School libraries and teacher-librarians : evidence of their contribution to student literacy and learning

International research provides compelling evidence that school libraries and teacher-librarians make a significant contribution to student literacy and learning outcomes. After summarising previous research, this article presents recent research focused on Gold Coast schools. These new Australian findings present an evidenced based snapshot of school libraries and teacher-librarians, from the principals’ perspective. They indicate that school NAPLAN scores for reading and writing were generally higher when student-to-library staff ratios were lower (i.e. better) and when the school employed a teacher-librarian. In light of the National Plan for School Improvement, the findings are of potential interest to education authorities, policy makers, school leadership teams, teacher-librarians, teachers, parents and researchers. They offer evidence to inform policy development and strategic planning for school libraries and professional staffing.

Submission to expert panel on constitutional recognition of Indigenous people

Submission recommended addition of a new 'self-enacting' preamble and enacting words to the Commownealth Constitution, and replacement of the 'race power' by a series of more specific powers relating to the recognition of native title and laws of the indigenous people.

Early career teacher attrition: A case study of independent Catholic girls' schools in Queensland

This research study sought to understand why so many early career teachers in an Australian Religious Institute education sector were leaving teaching. Previous studies on early career teacher attrition across all sectors were based on supply and demand theory, as well as contemporary career theory, and identified various factors such as remuneration, student behaviour and school resourcing as influencing factors. These Australian Religious Institute education sector schools take pride in their good standing. The schools in this sector have worked at addressing many of the factors associated with early career teacher attrition yet despite their efforts they are also experiencing attrition of their early career teachers. A case study of the Queensland independent Catholic girls' school sector explored firstly, the construct of being a teacher in these schools, and secondly, the sociocultural discourses giving rise to unique situations contributing to early career teachers making the decision to leave teaching. Eight early career teachers who had left the profession for which they had recently trained, and eight long standing teachers who were still employed in the sector were interviewed to yield a rich data set. The interviews were conducted within a theoretical framework of what it means to be a teacher by Graham and Phelps (2003) and pedagogic identity and pedagogic practice as noted by Bernstein (2000). The distributive rules and the evaluative rules (Bernstein, 2000) provided the analytical framework to confirm that particular discourses, together with the ways in which the early career teachers realised being a teacher, were important factors in the decision not to remain in teaching. It emerged that being a teacher in the Queensland independent Catholic girls' school sector was complex and demanding. Being a teacher required long hours of personal time to realise the demands of teaching, a situation which did not fare well with the early career teachers who struggled to balance the requirements of teaching with their own personal time. Furthermore, evidence was found that the schools had multifaceted sociocultural discourses that the early career teacher research participants struggled to understand. In contrast, long standing teachers had, through time, experience and observation, developed skills that allowed them to navigate these complex discourses and thus remain long term in the sector. Another finding revealed the considerable dichotomy in how the charism of the schools (the unique way Catholic institutions transmit the beliefs and teachings of the Catholic Church) unfolded for students and staff. While these schools transmit their charism effectively to the students, it is ineffectively transmitted to early career teachers. In contemporary times when a majority of teachers in Australia are moving into their 50s and large numbers are retiring or resigning, (Australian Government, 2011; Australian Government Department of Education, 2007b) it is important for the long term viability of the independent Catholic school sector to retain a stable staff. This study demonstrates that if Catholic schools want to retain their unique identity in the education community and sustain their unique charisms, then they must adopt positive practices to support early career teachers.

Parent-teacher engagement : a coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing approach

The accumulated evidence from more than four decades of education research strongly suggests that parent involvement in schools carries significant benefits for students as well as for the success of schools (e.g., Henderson & Mapp, 2002). Governments in Australia and overseas have supported parent involvement in schools with a range of initiatives while parent groups have indicated a strong desire for expanded school roles that include participation in formal educational processes namely curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment. Research has also signalled the need for teachers to engage parents rather than adopt traditional parent-school involvement practices so that parents can participate as joint educators in their children's schooling alongside teachers (Pushor, 2001). Actually improving the quality of contact and relationships between parents and teachers to enable engagement however remains problematic. Coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing originally emerged as an innovative approach in the context of teaching secondary school science. Coteaching brings together the collective expertise of several individuals to expand learning opportunities for students while cogenerative dialogues refer to sessions in which participants talk, listen, and learn from one another about the process (Roth & Tobin, 2002a). Coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing reportedly benefits students academically and socially while rewarding educators professionally and emotionally through the support and collaboration they receive from fellow coteachers. These benefits ensue because coteaching theoretically positions teachers at one another's elbows, providing new and different understandings about teaching based on first-hand perspectives and shared goals for assisting students to learn. This thesis proposes that coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing may provide a vehicle for improving quality of contact and relationships between parents and teachers. To investigate coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing as a parent-teacher engagement mechanism, interpretive ethnographic case study research was conducted involving two parents and a secondary school teacher. Sociological ideas, namely Bourdieu's (1977) fields, habitus, and capitals, together with multiple dialectical concepts such as agency|structure (Sewell, 1992) and agency|passivity (Roth, 2007b, 2010) were assembled into a conceptual framework to examine parent-teacher relationships by describing and explaining cultural production and identity construction throughout the case study. Video and audio recordings of cogenerative dialogues and cotaught lessons comprised the chief data sources. Data were analysed using qualitative techniques such as discourse and conversation analysis to identify patterns and contradictions (Roth & Tobin, 2002a). The use of quality criteria detailed by Guba and Lincoln (2005) gives credence to the way in which ethical considerations infused the planning and conduct of this research. From the processes of data collection and analyses, three broad assertions were proffered. The findings highlight the significance of using multiple coordinated dialectical concepts for analysing the affordances and challenges of coteaching and cogenerative dialogues that include parents and teachers. Adopting the principles and purposes of coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing promoted trusting respectful relationships that generated an equitable culture. The simultaneous processes and tensions between logistics and ethics (i.e., the logistics|ethics dialectic) were proposed as a new way to conceptualise how power was redistributed among the participants. Knowledge of positive emotional energy and ongoing capital exchange conceived dialectically as the reciprocal interaction among cultural, social, and symbolic capitals (i.e., the dialectical relationship of cultural|social|symbolic capital) showed how coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing facilitated mutual understandings, joint decision-making, and group solidarity. The notion of passivity as the dialectical partner of agency explained how traditional roles and responsibilities were reconfigured and individual and collective agency expanded. Complexities that surfaced when implementing the coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing approach were outweighed by the multiple benefits that accrued for all involved. These benefits included the development of community-relevant and culturally-significant curricula that increased student agency and learning outcomes, heightened parent self-efficacy for participating in and contributing to formal educational processes, and enhanced teacher professionalism. This case study contributes to existing theory, knowledge and practice, and methodology in the research areas of parent-teacher relationships, specifically in secondary schools, and coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing. The study is particularly relevant given the challenges schools and teachers increasingly face to meaningfully connect with parents to better meet the needs of educational stakeholders in times of continual, complex, and rapid societal change.

The effects of standardised assessment (NAPLAN) on teacher pedagogy at two Queensland schools

The purpose of this qualitative interpretative case study was to explore how the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) requirements may be affecting pedagogies of two Year 3, Year 5 and Year 7 teachers at two Queensland schools. The perceived problem was that standardised assessment NAPLAN practices and its growing status as a key measure of education quality throughout Australia has the potential to limit the everyday literacy and numeracy practices of teachers to instructional methods primarily focused on teaching to the test. The findings demonstrate how increased explicit teaching of NAPLAN content and procedural knowledge prior to testing has the potential to negatively impact on the teaching of everyday literacy and numeracy skills and knowledge that extend beyond those concerned with NAPLAN. Such teaching limited opportunity for what teachers reported as valued collaborative learning contexts aiming for long-term literacy and numeracy results.

Student identities in a mathematical community of practice : radical visible pedagogy and the teacher collective

This study investigated the practices of two teachers in a school that was successful in enabling the mathematical learning of students in Years 1 and 2, including those from backgrounds associated with low mathematical achievement. The study explained how the practices of the teachers constituted a radical visible pedagogy that enabled equitable outcomes. The study also showed that teachers’ practices have collective power to shape students’ mathematical identities. The role of the principal in the school was pivotal because she structured curriculum delivery so that students experienced the distinct practices of both teachers.

How can Australia sustain middle school education?

Middle school is a crucial area of education where adolescents experiencing physiological and psychological changes, and require expert guidance. As more research evidence is provided about adolescent learning, teachers are considered pivotal to adolescents’ educational development. Reform measures need to be targeted at the inservice and preservice teacher levels. This quantitative study employs a 40-item, five part Likert scale survey to understand preservice teachers’ (n = 142) perceptions of their confidence to teach in a middle school at the conclusion of their tertiary education. The survey instrument was developed from the literature, with connections to the Queensland College of Teachers' professional standards. Results indicated that they perceived themselves as capable of creating a positive classroom environment with seven items greater than 80%, except with behaviour management (< 80% for two items), and they considered their pedagogical knowledge to be adequate (i.e., 7 out of 8 items > 84%). Items associated with implementing a middle school curriculum had varied responses (e.g., implementing literacy and numeracy were 74%, while implementing learning with real world connections was 91%). This information may assist coursework designers. For example, if a significant percentages of preservice teachers indicate that they believe they were not well prepared for assessment and reporting at the middle school level, then course designers can target these areas more effectively.

Enhancing teacher education : the School-Community Intergrated Learning (SCIL) pathway

National Australian reviews advocate exploring new models for preservice teacher education. This study investigates the outcomes of the School-Community Integrated Learning (SCIL) pathway as a model for advancing preservice teachers’ understandings of teaching. Thirty-two final-year preservice teachers were surveyed with extended written responses on how the SCIL pathway advanced their understandings of teaching. Results indicated 100% agreement on 6 of the 27 survey items. Indeed, 78% or more preservice teachers agreed that they had a range of experiences across the five categories (i.e., personal-professional skill development, understandings of system requirements, teaching practices, student behaviour and reflective practices). Extended responses suggested they had developed understandings around setting up classrooms, whole school planning processes with professional development, the allocation of teacher responsibilities (e.g., playground duties), parent-teacher interviews, diagnostic testing for literacy and numeracy, commencing running records of students’ assessment results, and the development of relationships (students, teachers and parents). Although a longitudinal study is required to determine long-term effects, the SCIL pathway may be viewed as a positive step towards preparing final-year preservice teachers for their first year as fully-fledged teachers.

Teaching sociology within teacher education : revisiting, realigning and re-embedding

This paper uses theoretical resources from the sociology of education to consider the teaching of sociology in teacher education programs in Australia. Once a disciplinary ‘pillar’ of teacher education, sociology’s contribution has become less explicit while more integrated, with consequences for disciplinary identity. Here we explore how sociology is taught in teacher education curricula on two fronts. Firstly we outline how sociology is embedded as one of a number of competing perspectives in foundational studies, and its pedagogic consequences. Then we consider the powerful contribution of sociology in literacy studies, amidst public debate about literacy performance. The analysis draws on Bernstein’s (2000) distinction between singular disciplinary curriculum design and practically-oriented regional curriculum design. We seek to trouble the commonsense binary between theory and practice that structures debates around professional education in higher education more broadly, and to dignify service sociology as a valuable, generative site for the discipline’s future.

The recruitment of STEM-talented students into teacher education programs

This paper begins by identifying three main reasons why many of the more STEM-Talented students at our universities do not consider enrolling in STEM teacher education programs. Then based on a review of the literature, a framework for addressing this dilemma is presented and discussed. This framework consists of a set of three principles together with eleven strategies for the operationalization of these principles. During the presentation of the framework, the roles of governments and of universities at the institutional, faculty/division and departmental levels in the operationalization of the framework are examined.

Through the eyes of the mentor : framing expectations within preservice teacher and mentor relationships

Mentoring relationships during pre-service education are a significant relationship through which emerging teachers negotiate their teacher identity (Iancu-Haddad & Oplatka, 2009; Hudson, 2010). It is therefore important to understand how mentor teachers frame their expectations. This paper explores mentoring relationships established within a Queensland partnership program funded through the Federal Government’s Improving Teacher Quality National Partnership Agreement (DEEWR, 2011). Within the broader policy context, these mentoring relationships were seen as an important space for pre-service teachers to experience cultural induction into Education Queensland schooling, and be advocates for quality teaching (Willis, Bahr, Bannah, & Welch, 2012). Interview and survey data from 14 teacher mentors were analysed using a dialectic constant comparison approach (Dick 2007). Three significant themes were identified. Mentor teachers’ understanding of their roles positioned pre-service teachers as either novices or alternatively as colleagues, and these had implications for the opportunities for learning that were then made available to the pre-service teachers. The mentor teacher’s beliefs about teaching as a practical craft, and how the mentor teachers judged a pre-service teacher’s “enthusiasm” were also analysed. Understanding the factors that guide teacher mentor approaches may inform future designs of mentoring and preservice teacher preparation programs.

What is an expert? A systems perspective on expertise

1. Expert knowledge continues to gain recognition as a valuable source of information in a wide range of research applications. Despite recent advances in defining expert knowledge, comparatively little attention has been given to how to view expertise as a system of interacting contributory factors, and thereby, to quantify an individual’s expertise. 2. We present a systems approach to describing expertise that accounts for many contributing factors and their interrelationships, and allows quantification of an individual’s expertise. A Bayesian network (BN) was chosen for this purpose. For the purpose of illustration, we focused on taxonomic expertise. The model structure was developed in consultation with professional taxonomists. The relative importance of the factors within the network were determined by a second set of senior taxonomists. This second set of experts (i.e. supra-experts) also provided validation of the model structure. Model performance was then assessed by applying the model to hypothetical career states in the discipline of taxonomy. Hypothetical career states were used to incorporate the greatest possible differences in career states and provide an opportunity to test the model against known inputs. 3. The resulting BN model consisted of 18 primary nodes feeding through one to three higher-order nodes before converging on the target node (Taxonomic Expert). There was strong consistency among node weights provided by the supra-experts for some nodes, but not others. The higher order nodes, “Quality of work” and “Total productivity”, had the greatest weights. Sensitivity analysis indicated that although some factors had stronger influence in the outer nodes of the network, there was relatively equal influence of the factors leading directly into the target node. Despite differences in the node weights provided by our supra-experts, there was remarkably good agreement among assessments of our hypothetical experts that accurately reflected differences we had built into them. 4. This systems approach provides a novel way of assessing the overall level of expertise of individuals, accounting for multiple contributory factors, and their interactions. Our approach is adaptable to other situations where it is desirable to understand components of expertise.

Troubled Times in Australian Teacher Education : 2012-2013

The 2012 OLT National Teaching Fellowship described in this report has mapped and analysed the complex and competing internal and external agencies impacting on the whole-of-curriculum design in contemporary higher education in Australia, particularly on degrees in Education with an emphasis on initial teacher education. The Fellowship was conducted at a time of both heightened public and political scrutiny of teacher education and the imposition of new nationally-consistent accreditation processes. This scrutiny culminated in a call by the previous Federal Government for TEQSA (Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency) to conduct a comprehensive review of teacher education beginning in 2014 and the incoming Government announcing it will establish a short term ministerial advisory group to report on the “priority issue of improving teacher quality” (Pyne, 2013).

How would you recognise an expert coach if you saw one?

A review of the literature that frames coaching practice and specifically the formation and determination of expert coaching practice reveals a body of research that lacks continuity. It has recently been argued that much of the instability surrounding our professional interpretation of coaching practice stems from a penchant for subjective investigation. This analysis draws on a review of over 100 peer reviewed articles, chapters and books – all published within the last 35 years, that address the notion of coaching practice. The findings of this analysis suggests that much of the research used to establish conceptual clarity fails to distinguish between highly organised or efficient coaching practice and expert coaching practice. This paper concludes with some recommendations from alternate paradigms which suggest that expertise in interceptive sports coaching may be better theorised and suitably identified through a lens of the growing ideas surrounding ‘emergence’.