Teacher professional standards : mirage or miracle cure - an archaeology of professionalism in education

This thesis is a problematisation of the development and implementation of professional standards as the mechanism to enhance professionalism and teacher quality in the teaching force within Australia and, more specifically, Queensland. Drawing on tools from Foucauldian archaeological analysis, the dominant discourses of professionalism from the academic literature, Australian federal and state policy documents and narratives from Queensland teachers are examined. These data sets are then cross referenced, analysing the intersections and divergences between the different texts. Findings suggest that through policy, political strategy and derisory statements from various authoritative voices, the managerial discourse of professionalism through professional standards documents has been unduly privileged as a means of regulating teachers, despite the fact that teachers themselves do not share this dominant notion of professionalism. The teachers in this study proffer ‘new classical-practical professionalism’ as a counter discourse, or discourse of resistance, to managerialism. However, an application of Foucault’s theorisations on power-knowledge reveals that their spoken discourses mean they are in fact yielding to the discourse of professional standards as docile bodies.

The heart of quality teaching : a values-based pedagogy for pre-service teacher education

In an ever changing world the adults of the future will be faced with many challenges. To cope with these challenges it seems apparent that values education will need to become paramount within a child.s education. A considerable number of research studies have indicated that values education is a critical component within education (Lovat & Toomey, 2007b). Building on this research Lovat (2006) claimed that values education was the missing link in quality teaching The concept of quality teaching had risen to the fore within educational research literature in the late 20th century with the claim that it is the teacher who makes the difference in schooling (Hattie, 2004). Thus, if teachers make such a difference to student learning, achievement and well-being, then it must hold true that pre-service teacher education programmes are vital in ensuring the development of quality teachers for our schools. The gap that this current research programme addressed was to link the fields of values education, quality teaching and pre-service teacher education. This research programme aimed to determine the impact of a values-based pedagogy on the development of quality teaching dimensions within pre-service teacher education. The values-based pedagogy that was investigated in this research programme was Philosophy in the Classroom. The research programme adopted a nested case study design based on the constructivist-interpretative paradigm in examining a unit within a pre-service teacher education programme at a Queensland university. The methodology utilised was qualitative where the main source of data was via interviews. In total, 43 pre-service teachers participated in three studies in order to determine if their involvement in a unit where the focus was on introducing pre-service teachers to an explicit values-based pedagogy impacted on their knowledge, skills and confidence in terms of quality teaching dimensions. The research programme was divided into three separate studies in order to address the two research questions: 1. In what ways do pre-service teachers perceive they are being prepared to become quality teachers? 2. Is there a connection between an explicit values-based pedagogy in pre-service teacher education and the development of pre-service teachers. understanding of quality teaching? Study One provided insight into 21 pre-service teachers. understandings of quality teaching. These 21 participants had not engaged in an explicit values-based pedagogy. Study Two involved the interviewing of 22 pre-service teachers at two separate points in time . prior to exposure to a unit that employed a values-explicit pedagogy and post this subject.s lecture content delivery. Study Three reported on and analysed individual case studies of five pre-service teachers who had participated in Study Two Time 1 and Time 2, as well as a third time following their field experience where they had practice in teaching the values explicit pedagogy. The results of the research demonstrate that an explicit values-based pedagogy introduced into a teacher education programme has a positive impact on the development of pre-service teachers. understanding of quality teaching skills and knowledge. The teaching and practice of a values-based pedagogy positively impacted on pre-service teachers with increases of knowledge, skills and confidence demonstrated on the quality teaching dimensions of intellectual quality, a supportive classroom environment, recognition of difference, connectedness and values. These findings were reinforced through the comparison of pre-service teachers who had participated in the explicit values-based pedagogical approach, with a sample of pre-service teachers who had not engaged in this same values-based pedagogical approach. A solid values-based pedagogy and practice can and does enhance pre-service teachers. understanding of quality teaching. These findings surrounding the use of a values-based pedagogy in pre-service teacher education to enhance quality teaching knowledge and skills has contributed theoretically to the field of educational research, as well having practical implications for teacher education institutions and teacher educators.

Sustaining teacher professionalism in the context of standards referenced assessment reform

Standards referenced reform, tied to reporting, engages directly with assessment issues related to accountability. Assessment is the key to good education and is inseparable from curriculum. In an accountability context, standards are used as a lever to improve the reliability and consistency of teacher judgement; and classroom evidence is used by education systems for reporting and tracking achievement over time. Assessment is thus a powerful driver for change and is at the heart of the teaching-learning dynamic. The relationship between the learner, learning and assessment needs to be kept central and the idea of teacher empowerment is fundamental. This chapter is a call to honour and sustain teacher professionalism through educative forms of school-based and teacher-led evaluation, assessment and communities of judgement practice. It supports the argument for a central place for classroom assessment in the role of assessment in educational accountability...

Preparing to teach : perceptions of graduate entry teacher education students

International reviews of teaching and teacher education have highlighted the importance of quality teachers in improving the outcomes of students. Teachers may enter the teaching profession through a variety of pathways. Currently in Australia, one pathway is through graduate entry teacher education programs in which people who already hold university degrees outside of education can undertake one-year formal teacher preparation programs. It may be argued that graduate entry teachers value add to the teaching profession as they bring with them a range of careers and wealth of experiences often beyond those of teachers who enter the profession through traditional four-year Bachelor of Education programs. This paper reports on a study that investigated the preparedness to teach of a group of graduate entry teacher education students as they prepared to exit from university and enter the teaching profession. The study concluded that this group of graduating teachers perceived that the field experience components in their formal teacher education programs contributed most to their beginning professional learning. The study revealed also that this group of graduating teachers sought further professional learning opportunities in the canonical skills of teaching. These findings may be used to inform the design of future teacher education programs.

Teacher decision making in early childhood education

The study investigated early childhood teacher decision making at the preschool level in the state of Victoria, Australia. Victorian teachers at the preschool level were in an interesting position in 2004. Unlike most other Australian states Victoria did not have a curriculum framework guiding educational content and pedagogy. Consequently, this study was able to take advantage of this situation and examine teacher decision making at a time when early childhood teachers were relatively autonomous in deciding curriculum content. The opportunity to study teacher decision making in this way has since passed, as Victorian preschool teachers are now regulated by newly introduced state and national curricula frameworks. To identify influences affecting teacher decision making three preschool teachers were interviewed and curricula related policies were analysed. The data were analysed using Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA) technique. Critical discourse analysis enabled a close analysis of influences on teacher decision making illustrating how discourse is legitimated, marginalised, and silenced in certain curricula practices. Critical theory was the underpinning framework used for the study and enabled taken-for-granted understandings to be uncovered within early childhood policies and teacher interviews. Key findings were that despite there not being a government-mandated curricula framework for Victorian preschool education in 2004, teachers were held accountable for their curricula practice. Yet as professionals, early childhood teachers were denied public acknowledgment of their expertise as they were almost invisible in policy. Subsequently, teachers’ authority as professionals with curricula knowledge was diminished. The study found that developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) was a dominant discourse influencing teacher decision making (TDM). It operated as legitimated discourse in the 2004 Victorian preschool context. Additionally, the study found that teacher directed practice was legitimated, marginalised, and silenced by teachers. The findings have implications for early childhood teacher decision making at the practice, research, and policy levels. Findings show that the dominance of the DAP discourse informing teacher decision making limits other ways of thinking and practising.

Governing teacher education : the case of teacher education in Australia

This paper analyses the attempted installation of the 1990 Australian Education Council commissioned report 'Teacher Education in Australia' (the Ebbeck Report), a document which proposed a radical reformulation and relative standardization of the content and structure of initial teacher education in Australia. The paper draws on Michel Foucault's concept of 'governmentality' to examine the discursive and technological dimensions of this programme of political rule. The paper makes apparent the 'microphysics of power' that were generated within, particularly, the Queensland educational community in the attempt to operationalise this report. Analysing educational policy from the perspective of 'government', the paper contends, directs attention to the conditions of operation of policy practices and reveals the dependence of educational policy on particular technical conditions of existence, routines and rituals of bureaucracy, forms of expertise and intellectual technologies, and the enlistment of agencies and authorities both within and outside the boundaries of the state.

The development of teacher assessment identity through participation in online moderation

Teachers’ professional conversations regarding the qualities evidenced in student work provide opportunities to develop a shared understanding of achievement standards. This research investigates social moderation conducted in a synchronous online mode as a specific form of professional conversation. The discussion considers the different factors that influenced these conversations which included the technologic medium of the meeting. The focus of the discussion is how participation in online moderation can support teachers to develop an assessment identity as one who works within a standards-based assessment system. Qualitative data were gathered from middle school teachers from different year levels, in different curriculum areas, in diverse geographic locations, and in a range of sociocultural contexts within Queensland, Australia. Analysis of the data through a sociocultural lens of becoming suggests that participation in online moderation, while challenging for teachers, can also provide opportunities to construct and to negotiate an identity as an assessor of student work.

Behavioural beliefs concerning gender and high-risk sexual behaviours in the context of HIV/AIDS in PNG : views from within teacher education

Education is often viewed as a key approach to address sexual-health issues; the current concern is the burgeoning HIV/AIDS epidemic. This ethnographic study investigates the gender practices associated with high-risk sexual behaviour in Papua New Guinea as viewed by educators there. A number of practices, including gender inequality and associated sexual behaviours have been highlighted by male and female participants as escalating PNG’s HIV/AIDS epidemic. The study finds that although participants were well-informed concerning HIV/AIDS, they had varying beliefs concerning the prevailing gender/sexual issues involved in escalating highrisk behaviour and how to address the problem. The study further examines the behavioural beliefs and intentions of the educators themselves. Subsequently, within the data a number of underpinning factors, pertaining to gender, education and life experience, were found to be related to the behaviour beliefs and intentions of participants towards embracing change with regard to behaviours associated with gender equality in PNG. These factors appeared to encourage participants to adopt healthier gender and sexual behavioural intentions and, arguably, could provide the basis for ways to help address the gender inequality and high-risk behaviours associated with HIV/AIDS in PNG.

Ecological footprinting : its potential as a tool for change in preservice teacher education

Environmental and sustainability issues pose challenges for society. Although education is seen as being a contributor to addressing sustainability, teacher education has been slow to act in preparing future teachers to teach sustainability. Recent Australian curriculum documents nominate sustainability as one of three cross-curriculum priorities. In one Australian university course, an Ecological Footprint Calculator tool has been employed to challenge preservice early childhood teachers to consider the sustainability of their lifestyles as a means for engaging them in learning and teaching for sustainability. Students enrolled in an integrated arts and humanities subject voluntarily engaged with the online calculator and shared their findings on an electronic discussion forum. These postings then became the basis of qualitative analysis and discussion. Data categories included reactions and reflections on reasons for the ‘heaviness’ of their footprints , student reactions leading to actions to reduce their footprints, reflections on the implications of the footprint results for future teaching, reactions that considered the need for societal change, and reflections on the integration of sustainability with the visual arts. The power of the tool’s application to stimulate interest in sustainability and education for sustainability more broadly in teacher education is explored.

Examining preservice teachers’ applied learning experiences in the Teacher Education Done Differently (TEDD) project

Reviews have criticised universities for not embedding sufficient praxis for preparing preservice teachers for the profession. The Teacher Education Done Differently (TEDD) project explored praxis development for preservice teachers within existing university coursework. This mixed-method investigation involved an analysis of multiple case studies with preservice teacher involvement in university programs, namely: Ed Start for practicum I (n=26), III (n=23), and IV (n=12); Move It Use It (Health and Physical Education program; n=38), Studies of Society and its Environment (SOSE, n=24), and Science in Schools (n=38). The project included preservice teachers teaching primary students at the campus site in gifted education (the B-GR8 program, n=22). The percentage range for preservice teacher agreement of their praxis development leading up to practicum I, III, and IV was between 91-100% with a high mean score range (4.26-5.00). Other university units had similar findings except for SOSE (i.e., percentage range: 10-86%; M range: 2.33-4.00; SD range: 0.55-1.32). Qualitative data presented an understanding of the praxis development leading to the conclusion that additional applied learning experiences as lead-up days for field experiences and as avenues for exploring the teaching of specific subject areas presented opportunities for enhancing praxis.

Understanding pre-service teacher conceptual change through slowmation animation

This paper is an exploration of conceptual change. It reports on a study which utilised Hewson and Lemberger’s (2000) Conceptual Status Elements, and explores the unique contribution of Slowmation Animation in the conceptual learning of pre-service science teachers. 15 short animations were created by 55 participants in a single two hour tutorial class as a part of their methods training. Conceptual change was found to occur when their animation topic challenged their understandings of the processes within the scientific concept. The pre-service science teachers reported an enthusiasm for Slowmation Animation as a method for learning how to learn, as well as for highlighting what they thought they knew, but didn’t really know.

Teacher aides and their pedagogical contributions in the underachieving Indigenous mathematics classroom

This study examines the pedagogical contributions made by teacher aides in underperforming Indigenous mathematics secondary classrooms. Three teaching teams, each consisting of a teacher and their teacher aide, responded to semi-structured interviews. Their mathematics classrooms were observed for details of pedagogical contributions to the mathematics lessons. It was found that the pedagogical contributions of the teacher aides varied from co-teaching contributions, to the provision of menial support and behaviour management. The techniques used by the teacher aides to provide student feedback, to support behaviour management and to undertake questioning vary greatly, and this variance is also evident in the classroom atmosphere. Teacher aides are providing pedagogical contributions, and are engaged in instructional interactions, and are in a sense “teaching”.

Teacher Reporting Attitudes Scale (TRAS): confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses with a Malaysian sample.

The Teacher Reporting Attitude Scale (TRAS) is a newly developed tool to assess teachers’ attitudes toward reporting child abuse and neglect. This article reports on an investigation of the factor structure and psychometric properties of the short form Malay version of the TRAS. A self-report cross-sectional survey was conducted with 667 teachers in 14 randomly selected schools in Selangor state, Malaysia. Analyses were conducted in a 3-stage process using both confirmatory (stages 1 and 3) and exploratory factor analyses (stage 2) to test, modify, and confirm the underlying factor structure of the TRAS in a non-Western teacher sample. Confirmatory factor analysis did not support a 3-factor model previously reported in the original TRAS study. Exploratory factor analysis revealed an 8-item, 4-factor structure. Further confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated appropriateness of the 4-factor structure. Reliability estimates for the four factors—commitment, value, concern, and confidence—were moderate. The modified short form TRAS (Malay version) has potential to be used as a simple tool for relatively quick assessment of teachers’ attitudes toward reporting child abuse and neglect. Cross-cultural differences in attitudes toward reporting may exist and the transferability of newly developed instruments to other populations should be evaluated.