Surviving the maelstrom : teacher educator in the 21st century

A plethora of reports, research papers and commentaries have focused on teacher education in Australia, its quality, status and ability to adequately prepare teachers for the 21st century. There is however, little research on the worklives of teacher educators, in particular Australian teacher educators. That which does exist tends to focus on new teacher educators (how to best prepare and induct them) and experienced and senior teacher educators (personal reflections and narratives) (see for example, Acker, 1997; Cochran-Smith, 2002; Murray & Male, 2005). What is missing from this research field is an exploration of the contemporary contexts that shape the worklives of Australian teacher educators, and in particular how these contexts influence the work of teacher educators in between these two demographic groups. How post-induction early-mid career teacher educators (re)negotiate their professional identities in view of the changing role of ‘the teacher educator’ in the 21st century is therefore, an under-researched area of study. This paper provides a brief overview of the existent research on teacher educators and highlights areas in need of further examination. Two particular contexts shaping the work of Australian teacher educators are examined: the standards movement, and marketisation and the rise of new mangerialism as are the ramifications of these on the teacher education landscape. How these have impacted on how teacher educators perceive themselves and are perceived by others is subsequently explored as are the implications of these changing contexts on the work of teacher educators in the 21st century. To discuss these issues I draw on my experiences in teacher education and highlight the challenges and opportunities available for teacher educators as we try to ‘survive the maelstrom’. This paper is significant given the federal government’s commitment to social inclusion and an ‘Education Revolution” (ACDE, 2008). Education academics are critical to advancing the [Government’s] complex agendas around innovation, productivity and inclusion (ACDE, 2008, p1). In the next 15 years, over half of the currently working teacher education academics will retire. There is therefore a need to not only attract new and talented people into the teacher education workforce, but to retain those early-mid career academics who have entered teacher education, and are like me, finding it hard to “survive the maelstrom”.

Experience and experiential learning : perceptions of the diabetes educator role

A great deal of learning associated with specially nursing roles occurs informally and experientially. Here, the authors explore experience and experiential learning in the professional development of nurse diabetes educators. The role of experiential learning in the acquisition of diabetes education and management skills and the ways in which experiential learning can be quantified for the purposes of demonstrating professional competency, are discussed in the light of data collected from two questionnaires distributed to diabetes educators, and endocrinologists, and a series of focus groups.

Investigation of educator adoption of knowledge media

Human development has occurred against a timeline that has seen the creation of and diffusion of one innovation after another. These innovations range from language to complex computing and information technologies. The latter are assisting with the distribution of information, and extend to the distribution of the human species beyond the planet Earth. From early times, information has been published and mostly for a fee to the publisher. The absorption and use of information has had a high priority in most societies from early times, and has become institutionalised in universities and institutes of technical learning. For most in Western societies, education is now a matter of ‘lifelong learning’. Today, we see higher education institutions, worldwide, adapting their organisational structures and operating procedures and forming strategic alliances with communications content providers and carriers as well as with information technology companies. Modern educational institutes seek productivity and efficiency. Many also seek to differentiate themselves from competitors. Technological convergence is often seen by management to be a saviour in many educational organisations. It is hoped that lower capital and recurrent costs can be achieved, and that competitors in an increasingly globalised industry can be held at bay by strategic use of knowledge media (Eisenstadt, 1995) commonly associated with distance education in the campus setting. Knowledge media set up costs, intellectual property costs and training costs for staff and students are often so high as to make their use not viable for Australian institutes of higher education. Against this backdrop, one might expect greater educator and student use of publisher produced textbooks and digital enhancements to the textbook, particularly those involved in distance education. A major issue is whether or not the timing of instructor adoption of converging information technology and communications technologies aligns with the wishes of both higher education management and government, and with those who seek commercial gain from the diffusion and adoption of such technologies. Also at issue is whether or not it is possible to explain variance in stated intentions to recommend adoption of new learning technologies in higher education and implementation. Will there occur educator recommendation for adoption of individual knowledge media such as World Wide Web access to study materials by students? And what will be the form of this tool and others used in higher education? This thesis reports on more recent changes in the technological environment and seeks to contribute to an understanding of the factors that lead to a willingness, or unwillingness, on the part of higher education instructors, as influencers and content providers, to utilise these technologies. As such, it is a diffusion study which seeks to fill a gap in the literature. Diffusion studies typically focus on predicting adoption based on characteristics of the potential adopter. Few studies examine the relationship between characteristics of the innovation and adoption. Nearly all diffusion studies involve what is termed discontinuous innovation (Robertson, 1971). That is, the innovation involves adoptees in a major departure from previous practice. This study seeks to examine the relationship between previous experience of related technologies and adoption or rejection of dynamically continuous innovation. Continuous and dynamically continuous innovations are the most numerous in the real world, yet they are numerically the least scrutinised by way of academic research. Moreover, the three-year longitudinal study of educators in Australian and New Zealand meets important criteria laid down by researchers Tornatzky and Klein (1982) and Rogers (1995), that are often not met by similar studies. In particular the study examines diffusion as it is unfolding, rather than selectively examining a single innovation and after the fact, thus avoiding a possible pro-innovation bias. The study examines the situation for both ‘all educators’ and ‘marketing / management educators’ alone in seeking to meet the following aim: Establish if intended adopters of specific knowledge media have had more experience of other computer-based technologies than have those not intending to adopt said knowledge media. The analytical phase entails use of factor analysis and discriminant analysis to conclude that it is possible to discriminate adopters of selected knowledge media based on previous use of related technologies. The study does not find any generalised factor that enables such discrimination among educators. Thus the study supports the literature in part, but fails to find generalised factors that enable unambiguous prediction of knowledge media adoption or otherwise among each grouping of educators examined. The implications are that even in the case of related products and services (continuous or dynamically continuous innovation), there is not statistical certainty that prior usage of related products or technologies is related to intentions to use knowledge media in the future. In this regard, the present study might be said to confirm the view that Rogers and Shoemaker's (1971) conceptualisation of perceived innovation characteristics may only apply to discontinuous innovations (Stratton, Lumpkin & Vitell, 1997). The implications for stakeholders such as higher education management is that when seeking to appoint new educators or existing staff to knowledge media project teams, there is some support for the notion that those who already use World Wide Web based technologies are likely to take these technologies into teaching situations. The same claim cannot be made for computer software use in general, nor Internet use in general.

The personal meaning of being a diabetes nurse educator

This phenomenological study explores the lived experiences of four diabetes nurse educators, as they describe their roles and focus on what it is like to be a diabetes nurse educator, from their unique perspectives.

The teacher educator as (re)negotiated professional : critical incidents in steering between state and market in Australia

A dominant discourse in western higher education circles is currently concerned— even obsessed—with the marketisation of knowledge as a commodity to be purchased and traded [Healy (1998); Poole (1998); Richardson (1998)]. These developments are broadly allied with managerial changes that some have called ‘steering at a distance’ [Kickert (1991); Marceav (1993)] whereby the control by the state of individual higher education workers is maintained and intensified at the same time that pressure is applied to 'wean' universities from government funding. This paper explores a different kind of 'steering', the kind that is being engaged by Australian teacher educators confronted by developing competitiveness in higher education. We argue that these changes compel teacher educators to (re)negotiate their professionalisms; to re-examine their attitudes towards, and values within, education and its practices as they (individually and collectively) steer new courses through the state and the market. We illustrate our argument by referring to three critical incidents in the professional lives of teacher educators located within a globalised, multi-campus and provincial Australian university, yet with important implications also for teacher educators outside Australia. We posit the (re)negotiated professionalisms manifested in those incidents as a few among several potential kinds of steering by Australian teacher educators.

Negotiating gender boundaries : tensions in developing a professional identity as a female physical educator in boys' schools

Historically, gendered boundaries and their impacts on education have been widely contested. The global gender policy debate over the last sixty years has significantly vacillated between prioritising issues of educational and social practice that appear to privilege one gender over another (Lingard, Martino & Mills, 2009). The very nature of the title ‘Boys’ school’ conveys a hard gendered boundarying. In a socio-political climate where boys’ supposed underachievement has been attributed to the presumed “feminisation of teaching” (Hoff Sommers, 2000) it is not surprising that the rhetoric around the purpose and intent of boys’ education privileges masculinist discourses and practices. Physical Education (PE) and sport is often implicated as prominent curriculum spaces where the tensions produced through gendered discourse-power relations are played out, often at the expense of marginalised others.

Moving to the rhythm of Africa : a case study of a tertiary educator's understanding of multicultural dance in teacher education

Australia is proud of its rich and varied array of the Arts depicting a range of cultural diversity formed by ongoing migration. Although the complex issues of dance, culture and identity are interconnected, forming a multicultural society in Australia, dance education is a powerful platform to transmit and promote togetherness where understanding and respect is shared in dance practice. The focus of this article is on dance education as part of multicultural arts education within teacher education courses at Deakin University (Melbourne) Australia. It forms part of my ongoing wider study that started in 2010 regarding Attitudes and perceptions of Arts Education Students: Preparing culturally responsive teachers across two continents (Australia and South Africa). In 2011, I interviewed the dance educator and will report on two themes from her interview data: multicultural dance and the inclusion of African dance within multicultural dance practice. I argue that the inclusion of innovative and immersive practice of dance where authentic teaching and learning can be facilitated is a powerful platform to share multicultural dance practice in tertiary education.

Walking My Talk as an Intentional, Embodied, (Co)constructed Environmental Educator

Exploring the question (how) can I use personal change to inspire educational and social/cultural change, this work was embodied and action orientated with a thesis that the doing (action) is as important as the thinking and talking about it. A three-dimensional model of exploring personal change through transformative education leading to social/cultural change was employed throughout this research. A critical poststructural ecofeminist frame undergirded an autoethnographic self-study where I changed my living practices to become more sustainable while living within society, and used this as a platform for how I could become a better environmental educator and activist. I reduced my ecological footprint from 16.4HA to 1.8HA and taught a pre-service teacher course in environmental education, where I explored student resistances, power and relationships, a critique of curriculum, and personal change as a result of transformative education. One particular pedagogical strategy, the Action Learning Group Project, was developed and used to support others to undergo personal change through transformative education leading to social/cultural change. And finally, I use this work as an opportunity to undertake environmental education activism working to generate social/cultural change.