I, Teacher : re-territorialization of teachers’ multi-faceted agency in globalized education

Analysis of teachers' agency as multifarious change, embedded in educational reform in the global era, stands largely unexamined in educational policy. Although the concept of teachers as agents has political implications, beyond this, examining teachers' agency offers ways of describing and reviewing changes to teachers' work and relations within evolving education systems. Local systems draw from globally orientated education policies, which continue to influence to the way that local systems redesign education. In the global context, education systems are complex interactions between structure and agency, evidenced as 'multiplicity undergoing change'. In other words, there is dynamic and dialectic interplay between structure and agency. Teachers' agency, germane to dynamic interplay, means that teachers are not only engaging in the reproduction of structural change aligning globalization-driven reforms to their work and practice, but also, in adapting and reacting to new structural conditions, they are transformed through their actions. In this paper, the focus becomes teachers' agency as a framework for understanding how teachers are redesigned and reassembled to do things differently within restructured education systems. Finally, the discussion considers the possible consequences of teachers work and practice, given teachers' agency relative to the macro policy of superfigures and the transitional national/global structures.

Teacher's professional knowledge and the teaching of reading in the early years

What are the sources of teachers’ professional knowledge for the teaching of reading? This paper reports findings from a study that investigated the role of teachers in the current Research-Policy-Praxis Nexus (RPPN). This was achieved by a specific focus upon constructions of reading in the early years in Victoria, Australia. All of the teacher participants either implemented or coordinated the Victorian Early Years Literacy Program (EYLP) in the primary school setting. These teachers were interviewed in order to hear their views on reading development and reading pedagogy and to identify the sources of this professional knowledge. The findings from this study are important for all teachers and teacher educators as they have implications for teaching practise, teacher education and teacher professional development programs.

The teacher's role in the research-policy-praxis nexus

What kinds of relationships exist between educational policy, research and the professional knowledge of the teachers that implement these policies in practice? This article reports research that examined the role of teachers working in an environment formed by links between research, policy and practice. By adopting a contextual focus upon the Victorian Early Years Literacy Program, its research and teachers who implement the program, the study analysed how early years reading is being constructed. Critical issues are identified about the impact of policy and research upon the teaching profession and the links that are present in the research-policy-praxis nexus.

Heteroglossic spaces : interrogating academic literacies in teacher education

This paper explores the challenges of implementing critical writing pedagogy in conditions of increasing cultural and textual uniformity of literacy and emphasises the need for a pedagogy that takes into account the heteroglossic nature of writing space and its relation to the multiple textual practices of students. In practical terms, we argue for such literacy practices in teacher education that would require students not only to understand the complexities of language and literacy but to actively engage them in a diverse range of textual practices that would both stretch their repertoires as language users and sensitise them to the cultural-semiotic diversity of contemporary classrooms. This task becomes more urgent in the current era of standards, accountability and classroom pedagogies that are not attuned to the particularities of students’ textual practices and the communication networks in which they participate.

On strangers, ‘moral panics’ and the neo-liberalization of teacher education

This paper explores the convergence of neo-liberal managerialism with the neo-conservative technologies of creating ‘moral panics’ about teacher education, English language and literacy curriculum and traditional values that allegedly fail to address the issues of public safety and cultural integration in the post- September 11th world. It problematises the neo-conservative vision of managing ‘strangers’ and public risks through dominant cultural literacy. The paper counters the neo-conservative backlash with a framework that emphasizes dialogical ethics in teaching for difference and conceptualizes transcultural literacy as an alternative model of education in multicultural conditions. This model is presented both as a way of resisting the subliminal infiltration of neo-conservative thinking in teacher education today and as a way of imagining a ‘cosmopolitan’ professional.

Professional identity and pedagogical space : negotiating difference in teacher workplaces

This paper explores ‘spatial struggle’ in the formation of professional identities of overseas born teachers. The basis of this struggle arises from a limited number of subject positions available for them in pedagogical spaces of the Australian system of education. We argue that relations of power/professional knowledge in teacher workplaces as well as the binary strategy of ‘us’ and ‘them’ generate marginal locations for overseas born teachers within schools. This construction of marginality is informed not only by discourses of what counts as being a professional but also by the conception of workplace – spaces of the school, staffroom and classroom – as monocultural, pre-given and bounded entities (McGregor, 2003). By rethinking workplaces as relational, as spaces that are connected to other sociocultural places as well as spaces of semiotic flows, we can also rethink the professional becoming of overseas born teachers. This involves a critical understanding of their positionality, which can be conceptualised as a struggle for voice within “a cacophony of past and present voices, lived experiences and available practices” (Britzman, 1991, p.8). It is because of this polyphony of voices and multiplicity of experiences that the process of professional identity formation for ‘alien’ teachers should be seen as becoming in continual negotiation of power/knowledge relations within workplaces. Recognising this dynamic is important for re-constructing our pedagogical spaces and, in turn, for a more equitable workplace practices.

Tutor and teacher timescapes : lessons from a home-school partnership

A partnership project was developed in which parents volunteered to support teachers
in training years 1-3 children in computer skills at a primary school in a small, low
socio-economic community. This article identifies the ways teachers and the ‘tutors’
(as the volunteers were called) understood the value of the project. ‘Being a teacher’
and ‘being a volunteer’ were structured by different forms of social engagement,
which in turn influenced the ways individuals were able to work with each other in
collaborative processes. We argue that the discursive practices encoded in homeschool-
community partnership rhetoric represent ruling-class ways of organising and
networking that may be incompatible with those of people from low socio-economic
backgrounds. When such volunteers work in schools their attendance may be sporadic
and short-term whereas teachers would like ‘reliable’ ongoing commitment. This
mismatch wrought of teachers’ and volunteers’ differing everyday realities needs to be
understood before useful models for partnerships in disadvantaged communities may
be realised.

Professional identity and pedagogical space : negotiating difference in teacher workplaces

This paper explores "spatial struggle" in the formation of professional identities of overseas-born teachers. The basis of this struggle arises from a limited number of subject positions available for them in pedagogical spaces of the Australian system of education. We argue that relations of power/professional knowledge in teacher workplaces as well as the binary strategy of "us" and "them" generate marginal locations for overseas-born teachers within schools. This construction of marginality is informed not only by discourses of what counts as being a professional but also by the conception of workplace as a monocultural, pre-given and bounded entity. By rethinking workplaces as relational, as locations that are connected to other socioculturally produced places through spaces of semiotic flows, we can also rethink the professional becoming of overseas-born teachers. This involves a critical understanding of their situationality, which can be conceptualised as a struggle for professional recognition, voice and place within the real and imagined communities of teachers.

Playing with reggio spaces in higher education for teacher education

In its attention to how space can be thoughtfully arranged, Reggio Emilia has “reconceptualised space as a key source of educational provocation and insight” (Strong-Wilson & Ellis, 2007, p. 40). Such an approach advocates that educators pay close attention to the myriad of ways that space can be made to speak and invite interaction. Theorists recognise eight key principles (aesthetics, transparency, active learning, flexibility, collaboration, reciprocity, bringing the outdoors in, and relationships) which are considered essential to the notion of environment as third teacher. Drawing upon a successful capital rebuilding grant, this presentation outlines the process of reconceptualising and building a space for flexible research, teaching and learning within higher education. This presentation interrogates the successes and challenges which arise when innovating within a traditional space.

Researching teacher education : the research we have to have

Increasingly, politicians, bureaucrats, the business community, members of our communities and even members of the teaching profession, are asking questions about the professional preparation of teachers: What is the value of teacher education? What should beginning teachers know and be able to do? How can judgements be made about what beginning teachers know and are able to do?

Teacher educators are dangerously close to having little or no impact on the policies being driven by various responses to these questions. Research in teacher education, while copious, is under-funded and consequently teacher education researchers focus on their own programs and conduct small-scale, context specific, studies that are not readily generalisable. As a result, policy makers largely ignore it. I argue that if teacher educators are to retain their responsibility for the preparation of new professionals and for the development of new knowledge for the profession, we need to focus our research on key policy issues regarding the preparation of teachers and we need to ensure that our research connects with and extends the body of relevant research and the questions being asked about the value of teacher education.

Engaging, exploring, and experiencing multicultural music in Australian music teacher education : the changing landscape of multicultural music education

ln multicultural Australia, the development of positive intercultural attitudes is essential in the creation of a harmonious society. Music education is a powerful medium to address cultural inclusivity. The 2005 National Review of School Music Education challenges Australian higher education institutions to prepare programs that explore multiculturalism to engender tolerance.This research explored how final year teacher education students at Monash University and Deakin University (Victoria, Australia) engage with music of other cultures and how this affects their understanding of cultural diversity in school music. From 2005 to 2008, teacher education students undertaking music methodologies were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews.The data collected from the interviews were transcribed and analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis, and from these data, we developed patterns of meaning that are reported thematically; student teachers' beliefs, attitudes, and understandings of multiculturalism and the classroom realities of multiculturalism.The findings contribute to how we, as tertiary educators, evaluate our role and programs.