Teacher education for rural communities: A focus on 'Incentives'
- Authors: White, Simone , Green, Bill , Reid, Joanne , Lock, Graeme , Hastings, Wendy , Cooper, Maxine
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: ATEA 2008:Teacher Educators at Work : What works and where is the evidence? Australian Teacher Education Association Conference
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- Description: In Australia we face a national crisis in attracting and retaining teachers and other professionals with regard to rural areas. In response to this difficulty in ‘staffing the empty schoolhouse’ (Roberts 2004), the majority of state education departments have initiated some form of rural incentive scheme designed to attract teachers to rural schools. This paper argues that such schemes have little chance of success unless teachers taking up such incentives have actually been prepared for teaching in nonmetropolitan schools. Although many universities claim to prioritise rural and regional education and community development as part of their vision statements, in reality relatively few education providers reflect this rhetoric in their practice and only a handful have made direct links to such state-based schemes in pre-service teacher education, or initiated their own rural incentives. A preliminary study into pre-service preparation and rural incentive schemes, as part of a three-year ARC Discovery Grant, indicates that, nationally, the majority of Faculties and Schools of Education have no easily accessible or advertised incentive programs to encourage students to undertake a rural practicum. Nor do many reflect rural education in their course-work. This paper will introduce the ‘TERRAnova’ project, and then discuss findings of the preliminary work to date that has focussed on identifying incentives and their significance. Drawing on evidence collected from websites from Australian Universities representing all pre-service teacher education programs in the nation, we argue that few Faculties and Schools appear to see it necessary or desirable to provide students with links to information about particular state-based rural funding opportunities. We show how some, either directly or indirectly, imply the importance of a rural practicum, and that a few teacher education programs provide written advice to students who are considering taking up a rural practicum. It is unclear, however, whether follow-up advice is provided, so that the impact and effectiveness of such advice on students’ experiences and willingness to take rural education seriously can be questioned. Our analysis so far indicates that it is the regional universities which are more likely to address rural education needs, and on this basis we question the metro-centricity of teacher education practice more broadly and suggest ways of expanding the options of teachers in their initial teaching appointments.
Investing in sustainable and resilient rural social space: Lessons for teacher education
- Authors: White, Simone , Lock, Graeme , Hastings, Wendy , Cooper, Maxine , Reid, Jo-Anne , Green, Bill
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian and International Journal of Rural Education Vol. 31, no. 2 (2021), p. 46-55
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- Description: Attracting and retaining effective education leaders and teaching staff for regional, rural and remote schools in Australia is a major sustainability and quality issue facing every State and Territory. It is also a major concern in pre-service teacher education, particularly for those universities which have a commitment to rural and regional areas.
Supporting beginning rural teachers : Lessons from successful schools
- Authors: White, Simone , Lock, Graeme , Hastings, Wendy , Reid, Joanne , Green, Bill , Cooper, Maxine
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at ‘Teacher education crossing borders: Cultures, contexts, communities and curriculum’ the annual conference of the Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA), Albury, New South Wales : 28th June - 1st July 2009
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- Description: Across Australia and internationally, the vexed problem of staffing rural school remains a major issue affecting the educational outcomes of many rural students and their families. TERRAnova, (New Ground’ in Teacher Education for Rural and Regional Australia), is the name of a large Australian Research Council funded (2008-2010) project involving: a national study of pre-service preparation and rural incentive schemes offered by both University and State government agencies, a longitudinal study of beginning teachers who take up rural appointments and a study of communities where teacher retention is high. In 2008 calls for nominations for rural schools with high rates of retaining beginning teachers were sought (over three years), and twenty-four of nearly fifty nominated schools were selected as case studies. Each case study has involved researchers from the TERRAnova team travelling and staying as close to the community nominated as possible. Numerous teaching staff, parents and community members were invited to be interviewed and their recordings were transcribed. Five of these case studies have now been completed, and this paper examines common themes derived from the strategies that support beginning teachers in these rural communities. Key factors emerging to date from the data relate to particular models of rural school leadership, ongoing teacher learning and mentoring, and school support and innovative community practices.
- Description: 2003008006
Teacher education for rural communities : A focus on ‘incentives’
- Authors: White, Simone , Green, Bill , Reid, Joanne , Lock, Graeme , Hastings, Wendy , Cooper, Maxine
- Date: 2008
- Type: Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 2008 Australian Teacher Education Association National Conference: Teacher Educators at Work: What works and where is the evidence?, Novotel Twin Waters, Sunshine Coast, Queensland : 8th-11th July 2008 p. 381-390
- Full Text:
- Description: In Australia we face a national crisis in attracting and retaining teachers and other professionals with regard to rural areas. In response to this difficulty in ‘staffing the empty schoolhouse’ (Roberts 2004), the majority of state education departments have initiated some form of rural incentive scheme designed to attract teachers to rural schools. This paper argues that such schemes have little chance of success unless teachers taking up such incentives have actually been prepared for teaching in nonmetropolitan schools. Although many universities claim to prioritise rural and regional education and community development as part of their vision statements, in reality relatively few education providers reflect this rhetoric in their practice and only a handful have made direct links to such state-based schemes in pre-service teacher education, or initiated their own rural incentives. A preliminary study into pre-service preparation and rural incentive schemes, as part of a three-year ARC Discovery Grant, indicates that, nationally, the majority of Faculties and Schools of Education have no easily accessible or advertised incentive programs to encourage students to undertake a rural practicum. Nor do many reflect rural education in their course-work. This paper will introduce the ‘TERRAnova’ project, and then discuss findings of the preliminary work to date that has focussed on identifying incentives and their significance. Drawing on evidence collected from websites from Australian Universities representing all pre-service teacher education programs in the nation, we argue that few Faculties and Schools appear to see it necessary or desirable to provide students with links to information about particular state-based rural funding opportunities. We show how some, either directly or indirectly, imply the importance of a rural practicum, and that a few teacher education programs provide written advice to students who are considering taking up a rural practicum. It is unclear, however, whether follow-up advice is provided, so that the impact and effectiveness of such advice on students’ experiences and willingness to take rural education seriously can be questioned. Our analysis so far indicates that it is the regional universities which are more likely to address rural education needs, and on this basis we question the metro-centricity of teacher education practice more broadly and suggest ways of expanding the options of teachers in their initial teaching appointments.
- Description: 2003006408
Becoming a teacher educator : Voices of beginning teacher educators
- Authors: Swennen, Anja , Klink, Marcel , Shagrir, Leah , Cooper, Maxine
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Becoming a teacher educator Chapter p. 91-102
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- Description: 2003008005
Becoming a teacher educator: Voices of beginning teacher educators
- Authors: Swennen, Anja , Shagrir, Leah , Cooper, Maxine
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Becoming a Teacher Educator: Theory and Practice for Teacher Educators p. 91-102
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- Description: This chapter is about the readers of this book, about the rewards and challenges of beginning teacher educators. As was outlined in the 'Introduction and Overview' of this book, teacher educators are not an easily recognisable group and their problems and rewards during their first years as teacher educators may vary a great deal. Nevertheless, from the limited research that has been done, and from our own experience as teacher educators, we know that the transition from teacher to teacher educator can be more challenging and difficult than beginning teacher educators may expect. This chapter is based on three sources of data. As there has not been a lot of research about beginning teacher educators, we first analysed self-study literature of teacher educators who described their first years in teacher education and the problems they encountered. In their articles, these teacher educators look back and reflect on their transition from teacher to teacher educator. Looking back from a distance gives them a wide perspective on the challenges and problems they encountered. Moreover, these teacher educators were and are involved in self-study and publish about their own development and other issues concerning teacher educators (Guilfoyle, Hamilton, Pinnegar, & Placier, 1995; Knowles & Cole, 1994; Zeichner, 2005). We will refer to these teacher educators as 'the self-study teacher educators'. A second source we drew upon was Australian research on teacher educators and their career trajectories. These narrative and collaborative studies are based on structured and unstructured interviews, written stories, descriptive metaphors of journeys in teacher education, time lines of careers and professional documentation such as curriculum vitas and diaries (Cooper, Ryan, Gay, & Perry, 1999; L. Ling, P. Ling, Burman, & Cooper, 2000; L. Ling, Burman, Cooper, & P. Ling, 2002; Perry & Cooper, 2001). For the purposes of this chapter, we used the data from these studies and focussed on the beginning years of the participants' careers as teacher educators. We will refer to these studies as the 'narrative studies'. A third source we examined was a small-scale study about the induction of beginning teacher educators that was conducted by members of the Research and Development Centre (RDC) 'Professional Development of Teacher Educators', which is one of the many RDCs of the Association of Teacher Education in Europe (ATEE). Eleven members of the RDC, all experienced teacher educators, interviewed 11 beginning colleagues, 8 women and 3 men from 26 to 50 years of age (see for a full description of this study Van Velzen, Van der Klink, Swennen, & Yaffe, 2008). Characteristic of these 11 teacher educators is that they were undergoing their own induction period at the time of the interviews. These beginning teacher educators were not involved in research, let alone self-study about their own development. We will refer to these teacher educators as the 'interviewed teacher educators'. In the chapter, we will describe the transition from teacher to teacher education based on the limited research that is available about this topic. If we want to understand the transition from teacher to teacher educator, we have to understand some of the aspects of the work of teacher educators and we will describe the complexity of the work of teacher educators and the fact that they are always a model for student teachers. We will then describe the main challenges of the beginning teacher educators through the self-study, narrative studies and interviewed teacher educators. These challenges include a heavy teaching workload, pressure to engage research, isolation and a clash of ideas and ideals. Beginning teacher educators do not just face challenges and difficulties; they also experience joys and rewards and these help them to develop their identities as teacher educators. They know about teaching, and this gives them strength to deal with their challenges. Most rewarding, though, is working with students and collaborating with colleagues, and we will describ these aspects of the first years of teacher educators as well. We also discuss if and how beginning teacher educators expand their identity from teacher to teacher educator. As induction for teacher educators is a relatively new idea, beginning teacher educators often have to organise their own networks of support (see Chapter 7). We conclude this chapter with some suggestions for beginning teacher educators on how to organise this support to survive and thrive in the first years as beginning teacher educators and on how to improve and enhance their work and lives as teacher educators.
Regenerating rural social space? Teacher education for rural-regional sustainability
- Authors: Reid, Joanne , Green, Bill , Cooper, Maxine , Hastings, Wendy , Lock, Graeme , White, Simone
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Education Vol. 54, no. 3 (2010), p. 262-276
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- Description: The complex interconnection among issues affecting rural-regional sustainability requires an equally complex program of research to ensure the attraction and retention of high-quality teachers for rural children. The educational effects of the construction of the rural within a deficit discourse are highlighted. A concept of rural social space is modelled, bringing together social, economic and environmental dimensions of (rural-regional) sustainability. This framework combines quantitative definitional processes with more situated definitions of rural space based on demographic and other social data, across both geographic and cultural formations. The implications of the model are examined in terms of its importance for teacher education.
Researching rural-regional (teacher) education in Australia
- Authors: Lock, Graeme , Reid, Joanne , Green, Bill , Hastings, Wendy , Cooper, Maxine , White, Simone
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Education in Rural Australia Vol. 19, no. 2 (2009), p. 31-44
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- Description: In 2007 a group of researchers from four Australian universities was awarded an ARC Discovery grant to undertake a longitudinal study into the nature of successful teacher education strategies aimed at making rural teaching an attractive long-term career option. This paper presents descriptive insights into how the research team, located in three Australian states (New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia) is able to maintain a sustained cohesive approach to achieving the project's aim. The initial section of the paper introduces each team member prior to discussing the importance of taking a national perspective on rural education. The second section considers the research design and shows how the main objective of the investigation will be achieved. Emerging trends from the quantitative and qualitative data collected in 2008 are revealed in the third section. The discussion in the fourth section centres on how the trends emerging from the collected data requires a reconceptualisation of preparing pre-service teachers for non-metropolitan placements. In doing so, the project's emerging conceptual framework, which emphasizes that preparation of teachers for rural and regional appointments needs to be considered beyond the terms and forms of traditional professional practice, is explored. [Author abstract, ed]
- Description: 1301 Education Systems
Supporting pre-service teachers through intercultural experiences: a pathway to socially and culturally inclusive teaching
- Authors: Johnstone, Carolyn , Cooper, Maxine
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Relation: 10th International Technology, Education and Development Conference (INTED2016) Proceedings, Valencia, Spain. 7-9 March, 2016
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- Description: In the classrooms of tomorrow, beginning teachers encounter a wide array of students from diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socio-economic backgrounds. The global community is reflected in the classroom and teachers are expected to prepare their students for global citizenship. Practising and pre-service teachers studying education programs at open access regional universities in Australia often have limited experience of travel and few opportunities to develop global mindedness. Drawing on Bourdieu’s work on social and cultural capital, this qualitative research explores how intercultural experiences contribute to the individual’s developing teacher identity and, in particular, whether unfamiliar professional experience settings promote socially and culturally inclusive teaching in a global context. The study examines whether pre-service teachers develop intercultural empathy, improve intercultural communication and assemble values that reflect membership of a global community. Critical pedagogy principles have been applied to the research and participants are encouraged to critically reflect on their professional experience and their personal journeys as they build their teacher identities. Participant stories, collected through interviews and reflective writing, are examined through narrative inquiry. Additionally, questionnaires are used to provide observer evaluation of the extent to which participants are being and becoming socially and culturally inclusive teachers in a global context. This paper reports on the experiences of the first cohort in the study who have travelled from Federation University Australia to complete professional experience placements in China, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea in 2015. Initial findings indicate that these experiences may increase the individual’s cross-cultural empathy, understandings and communication skills, thus enhancing their capacity for socially and culturally inclusive teaching. In addition university mentoring and guidance through the reflection process can increase the learning that occurs including understanding cultural diversity in the classroom, becoming responsible and globally informed teachers and deeply reflective practitioners.
Cross-cultural communication in teacher education : A case study of an Australian pre-service teacher placement in Liaoning, China
- Authors: Jin, Aijing , Cooper, Maxine , Golding, Barry
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Teacher Education Vol. 41, no. 6 (2016), p. 20-34
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- Description: This paper presents a case study of the experiences and reflections of four fourth year pre-service teachers from Federation University Australia who completed their three-week teaching placement in Anshan, Liaoning Province, China, in April 2014. The study also explores the perspectives and opinions of both the Chinese mentor teachers and Chinese students towards the Australian preservice teachers. The research confirms the mutual benefits of crosscultural teacher education professional experiences for pre-service teachers, Chinese mentor teachers and Chinese students. The teaching experiences revealed major differences in educational concepts and teaching strategies and approaches between the two systems because of the different social and cultural contexts. The evidence from the voices of the participants indicates that the professional experience in these two Chinese schools fostered the Australian pre-service teachers’ cross-cultural communication skills, developed their confidence and skills as teachers and generally enriched their personal and professional lives.
Keeping them in line: Choreographing classroom spaces
- Authors: Hirst, Elizabeth , Cooper, Maxine
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Teachers and Teaching Vol. 14, no. 5 & 6 (2008), p. 431-445
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- Description: This paper provides teachers with an opportunity for thinking about the kinds of 'people' constructed in their classes, the kinds of 'dances' choreographed and the ways space is organised for learning. We argue that this is essential for teachers to think about if they are to enact socially just professional practices. In this study, we explore the ways in which students learn to be particular kinds of people. We understand this as happening through their participation in communities of practice. Becoming a member of a community of practice, of a classroom and of a school is a process of developing a particular identity, modes of behaviour and ways of knowing. It is through these 'normalising' practices that power is constituted, boundaries constructed and certain 'kinds of people' are recognised, represented and constituted, whilst others are not. All individuals are implicated in these processes and active in the construction of their own as well as others' identities. This paper locates this discussion using social relations of gender and ethnicity, and considers how diversity and difference are actively constituted and play out in one primary school classroom. How students participate in the spatial practices and the construction of pedagogical spaces, what identities are available to them in these spaces and which they take up, is explored. The metaphor of dance is used to analyse these spaces, a metaphor which helps us to understand the complexity of classroom relationships and the way macro-social practices are both reflected and reconstituted in classroom practices. We argue that the ways teachers think about how they place students, space students and construct students are crucial for student and teacher learning.
- Description: 2003006420
Learning about the effects of context on teaching and learning in preservice teacher education
- Authors: Fenwick, Lisl , Cooper, Maxine
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Teacher Education Vol. 38, no. 3 (2013), p. 96-110
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- Description: Preparing teachers to work effectively within increasingly diverse contexts is a key goal of teacher education programs. This study analyses the extent to which a semester unit within a teacher education course provided pre-service teachers with the understanding and practices required to teach in low socio-economic status (SES) contexts. The results suggest that a unit, which emphasises links between theory, historical perspectives and practice, can effectively provide pre-service teachers with the key understandings and skills associated with improving equity outcomes in education. However, when the ideas being presented conflict with pre-existing, strongly held ideas about the role of schooling, practices associated with equity will not be sustained.
- Description: 2003011028
Prevailing pedagogies for classes in low SES contexts and the implications for standards-based reform in Australia
- Authors: Fenwick, Lisl , Cooper, Maxine
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Educational Researcher Vol. 39, no. 3 (2012), p. 349-361
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- Description: Current curriculum and assessment reform for schooling in Australia is based on ideas and practices associated with the setting of standards. Detailed descriptions of levels of achievement for each year of schooling are being ascribed the dual role of measuring the effectiveness of school systems and helping teachers to ensure all students are supported to gain common outcomes. The use of standards to inform teaching and learning has developed from research on differentiation practices and is associated with specific pedagogies designed to support students at risk of not succeeding in schooling. This project aimed to investigate the extent to which the ideas and practices associated with standards-based curriculum reform are currently influencing teachers' thinking and practice in three Victorian primary schools situated in low socio-economic status contexts. Teachers' beliefs and practices associated with supporting students from backgrounds traditionally linked with low achievement were collected before and after trialling units of work designed by pre-service teachers. The results reveal that the ideas and strategies currently used by teachers in three schools largely conflict with the pedagogies associated with standards-based reform and the findings question the extent to which current national agendas in Australia will influence classroom practices and student outcomes. © 2012 The Australian Association for Research in Education, Inc.
Practical strategies in values education
- Authors: Cooper, Maxine , Burman, Eva , Ling, Lorraine , Razdevsek-Pucko, Cveta , Stephenson, Joan
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Values, character and school : A reader about values education Chapter p. 146-192
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- Description: 2003008111
Learning together, shaping tomorrow : New teachers try new ways
- Authors: Cooper, Maxine , Stewart, Joan
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Research in Comparative and International Education Vol. 4, no. 1 (2009), p. 111-123
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- Description: Teacher induction programs provide the critical support that new teachers need as they move from university teacher education studies to the everyday realities of teaching. Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) work through a range of new and challenging experiences as they explore their sense of themselves as professionals. Their identities are being constantly constructed and reconstructed as they work through their subjective experience of being a teacher and the objective structures of the wider educational field of the classroom, school and the local community. A high percentage of NQTs leave the teaching profession within the first 5 years of beginning teaching as they grapple with and succumb to the challenges caused by a number of stressors they encounter. New teachers frequently become dissatisfied with the outcomes of their work and decide that they are unsuited to teaching and leave the profession. This article is based on a study of beginning teachers in two Australian states. The focus is on multiple ways to meet the needs of new teachers to establish their professional identity within the context of a community of learners and to value diversity and complexity in the professional community. Key issues addressed included: teacher induction and quality teaching, changing school cultures and the culture of professional learning, teacher learning and responding to changes in the wider community.
- Description: 2003008004
Gender and diversity in the classroom
- Authors: Cooper, Maxine
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Diversity and inclusion in Australian School p. 88-116
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Perspectives from Australia: Theory to practice using core reflection
- Authors: Cooper, Maxine , Stewart, Joan
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Reflectivity and cultivating student learning Chapter 11 p. 209-223
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Teacher culture & teacher change: Insights from a meta-theoretical perspective
- Authors: Cooper, Maxine , Ling, Lorraine , Stewart, Joan
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: World Federation of Teacher Education Associations
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- Description: One of the challenges and opportunities for university academics working in teacher education programs in the current global/glocal context is to work in close partnership with schools and systems to enable new and experienced teachers and principals to manage change, to work with new pedagogies, new curriculum initiatives for learning in dynamic creative learning spaces. This study develops a meta-theorectical framework drawing on the work of Kardos et al (2001) which articulates three distinct teacher cultures which are referred to as veteran oriented professional cultures, novice-oriented professional cultures and integrated professional cultures. This is synthesised with the work of Robertson (2000) who claims that there are three levels of experience into which teacher change can be classified. These are 'the world of events' , conjuctural time' and the 'longue duree' (p7) and all are interpreted within glocalised and cosmopolitan world....
Theory to practice using core reflection: Stories from teacher education students and staff
- Authors: Cooper, Maxine , Stewart, Joan
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Reflectivity and Cultivating Student Learning: Critical Elements for Enhancing a Global Community of Learners and Educators. Chapter 12 p. 209-222
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