The impact of outcomes-driven curriculum reform on teacher perspectives of professional practice

This thesis is the result of an investigation of a Queensland example of curriculum reform based on outcomes, a type of reform common to many parts of the world during the last decade. The purpose of the investigation was to determine the impact of outcomes on teacher perspectives of professional practice. The focus was chosen to permit investigation not only of changes in behaviour resulting from the reform but also of teachers' attitudes and beliefs developed during implementation. The study is based on qualitative methodology, chosen because of its suitability for the investigation of attitudes and perspectives. The study exploits the researcher's opportunities for prolonged, direct contact with groups of teachers through the selection of an over-arching ethnography approach, an approach designed to capture the holistic nature of the reform and to contextualise the data within a broad perspective. The selection of grounded theory as a basis for data analysis reflects the open nature of this inquiry and demonstrates the study's constructivist assumptions about the production of knowledge. The study also constitutes a multi-site case study by virtue of the choice of three individual school sites as objects to be studied and to form the basis of the report. Three primary school sites administered by Brisbane Catholic Education were chosen as the focus of data collection. Data were collected from three school sites as teachers engaged in the first year of implementation of Student Performance Standards, the Queensland version of English outcomes based on the current English syllabus. Teachers' experience of outcomes-driven curriculum reform was studied by means of group interviews conducted at individual school sites over a period of fourteen months, researcher observations and the collection of artefacts such as report cards. Analysis of data followed grounded theory guidelines based on a system of coding. Though classification systems were not generated prior to data analysis, the labelling of categories called on standard, non-idiosyncratic terminology and analytic frames and concepts from existing literature wherever practicable in order to permit possible comparisons with other related research. Data from school sites were examined individually and then combined to determine teacher understandings of the reform, changes that have been made to practice and teacher responses to these changes in terms of their perspectives of professionalism. Teachers in the study understood the reform as primarily an accountability mechanism. Though teachers demonstrated some acceptance of the intentions of the reform, their responses to its conceptualisation, supporting documentation and implications for changing work practices were generally characterised by reduced confidence, anger and frustration. Though the impact of outcomes-based curriculum reform must be interpreted through the inter-relationships of a broad range of elements which comprise teachers' work and their attitudes towards their work, it is proposed that the substantive findings of the study can be understood in terms of four broad themes. First, when the conceptual design of outcomes did not serve teachers' accountability requirements and outcomes were perceived to be expressed in unfamiliar technical language, most teachers in the study lost faith in the value of the reform and lost confidence in their own abilities to understand or implement it. Second, this reduction of confidence was intensified when the scope of outcomes was outside the scope of the teachers' existing curriculum and assessment planning and teachers were confronted with the necessity to include aspects of syllabuses or school programs which they had previously omitted because of a lack of understanding or appreciation. The corollary was that outcomes promoted greater syllabus fidelity when frameworks were closely aligned. Third, other benefits the teachers associated with outcomes included the development of whole school curriculum resources and greater opportunity for teacher collaboration, particularly among schools. The teachers, however, considered a wide range of factors when determining the overall impact of the reform, and perceived a number of them in terms of the costs of implementation. These included the emergence of ethical dilemmas concerning relationships with students, colleagues and parents, reduced individual autonomy, particularly with regard to the selection of valued curriculum content and intensification of workload with the capacity to erode the relationships with students which teachers strongly associated with the rewards of their profession. Finally, in banding together at the school level to resist aspects of implementation, some teachers showed growing awareness of a collective authority capable of being exercised in response to top-down reform. These findings imply that Student Performance Standards require review and, additional implementation resourcing to support teachers through times of reduced confidence in their own abilities. Outcomes prove an effective means of high-fidelity syllabus implementation, and, provided they are expressed in an accessible way and aligned with syllabus frameworks and terminology, should be considered for inclusion in future syllabuses across a range of learning areas. The study also identifies a range of unintended consequences of outcomes-based curriculum and acknowledges the complexity of relationships among all the aspects of teachers' work. It also notes that the impact of reform on teacher perspectives of professional practice may alter teacher-teacher and school-system relationships in ways that have the potential to influence the effectiveness of future curriculum reform.

A life jacket with holes- : a case study of 'temporary engagement' : a strategy used by Education Queensland to employ beginning secondary teachers

This research investigated the impact of Education Queensland's employment policy and practices for beginning secondary teachers appointed on temporary engagement. The context was the public secondary school sector within the state of Queensland, Australia. The study was set within a context of the changing nature of work from full-time permanent employment towards casual, fixed-term contracts, temporary and part-time employment, a trend reflected in the employment patterns for teachers within Australia. Two broad categories of literature relating to the research problem of this thesis were reviewed, namely the beginning teacher and permanency or tenure. The focus in the research literature on beginning teachers was the professional experiences of teachers within the classroom and school. There was a paucity of research that considered the working and industrial conditions of temporary employment for beginning teachers or the personal and professional implications of this form of employment. The review of the context and literature was conceptualised as a Beginning Temporary Teacher Theoretical Framework which served to inform the study. Using a qualitative case study methodology, the research techniques employed for the thesis were semi-structured interview and document analysis. A simultaneously conducted research project in which the researcher participated entitled 'Winning the Lottery? Beginning Teachers on Temporary Engagement' foregrounded this thesis in terms of refining the research question, contributing to the literature and in the selection of the participants. For this case study the perspectives of four distinct yet inter-related categories of professionals were sought. These included four beginning secondary teachers, three school administrators, a Senior Personnel Officer with Education Queensland, and a representative from the Queensland Teachers' Union. The research findings indicated that none of the beginning teachers or other professionals viewed starting a career in teaching on temporary engagement as the ideal. The negative features identified were the differential treatment received and the high level of uncertainty associated with temporary employment. Differential treatment tended to indicate 'less' entitlements, in terms of access to induction and professional development, recreational and sick leave, acceptance by and expectations of other colleagues, and avenues of redress in grievance cases. Moreover, interviews indicated a high level of uncertainty in terms of starting within the teaching profession, commencing at a new school, and a regular income. In addition, frequent changes in schools and/or cohorts of students exacerbated levels of uncertainty. The beginning teachers reported significantly decreased motivation, self-esteem and sense of belonging, and increased stress levels. There was an even more marked negative impact on those beginning teachers who had experienced a higher number of temporary engagements and schools in their first year of teaching. Conversely, strong staff support and a reasonable length of time in the one school improved the quality of the beginning teachers' experiences. The overall impact of being on temporary engagement resulted in delayed permanent position appointments, decreased commitment to particular schools and to Education Queensland as the employing authority, and for two of the beginning teachers, it produced a desire to seek alternative employment. The implementation of Education Queensland's policies relating to working conditions and entitlements for these temporary beginning teachers at the school level was revealed to be less than satisfactory. There was a tendency towards 'just-in- time' management of the beginning teacher on temporary engagement. The beginning teachers received 'less-than-messages' about access to and use of departmental documentation, support through induction and professional development, and their transition from temporary to permanent employment. To ensure a more systematic, supportive and inclusive process for managing the temporary beginning teacher, a conceptual framework entitled 'Continuums of Tension' was developed. The four continuums included permanent employment - temporary employment; system perspective - individual perspective; teaching as a profession - teaching as a job; and the permanent beginning teacher - university graduate. The general principles of the human resource policies of Education Queensland were based on a commitment to permanent employment, a system's perspective, viewing teaching as a profession and a homogeneous group of permanent beginning teachers. Contrasting with this, the beginning teacher on temporary engagement tended to operate from the position of temporary employment and a perspective that was individually based. Their priorities therefore included the 'occupational' aspects of being a temporary teacher striving to become permanent. Thus there existed a tension or contradiction between the general principles of human resource policies within Education Queensland and the employment experiences of beginning teachers on temporary engagement. The study proposed three actions for resolution to address the aforementioned tensions. The actions included: (a) the effective provision and targeted communication of information; (b) support, induction and professional development; and (c) a coordinated approach between Education Queensland, Queensland Teachers' Union, the Universities and the beginning teacher. These actions are fm1her refined to include: (a) an induction kit to suppm1 the individual through the pre-employment to permanent employee phases, (b) an extrapolation of the roles and responsibilities of Education Queensland personnel charged with supporting the beginning temporary teacher, and (c) a series of recommendations to effect a coordinated approach amongst the key stakeholders. The theoretical and conceptual frameworks have provided a means of addressing the identified needs of the beginning teacher on temporary engagement. As such, this study has contributed to the research literature on teacher employment and professionalism and aims to provide a beginning temporary teacher with managed professional and occupational support.

Art in early childhood : the discourse of 'proper' teaching

This thesis is a problematisation of the teaching of art to young children. To problematise a domain of social endeavour, is, in Michel Foucault's terms, to ask how we come to believe that "something ... can and must be thought" (Foucault, 1985:7). The aim is to document what counts (i.e., what is sayable, thinkable, feelable) as proper art teaching in Queensland at this point ofhistorical time. In this sense, the thesis is a departure from more recognisable research on 'more effective' teaching, including critical studies of art teaching and early childhood teaching. It treats 'good teaching' as an effect of moral training made possible through disciplinary discourses organised around certain epistemic rules at a particular place and time. There are four key tasks accomplished within the thesis. The first is to describe an event which is not easily resolved by means of orthodox theories or explanations, either liberal-humanist or critical ones. The second is to indicate how poststructuralist understandings of the self and social practice enable fresh engagements with uneasy pedagogical moments. What follows this discussion is the documentation of an empirical investigation that was made into texts generated by early childhood teachers, artists and parents about what constitutes 'good practice' in art teaching. Twenty-two participants produced text to tell and re-tell the meaning of 'proper' art education, from different subject positions. Rather than attempting to capture 'typical' representations of art education in the early years, a pool of 'exemplary' teachers, artists and parents were chosen, using "purposeful sampling", and from this pool, three videos were filmed and later discussed by the audience of participants. The fourth aspect of the thesis involves developing a means of analysing these texts in such a way as to allow a 're-description' of the field of art teaching by attempting to foreground the epistemic rules through which such teacher-generated texts come to count as true ie, as propriety in art pedagogy. This analysis drew on Donna Haraway's (1995) understanding of 'ironic' categorisation to hold the tensions within the propositions inside the categories of analysis rather than setting these up as discursive oppositions. The analysis is therefore ironic in the sense that Richard Rorty (1989) understands the term to apply to social scientific research. Three 'ironic' categories were argued to inform the discursive construction of 'proper' art teaching. It is argued that a teacher should (a) Teach without teaching; (b) Manufacture the natural; and (c) Train for creativity. These ironic categories work to undo modernist assumptions about theory/practice gaps and finding a 'balance' between oppositional binary terms. They were produced through a discourse theoretical reading of the texts generated by the participants in the study, texts that these same individuals use as a means of discipline and self-training as they work to teach properly. In arguing the usefulness of such approaches to empirical data analysis, the thesis challenges early childhood research in arts education, in relation to its capacity to deal with ambiguity and to acknowledge contradiction in the work of teachers and in their explanations for what they do. It works as a challenge at a range of levels - at the level of theorising, of method and of analysis. In opening up thinking about normalised categories, and questioning traditional Western philosophy and the grand narratives of early childhood art pedagogy, it makes a space for re-thinking art pedagogy as "a game oftruth and error" (Foucault, 1985). In doing so, it opens up a space for thinking how art education might be otherwise.