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.

Metaphors are good mirrors: reflecting on change for teacher educators

In this paper we discuss the use of metaphor as an educative tool for reflection. In the instance of this paper we use metaphor to reflect on the personal images of change that were used by some women teacher educators to make sense of their professional lives and practices over the last decade. This last decade in teacher education has seen significant institutional and cultural change. The paper discusses the strengths and limitations of the use of metaphor. The different interpretations of these metaphors illustrates how these women have used metaphor for explaining facets of change in their professional lives. The challenge of professional renewal is apparent in the metaphors in the ways that complexity, change, journeys, and movement are indicated. Reflection on change in professional practice needs to be continuous. Use of metaphor in the way described in this paper encourages that ongoing process.

Identifying the underlying dimensions of teachers' emotional intelligence

Within the area of educational research that has its focus on individual differences, the concept of emotional intelligence and its study in relation to the professional lives of teachers has raised considerable interest over the past decade. This article reports on data from a new measure of emotional intelligence specifically related to situations in the teaching environment. The four underlying dimensions that are identified in this study appear to be a more relevant way of characterising emotional intelligence for those in the teaching profession than other conceptualisations of emotional intelligence. The article concludes with an examination of the contention that emotional intelligence is strongly connected to effective teaching practice

Factors affecting the engagement of experienced teachers in schools

With the changing age profile of teachers in Australian schools, considerable numbers of experienced teachers need to feature as educational leaders, before their workplace knowledge and expertise will be lost to schools with retirement. Stereotypes of veteran teachers depict individuals, wearied by decades of work experiences, entering professional decline when educational systems need these experienced practitioners to remain connected, communicative and motivated in their work. This thesis explores the careers and contemporary professional lives of experienced practitioners — predominantly classroom teachers — currently working in a school with a long standing commitment to student-centred education. The research identified the factors that influenced their career pathways and affected their engagement with their work. Critical incidents in the teachers’ careers and professional lives are discussed in relation to the theories of motivation and the nature of Professional Learning Communities. The study showed that necessary factors for engagement were: mutual alignment with a well-articulated and practised ethos; supportive leadership; experiencing professional influence; opportunities for learning; and variety in work. Disillusion resulted if school actions were contrary to the espoused ethos. Severely negative experiences of performance management were survived by withdrawing, and enduring management tenures but these remain very poignant memories. The teachers had few career regrets yet reflection revealed the arbitrary nature of their career progression. The research identified a need to recognise the global and societal factors influencing the nature of teachers’ work. It is argued that schools and systems need to have a greater alignment between these external forces and their internal goals whilst recapturing the moral purpose of education. Furthermore, it is asserted that educational systems need to provide better human resource management for the teaching workforce through emphasising life-balance and well-being. Additionally, professional appraisal and staff management would benefit from strong recognition and deployment of the workplace knowledge and expertise of experienced teachers. A serendipitous outcome of the research was the benefit participants gained from reflecting on their careers which proved extremely affirming, and contributed to enhanced professional identities and changed career plans.

Helping teachers surf the information and communication technology tsunami

A range of factors, both internal and external, is creating changes in teaching and teachers’ professional lives. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is just one of the major changes impacting on the teaching profession. As teachers face intense pressure to adapt to this tsunami, this study aims to investigate ways in which teachers can be helped. In South Australia, where this study is set, all teachers in Government schools are expected to be "ICT Smart", i.e. able to use appropriate forms of ICT to enhance the teaching and learning environment of their classrooms. From the researcher’s involvement for over a decade in professional development for teachers, and from visits to many schools, it appears that numerous teachers have not reached this standard. The greatest need is in Reception to Year 7 schools where the average age of teachers is nearly 50. Because no state-wide data exists, this study is intended to establish if there is a problem and if there is, to identify specific needs and offer possible solutions. The study is comprised of four parts: Part A, the Introduction gives an overview of the inter-relationships between these parts and the overall Folio. It establishes the setting and provides a rationale for the study and its focus on Professional Development in Information and Communication Technology. Part B, the Elective Research Studies, follows the writer’s involvement in this field since the 1980s. It establishes the theme of "Moving best practice in ICT from the few to the many" which underlies the whole study. Part C, the Dissertation, traces the steps taken to investigate the need for professional development in ICT. This is achieved by analysing and commenting on data collected from a state-wide survey and a series of interviews with leading figures, and by providing a review of the relevant literature and past and existing models of professional development. Part D, Final Comments, provides an overview of the whole Folio and a reflection on the research that has been conducted. The findings are that there is widespread dissatisfaction with existing models and that there is an urgent need for professional development in this area, because nearly 20% of teachers either do not use computers or are considered to be novice users. Another 25% are considered to be below not yet "ICT Smart". Less than 10% of ICT co-ordinators have a formal qualification in the field but more than 85% of them are interested in a Masters program. The study offers solutions in Part B where there is a discussion of a range of strategies to provide on-going professional development for teachers. Chapter 9 provides an outline of a proposed Masters level program and offers suggestions on how it could be best delivered. This program would meet the identified needs of ICT co-ordinators. The study concludes with a series of recommendations and suggestions for further research. The Education Department must address these urgent professional development needs of teachers, particularly those in the more remote country regions. There needs to be a follow-up survey to establish to what extent teachers in South Australia are now "ICT Smart ".

Serving the community : a biography of two primary teachers in rural Victoria 1922-1970

This biographical history investigates the formative influences, motivations and professional lives of wife and husband Ellen Cahalane Jennings (nee Murray) and Joseph Kevin Jennings in the context of their career as employees of the Victorian Education Department.

Using the art of trompe l’oeil to research induction and mentoring

This paper reveals how the art device of trompe l’oeil provided a way of thinking about the induction and mentoring experiences of seven beginning teachers in secondary school settings in the state of Victoria, Australia. The research study – a phenomenological, narrative inquiry – drew on Bourdieu’s theorising of ‘misrecognition’ and ‘symbolic violence’ to analyse data collected from interviews and the participants’ diary entries (written narratives). Both the trompe l’oeil art device and the theoretical lens illuminated the reframing of the participants’ initial understandings of mentor relationships to gain a different perspective on their early professional lives.

Building professional graduates through lifelong learning

With rapid changes across the world bringing new dynamics and  expectations to daily lives and workplace practices, increasingly workers, employees and organisations are being required quickly to adapt to and adopt new ideas. However, some employers are claiming that, despite the positive rhetoric of current education systems, the skills and attributes needed for success in the contemporary working world are not forthcoming from educational systems. A key ingredient emerging as a new vision to address the existing gap between rhetoric and practice appears to be the development of the skills for lifelong learning. Data collected from 102 employers in Queensland's marketing industries are examined in this paper to illuminate the interface between employers' expectations of business graduates and Queensland's tertiary education system. As a result of this examination, it appears that what the employers desired from graduates was in line with lifelong learning skills at university level, but there is an apparent lack of provision for developing such skills at that level.

Narrative and portfolio approaches to teacher professional standards

This paper analyses various uses of narrative in the exploration of teacher identity. It highlights the way many contemporary education writers use terminology such as ‘storying lives’ and ‘storied landscapes’ to describe teacher processes of reflection on practice. In this paper the authors discuss some recent approaches to narrative that incorporate or suggest systematic uses of narrative theory (Conle 2003, Kamler, 2001, Richardson, 2003). Consideration is also given to the links between critical ethnography and narrative in order to critique the use of teacher portfolios, as in a recent Australian initiative for the appraisal of beginning teachers. The authors conclude with an argument for the rehabilitation and refinement of narrative theory in the ‘writing’ of teacher identity.

New teachers, professional knowledge and educational reform in New Zealand

This thesis examines the professional knowledge of new secondary school teachers in New Zealand, their negotiation of multiple discourses encountered in policy and practice, and their processes of professional identity formation. It is also a study of policy reform. In New Zealand, as elsewhere, recent educational and social reforms have brought about major changes to the way education is managed and implemented. These reforms emphasise market ideologies promoting consumer choice and responsibility, while measuring and monitoring quality and effectiveness. At the same time, the reforms attempt to alleviate social inequality. Teachers' negotiation of an accountability culture and the dominant equity policies is a major focus of this study. The study draws upon group interviews held with nine new teachers during the first two years of their teaching careers. The group interviews were designed to elicit extended narratives from individual teachers, as well as promote more interactive dialogue and reflections within the groups. Because the interviews were conducted at different points in their early careers, the study also has a longitudinal element, allowing insight into how teachers' views are formed or changed during an intense period of professional learning. Analysis of the teachers' narratives is informed by poststructural and feminist understandings of identity and knowledge and by a methodological orientation to writing as a method of enquiry. The thesis develops three main types of discussion and sets of arguments. The first examines new teachers' negotiation of the 'macro' context of teacher knowledge formation that is, their negotiation of an educational policy environment that juxtaposes an equity agenda with accountability controls. In order to historically situate these dilemmas, the particular political, social and educational context of New Zealand is examined. It is argued that teachers negotiate competing political and conceptual debates about social justice, equity and difference, and that this negotiation is central to the formation of professional knowledge. The analysis illustrates ways in which teachers make sense of equity discourses in educational policy and practice, and the apparent contradictions that arise from placing tight accountability standards on schools and teachers to achieve associated equity goals. The second type of discussion focuses on teachers' negotiation of the 'micro' dimension of professional knowledge, looking closely at the processes and practices that form professional identity. Against stage or developmental models of teacher identity, it is argued that professional identity is formed in an ongoing, uneven and fluid manner and is socially and discursively situated/embedded. It is further argued that professional knowledge and identity are entwined and that this relationship is most usefully understood through analysis of the discursive practices that frame teachers' working lives and through which teachers work out who they are or should become and what and how they (should) think. This analysis contributes new perspectives to debates in teacher education about teacher preparation and the knowledge required of teachers in current 'new times'. The final cluster of arguments brings together these macro and micro aspects of professional knowledge and identity with a case study of how new teachers negotiated a recent educational reform of senior secondary school qualifications in New Zealand. This reform has had a significant impact on secondary schools and on the way teachers, and New Zealanders in general, think about education, achievement and success. It was found that this reform significantly challenged new teachers to question their beliefs about assessment and justice in education, and what counts as success. This case study draws attention to the tensions between equity, academic excellence and standards-based assessment, and contributes to understanding how teacher professional knowledge forms both in the context of a specific educational policy reform and in relation to educational reform in general. This study contributes new knowledge to the formation of teacher professional knowledge and identity in an educational climate of change in New Zealand. The findings offer new insights for teacher educators, policymakers and schools into how teachers build, shape and sustain professional knowledge; how they juggle contradictions between a desire for justice, policy imperatives and teacher education rhetoric; the self-constructed, but contingent nature of professional knowledge and identity; and the urgency to address identity formation as part of teacher education and to take account of the dynamic ways in which identities form. These matters need to be articulated in teacher education both pre-service and in-service in order to address teacher retention and satisfaction, and teachers' commitment to equity reform in education.

Good lives sexual offender treatment for mentally disordered offenders

Purpose – The main aim of this paper is to describe the content, structure and preliminary evaluation of a new Good Lives sexual offender treatment group (SOTG) for male mentally disordered offenders.

Design/methodology/approach – As evaluation and work on the SOTG is necessarily ongoing, case study descriptions of each patient who attended the SOTG and of their progress throughout SOTG are described.

Findings – Overall, the case study progress reports suggest that mentally disordered male patients made some notable progress on SOTG despite their differential and complex needs. In particular, attention to each patient's life goals and motivators appeared to play a key role in promoting treatment engagement. Furthermore, patients with lower intelligence quotient and/or indirect pathways required additional support to understand the links between the Good Lives Model (GLM) and their own risk for sexual offending.

Research limitations/implications – Further evaluations of SOTG groups, that incorporate higher numbers of participants and adequate control groups, are required before solid conclusions and generalisations can be made.

Practical implications – Practitioners should consider providing additional support to clients when implementing any future SOTGs for mentally disordered patients.

Originality/value – This is the first paper to outline and describe implementation of the GLM in the sexual offender treatment of mentally disordered male patients group format. As such, it will be of interest to any professionals involved in the facilitation of sexual offender treatment within this population.

Storytelling and professional learning

This essay explores the role that storytelling might play in the professional learning of English teachers. It begins by reflecting on the ways that stories shape our everyday lives, and then considers how the meaning-making potential of storytelling might enable us to gain insights into our work as educators. This is in contradistinction to the 'knowledge' currently privileged by standards­ based reforms, most notably the fetish of measurement reflected in standardised testing. The essay concludes that stories are not simply a form of knowing but a vital means of making the world human to us.

Storytelling and professional learning

This essay explores the role that storytelling might play in the professional learning of English teachers. It begins by reflecting on the ways that stories shape our everyday lives, and then considers how the meaning-making potential of storytelling might enable us to gain insights into our work as educators. This is in contradistinction to the ‘knowledge’ currently privileged by standards-based reforms, most notably the fetish of measurement reflected in standardized testing. The essay concludes that stories are not simply a form of knowing but a vital means of making the world human to us.