Learning to Teach in Australia

• In Event: A Cross-National Examination of Knowledge, Policy, and Practice in Learning to Teach: Part II

Abstract

1. Objectives or purposes
Initial teacher education (ITE) and education reform processes in Australia tend to closely shadow those of the United States and England (see Zeichner, 2014, Mayer, 2014, Gilroy, 2014). While there is some evidence of one-off policy initiatives borrowed from other countries, the last decade has seen an ever-increasingly rapid policy ‘catch-up’ as Australia follows the same reform waves as our English and American ‘cousins’ (Gilroy, 2014, p.624). In 2014 the Australian Government initiated another review into initial teacher education resulting in the Action Now: Classroom ready teachers report. The purpose of this paper to examine the conceptions of professional knowledge and practice that are embedded within the recommendations and final report that was published (TEMAG, 2014) and to trace their historical origins both within Australia and internationally.

2. Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
The central perspective to this paper is historical sociological. It also draws on policy studies in education and in particular on theories of globalisation, policy exchange/transference.

3. Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
The paper examines the policy precursors to the TEMAG Report and identifies the 'policy transfer' that has occurred at certain key stages in the development of Australian teacher education over time. Discourse analysis is deployed to identify key elements of the documents and speeches that are reviewed as well as public commentary and media reports.

4. Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials
The starting point is the TEMAG report itself, but additionally an archive of materials available in public and university libraries are being mined for evidence of the respective influences of - for example - teacher unions, overseas delegations, think tanks and fringe groups, state and national teaching organisations, local, state and national governments.

5. Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view
The initial findings of the study are that while the history of teacher education in Australia did show an overwhelming influence from the 'colonial cousins', more recently, perhaps under the influence of neoliberalism, the education ministers in Australia have taken a more independent and confident approach, that not only reduces international influence but also diminishes the historical autonomy of the states and territories in this federal system.

6. Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work
The main significance of the work is twofold - the paper will reveal new trajectories and patterns of teacher education development within Australia, but secondly it will throw light on developments that are happening elsewhere in both hemispheres and shed a new light on the influences of globalisation within teacher education.

Author

• Simone Jane White, Monash University