School of Education and Arts

Research on gender and education in industrialised and developing countries suggests that schools and universities are sites of ‘doing’ rather than ‘undoing’ gender. Deutsch (2007) contends that ‘doing gender’ refers to social interactions that reproduce conventional and limiting notions of gender construction and that ‘undoing gender’ refers to social interactions that reduce gender difference and open up other possibilities. In this paper we consider how educational institutions can be strategic sites of influence in undoing gender and we investigate some ways that gender is ‘undone’ through the example of the work of the Science, Engineering and Information Technology Women’s Group (SEITWG) located in the Faculty of Science and Technology at Federation University Australia. For this purpose, a self-study methodology understood as a professional reflection was used. The paper explores how the informal coalition of SEITWG works as ‘wilful subjects’, on the one hand, coming up again...

The Victorian Fiction Research Guides comprise bibliographical finding tools both for lesser-known writers active from the mid-nineteenth century to about 1910 and for work published in periodicals during the same period. Besides bibliography, the Guides usually contain informative introductory essays by recognised academic scholars.  The series was originally published in the form of small books by the University of Queensland's Victorian Fiction Research Unit.  They are now available free online from the "Victorian Secrets" site.

While much of the country's population lives in metropolitan centres, a large portion living in our inland cities experience the remoteness and isolation that define Australia. Many regional communities have limited access to quality music education services and facilities, and some are without any. The Riverina Conservatorium of Music (RCM) in Wagga Wagga NSW, responsible for music education across the broader Riverina region, is addressing the issue of access to music education by supporting the development of Videoconferencing as an outreach music education tool. Not a new concept to business and university communities, Videoconferencing as applied to teaching music has only been made possible by significant advances in technology and the pioneering work of the Sydney Conservatorium. It is now a feasible medium for delivering music lessons to any destination regardless of distance. Today, the RCM provides music lessons in remote communities such as Hay and Griffith without requiring teachers to travel large distances at great cost. In 2004, RCM students were the first in Australia to participate in piano lessons delivered via Videoconferencing. While it is a useful tool for providing workshops, lessons and professional development opportunities for teachers and students alike, the development of this technology also brings with it new challenges for piano pedagogy.

Relinquishing algorithms in favour of less-conventional approaches for calculating is a challenge for both students and teachers. Analysis of a Roundtable Reflection session with Grade 3 and Grade 4 teachers reveals that tensions for teachers arise: when students automatically choose to use algorithms rather than alternative approaches; when they contemplate their class's transition to the next teacher; and when teachers think about parenticommunityicurriculum expectations concerning calculation processes. It is essential to address these tensions to sustain desired changes in teaching practice.

This chapter explores our learning about teaching through reflection. My discussion is framed around my assumption that through the integration of multiple reflective practices in the Learning and Teaching Mathematics units, pre-service teachers would be encouraged to reflect critically on their learning. Reflective practices included an introduction to multiple reflective tools (the ALACT cycle of reflection, Freewrites and Critical Incident Questionnaires) and I discuss why and how reflective tools were introduced and utilised; what we learnt from their implementation and examine the ways in which my initial assumption was supported and/or challenged. I begin this chapter with a brief review of the literature relating to the impact of reflective practice in teacher education programs and the ability (or inability) of programs to succeed in the development of critical reflection, in particular.

Relinquishing algorithms in favour of less-conventional approaches for calculating is a challenge for both students and teachers. Analysis of a Roundtable Reflection session with Grade 3 and Grade 4 teachers reveals that tensions for teachers arise: when students automatically choose to use algorithms rather than alternative approaches; when they contemplate their class's transition to the next teacher; and when teachers think about parenticommunityicurriculum expectations concerning calculation processes. It is essential to address these tensions to sustain desired changes in teaching practice.

Much of what is known about teacher education impacts little on the work of teacher educators or on student teachers' learning about teaching (Lunenberg, Korthagen & Swennen, 2007). One reason to account for this situation is that traditional approaches to researching, understanding and describing teacher educators' work have failed to capture the kinds of issues important to teacher educators in developing their knowledge of practice (Berry, 2007). The search for new forms of representation that can portray the complex and personal nature of knowledge required by teacher educators and that can assist teacher educators as they grapple with problems encountered within their work is, therefore, an important task of teacher education. We propose that one pathway to change in teacher education is through making the tacit explicit in our work as teacher educators. In so doing, the pedagogical reasoning and "larger purpos

It is a requirement for pre-service students in Initial Teacher Education programs in Australia to successfully complete a teaching performance assessment (TPA) before they graduate. This follows similar requirements in other international contexts, particularly the United States, where standard-based assessment is also a focus. As members of the design team of a TPA, which was affirmed by a nationally appointed Expert Advisory Group in Australia, we examine the social processes contributing to the development of a high-stakes assessment task. Significant challenges emerged through the nature of the task and the responsibility developers had for ensuring validity and fairness, but also because the design team comprised of teacher educators from ten universities. Using collaborative self-study as a methodology we examine our reflexive narratives and find that collaborative leadership and key personal dispositions are at the heart of the design process. These enable us to identify, ex...

The discussion in this final chapter focuses on a key imperative associated with self-study of teacher education practices: that of moving from personal, contextual and localised learning about the development of teacher educator pedagogy, to one which considers possible implications and recommendations for a broader educational/professional context. As such, this chapter represents possibilities for ways forward in teacher education. These possibilities have arisen from the close scrutiny and critical reflection of, and in my practice as, a mathematics teacher educator. I begin this chapter with a discussion of the key areas of connection to learning about teaching and conclude with six recommendations which emerged as a result of my self-study.

What does it mean to reconceptualise ourselves as co-learners? The preceding chapters have highlighted the ways in which my assumptions as a teacher educator have been both challenged and supported in my teaching and learning mathematics context. I now return to my initial impetus for interrupting our routine pedagogical practices; that being my desire to devolve my authority as teacher educator and encourage what I considered to be a shared power base in learning about teaching. I wanted to teach so that pre-service teachers learnt about teaching through their own experiences, and not mine. I wanted pre-service teachers to experience a democratic approach to determining their learning, and hence encourage a deeper sense of pre-service teacher ownership of their learning. This approach to power sharing required us to operate differently; to negotiate with one another; to consider our needs and wants and to identify ways to achieve these negotiated goals. In this chapter, I examine our collective learning about negotiation, power and the devel

Across the world, many university-based early career researchers (ECRs) are experiencing an unprecedented intensification of research expectations on transition from doctoral research to academic life. Countries such as Australia have put into place national frameworks of research excellence to remain globally competitive. Pressure on universities to elevate global research rankings has soared, with many regional universities and disciplines such as education responding with a rapid escalation of research performance expectations for academics. Consequently, concerns have been raised for ECRs embroiled in intensified research agendas in these contexts. Framed by concepts of liminality and identity construction, we argue that intensified expectations do not take account of liminality experienced by ECRs during times of transition, compromising perceived academic progress. We report on the identity journeys of ECRs in a School of Education at one regional Australian university. Data w...