Andrew Skourdoumbis

Equity, social justice and ethics in mathematics education

The performativity policy mindset driving national and international testing highlights issues of equity in access and success according to socio-economic status, geographic location, ethnicity, gender and combinations of these factors. Researchers seek explanations for these inequities in terms encompassing engagement, participation and achievement to identify socially just and ethical practices at system, school and classroom level. The emergence of a theoretical perspective involving redistribution, recognition and participation (Fraser, Fortunes of feminism. From state-managed capitalism to neoliberal crisis, 2013) is evident in a range of studies concerning leadership, professional learning, pre-service teacher education, and pedagogies that focus on equity and social justice in mathematics education. The challenge of ethical and socially just practices at all levels and social groups is in providing access to deep learning in mathematics and success in “knowledge making” (Jorgensen, Proceedings of the 37th Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia 2014).

Teach for Australia (TFA): Can It Overcome Educational Disadvantage?.

This paper considers an alternative teacher certification pathway known as Teach for Australia (TFA) that is currently operating in the Australian state of Victoria. A discursive approach informed by critical theory is used in the paper to critically examine the specific case of TFA as an alternative teacher certification pathway charged with improving student learning outcomes and reducing educational disadvantage. The problematization of educational programmes such as TFA, including specific terms and statements found in TFA documentation, features prominently in the paper alongside the political and economic policy context of public education. The argument and central contention of the paper is that TFA will not overcome educational disadvantage; nor will it over time improve student learning outcomes.

Teacher Effectiveness: Making The Difference to Student Achievement?

ABSTRACT This paper critically examines shifts in emphasis in Australian education from expectations and belief that teachers not only make a difference to student achievement, but they are the difference. In moving from social class relations accounts to self-managing school accounts, latest shifts (teacher effectiveness accounts) over-emphasize teacher effect(s), distorting issues of student under-achievement.

Distorted Representations of the "Capability Approach" in Australian School Education.

Recently, curriculum developments in Australia have seen the incorporation of functionalist ‘general capabilities’ as essential markers of schooling, meaning that any pedagogical expression of classroom-based practice, including subsequent instruction, should entail the identification and development of operational general capabilities. The paper questions and critiques recent curriculum developments in Australia that characterises capabilities purely in functionalist terms, something that the broader capabilities literature eschews. The analysis is informed by aspects of the theoretical frameworks of Martin Heidegger and Pierre Bourdieu. It examines the notion of ‘general capabilities’ in the Australian Curriculum. The paper argues that there is an inherent contradiction in Australian education policy, namely a vocationally oriented national school curriculum with implied functionings that cannot fulfil designated purposes. The paper finds that the curriculums connection to increased individual and national economic prosperity, one championing ‘jobs and careers of the twenty-first century’, is evident, although current populous forms and categories of employment seem to suggest otherwise.

Classroom teacher effectiveness research and inquiry, and its relevance to the development of public education policy: an Australian context

This paper has as its focus an analysis of the question and problem of classroom teacher effectiveness research and inquiry. It presents an examination of what counts as valid and worthwhile research in classroom teacher effectiveness studies for the development of education policy within an Australian context, the State of Victoria. The Government’s Blueprint, the major education policy document of the Victorian State Labour Government, outlines its educational approach. Important and core features of government direction for education policy include a focus on social and economic disadvantage. A priority for the Victorian State Labour Government is tangible and measurable improvement in the performance of the public education system. A particular concern is the problem of academic underperformance within public schools, particularly those designated as low-performing and situated in socially and economically disadvantaged communities. Building the capacity of the State’s teacher workforce forms a key component of the Blueprint, and State Government direction in public education. The paper utilises a qualitative theoretical framework. Eight education policy actor/participants were interviewed and their responses analysed using a critical discourse approach. The main findings indicate that education policy actors advocate a strong belief in particular forms of evidence-based research for the development of education policy in the area of classroom teacher effectiveness.

Calling for ‘urgent national action to improve the quality of initial teacher education’: the reification of evidence and accountability in reform agendas

Abstract In early 2015, the Australian Government and an associated Ministerial Group called for ‘urgent national action to improve the quality of initial teacher education’. Following this call for action, the Australian Government launched a series of reforms into initial teacher education, targeting ‘teacher quality’ and ‘classroom readiness’. The reforms are based on a logic of deficiency within initial teacher education, mandating new accreditation processes, standardized assessments and the National Literacy and Numeracy Test for pre-service teachers. In this paper we set out to explore these reforms, considering the policy trajectories, technologies and technicist network in which they are operationalized. We propose the concept of reification and objectification to examine the institutionalization of auditing, standardization, and accountability. These reforms aim to intervene in both the content and delivery of initial teacher education. We argue that reforms such as these recondition our conceptions of professionalism and teacher quality. There is a contraction in scope for progressive or experiential teacher education, and moreover, the ongoing de-professionalism of teachers and teacher educators, whom are subjected to constant surveillance.

Who's counting? Legitimating measurement in the audit culture

What gives legitimacy to the numbers that constitute the measurement techniques of the audit culture? We argue that the audit cultures blind application of numbers to people as if there was no moral or ethical dimension to the calculation rests on a military discourse resident in mathematics. This argument is based on the genealogy presented in this paper, which uncovers a regime of measurement-by-number, sedimented as legitimate through an association with military power. We claim that this military measurement-by-number is a dubious technique of government on which the audit culture relies for its highly questionable authority.

New directions in education? A critique of contemporary policy reforms

This paper draws on facets of Foucaults theoretical resources to critique current education policy reform from within the Australian State of Victoria, namely the Department of Education and Early Childhood Developments (DEECD) discussion paper New directions for school leadership and the teaching profession. Implicit in the reform effort is decentralization, including penalties for “underperforming” classroom teachers and “ineffective” teacher education courses. Principals will hold a pre-eminent rank in the reforms proposed as they are charged with their oversight and implementation, including intervening in the education and preparation of pre-service teachers.

The (mis)identification of ineffective classroom teaching practice: critical interrogations of classroom teacher effectiveness research

This paper critiques specific forms of classroom teacher effectiveness research. In doing so, the paper suggests that education policy-making deems and employs teacher effectiveness research as a promising and capable contrivance for the identification of ineffective classroom teaching practice. The paper engages with this policy debate by using a specific policy example from the Australian state of Victoria, the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) Blueprint for Government Schools (2003/2008). Moreover, the attention given to “teacher effectiveness” as the means by which school systems aim to reverse student under-achievement positions classroom teachers as the controlling authority over educational outcomes. Indeed, teacher effectiveness is the defining quality of a policy-making debate that at its core dispenses with broader considerations of possible influence thought to substantially affect the learning outcomes of public school students.

Bridging homes and classrooms: advancing students’ capabilities

Abstract This paper investigates the capabilities of remote rural teachers in Indonesia’s Probolinggo Regency to make meaningful pedagogic connections between students’ homes and their classrooms. The term capabilities is derived from Sen’s to Nussbaum’s capabilities approach, which refers to substantive freedom or opportunities that a person holds to do and to be a certain thing that he or she considers valuable. Informed by the capabilities approach (CA), the study involved classroom observations, teacher interviews and examination of Indonesian curriculum documents (teachers’ syllabi and lesson plans). Making connections between homes and classrooms enables students to critically engage in their learning and makes knowledge more meaningful in terms of solving real-life issues or problems. Teachers need to accommodate ‘local’ knowledge that exists in homes and communities thereby strengthening relationships between communities and schools; something synonymous with social justice aspects of the CA. Data generated for the study indicate that teachers encounter significant impediments in making connections between homes (communities) and classrooms (schools). In addition, while participants demonstrate that they are in part committed to the notions of ‘connections’ and ‘inclusivity’, their classroom practices still need strengthening in their adherence to the general substance of the CA.