Carol Reid

Global Teachers with Globite Cases

A key feature of contemporary changes in globalisation is the increasing transnational flows of people. Evidence of the way in which these changes are impacting on education in Australia today is found in the presence of its immigrant teachers. Teacher shortages in Australia have led to increasing numbers of immigrant teachers from non-European or non-English-speaking background countries. This article reviews the recent experiences of Australia, New Zealand and Canada in recruiting these teachers. The findings of a study into the presence of immigrant teachers in selected Australian schools are then presented. It was found that as these immigrant teachers negotiate the ‘authoritative discourses’ in their professional lives, they contribute to the reworking of the identity and work of teachers. The article concludes by sketching a research and policy agenda that arises in response to, and as an expression of the presence of this new generation of global/local teachers.

The possibility of cosmopolitan learning: reflecting on future directions for diversity teacher education in Australia

This paper is situated in the re-visioning ethos that has been part of the genealogy of multicultural education. In the context of teacher education, the authors ask: where to now? In this paper, they reflect on their design and delivery of a new undergraduate unit offered by the School of Education, University of Western Sydney. The unit attempted to work through ideas of ‘cosmopolitanism’ as a way of rethinking diversity education for the twenty-first century. The paper offers a critical review of multiculturalism in teacher education and examines theories associated with cosmopolitanism in the education context. The authors examine the ways in which a ‘cosmopolitan imagination’ might have relevance in contemporary contexts of diversity in Australia, and particularly in the western and south-western Sydney region in which they teach.

The new compulsory schooling age policy in NSW, Australia: ethnicity, ability and gender considerations

The new schooling-leaving age policy in New South Wales, a state in Australia, requires all students to stay at school until they are 17 years old. The policy was introduced in January 2010, with little warning and, it appears, little consideration of its impact in complex contexts. In south-western Sydney, the most diverse region in the city, the impact is just being felt. In this paper, we draw on Ball’s approach to policy, maintaining ‘the complexity and scope of policy analysis – from an interest in the workings of the state to a concern with contexts of practice and the distributional outcomes of policy’. The paper explores the impact of the increase in school-leaving age on the curriculum, and the implications for ethnically diverse schools, and for students with learning and behavioural issues. Interviews with principals, teachers, parents and students suggest that there are dimensions of gender, ethnicity and ability to consider when responding to the new policy. Many schools find a lack of opportunity or too much competition for opportunities, and limited pathways. Whole school change is restricted by inadequate resourcing in some schools and by insufficient social networks in their communities.

Schooling responses to youth crime: building emotional capital

This paper reports on a study into schooling responses to youth crime in south‐western Sydney, Australia. The project was a partnership between the New South Wales Department of Education and Training and the University of Western Sydney’s School of Education. Specifically, the paper analyses interviews with school leaders who were interested in understanding how to support young people constructed ‘at risk’ of engaging in criminal activity. A content analysis, drawing on the concept of ‘emotional capital’, revealed discourses of safety, hope, engagement, and justice and fairness in the narratives of participants. The various ways in which ‘emotion’ is operationalized in education is explored so that the nature of emotional capital and its class and gendered inflections are made clear. Emotional capital, as a theoretical framework, also provides new insights into the strategies used by school leaders and helps situate the experiences and interests of the participating principals and key staff in the schools in this study.

'No-one ever asked me' : the invisible experiences and contribution of Australian emigrant teachers

Teachers possess qualifications and experience that opens the door to professional migration. It is common when considering the diversity or otherwise of the teaching profession to treat the dominant group of teachers in terms of ethnicity as the other side of a simplistic binary. That is, the immigrant or minority background teacher versus the culturally homogenous mainstream teacher. There is little research that examines the experiences and contributions of teachers from the dominant group who have themselves been emigrant teachers. In this article the results of a nationally funded research partnership across three states in Australia examines issues that face many globally mobile teachers. These include negotiating the qualification process and the acquiring of appropriate immigration permits, their experience in classrooms, the reasons that they wanted to teach overseas and their overall evaluation of the experience. The article first looks at the methodology and characteristics of the sample before exploring the emigrant teachers experience from leaving Australia to getting to teach in classrooms abroad, and, in most cases, finally returning to Australia. These experiences are then analysed using Bourdieus (1984) theory of reconversion to reflect on the comparative similarities and differences between minority and/or immigrant and emigrant teachers in Australia.

Studying cultural diversity using information and communication technologies in teacher education: pedagogy, power and literacy

Abstract This article investigates the relationship between new technologies, pedagogy and cultural diversity. It is clear from the project discussed in this article that studying diversity issues on-line provides scope for developing what has been called cultural literacy following Bourdieus (1990) notion of ‘different ways of seeing’. However, there are a number of unintended effects of power that emerge in this new cultural field which need examination. These include the importance of understanding the embodied context as much as the virtual, the need to be explicit about literacy practices to challenge the dominant liberal discourse of ‘voice’ in on-line discussion, and the effects of power that emanate from teaching and learning in this field.

Cosmopolitanism and rural education: a conversation

In this paper, recent research into the global movement of teachers [C. Reid, J. Collins, and M. Singh. 2014. Global Teachers, Australian Perspectives: Goodbye Mr Chips, Hello Ms Banerjee. Singapore: Springer] and their experiences in rural areas of Australia are discussed in order to make the case for a cosmopolitan education theory and practice. The paper is divided into four sections. First, is an overview of cosmopolitanism and the rural drawing on Appadurais [1996. Modernity At Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.] conceptualisation of scapes (1996) and Vertovecs [2007. “Super-Diversity and its Implications.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 30 (6): 1024–1054] notion of super-diversity. Second, a brief comparison of the key elements of multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism are outlined in order to reveal the ways in which they differ, and why cosmopolitanism might be useful in understanding rural education. Third, a slice of data from the study of the global movement of teachers is examined to mount the argument that there is a need to consider cosmopolitan social and education theory to respond to new conditions. In doing so, rural spaces are opened up as transformative and transformed, rather than ‘Other’ to the metropolis. The paper concludes with key points regarding the usefulness of cosmopolitanism for understanding education in rural areas.

Technology‐loving Luddites? Declining participation in high school computing studies in Australia

The research discussed in this article is based on an Australian Research Council‐funded study carried out over three years (2005–2007) in three states 1 in Australia. The study sought to understand students’ experiences and decisions at secondary school to ascertain why few girls choose to enter tertiary‐level Communication and Information Technology (CIT) courses, and what strategies could be implemented in schools to remedy this problem. The results suggest that while boys still tend to dominate the higher levels of CIT subjects in Australian high schools across the three states, there was also a general decline in participation at all levels. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data, the article examines patterns and explanations regarding the nature of participation in CIT subjects. The article develops a Luddite analysis in order to understand the strong rejection of this area of study in the three Australian states.

Public Diversity; Private Disadvantage: Schooling and Ethnicity

When the New South Wales (NSW) Government extended the compulsory schooling age from 15 to 17 years in 2010, there was little warning and no additional resources for schools. Scant consideration was given to the complex contexts that exist in the some of the most disadvantaged areas of Sydney and other centres around the state. This chapter reports on a project that sought to understand the impact of the change on ethnically diverse high schools in south-western Sydney. Findings suggest a particular policy disjuncture is having a profound impact on schools of high minority ethnic diversity, particularly in low socioeconomic contexts: any advantages gained by extending the years of schooling have been mitigated by other policies that encourage increasing public diversity. This is because the latter set of policies has exacerbated the private disadvantage of some ethnic groups in some schools, particularly those who are unwanted by other schools or whose parents are unable to exercise choice due to income, first language status, or minimal social capital.

Imagining the Cosmopolitan Global Citizen? Parents’ Choice of International Schools in Kuwait

This chapter examines the links between parents, school curriculum and teaching practices in international schools in Kuwait to understand how they are responding to globalisation and educating students for twenty-first century capacities. With increasing marketization of schooling globally, parental choice rests upon decisions about the kind of education that will best prepare their children for the future. In the Middle East, there is considerable change occurring, although Kuwait has a longer history of US international schools and British schools than many other Arabic speaking countries in the region. Nevertheless there has been a rapid increase in international schools and many local providers are emerging. This chapter uses cosmopolitan theory to analyse interviews with parents in three accredited international bilingual schools in Kuwait. These schools teach both Arabic and international English curricula. Each school represents a certain category; the first school has a reputation for having ‘high quality’ education; the second school favours a more conservative Islamic environment, and the third school offers special needs and inclusive education in addition to main stream classes. Parents were asked about their reasons for choosing an international school and their responses were considered in relation to globalisation – of the English language, Western curriculum (or international education) – and the effect of these schools and their education on the students’ identity and culture. The parents’ responses include views about the curriculum and teachers’ capacities. The benefits of international schools, from the parents’ perspectives, on preparing their children for a future in the twenty-first century will be discussed in relation to Weenink’s (Sociology 42(6): 1089–1106, 2008) concept of cosmopolitan capital. The findings suggest that the parents are primarily ‘pragmatic’ cosmopolitans rather than dedicated cosmopolitans. This leads to an insight into the kinds of capacities parents believe are required and therefore their evaluation of the education in these schools.