Video technology as pedagogy: past teacher education students speak to current students through performed research

This paper reports the use of video representations of first-year teachers’ experiences in teacher education workshops that focus on the transition to teaching. This use of video technology is a responsive act that draws on the notion of looking back, where graduates ‘speak to’ current students. Video footage of the performed research ‘The First Time’ shaped activities and discussions in the unit. Workshop/video themes included teacher identity discourses; epiphanic and revelatory moments of transition to becoming a teacher; and preparing for job applications and interviews. A range of data including semi-structured interviews with undergraduate students upon completion of the workshops were analysed within a phenomenographic paradigm, with the aim of describing variations of conception that people have of a particular phenomenon (Sin, 2010). The investigation of the use of video technology as a pedagogical approach to promote critical thinking about the transition to teaching revealed a range of conceptual meanings. These meanings were classified into categories according to their similarities and differences concerning the effectiveness of the technological tool in assisting undergraduates in their transition to teaching. Participants’ conceptions of the phenomenon are individual and relational, and as such results were quite varied. Emergent varied themes include: ‘I now know what it is that I need to learn’; ‘Is this theory or practice?’; and ‘I don’t do drama’. Similarities include: ‘Preparing for the unexpected’. The use of video technology was deemed effective in creating workshop content from the past, in order to teach for tomorrow.

Relocating the personal : a critical writing pedagogy

Addressing the current and growing interest in the personal, the self, and the autobiographical not only in the teaching of writing, but also across many disciplinary and subject fields, Relocating the Personal describes a rich array of practical approaches to teaching the personal in settings where it has been excluded." "The author argues for the teaching of writing as a political project in schools and communities, and for a notion of the personal which is not simply equated with voice. The construct of narrative is preferred, because it allows teachers to examine all personal writing as a representation and not the same thing as the writer's life. Strategies are developed for examining how experience is portrayed and how it might be written differently, with material effects on both the personal text and the writer's person.

The book incorporates the latest theories of critical and genre literacy as it develops four teaching cases in different education contexts (secondary, undergraduate, graduate, and adult/community).

At Sunny Bay: building students` repertoire of literacy practices through process drama

This collection of resources provides classroom examples and case studies, offers a platform of ideas for teachers to investigate new ways of building the literacy development of their students.

Repositioning drama to centre stage: drama, English, text and literacy

A version of this article was first presented at the Drama Australia Conference, Fremantle, July 2002. It draws upon Freebody and Luke's four resources literacy framework, where they describe four kinds of literacy  practices. It shows how this model is used within the literacy community and argues that this model is useful to describe the contribution that drama can make to literacy development. Freebody and Luke's model is used and  promoted throughout Australia and the author argues that it is politically astute for drama teachers to reclaim and promote their links to the English/Literacy curriculum.

Regimes of risk: the need for a pedagogy for peer groups

Peer groups matter more than we think. In this paper we assert that peer group commitments and affiliations are often the primary social reference in determining the way young people think about and practice risk. It is, we argue, inappropriate to impose adult constructions of risk-taking and anti-social behaviour when trying to assert influence over the decisions and practices young people make in the context of their peers. Prominent in our discussion is a concern that mainstream educational theory and practice focuses disproportionately on the individual and their capacity to make rational and independent choices. We believe that within this individualizing framework, teachers have only a very limited capacity to influence the practices and decisions young people make in the presence of their peers, their friends. To ground this discussion we juxtapose the actions and interactions of two young male peer groups, to highlight their respective constructions of group identity.

Equal to life: empowerment through drama and research in a drama group for people with disabilities

This article draws from findings of qualitative research of a community- based drama and theatre group for adults with intellectual disabilities. The article considers constraints experienced by people with disabilities and explores the ways that experiences in drama and theatre can be particularly empowering for them. The article also reveals the ways that participants can increasingly become collaborators in the research and are empowered through the research process and through the opportunity to have their voices heard.

Peer groups, power and pedagogy : the limits of an educational paradigm of separation

In contrast to the plethora of literature that suggests that the increasing gulf between teachers and young people is due to the shifting interests and expectations of young people, the focus of this paper is on the roles teachers play in this relationship. Provoking interest is a concern that some of the assumptions that underpin 'mainstream' pedagogic theory and practice might actually contribute, albeit unwittingly, to hardening rather than softening the communication divide. Drawing on an incident that took place between a group of 7–8 year old males in a primary school setting, the authors reveal the limits of a teaching paradigm that encourages teachers to adopt authoritative positions from which to separate and individualise student behaviour. In theoretical terms, they argue that the application of this paradigm asserts an exaggerated notion of agency to individuals in the construction of identity. In practical terms it promotes processes that individualise behaviour as a way of dealing with miscreance. Together these manifest themselves as a 'pedagogy of separation'. The process of building more productive pedagogic relationships, it is concluded, needs to begin with teachers better recognising and engaging with the collective investments of young people.

Bad, mad and sad : developing a methodology of inclusion and a pedagogy for researching students with intellectual disabilities

A critical question for me as a teacher/researcher in the field of inclusive education is how to reposition children with moderate and severe intellectual disabilities as participants rather than subjects in the debate. In this paper, I develop a methodology of inclusion that comprises an ethics of consent and a pedagogy for research participation that is an opportunity not only to teach, but also to create a new discursive space for six children to speak. The discussion explores a range of methodological and interpretive strategies for including children with significant intellectual disabilities in research: issues of informed consent, the negotiation of power relations and the ways in which this innovative pedagogy can be empowering beyond the research situation. The use of this methodology has provocative implications concerning what might be learned about forging a link between the struggle for change and educational policy/practice if other researchers worked towards creating spaces for these most marginalized children to speak.

A tale of action, suspense and drama : Village Roadshow’s buy-back scheme

The experience of Village Roadshow, in its two failed attempts to have a share buy-back scheme approved by the Supreme Court, sounds a warning to companies and their legal advisers about the pitfalls in presentation of such schemes to shareholders.

Creating spaces for pedagogy : research as learning

As teacher-educators, the authors designed and implemented a small study that mapped teacher-education students' understandings of their own identities and how they made sense of ethnicity and class differences among their secondary students while on teaching rounds. While the authors did not set out to 'teach' their research participants, it was during the analysis of data from the research project, that they began to realise the potential of research to create opportunities for learning. In this paper the authors speculate on the 'conditions' of knowledge production and suggest that the dialogic nature of interviews and focus group discussions can offer pedagogical spaces for learning. Research designs that incorporate opportunities for participants to re-tell narratives over periods of time, may position participants as experts in knowledge production and may reposition them and researchers in more equitable power relations. The authors present an example of one participant's narrative together with their interpretations to explore how research potentially offers 'evidence' of learning. While this is tentative only, the authors suggest there is a need to create spaces for pedagogy in the design and execution of educational research.

A focus on teaching in online pedagogy

As the Internet continues to grow in popularity and educational institutions feel the need to have a presence online, 'learning and teaching online' has become somewhat of an IT cliché. In many cases course material is made available online and it is left up to the learner to learn. The claims made for online courses promise considerable cost savings after the initial establishment period, and opportunities to provide education to a larger, globalised marketplace. For students, online learning is thought to allow more flexible study options, and the opportunity to work and study at the same time (Bell, et al 2002, p. 27).

In this paper we question the assumption that online teaching is merely making course material available on the World Wide Web. We report on our study of what is involved in the act of teaching online and on the research that led to the development of the 'mobile teaching facility' to enable a focus on teaching in the online environment. We reflect on how a group of academic staff are responding to online teaching. Details of professional development workshops, hardware and software solutions and working with the complexities of pedagogy will also be discussed. This paper is about our findings, recommendations and plans for future explorations.