses on epistemology, while largely ignoring the ontological realities of the classroom and overestimating individual teacher’s agency to change their enacted curriculum. Epistemologically-focused NOS reforms are positioned as curriculum 'add-ons', which teachers are likely to ignore. A NOS focus on ontology would entail curriculum restructuring, attending first to the contexts in which scientific knowledge is produced, and the ways it acts in the world. In any case, science itself has changed in recent years. Drawing from the sociology of science, in particular the work of Bruno Latour, the thesis compares traditional philosophical thinking about the ontology of science with more recent 'networked' views. Brent Davis explains the educational implications of key ideas from complexity science. Political philosopher Stephen White adds an ethical dimension. His ideas are used to argue for replacing 'strong' ontologies of realist science with more nuanced and actively tended 'weak' ontologies, as appropriate to the rapid sociological changes of the twenty-first century. The thesis argues that epistemological uncertainties that could lead to the suspicion of relativism are potentially threatening in the classroom because of hegemonic pressures towards consensus and a certain, safe status for the knowledge taught. Seeking an alternative pathway to change, Daniel Liston’s conceptualisation of teaching as a passionate act informs the analysis of the empirical component of the thesis. Eight recipients of New Zealand Royal Society Science Teacher Fellowships were interviewed on four occasions over two years. They discussed their personal learning during a year-long sabbatical to carry out an extended science investigation and their thoughts and actions on returning to the classroom. Narrative methodology is used to explore the teachers’ stories, revealing both passion for their personal learning and an ethical concern for their students’ learning to care for both the natural world and science as a means of its investigation. The thesis argues for the use of ontological approaches to the initial introduction of NOS ideas in school science, with epistemological concepts added only once a topic has been grounded in what Latour calls 'matters of concern'.Two potential teaching strategies—the production of network diagrams and the use of Davis's 'bifurcations'as a critical inquiry tool—are the focus of hypothetical experimentation. First in the context of global warming, and then addressing the challenges posed to teaching evolution by the proponents of 'intelligent design', these strategies are shown to have the potential to address some of science education’ s thornier issues, not just the NOS question. However, when conflicting expectations create tensions for teachers in the classroom moment, it is difficult for them to introduce reflective, deeply philosophical changes to their representation of science. Their working realities need to be acknowledged, and the tensions ameliorated, if we expect substantive change in their current practice.

Teachers' stories of change : an interpretive study of behavioural studies teachers' experiences of change in Tasmanian schools and colleges 1984-1994

Major changes in teachers’ work in Tasmania occurred in the decade 1984-1994. Understanding of those changes has, to date, primarily come from the perspective of educational administrators. A different perspective on the changes comes from the stories told by teachers of Behavioural Studies, teaching grades 11 and 12 in government and non-government schools. Twenty teachers participated in taped interviews or videorecorded focus groups. Their stories were transcribed and analysed using an adapted form of grounded theory to explicate the meaning(s) of the changes for these teachers. Interpretation of the teachers' stories has also been framed by understandings drawn from narrative studies of teachers and their work. The core analytic category of the teachers’ stories of educational change is the conflict between the ideologies of teacher professionalism and economic rationalism. The major themes of the teachers’ stories are systemic and administrative change, control, histories of the Behavioural Studies subject, workload, students and stress.