Australian Teacher Education Program Research Articles

Inclusion, equity and intellectual equality: a case of overseas educated multilingual students in an Australian teacher education programme

ABSTRACT Inclusive education is of considerable significance in Australia being politically recognised and promoted by federal and state governments. However, literature suggests conceptual gaps have contributed to a limited understanding by policy makers and practitioners concerning ‘what is’ and ‘who needs’ inclusion. The research this paper reports explores what type of inclusiveness multilingual students have experienced in an Australian university teacher education programme. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with a group of pre-service teachers with overseas education backgrounds and their Anglophone academic course lecturers. An integrated inclusion model was employed in the data analysis. The research found that the teacher educators exercised efforts to demonstrate inclusiveness to this group from physical, social and psychological perspectives. However, the prior educational experience and existing knowledge of these students were ignored, either consciously or unconsciously and they were often regarded intellectually ‘less able’ than their Anglophone peers. This paper argues that engaging multilingual students from the standpoint of intellectual equality is the key to advancing inclusive teacher education in multilingual and multicultural Australia.

Primary Science Education in Australian Universities: An Overview of Context and Practice.

Stagnating test scores, underwhelming student scientific literacy and declines in post-compulsory science enrolment are major issues in Australian science education. Universities are central in improving science education, as a relatively small group of 33 higher education providers can directly influence generations of primary teachers responsible for foundational science learning. Since this is a major review of primary science practice at Australian universities, factors including, but not limited to, changing employment conditions, shifts in study modes and an ever-expanding research literature base need to be considered in a more contemporary review. This paper aims to describe the reported primary science practices, challenges and strengths of Australian teacher education programs through semi-structured interviews and online surveys with 17 academics and analyses of public materials on university websites. Thematic analyses reveal noteworthy diversity in approaches, united by authenticity and student-centred learning. Key strengths included robustness of educational approaches, relevance and teaching team compositions. Key challenges included time, external pressures, resources and student capacity. These nuanced findings will be discussed as they relate to teaching and research.

Effects of Raising Student Teachers’ Metacognitive Awareness of Their Educational Psychological Misconceptions

Fostering metacognitive awareness of misconceptions should enhance deep processing of scientifically correct explanations and thereby decrease misconceptions. To explore these potentially beneficial effects, we conducted a field study implemented in a regular educational psychology course in an Australian teacher education program. In a two-by-two within-subject experimental design, student teachers ( n = 119) answered misconception questionnaires, made metacognitive judgments, and participated in awareness activities at the start (T1) and the end (T2) of the semester (within-subject factor: time). Half of the misconception items focused on educational psychology course content, while the other half focused on related topics that were not covered in the course (non-course content). Awareness activities (AA) consisted of providing feedback regarding all misconception items. During the lectures, we provided additional scientifically correct refutational explanations (RE) regarding course content. Thus, we compared the combined AA+RE treatment for course content with the AA treatment for non-course content (within-subject factor: treatment). Our findings confirm that student teachers harbor numerous high-confidence educational psychological misconceptions. Furthermore, awareness activities plus refutational explanations resulted in significant increases in metacognitive awareness and in performance. Additionally, initial metacognitive overconfidence was related to persistent misconceptions, indicating that overconfidence may hinder correction of course content misconceptions.

Multiperspectivism as a threshold concept in understanding diversity and inclusion for future teachers

Preparing teachers to support diverse learners to succeed in school is pivotal in addressing inequalities in society. This qualitative study investigated the ways in which future teachers developed their understanding of diversity and inclusion in one course in an Australian teacher education programme. This study analysed students’ learning using threshold concept theory as a theoretical framework. Three main aspects that were considered troublesome were identified from student teachers’ reflections, which interconnected to generate understandings of diversity. They are recognising others’ life worlds, examining self and experiencing otherness. This study supports the need to guide growth in inclusive education practices and recommends asking three questions: Who are you? Who am I? What does it mean to be other? By interlinking the effects of exploring these three questions, we propose multiperspectivism as a threshold concept. We suggest that multiperspectivism could inform curriculum design of teacher education programmes, recognising the necessity of including multiple opportunities to engage with ideas of diversity and in how to teach with diversity in classrooms.

Identity exploration and development in TESOL teacher education: A three‐dimensional space narrative inquiry perspective

This study explores the professional identity development of five nonnative‐English‐speaking teacher learners from different backgrounds who were studying for a master’s degree in applied linguistics/TESOL at an Australian university, following the three‐dimensional space narrative inquiry framework (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000). The study aims to address how identity work could be utilized in teacher education to enrich teacher learners’ learning experience and prepare them for better developing their teacher selves. Participants attended two 1‐hour storytelling sessions aimed to elicit various aspects of their experience within the teacher education program such as native/nonnative issues, transition in time and space and changes in expectations, and the learning environment. Their stories, structured and analyzed following the three‐dimensional space narrative inquiry framework (interaction, continuity, and situation) revealed their growth, satisfaction, and tensions resulting from becoming part of the community of practice in the Australian teacher education program. This research highlights the role of conducting identity exploration interventions within the context of teacher education in assisting TESOL teachers to construct and reconstruct their professional identity. It also suggests classroom activities based on the three‐dimensional space narrative inquiry framework to make identity work a crucial part of teacher development within teacher education courses.

Educating pre-service teachers: towards a critical inquiry workforce

ABSTRACT The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers identify a range of supposedly demonstrable capabilities for graduate teachers. Elaborations privilege the realization of Standards through mentoring, and feedback from senior colleagues. As manifestations of the logic of neo-liberalism they operate as audit technologies for pre-service teachers and their learning. In this paper, we argue for the preparation of graduate teachers who can engage in critical inquiry as means for expanding professional learning, developing pedagogical practices and improving student learning. We report on the preparation of 4th year pre-service teachers to undertake critical inquiry into an aspect of pedagogic practice during their final practicum placement. We first address instrumental framings of teacher preparation. A case is then made for critical practitioner inquiry as an alternative. Empirical data is drawn from the ‘practice architectures’ of an Australian teacher education program as these relate to developing pre-service teacher inquiry designs. We present inquiry questions, abstracts and reflections developed by pre-service teachers over a seven-year period in two discipline groupings, Health and Physical Education and Mathematics and Science, as evidence of possibilities for preparing graduates for a critical inquiry workforce. We conclude in arguing that these possibilities are vital in times framed by a narrowing technical and standardized educational environment.

Epistemological Considerations for Approaching Teaching in an On-Line Environment Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Teacher Education Program: Reconsidering TPACK

This research inquiry explores teacher educator knowledge, understandings and beliefs informing their teaching in a web-based Australian teacher education program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Through the use of a phenomenologically aligned process, the study investigates instructors' consideration of practice for teaching in an on-line environment. Using the TPACK framework (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) as a lens for analysis, what emerges from the data is how lecturers' knowledge and beliefs about students influences the roles they adopt as educators, and how this influences, in turn, what and how technology is used to support student learning. The study ends by critiquing and re-conceptualizing TPACK and providing insights that program developers and teacher educators need to consider in the conceptualization and enrichment of web-based learning, especially those which engage with minority students, such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learners.

Enhancing Understanding of Teaching and the Profession Through School Innovation Rounds

Currently, Australian teacher education programs include professional experiences as a means of enhancing preservice teacher understanding about teaching and the profession. The challenge the programs face is the lack of places available in schools and, at times, the unpredictable quality of the placements as some teachers are time-poor, are not good models of effective teaching practice, and/or lack the skills of articulating their practice. This paper briefly explores features of past models of professional experience before describing a new model that, as an inclusion in a range of field-based placements, addresses many of the challenges in teacher education today. Results from two years’ of surveys (N=262) inform a practitioner research process designed to investigate the effectiveness of this new model. Findings suggest that while the program cannot negate all the difficulties associated with ensuring quality placements, it does provide some solutions that assist in improving the professional experiences of preservice teachers.

A Content Analysis of Early Childhood Teachers’ Theoretical and Practical Experiences With Infants and Toddlers in Australian Teacher Education Programs

In Australia, the growth in the provision of early childhood services for very young children aged birth to three years has placed increased demands on pre-service teachers as new policy stipulates the need for qualified early childhood teachers. While many teacher education programs offer early childhood courses, they have traditionally had a greater focus on kindergarten and the formal years of schooling. Less is known about the amount of time devoted to developing the specialist educational capacity for teaching and caring for infants and toddlers. This paper explores 55 Australian early childhood teacher undergraduate education programs to provide data regarding what pre-service teachers learn about children from birth to three years of age during their formal program of study. It explores: if pre-service teachers engage in practical experiences with this age range; what content they learn; and how knowledge for this age range is assessed. Utilising information from fully accessible public program websites, data in the form of course details were examined to reveal the extent and nature of courses inclusive of teaching and learning focusing on children aged from birth to three years. Of the 55 programs, 18 programs provided practical experience with infants and toddlers, and to a lesser extent content was evident and assessed. Most of the programs which included a focus on birth to three years of age were delivered by Victorian institutions. Findings are important for the future of early childhood teacher education in Australia and hold key messages for teacher registration bodies.

Locating child protection in preservice teacher education

A recent report delivered by the Australian Centre for Child Protection has highlighted the need for empirical evidence of effective pedagogies for supporting teaching and learning of child protection content in Australian teacher education programs (Arnold & Maio-Taddeo, 2007). This paper advances this call by presenting case study accounts of different approaches to teaching child protection content in University-based teacher education programs across three Australian States. These different cases provide a basis for understanding existing strategies as an important precursor to improving practice. Although preschool, primary and secondary schools have been involved in efforts to protect children from abuse and neglect since the 1970s, teacher education programs, including preservice and inservice programs, have been slow to align their work with child protection agendas. This paper opens a long-overdue discussion about the extent and nature of child protection content in teacher education and proposes strategies for translating research into practice.

The Limitations of Front-end Loading in Undergraduate University Programs

This paper shows how Mead’s theory of emergence can prove explanatory in how the theory-practice gap is co-created and sustained in front-end loading university programs. Taking teacher education as an exemplar, we argue that the trainee teacher encounters different and oft-times conflicting environmental, social and cultural conditions in the two “fields of interaction” of the training program, namely, on-campus work and in-school experience. The argument draws on interview and focus group data collected via a study of first-year graduate teachers of an Australian teacher education program. We conclude that role taking and self-regulated behaviour within the two environmental fields of interaction in front-end loading programs inhibit the trainee professional from exercising the power of agency to implement theory learned at university in practice in the workplace. Further, we propose that Mead’s theory of emergence proves effective in explaining a major limitation of front-end-loaded university programs.

Balancing Stakeholders Interests In Evolving Teacher Education Accreditation Contexts

While Australian teacher education programs have long had rigorous accreditation pathways at the University level they have not been subject to the same formal public or professional scrutiny typical of professions such as medicine, nursing or engineering. Professional accreditation for teacher preparation programs is relatively new and is linked to teacher registration which in itself is relatively recent in most jurisdictions. As elsewhere, the goal of accreditation is to enhance the overall quality of teacher preparation programs and to meet jurisdictional requirements for initial teacher competence.Any new system of quality control takes time to develop and to embed into professional cultures and academic processes at the university or college level. Accreditation processes are no exception and Australia is grappling to develop procedures that meet jurisdictional legislative requirements, assure the public of the quality of teacher preparation and suit the professional context for each state. As yet these procedures have not focused on professional growth, accomplished or expert teaching, or quality within specific areas of preparation. While all agree that the ultimate goal of accreditation is quality assurance- to improve teaching quality in schools, negotiating optimum pathways to quality outcomes is no easy task in a country with an education system and population as diverse as Australia.This paper considers some of the practical and institutional issues confronting teacher education providers as they come to terms with new regulatory environments that require external accreditation of teacher education to meet varying state and national policy agendas. Specifically, it focuses on issues engaging a small and regional teacher education provider, Charles Darwin University as it negotiates developing registration and accreditation requirements. It also flags the need to improve teacher quality through acknowledgement of advanced practice in teaching and expert performance in delivering teacher education.

On cartographies of anti‐homophobia in teacher education (and the crisis of witnessing rural student teacher refusals)

This paper explores the problem of student refusals in a rural Australian teacher education programme as a problem located in particular spatialised social relations. Drawing upon teacher educator reflections and student online discussions, the paper documents a situated approach to anti‐homophobia teacher education: one in which student conservatism is read not as an ideological issue, but as an issue of repetitions. Situated within a context of postcolonial rural Australia, the repetitions of student homophobia emerge as symptomatic of moral anxieties in relation to the crisis of white presence (Rowse, 1993), hierarchical social structures of differential privilege, the formation of new abject subjectivities (Kristeva, 1982), saviour fantasies (Robertson, 1997), fears of losing (or finding) children (Pierce, 1996), and deep ambivalence towards their own learning (Britzman, 1998). Developing cartographies of anti‐homophobia in teacher education is a movement away from analyses of homophobia as acts of discrimination to more specific situational analyses that take account of the spatialised nature of both homophobia and resistances to anti‐homophobia programmes.

The Social Nature of Games: Australian Preservice Primary TeachersÍ First Experiences of Teaching Games for Understanding

This article reports on a study of pre-service generalist primary school teachers’ experiences of a games unit taught using the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) approach in an Australian teacher education programme. The study sought to make sense of the knowledge and dispositions that pre-service primary school teachers brought into the games unit, the ways in which this shaped their interpretation of the TGfU approach, the impact that this had on their perceptions of physical education’s educational value and the pedagogy they articulated as intending to adopt.A sense of ‘joy’ related to achievement and profound learning (Heywood, 2001) emerged as a central theme in many students’ accounts of their games unit. It is argued in this article that this sense of joy arose from the holistic, whole-body learning that is possible in games using a TGfU approach.