Aligning school reform and teacher education reform in the middle years : an australian case study

This paper discusses the development of a new Bachelor of Education (Middle Years of Schooling) at The University of Queensland. The middle years of schooling have increasingly been the focus of education reform initiatives in Australia, but this has not been accompanied by significant increases in the number of teacher education institutions offering specialised middle schooling-level teacher preparation programmes. Considering the rapidly changing social and economic context and the emergent state of middle schooling in Australia, the programme represented a conceptual and practical opportunity and challenge for The University of Queensland team. Working collaboratively, the team sought to design a teacher education preservice programme that was both responsive and generative: that is, responsive to local school contexts and to current educational research and reform at national and international levels; and generative of cutting-edge theories and practices associated with middle schooling, teachers' work, and teacher education. This paper focuses on one component of the Middle Years of Schooling Teacher Education programme at The University of Queensland; namely, the practicum. We first present the underlying principles of the practicum programme and then examine "dilemmas" that emerged early in the practicum. These issues and tensions were associated with the ideals of "middle years" philosophy and the pragmatics of school reform associated with that new approach. In this paper, and within this context, we explore what it means to be both responsive and generative, and describe how we as teacher educators negotiated between the extremes these terms implied.

Thirty years into teaching: professional development, exhaustion and rejuvenation

Female primary school teachers are usually absent from debates about literacy theory and practice, teachers’ professional development, significant policy changes and school reform. Typically they are positioned as the silent workers who passively translate the latest and of course best theory into practice, whatever that might be and despite what years of experience might tell them. Their accumulated knowledges and critical analysis, developed across careers, remain an untapped resource for the profession. In this paper five literacy educators, three primary school teachers and two university educators, all of whom have been teaching around thirty years, reflect on what constitutes professional development. The teachers examine their experiences of professional development in their particular school contexts – the problems with top-down, mandated professional development which has a managerial rather than educative function, the frustrations of trying to implement the experts’ ideas without the resources, and the effects of devolved school management on teachers’ work and learning. In contrast, they also explore their positive experiences of professional learning through being positioned as teacher researchers in a network of early and later career teachers engaged in a three-year research project investigating unequal literacy outcomes.

Productive pedagogies : is it an intelligible language for preservice teachers?

Australian teacher educators and teachers have become increasingly familiar with the notion of ‘Productive Pedagogies’, itself the product of longitudinal research on school reform recently undertaken in Queensland, Australia (Lingard et al., 2001a, , 2001b) . One of its strengths has been its efficacy for in-service teachers to use as a language to talk about their pedagogical work and hence a way of reclaiming some of the ground on what constitutes good teaching. In part, this can be attributed to the numerous observations of teachers’ classroom practice that informed the construction of Productive Pedagogies (PPs). That is, many teachers understand these as naming what ‘good’ teachers have always done. In this paper the value of PPs as a metalanguage for developing pre-service teachers’ knowledge and understanding of teaching is examined; whether PPs is a language that is intelligible for pre-service teachers without access to this prior teacher knowledge or whether its elements and dimensions merely constitute an isolated vocabulary. A case study of four pre-service teachers provides the context for this exploration and its empirical data. Drawing on their fieldwork observations of teaching practice, voiced in the language of PPs, the paper argues that PPs language is indeed useful in the development of pre-service teachers’ understanding of teaching, particularly in assisting them to name evidence of teachers’ recognition of and engagement with difference.

Growth in literacy and numeracy achievement : evidence and explanations of a summer slowdown in low socio-economic schools

The phenomenon of summer slide or setback has gained a great deal of attention in the USA. It is understood to account for as much as 80 % of the difference in achievement for students between low and high socio-economic families over their elementary schooling. In a mixed method longitudinal study of reforms in low socio-economic school communities in Victoria, Australia this phenomenon in the achievement growth of primary and secondary school students for both literacy and numeracy was identified. The longitudinal analysis of achievement data revealed decelerated growth during Terms 4 and 1, the spring and summer months in the Australian school calendar. In this article we present these findings and the reflections of Principals, literacy and numeracy leaders and coaches about these findings and their suggestions for action. We argue that reforming school practices during Terms 1 and 4 and developing a deeper understanding of students’ out-of-school learning and knowledge are essential for enhancing growth in achievement from September to March and for narrowing the achievement gap between marginalised and advantaged students. Further research of this phenomenon in the Australian context is needed.

Productive pedagogies: a redefined methodology for analysing quality teacher practice

This paper identifies the ways in which the Productive Pedagogies framework has been refined as a research tool for evaluating classroom practice within a current study into issues of school reform in Queensland. Initially emerging from the landmark Queensland School Reform Longitudinal Study (1998–2001), the Productive Pedagogies has been taken up widely in Australia and internationally as both a research tool and metalanguage to support teachers to critically reflect on their practice. In this paper, following a brief description of the model’s four dimensions, we detail how we have addressed some methodological concerns in using and modifying the framework for the present study. In response to critiques by other researchers and debates within our own research team, we justify our use of the framework. To these ends, we present a refined methodology that addresses the importance of pedagogical process, substantiates the inclusion of particular items within the framework, supports a critical approach to issues of difference, includes students’ perspectives and recognises the significance of content knowledge in the assessment of quality pedagogy.

Middle-class school choice in urban spaces: the economics of public schooling and globalized education reform

Middle-class School Choice in Urban Spaces examines government-funded public schools from a range of perspectives and scholarship in order to examine the historical, political and economic conditions of public schooling within a globalized, post-welfare context. In this book, Rowe argues that post-welfare policy conditions are detrimental to government-funded public schools, as they engender consistent pressure in rearticulating the public school in alignment with the market, produce tensions in serving the more historical conceptualizations of public schooling, and are preoccupied by contemporary profit-driven concerns.Chapters focus on public schooling from different global perspectives, with examples from Chile and the US, to examine how various social movements encapsulate ideologies around public schooling. Rowe also draws upon a rich, five-year ethnographic study of campaigns lobbying the Victorian State Government in Australia for a brand-new, local-specific public school. Critical attention is paid to the public school as a means to achieve empowerment and overcome discrimination, and both a local and global lens are used to identify how parents choose the public school, the values they attach to it, and the strategies they use to obtain it. Also considered, however, are how quality gaps, distances and differences between public schools threaten to undermine the democracy of education as a means for individuals to be socially mobile and escape poverty.This book makes an important contribution to our understanding of global social movements and activism around public education. As such, it will be of key interest to researchers, academics and postgraduate students in the field of education, specifically those working on school choice, class and identity, as well as educational geography.

Media/ting change: the print media's role in mediating education policy in a period of radical reform in Victoria, Australia

This paper draws upon critical discourse analysis, cultural studies and communication theory, studies on media and educational reform, and the work of Bernstein, Bourdieu and Luhmann in particular, to explore how the print and media 'mediated' a period of educational change marked by moves to self-management in schools in Victoria, Australia. It considers how the media was mobilized by various education stakeholders, and in turn informed relations between schools and government, through policy discourses and texts. It considers why and how particular themes became media 'issues', how schools and teachers responded to these issues, and how the media was used by various stakeholders in education to shape policy debates. It is based on a year-long qualitative study that explored critical incidents and representations about education in the print media over a year in the daily press. It illustrates the ways in which a neo-liberal Victorian government mobilized the media to gain strategic advantage to promote radical education reform policies, considers the media effects of this media/tion process on schools and teachers, and conceptualizes how school and system performance is fed from and into media representations, public perceptions and community understandings of schools and teachers' work.

Ambiguities and inconsistencies in relation to the obligations of proxies under corporations law: a model for reform

This article reconsiders the important question which came to light as a result of the controversial 2002 Coles Myer annual general meeting: do directors that are appointed as proxy have an obligation to vote as directed (and indeed should they)? A recent decision of the New South Wales Supreme Court, which was subsequently approved on appeal, stands for the proposition that proxy holders are agents of the shareholders that appointed them. However, currently the Corporations Act only requires a Chairman appointed as proxy to vote as directed — not an ordinary director. This article briefly explains the present state of the law in Australia on this issue, and then explores some interesting recent judicial remarks which may suggest that ordinary directors appointed as proxy must vote as directed in order to satisfy their director’s duties (both common law and statutory) to the company. We finally outline a proposed statutory reform initiative which seeks to remove the present uncertainty in the law by introducing a blanket requirement that all proxy holders must vote as directed.

Policy hysteria in action: teenage parents at secondary school in Australia

In this chapter we present an account of the policy paradox of establishing a Young Parents' Access Project (YPAP) for students at a senior secondary college in the state of Victoria, Australia. l Within a policy climate of endless reform and new policy initiatives, 90 per cent of all secondary school students in Victoria are expected to complete 13 years of formal education or training, and to be supported to make successful transitions from school to work or further education. Yet young people who are pregnant or parenting and who wish to complete their secondary schooling are invisible within the policies that construct the work of schools. In response to enquiries from teenage parents interested in returning to school and confronting the challenge of juggling home life, childcare and school work, Corio Bay Senior College (CBSC) decided to establish a multi-dimensional project that was underpinned by the provision of fully licensed on-site childcare.

I don't need IT because I'm going to be a teacher, and other popular beliefs: High school students' explanations for the under representation of girls in information technology subjects

This paper examines the implications for teacher educators of the dominant beliefs currently circulating within diverse Australian high schools about the (lack of) relationship between girls’ interests, girls’ careers, girls’ futures and the broad field of information technology. It identifies students' attitudes towards the content, relevance and general appeal of IT subjects to highlight the challenges for both teachers and teacher educators who may be seeking to address the issues associated with girls’ under representation in IT courses and also contribute to an ongoing project of gender based educational reform. Emphasis throughout the paper is on the persistence of discourses that continue to position girls and IT in opposition to each other and on the challenges of subverting these discourses through the introduction of new figurations (cf Rosi Braidotti, 1994) or transformative understandings of what it now means to be a female student, a female teacher, or a female IT user. The paper concludes by reflecting on the implications of these themes for teachers and teacher educators: particularly those with an on-going commitment to the broad field of educational justice.

Power and production in site-based management: the responses of women secondary principals to structural reform in South Australian education

After describing and analysing the purpose and shape of structural reform in Australia, the author uses the data gained from interviews with 16 South Australian women principals, to examine its effects on the work of principals. She uses her analysis to issue some warnings about the current moves to Local School Management in South Australia

Contemporary PE reform in China : teachers' talk

Among the many changes occurring across Chinese society in the early phase of Y2K is the construction and implementation of a new physical education (PE) curriculum. Not unlike recent changes in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, this process has seen a heightening of the profile of health. Presented within a wider framework for making the school curriculum more relevant, PE is more closely aligned with China's emerging health concerns around young people. Foremost here are burgeoning social anxieties about decreased levels of physical activity, dietary practices, risk-taking tendencies, and a general decline of social cohesion/connection across the profile of contemporary youth. This paper reports on a study undertaken to explore the experiences of Chinese PE teachers as they engage with the new curriculum.

The data reveals a number of structural, personal and cultural factors that work against teachers taking up the opportunities presented in the new curriculum. Prominent here are; low professional status, an expanding generation gap, lack of training and the grip of deeply rooted cultural values. Juxtaposed against the like experiences of PE teachers in Australia and the UK the paper concludes with practical recommendations for nurturing curriculum change in China.

Effect of labour market reform on women in the Australian banking industry

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Australian dental policy reform and the use of dental therapists and hygienists

Oral diseases including dental caries and periodontal disease are among the most prevalent and costly diseases in Australia today. Around 5.4% of Australia’s health dollar is spent on dental services totalling around $2.6 billion, 84% of which are delivered through the private sector (AIHW 2001). The other 16% is spent providing public sector services in varied and inadequate ways. While disease rates among school children have declined significantly in the past 20 years the gains made among children are not flowing on to adult dentitions and our aging population will place increasing demands on an inadequate system into the future (AHMAC 2001). Around 50% of adults do not received regular care and this has implications for widening health inequalities as the greatest burden falls on lower income groups (AIHW DSRU 2001). The National Competition Policy agenda has initiated, Australia-wide, reviews of dental legislation applying to delivery of services by dentists, dental specialists, dental therapists and hygienists and dental technicians and prosthetists. The review of the Victorian Dentists Act 1972, was completed first in 1999, followed by the other Australian states with Queensland, the ACT and the Northern Territory still developing legislation. One of the objectives of the new Victorian Act is to ‘…promote access to dental care’. This study has grown out of the need to know more about how dental therapists and hygienists might be utilised to achieve this and the legislative frameworks that could enable such roles. This study used qualitative methods to explore dental health policy making associated with strategies that may increase access to dental care using dental therapists and hygienists. The study used a multiple case study design to critically examine the dental policy development process around the Review of the Dentists Act 1972 in Victoria; to assess legislative and regulatory dental policy reforms in other states in Australia and to conduct a comparative analysis of dental health policy as it relates to dental auxiliary practice internationally. Data collection has involved (I) semi-structured interviews with key participants and stakeholders in the policy development processes in Victoria, interstate and overseas, and (ii) analysis of documentary data sources. The study has taken a grounded theory approach whereby theoretical issues that emerged from the Victorian case study were further developed and challenged in the subsequent interstate and international case studies. A component of this study has required the development of indicators in regulatory models for dental hygienists and therapists that will increase access to dental care for the community. These indicators have been used to analyse regulation reform and the likely impacts in each setting. Despite evidence of need, evidence of the effectiveness and efficiency of dental therapists and hygienists, and the National Competition Policy agenda of increasing efficiency, the legislation reviews have mostly produces only minor changes. Results show that almost all Australian states have regulated dental therapists and hygienists in more prescriptive ways than they do dentists. The study has found that dental policy making is still dominated by the views of private practice dentists under elitist models that largely protect dentist authority, autonomy and sovereignty. The influence of dentist professional dominance has meant that governments have been reluctant to make sweeping changes. The study has demonstrated alternative models of regulation for dental therapists and hygienists, which would allow wider utilisation of their skills, more effective use of public sector funding, increased access to services and a grater focus on preventive care. In the light of theses outcomes, there is a need to continue to advocate for changes that will increase the public health focus of oral health care.