Contemporary Classroom Practice in Australian Primary Classrooms

What does the published literature on contemporary classroom practice in Australian primary schools tell us about what classroom practice looks like? And what strategic directions for research does a review of the literature suggest. In this review, I show that teacher educators preparing teachers for Australian primary schools have alarmingly little to go on in terms of what day to day life in schools is like, how the different parties involved perceive contemporary practice and how schools address, if they do at all, issues of social justice. I address some strategic directions for research. In particular, I suggest the need to accumulate case studies documenting and analysing contemporary school practices.     

Factors influencing values management in rural secondary schools: the role of educators

ABSTRACT

This article explores factors influencing values management and in particular the way in which teachers and principals perceive their role in the inculcation of democratic values and moral principles with a view to managing schools more effectively within a democratic dispensation. In a small scale qualitative study, it was found that educators need more guidance and support as to how they should perform their duties in a democratic and multicultural dispensation. Ironically, this need is exacerbated by the lack of basic services regarding maintenance of school infrastructure by the provincial department. The main conclusion of the study is that a school should be regarded as an ecosystem which primarily functions through constant dynamic interactions with its community or habitat, where the relationship between the whole and the parts are key. Moreover, if a beneficial habitat exists where everyone feels safe and has a sense of belonging it can benefit education in a broad sense. Furthermore, if a principal leads by example and forms partnerships with his or her school management team and community members to embrace an ethics of care which youngsters can emulate, schools and communities can become humane centres of learning and hope.     

Book Review Section 2

In discussing reform of public schools, the conversation is usually about schools; in this article I examine the meaning of public, drawing on Dewey's (1927/1954/1988) understanding of the nature of a public and its importance to democratic life. Vouchers and other market challenges to public education are a danger to the existence of a public, and a threat to democratic life. I consider the relevant differences between publics, markets, and audiences, and their relation to democracy. Finally, I consider public schools as both a reflection of public will and a central means to create a public.     

The color of innovative and sustainable leadership: Learning from teacher leaders

In this article, I address how teachers in urban and suburban U.S. schools with multicultural and multilingual student populations demonstrate leadership both within their classrooms and schools as well as outside of them. Based on research with U.S. public school teachers in two projects (Nieto What keeps teachers going? New York: Teachers College Press 2003, Why we teach. New York: Teachers College Press 2005), various roles that teachers have in initiating, putting into practice, and sustaining change in schools are described. Implications for policymakers and administrators are then briefly explored.     

Noyce,Pendred E & Hickey,Daniel T ed (2011) New frontiers in formative assessment Harvard Education (Cambridge MA & Eurospan,London) isbn 978‐1‐61250‐117‐8 264 pp £24.50http://www.hepg.org/hep/book/151

Contributions here display on‐going work in the US on formative assessment in schools, over a variety of discipline areas and student ages. Considerable use is reported of innovative technology to obtain and present the data to which teachers, and sometimes students, then respond. Reading this book will provide rewarding stimulus for those who value supporting student learning: therefore, borrow a copy for a while, if its content is likely to be relevant. John Cowan     

Experienced ESD-schoolteachers’ teaching – an issue of complexity

In educational settings, sustainable development (SD) is often handled with the aim of reducing the contested aspects of the concept. Issues like trade, conservation, public health and international relations are often presented in a simplified way so that they are easier for students to grasp. However, in education, this tendency to simplify sustainability issues can be a disadvantage. This study explores how Swedish upper secondary school teachers’ education for sustainable development (ESD) in award-winning ‘ESD-schools’ supports students to become informed and autonomous democratic citizens by appreciating the complexity of the concept of SD. This empirical study is part of a larger research project studying progressive upper secondary schools and is a development of earlier research on teachers’ starting points for long-term purposes beyond the teaching – which we have termed objects of responsibility. In interviews of five teachers from two schools, experienced in ESD issues and working in teacher teams, an interesting commonality in their arguments for teaching sustainability emerged during the analytical process. The implications of the study’s results are important for EE/ESD research into teaching continuity as well as for teachers in practice.     

Performers and postulates: the role of evolving socio-historical contexts in shaping new teacher professional identities

In this article we investigate the generative causes of variation in the professional identity of new teachers. Building on previous work that has shown a link between professional identity and socio-political context, we argue that the context experienced in late adolescence and early adulthood is particularly significant in shaping how beginning teachers think of themselves as teachers. This finding suggests that the linear response to neoliberal education reform described in much of the critical literature may be too simple to account for the range of ways teachers interact with the system. There is, therefore, a need for greater diversity in research approaches to work with the complexity of social systems in and around schools. To support this call for methodological diversity, we borrow the life story model of identity as a theoretical framework and use a computer-assisted phenomenographic analysis technique to find new ways into the research data.     

Finding the ‘Enunciative Space’ for Teacher Leadership and Teacher Learning in Schools

Drawing on a collaborative Australian Research Council funded project entitled the ‘Teachers’ Learning Project’, the author takes issue with the rhetoric of the ‘learning society’ and, in particular, he interrogates the notion of the learning teacher in a number of schools. He provides a critical examination of the direction of teachers’ work under current technicist reconstruals of it. He draws on case studies to show how some schools have been able to position themselves as moral learning communities which have created vibrant indigenous cultures of learning about themselves, their community and their work in a context of a commitment to democratic and participatory citizenship.     

A fragile autonomy in a performativity culture? Exploring positions in the recontextualising field in a Norwegian rural municipality

Internationally, the autonomy of schools and teachers is under pressure. In Norway, recent policies emphasise output control through national testing, combined with holding schools and teachers accountable for students’ results. Whereas recent research documents that the autonomy of schools and teachers is weakening in Oslo, there is little research on the rural parts of Norway. Recent political intentions aim to improve the results by establishing a better learning environment and classroom management. These intentions are related to the regulative discourse, ‘the rules of social order’, which is crucial to control as it dominates the instructional discourse. Two different projects were implemented in a rural municipality. Analysing their positions on three levels (author, actor and identity) this study finds considerable autonomy from the state in the pedagogic recontextualising field. However, this autonomy may be fragile as the teachers seem to have surrendered personal values. If teachers are disciplined, then the state may effectively reduce the potential discursive gap by reducing the autonomy of key agents in education. Investigating teachers’ rationalisations is imperative if we are to understand the relations between interests, ideology and class, and thereby the potential for autonomy in the recontextualising field in a performativity culture.     

Predictors of e-democracy applicability in Turkish K-12 schools

Education and Information Technologies - Today, the COVID-19 pandemic has paved the way for a more democratic climate in K-12 schools. Administrators and teachers have had to seek out new ways...     

Developing Democratic Dispositions and Enabling Crap Detection: Claims for classroom philosophy with special reference to Western Australia and New Zealand

Abstract

The prominence given in national or state-wide curriculum policy to thinking, the development of democratic dispositions and preparation for the ‘good life’, usually articulated in terms of lifelong learning and fulfilment of personal life goals, gives rise to the current spate of interest in the role that could be played by philosophy in schools. Theorists and practitioners working in the area of philosophy for schools advocate the inclusion of philosophy in school curricula to meet these policy objectives. This article tests claims that philosophy can aid in the acquisition of democratic dispositions and develop critical thinking and considers to the extent to which these aims are compatible with each other. These considerations are located in the context of certain policy statements relating to the curricula of Western Australia and New Zealand.     

Statement of Theme

The objective of this article is to examine the rhetoric of educational leadership within a Scandinavian context, as it occurs within the framework of New Public Management. The study asks questions about new demands on leadership expressed in policy documents.

Local culture and distinctive aspects of national life tend to modify external influences such as those inherent in the philosophy and practice of New Public Management. Scandinavian schools reflect key elements of Scandinavian life such as a commitment to collaboration, democracy, and individual enlightenment. These are themes in the curriculum of many of these countries and key values of the teachers who lead the learning processes. The range of tensions and dilemmas that teachers and their leaders are now facing are a direct result of the clash between generic public policy and the distinctive approach to support life and democratic culture in the Scandinavian countries. School leaders, it seems, are clearly in the middle of this clash and must mediate between these two trends. To remind us of the ultimate objectives of schooling, we outline a Scandinavian vision of democratic reflective leadership.     

Profiling Primary School Teachers in Relation to Art Teaching

This paper contributes to the on‐going debate about specialisation and teaching art in primary schools. Moreover it provides a starting point for further research and the design of in‐service training that responds to the different needs and attitudes of primary school teachers in relation to teaching art. This is done by investigating several profiles of teachers who teach art in primary schools in Cyprus. It describes five profiles of teachers, which emerged from analysing data from pupils (questionnaire and interview data) and teachers (interview data) and thus brings a fresh insight to the learning‐teaching situation. There are two profiles of art specialist teachers, named as artist‐teacher and specialist‐teacher, and three profiles of non‐art specialist teachers, named as enthusiastic, disappointed, and indifferent non‐specialist. The most effective teacher in the pupils' eyes is the specialist‐teacher, who integrates more successfully than the others their subject matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, knowledge of learners and knowledge of the environmental conditions.     

Reflection on their first five years of teaching: understanding staying and impact power

Teacher turnover in urban schools is occurring at a breakneck pace; thus, it is important for us to understand the characteristics of teachers who stay and succeed in these settings. In order to address this need, this study examines the preparation and induction experiences of teachers who completed a Transition to Teaching – a funded urban apprenticeship program. Three research questions guided the study: (1) How do participants describe the characteristics that influence their five-year retention? (2) How do participants describe their success as teachers? and (3) How do participants describe the professional support they received in their preparation program and during the subsequent four years after completing the program? Quantitative and qualitative data via interviews, focus group, and an examination of teachers’ district performance scores were utilized, as a means of understanding teachers’ staying and impact power. Staying power refers to the ability to endure or last within challenging contexts by possessing strength enough to persevere. Impact power refers to their ability to influence student learning. Four assertions describe the factors influencing developing teachers who stay and have impact as they teach in challenging urban schools, suggesting that these teachers possess a strong work ethic, seek specific resources to improve pedagogy, have the knowledge and skills necessary to differentiate instruction, and seek teacher leadership opportunities in their schools. This study suggests several implications for teacher educators, educational leaders, administrators, and researchers working with new teachers in urban schools or with populations that are predominantly children of color.     

JEWISH EDUCATION ABROAD

This research identifies four profiles of Jewish day school (JDS) teachers and analyzes their association with teacher retention in JDSs and Jewish education. We employed a comprehensive sample of JDS teachers from the Educators in Jewish Schools Study (EJSS; N?=?552) and the DeLeT Longitudinal Project (N?=?77) which tracks JDS teachers prepared by the DeLeT programs at Brandeis University and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR). The study identified two distinct profiles of teachers among EJSS teachers, which we termed (a) very engaged teachers, and (b) disengaged and unsupported teachers. Moving to DeLeT teachers, we identified two different profiles: (a) well supported teachers, and (b) very engaged and unsupported teachers. While these profiles describe a somewhat gloomy story of Jewish day schools, they also offer a glimpse of hope, if further proactive steps are taken.     

Making schools inclusive? Educational leaders' views on how to work with children in need of special support

Educational leaders have a comprehensive responsibility for how preschools and schools work with children in need of special educational support. The aim of this research is to study how educational leaders (a) explain why children have problems in schools, (b) consider how preschools/schools should help children in need of special support and (c) the role they believe that Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs) should have in such work. Educational leaders (N = 45) working in preschools and regular compulsory schools in a Swedish municipality responded (100%) to a questionnaire. According to the results of this study, this group seems to view difficulties in schools as being caused primarily by individual shortcomings. Educational leaders often advocate solutions that are closely linked to the work of special educators. The educational leaders believe SENCOs should work with supervising staff and focus on documentation and evaluations. Preschool leaders attribute children's need of special support to teachers more often than their colleagues in compulsory schools.     

中等师范学校师生关系现状调查与分析

师生关系作为学校中最基本的人际关系，直接关系到学生成长和教育质量。建立平等、民主、和谐的新型师生关系是师生共同的愿望，也是教育改革的需要。通过对目前中等师范学校师生关系现状的调查分析，发现中师学校师生关系的主流是好的，但也确实存在教师的民主意识欠缺、师生之间交往不多、师生情感距离扩大等一些不能回避的问题。为此。我们提出建立良好的新型师生关系的途径应是：教师要积极通过各种形式和渠道，增进学生的信任感；学生也要严格要求自己，尊重、理解教师；学校应营造良好的教学环境，创设宽松、和谐的教学气氛。     

Teachers: A Critical But Overlooked Component of Bullying Prevention and Intervention

To complete this special issue on theoretical bases for antibullying efforts in schools, we focus in this article on the importance of teachers and other educators in the ecology of schools. First, we present evidence that teachers are not perceived to be effective at intervening when bullying occurs. Then, using a social motivational lens, we provide an overview of teachers' role as a socializing agent in the classroom and school with a particular emphasis on their influence on bullying behaviors among students. Then we present two theories, the theory of planned behaviors, and the transactional theory of emotions and coping. We believe these theories highlight the complexity of teacher responses and make the case that teachers need more than knowledge of bullying to be effective in their role. We discuss implications for teacher training and professional development.     

Teacher Dissent in Neoliberal Times: Counter-Publics and Alternative-Publics in Teacher Activism

In this essay, Terrenda White examines distinct forms of activism by two influential organizations: the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and Teach for America (TFA). Despite differences between these groups, both have created new discourses and alliances among teachers in the public sphere — what White calls “teacher publics.” These new alliances, White argues, can be conceptualized as counter-publics and alternative-publics. CTU is a counter-public because its activities counter the tradition of top-down insular unionism and embrace “social movement unionism” where teachers are part of an expansive coalition for social transformation, including contesting city and state bureaucracies for adequate resources and equitable practices on behalf of minoritized communities. TFA has also created expansive coalitions for change, embracing a “new professionalism” that rejects public contestations with state leaders for resources. As an alternative-public, TFA engages a network of private philanthropists and business leaders to generate change in public education through market-based initiatives that challenge bureaucratic control of teachers and schools and that incentivize competition, audit culture, and data-driven decision-making. These two cases, because their approaches to educational change are so different, provide fertile ground for White's evaluation of what new forms of activism mean for the democratic goals of public schools.     

Questions of Choice

The fact that education is, and must be, a process of enculturation for those being educated gives us some, but by no means enough, guidance as to what we would expect to see going on in our schools. For given that our educational institutions are part of our culture and, given that anything that is part of our culture will transmit cultural messages, if we put children in school and let them play all day, or simply asked teachers to explain their hobbies to the children, then some processes of enculturalisation would be going on. But no one with any real concern for either our children or their education would think such things fulfil a proper role for schools. Certainly if, as Arnold thought, education is a question of passing on, or trying to pass on, the features from our culture that we value, then any such reliance on random processes must be ruled out. Instead we have to select those aspects of our culture which we wish our children to partake of and insist that our educational establishments make sustained and intentional efforts to ensure such participation.