Matilda Harry, Michelle Trudgett, Susan Page, Rebekah Grace
{"title":"Reflections in waterholes: Reconceptualising young Indigenous Australian success","authors":"Matilda Harry, Michelle Trudgett, Susan Page, Rebekah Grace","doi":"10.1007/s13384-024-00747-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-024-00747-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p>While there is a body of literature monitoring Indigenous Australian post-secondary school experiences, research investigating aspirational development in this life stage and Indigenous youth success as defined by Indigenous youth is severely lacking. Too often academic, government and public discourses portray Indigenous youth experiences through deficit frames of representation, completion and performance. By sharing the insights, reflections and aspirations of 15 young Indigenous Australian participants this paper calls for Indigeneity to be centred in ideations and indicators of Indigenous youth success. Findings confront institutionalised and hierarchical ideals of Indigenous Australian success premised on dominant neoliberal ideation and the accumulation of White cultural and social capital. Through an Indigenist Research lens this paper presents aspirational development and achievement as a complex and raced space where Indigenous Australian secondary school leavers articulate ambition and agency in developing successful careers, rich in cultural wealth and with their identity intact.</p>","PeriodicalId":501129,"journal":{"name":"The Australian Educational Researcher","volume":"179 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141881088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Gary Bonar, Yvette Slaughter, Anne Keary, Tanya Davies
{"title":"Supporting students with English as an additional language during emergency remote teaching: a Q methodology study","authors":"Gary Bonar, Yvette Slaughter, Anne Keary, Tanya Davies","doi":"10.1007/s13384-024-00753-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-024-00753-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Students with English as an additional language (EAL) comprise approximately a third of the government school population in Australia’s second most populous state of Victoria. While the broad impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on teachers and students has been the focus of recent studies, there is a lack of information on how EAL educators adapted to meet the needs of this diverse cohort of students during periods of emergency remote teaching (ERT). In this mixed-methods study, eleven EAL educators from diverse educational contexts in Victoria completed a Q-sort of 49 statements followed by in-depth interviews. The by-person factor analysis resulted in a three-factor solution that revealed the transition to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic brought both challenges and opportunities for EAL educators. Some students who struggled in traditional classrooms engaged more effectively in remote learning, while others experienced significant anxiety. Additionally, some educators experimented with digital tools and strategies, gaining valuable insights into effective approaches for students with EAL. These findings render a nuanced picture of educators’ experiences during this time, enhancing our understanding of transformative educational practices for linguistically diverse students.</p>","PeriodicalId":501129,"journal":{"name":"The Australian Educational Researcher","volume":"77 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141870153","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lisa Murray, Patricia Eadie, Maria Fong, Kate Liley, Penny Markham, Kirsten Hardy
{"title":"Educator wellbeing and family engagement in Australian early learning settings: perspectives of early childhood educators and families","authors":"Lisa Murray, Patricia Eadie, Maria Fong, Kate Liley, Penny Markham, Kirsten Hardy","doi":"10.1007/s13384-024-00751-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-024-00751-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p>While the COVID-19 pandemic brought with it multiple challenges for families and the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) workforce, it also highlighted the essential role of ECEC in the lives of children and families and presented unique opportunities for innovation and learning. The current study sought to explore learnings from this uniquely challenging period, including the factors and strategies that best supported educator wellbeing and family engagement in ECEC settings, from the perspectives of families, centre directors and educators. In 2021, 104 Centre Directors/Educators and 102 families completed online surveys exploring wellbeing and educator–family relationships. Correlations suggest that robust professional wellbeing and resilience are potential enabling factors for strong family engagement, and that supportive organisational structures in ECEC settings are a protective factor for both educator wellbeing and family engagement. In addition, five effective family engagement strategies were derived from the qualitative data: (1) drawing on personal and professional knowledges to enrich children’s learning at home; (2) prioritising regular and reliable communication with families; (3) maintaining familiar relationships and a sense of community; (4) providing person-centred support and a bridge to other services; and (5) nurturing mutually supportive educator–family relationships. Learnings provide important insights that may inform ongoing quality improvements across different ECEC contexts, and to help safeguard against the negative impacts of future global crises.</p>","PeriodicalId":501129,"journal":{"name":"The Australian Educational Researcher","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141776347","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Teachers’ use and perceptions of Let’s Talk about Children","authors":"Pilvi Raitila, Noora Heiskanen, Anne Karhu","doi":"10.1007/s13384-024-00736-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-024-00736-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Schools play significant roles in promoting pupils’ well-being. This study explores teachers’ experiences using the research-based, psychoeducational method Let’s Talk about Children (LTC) to support pupils’ well-being and identify possible risk factors in cooperation with home and school. The study’s data comprise 83 LTC training participants’ writing about their experiences with the method as first-time users. The results indicate that the teachers noticed several benefits and potential uses of LTC, but they reported that the method requires adaptation. The experienced LTC benefits were early intervention, increased knowledge about pupils, encouragement and improved relationships with families. Challenges included a poor fit with teachers’ work, rigid materials and challenging interactions. Teachers noticed benefits from LTC use, but adjusting the method to their work was challenging. These results will enable the method’s further development.</p>","PeriodicalId":501129,"journal":{"name":"The Australian Educational Researcher","volume":"138 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141741975","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Competitive grants in autonomous public schools: how school principals are labouring for public school funding","authors":"Emma Rowe, Sarah Langman","doi":"10.1007/s13384-024-00746-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-024-00746-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper examines competitive grants for public schools, as a form of additional funding from the government. We draw on interviews with principals from different states in Australia to examine systemic impacts of competitive grants for public schools, exploring this in relation to school autonomy. Public school principals are labouring to generate additional school funding via competitive applications from the traditional state government, to supplement their core or regular government funding. The competitive applications are to fund what many would consider rudimentary or fundamental resources, such as school infrastructure and student wellbeing programs. For the interviewed principals, the drive to generate more funding was anchored within significant government funding shortfalls in public schools. The majority of interviewees did not find the funding model to be ‘needs-based’ or responsive. Autonomous public schools presented many paradoxes and contradictions, particularly in under-funded contexts; whilst on one hand, principals are tasked with managing their budgets, the majority experienced the environment as highly inflexible and often punitive, laden with bureaucratic red tape. The majority of interviewees expressed notions of responsibilisation for generating additional funds. In this context, we found that competitive funding applications increase school principal work intensification, with principals spending excessive time labouring to generate additional funding via competitive grant applications, in order to fund essential school projects. The labour involved in completing time-demanding funding applications supplants their traditional responsibilities and is critically reshaping their role as a school principal, to one of ‘grant applier’ and fundraiser, reinforcing the retreat of the traditional state.</p>","PeriodicalId":501129,"journal":{"name":"The Australian Educational Researcher","volume":"370 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141575470","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A critique of ‘Strong Beginnings’ initial teacher education reforms: mandating neuroscience as core curriculum within the ‘what works’ movement","authors":"Andrew Skourdoumbis, Emma Rowe","doi":"10.1007/s13384-024-00743-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-024-00743-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The paper studies the rise of neuroscience in initial teacher education, paying attention to the relatively recent Australian Government (2023) report titled ‘Strong Beginnings’. In taking up a critical policy sociology lens, we focus on the first priority within the reforms, which is mandating brain science and the ‘brain and learning’ as core curriculum within initial teacher education. The reforms will embed standardised curriculum into initial teacher education and tie this curriculum to graduate teacher standards, bracketed within prescribed texts, ideologies and agendas. The reforms are positioned within the ‘what works’ movement, increasing accreditation and certain types of evidence, and the role and authority of intermediary organisations, including the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL). It promotes research that has been paid for by the think tank Centre for Independent Studies and aligned with the Australian Education Research Organisation and Education Endowment Foundation. In this paper, we endeavour to highlight how the singular and narrow focus on brain-based approaches is not only reductionist, but also potentially generative of oppressive technologies. The mandating of standardised curriculum and brain science undermines educators, including initial teacher educators, and bolsters private interests in education. The standardisation of core curriculum, which will be tied to accreditation processes and graduate teacher standards, is underpinned by a punitive-accountability based approach. Furthermore, whilst it is less visible, these reforms contain brain science tropes redolent of eugenics and deficit framings of low socio-economic status students.</p>","PeriodicalId":501129,"journal":{"name":"The Australian Educational Researcher","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141575301","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The construction of the metaphorical teacher in policy: Strong Beginnings for compliant victims","authors":"Trevor McCandless, Julianne Moss, Brandi Fox, Harsha Chandir","doi":"10.1007/s13384-024-00744-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-024-00744-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p>An analysis of teacher metaphors has long been a feature of research into the development of early career teacher identity, however, the metaphors used to construct the ideal teacher in educational policy remains under-researched. These policy documents explicitly seek to frame what it means to be an effective teacher. As such, an analysis of the metaphors used in these documents to describe teachers ought to provide insights into how policy makers perceive teachers, particularly early career teachers, not least in how these metaphors differ from those held by early career teachers themselves. This research finds that a recent Australian government policy document <i>Strong Beginnings</i>, with the explicit aim to make initial teacher education courses more effective in producing teachers likely to stay in the profession, provides teacher metaphors that fall within three overarching categories: saviour, victim and compliant teachers. These categories of metaphor rarely overlap with those early career teachers use to describe either themselves or their profession. The teacher as compliant metaphor is mostly constructed indirectly by first making initial teacher education courses compliant in teaching core content. In this way policy proposes it is best placed to mandate changes to initial teacher education courses to ensure they produce effective teachers, and this effectiveness will be the deciding feature in keeping them in the profession long-term. This paper argues the mismatch of metaphors between those held by policy and early career teachers is likely to undermine this assumption.</p>","PeriodicalId":501129,"journal":{"name":"The Australian Educational Researcher","volume":"88 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141575302","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘Don’t hog, share and just let your imagination flow’: lessons from structured and unstructured loose parts play in middle primary school classrooms","authors":"Kym Simoncini, Katy Meeuwissen","doi":"10.1007/s13384-024-00737-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-024-00737-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Despite the many benefits of play, within primary school, play is often reduced to lunch breaks, particularly as children move to higher grades. Loose parts play affords children opportunities to develop imagination and 21st-century skills (collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking). As part of a larger project, two Year 4 classes in an Australian primary school (two teachers and 46 children, aged 9–10 years) engaged in one hour of structured or unstructured loose parts play during class time for eight weeks using a Nüdel Kart (loose parts play cart). Children in the structured play group were set challenges and taught creative attitudes and processes. Data was collected through children’s surveys and focus groups and teacher interviews. Children and teachers were overwhelmingly positive about the play sessions. Children enjoyed the opportunities for construction, social skills and creativity, while teachers focused on inclusion and social skills. Future classroom practice recommendations include integrating both play types and meeting creativity and social and emotional curriculum requirements through loose parts play.</p>","PeriodicalId":501129,"journal":{"name":"The Australian Educational Researcher","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141507476","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Positioning the notion of group in children’s learning: an Australian study","authors":"Karen Guo, Andrea Nolan, Carole Lanting","doi":"10.1007/s13384-024-00726-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-024-00726-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Current research and literature emphasize the crucial role of group experiences in children’s learning during early childhood. However, despite the frequent use of the term ‘group’, little attention has been paid to its position in children’s learning and the diverse perspectives that inform it. This study addressed this gap by applying a tri-partite lens, considering the perspectives of young children, parents and teachers in three preschools in Australia. We defined group broadly as any social context within preschool environments. Data were collected through focus group discussions with 24 children, individual interviews with six teachers and questionnaires completed by 48 parents in the preschools. The findings have conceptualised group as a complex interweaving of various elements, involving the dynamic tensions and relationships between children’s needs and adults’ expectations and practices. Central to this is the exploration of self and others, and an understanding of how children's desires for togetherness and belonging could stimulate thinking about what it means to be learning in groups.</p>","PeriodicalId":501129,"journal":{"name":"The Australian Educational Researcher","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141507416","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ellen Larsen, Georgina Barton, Kristina Turner, Susie Garvis
{"title":"Enablers and constraints to teacher educator wellbeing amidst institutional accountability cultures: a PERMA perspective","authors":"Ellen Larsen, Georgina Barton, Kristina Turner, Susie Garvis","doi":"10.1007/s13384-024-00738-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-024-00738-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The work of contemporary teacher educators in university contexts is under increasing political and public scrutiny as the focus on Initial Teacher Education (ITE) reform intensifies. Consequently, there are growing concerns for teacher educators’ wellbeing amidst escalating expectations and pressures. While research has explored the wellbeing of university academics more generally, less is understood about teacher educators more specifically. This paper aims to deepen understanding of the perceived enablers and constraints influencing how teacher educators experience wellbeing within their everyday work as academics in higher education contexts. Using metalogue as method, nine teacher educators from two Australian universities collectively reflected on their wellbeing during an online focus group session guided by an arts-based activity. Framed by the key constructs of the PERMA wellbeing framework, the ensuing metalogue was analysed thematically. Findings highlighted the particular importance they place on feeling a sense of value, purpose, and meaning in their work as educators for their wellbeing. Findings further showed how the impact of current external reform-driven accountabilities on their work and that of educators in the profession more broadly constrain their wellbeing. These findings have implications for institutional leaders and teacher educators in Australia and internationally where academics are experiencing performative cultures.</p>","PeriodicalId":501129,"journal":{"name":"The Australian Educational Researcher","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141507417","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}