David Saltmarsh

Has anyone read the reading? Using assessment to promote academic literacies and learning cultures

This paper reports on the theoretical and political rationale for an assessment strategy designed to support the development of academic literacies and learning cultures amongst undergraduate and postgraduate education students in one metropolitan and one regional university in Australia. The ‘Critical Review’ is an integrated assessment task that aims to promote a student culture of learning preparedness, critical thinking, scholarly writing and educational ethics by equipping students with both content-specific knowledges and generalisable skills and orientations to academic learning. The Critical Review is both formative and summative in purpose, with primary emphasis given to its usefulness to individual students across a diversity of learning environments and assessment modalities, as well as its importance to enhancing institutional learning cultures. The flexibility of the assessment design is readily incorporated into a range of course structures, and adapts readily to studies in a variety of disciplinary fields.

International students’ identities in a globalized world: Narratives from Vietnam:

Based on the findings of in-depth interviews with Vietnamese tertiary (higher education) students studying in Australia, this article explores how international students construct their identities drawing on their social networks. It provides insights into how international students encounter and traverse cultural differences to define new perspectives of identity that would enable them to perform specific roles and enhance their heritage identity. This article invites international education providers to embrace cultural diversity by recognizing social and cultural influences as determining factors in students’ learning and being, and to effect curriculum and pedagogy that allow opportunities for international students to develop self-knowledge, openness and citizenship.

Reflecting on the work of preparing teachers

As we enter 2009, it is fitting to reflect upon our closing comments in 2008, when we made a call for researchers to critically engage with the broader discourses and sociopolitical climate that shapes teacher education.

Ranking teacher education journals

The ranking of peer-reviewed academic journals within a discipline or scholarly field, and establishing the esteem in which specific journals are held, is an inevitably contentious exercise. Nonetheless, it is an increasingly common exercise given the global proliferation of research assessment frameworks (e.g., New Zealand’s Performance-Based Research Fund, and the Research Assessment Exercise in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong). In general, teacher education journals do not fare particularly well. Thomson’s ISI citation index, for example, regarded in many disciplines as the ‘gold standard’, currently includes only two teacher education journals in its Social Sciences Citation Index: Teaching and Teacher Education and Journal of Teacher Education. Despite its well-rehearsed limitations, such as its strong North American orientation, it appears that the ISI continues to be a highly and arguably overly influential tool in many research evaluation processes, regardless of its relevance to and coverage of the discipline under consideration. It has been heartening, therefore, that the Australian Department of Education, Science and Training, in preparation for the proposed introduction of Australia’s Research Quality Framework by the recently defeated Howard Government, has supported the development of discipline-specific journal rankings. The intent is for each discipline to determine and rank its own journal listings. In the discipline of education, the Centre for the Study of Research Training and Impact (SORTI) at the University of Newcastle, in conjunction with the Australian Association of Research in Education (AARE) has attempted the challenging task of developing esteem measures for peerreviewed journals in education. SORTI approached this challenge with an explicit commitment to drawing on ‘‘the collective wisdom of the profession, especially education researchers’’. Accordingly, it extended, via its website and through AARE networks, an open invitation to educational researchers and other stakeholders within Australia and internationally, to nominate peer reviewed educational research journals for inclusion in the exercise, and to rank the journals that were nominated. A total of 752 people responded. The methodology used by SORTI and outlined in its Working Report #13 (Centre for the Study of Research Training and Impact, 2007) has attracted considerable, and in some cases, critical comment. In response, some sub disciplines, for example, Vocational Education and Training, are developing their own lists of journals relevant to their sub discipline which will then be benchmarked against the SORTI lists. While the status of the SORTI rankings is currently unclear, an indisputable strength of the SORTI exercise is the large number of education journals considered, and their classification into 26 subcategories, including teacher education. This compilation of journals, at the very least, will be a valuable resource for educational researchers wanting to expand their knowledge of journals in their respective fields. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education Vol. 36, No. 1, February 2008, 1–3

The Transnational Child

Research on migration frequently emphasises the cultural backgrounds of migrants, the numbers migrating, and the impact migrants are likely to have on social cohesion, on wealth and assets, and on vocational skills. Rarely, though, do these studies mention children. This article considers the children of Chinese families who have migrated to Sydney, Australia and the development of their transnational identities. Specifically, the article focuses on three families and is drawn from a larger study on cultural identity and family expectations for school performance. The research is ethnographic in character and finds that the children in the study effectively negotiated both their Chinese and their Australian identities, often to a degree that surprised their parents.

Journal editing and ethical research practice: perspectives of journal editors

This article offers perspectives from academics with recent journal editing experience on a range of ethical issues and dilemmas that regularly pose challenges for those in editorial roles. Each contributing author has provided commentary and reflection on a select topic that was identified in the research literature concerning academic publishing and journal editing. Topics discussed include the ethical responsibilities of working with international and early career contributors to develop work for publication, balancing influence and responsibility to a journals disciplinary field while maintaining the integrity of editorial and review processes, and the challenges of promoting scholarly research that pushes epistemological, methodological, and political boundaries in an increasingly competitive publishing climate. This article aims to stimulate discussion concerning the roles, responsibilities, and ethical challenges faced by journal editors, and the implications of these for ethical practices in academic publishing today.

Theorising teacher education

As editors, one of the key issues we consider when deciding whether to send a manuscript for review is how well the paper has been theorised. Many of the submissions we receive describe projects that have been undertaken but do not explain to readers how the issues described can be understood, as though the description contains self-evident truths. Many such papers are not sent for review because they lack adequate theorisation. But what is ‘‘theory’’ and why is it so important? Theory, according to Richard Pring, can be understood as ‘‘the assumptions which lie behind practice’’ and as ‘‘tightly organised systems of explanation’’ (Pring, 2004, p. 77). A more systematic explanation can be contrasted with ideas that are said to be ‘‘common sense’’. The importance of theorising teacher education is that it promotes scholarly inquiry, adds to a professional body of knowledge and has the potential to produce insights and alternative understandings. Teacher education as an academic field has a distinctly vocationalist aspect to it because of its role in preparing teachers to work as classroom practitioners and in other educational contexts. However, being a practitioner does not imply that practice is or should be disconnected from theory; quite the opposite. Lawes (2004) notes that there is a body of opinion that argues teaching is essentially a practical activity and as such emphasis in initial teacher training should be given to the development of classroom skills and pedagogical techniques. However, to do so would be to deny prospective teachers access to a vital aspect of the profession: being able to participate in an informed manner about the work that they do. As Lawes states ‘‘It is at the initial teacher training stage that expectations should be set and aspirations raised’’ (2004, p. 198). Theory also needs to be considered to be more than just a ‘‘theory of teaching practice’’. Deng (2004) argues that to consider teacher education as being only about applying theory taught at university in the classroom is to allow only the instrumental purposes of teacher preparation to be realised. Deng asserts that:

Teacher Education: Politics and practice

As this editorial is going to press, newspapers report (see The Australian, 19 July; The Age, 20 July; Sydney Morning Herald, 20 July) that the current Australian Minister for Education, Julie Bishop, is raising concerns about the quality of teaching and the standard of education in this country. This time the concern focuses on the number of science and technology graduates that universities are producing, and it is suggested that this problem stems, in part, from primary teachers failing to inspire their students’ interests in these areas. Previously the Minister’s message was that schools in all States and Territories should ‘‘put a structured narrative back into the teaching of Australian history’’ (Bishop, 2006). This call has been interpreted as a return to teaching the events and dates of history rather than an interpretation of the impact of these occurrences. As the epigraph suggests these concerns about educational quality are not peculiar to Australia, but are shared across many countries. Twelve months ago we solicited submissions from notable Australian teacher educators to address the ‘‘the politics of teacher education’’. This themed issue was conceived as a response to the growing number of reviews into teacher education and to controversial claims about teachers and their preparation. Our aim was to provide a forum for discussion and informed comment to facilitate a more critical discussion of these emerging concerns. Concerns about teacher education internationally are symptoms of the politicisation of education at all levels of its expression and articulation. The contested space of teacher education is now more than ever under threat. This threat also extends to the culture of educational research. The most recent inquiry into Australian teacher education provoked controversy and concern regarding teacher preparation programs and the quality of graduates emerging from these programs. It seems opportune to analyse critically the status of teacher education in Australia as it faces myriad challenges and the concerted Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education Vol. 34, No. 3, November 2006, pp. 271–273

Generational and situational change

We hope to encourage the contribution of papers that are characterized by a theoretical depth and a critical appraisal of the issues under consideration and believe that this would significantly enhance the scholarly standing of the Journal. This is consistent with our aim of raising the status of educational research and would promote more conceptual, analytical and critical reviews of teacher education. Because we aim to retain a broad readership for the Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education we consider it essential that the published papers are engaging and topical without sacrificing the quality of theoretical debate and scholarship. It is unfortunate that journals may alienate their readers in presenting theoretical or critical papers that exclude practitioner concerns. We would see it as vital, therefore, to make every attempt to engage with the practitioner concerns of the Asia-Pacific region, a fast developing region of the world, where east meets west in an exciting mix of cultures and traditions. We are also conscious that ‘generational change’ is an ever-present concern in teacher education circles, as new cohorts of teachers and teacher educators must emerge to succeed outgoing generations of researchers, scholars and practitioners. These concerns are equally relevant to the future of teacher education journals that must attract and represent the interests of new and emerging scholars in a competitive field of publication channels. We specifically want to encourage articles from postgraduate research students and to showcase this work in each journal issue, perhaps in a dedicated section if contributions of sufficient quality are made. To indicate our commitment to generational change we have created an administrative position for one of our postgraduate students to act as an editorial assistant, thereby fostering the acquisition of vital skills associated with editing a journal—an important, though often neglected domain of academic apprenticeship. This position will allow for mentoring in the craft of academic writing and critical appraisal of the writing of others. Together, we hope these strategies will provide emerging academics with an additional outlet for their work and will encourage practitioners to become involved in writing and research. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education Vol. 33, No. 1, March 2005, pp. 1–3

Editing a journal in the era of ERA

In 2008 we ended the year with an editorial speculating about the changing times facing teacher education in Australia and in many locations around the world. One of the changes we referred to was the research accountability exercise known as ERA (Excellence in Research for Australia). As editors we were curious about the impact this might have on journal and paper submissions, in particular. For this reason we are keenly observing the educational community for reactions and feedback that is likely to reflect on our work as editors. We now feel it timely to share with you some of our observations from the year 2009.