Julie Faulkner

Flexible spaces … what students expect from university facilities

– Educational facilities and their design have considerable impact on how students learn. Recent research indicates that modern university students are spending less time on campus and more time interacting with their peers through technology. This paper aims to examine the responses of a small number of first year university students, at RMIT University, Melbourne, to questions about the type of learning facilities they want on campus., – First year undergraduate students were interviewed about their engagement with university and in particular their learning styles in the physical environment. Although a small volunteer sample (n=12), they were all first‐time users of the university and its facilities. The average age of the sample was 19.8 years. The case studies were interviewed regularly (n=8) over a 12‐month period and their responses to learning needs and styles and university facilities recorded. The gender mix (m=8, f=4) reflected the enrolment patterns in the university school. The students were given a range of discussion triggers in semi‐structured interviews to promote discussion about their own learning styles and where and when they felt they learnt best at university., – The responses of these students indicate a number of features about their interpretation of the relationship between university learning and teaching expectations and facilities. These are: learning for these students occurred in both formal and informal settings; there was evidence that the timetabled facility dictated the teaching style used and the opportunities for collaborative learning; active learning occurred more often for these students away from the classroom, often in informal, ad hoc spaces; these students placed an important emphasis on the technology available throughout the university; and the students favoured collaborative, social spaces for learning and technology exchange. The conclusions drawn from their responses indicate that these university students want flexible learning spaces that can adapt to both individual and collaborative work with a strong emphasis on social learning and advanced technology. The responses also indicate a mismatch between existing lecture theatres and tutorial rooms and the third space learning that these students want. The results have implications for the design and construct of future teaching and learning spaces in universities and other learning institutions., – Fisher notes the importance of safety, security, natural ventilation, lighting and other physical features as conducive to effective learning. Students in this study also indicated a need for multi‐use spaces for intense work and learning opportunities. These spaces also need to allow for students to interact with the global environment through technology., – The changes in learning and teaching have been significant in the past 25 years and the role of features such as technology, collaborative spaces and third space learning have created pressure on universities and staff to meet the demands of a modern community of scholars. There is now a far greater emphasis on the learning needs of tertiary students and the relationship between learning and facilities. The responses of this small sample of first time university users indicate that this relationship is critical.

‘So far multicultural that she is racist to Australians’: discomfort as a pedagogy for change

Critical discussion of the social conditions that shape educational thinking and practice is now embedded in accredited Australian teacher education programmes. Beneath beliefs that critique of educational inequality is desirable, however, lie more problematic questions around critical pedagogies, ethics and power. Emotional investments can work to protect habituated ways of thinking, despite attempts to move students beyond their comfort zone. This strategic process can shift attitudes and promote intellectual and emotional growth, but can also produce defensive reactions. This article, a self-reflexive study in relation to an incident in a tertiary Education programme, examines how formal student feedback on content and pedagogy positions a teacher. The study also frames and reframes ways in which learner feedback to critical approaches might be read. Such exploration articulates particular tensions and challenges inherent in critical teacher education pedagogies. The argument also examines the potential of disruptive teaching approaches for recontextualising, and driving forward, both learner and teacher response.

Disrupting pedagogies in the knowledge society countering conservative norms with creative approaches

Julie Faulkner is a senior lecturer at RMIT University, Melbourne. She writes and teaches on matters of literacy, popular culture, identity and digital reading and writing practices. She has published widely on the role of Information and Communication Technologies in curriculum innovation along with Disrupting Pedagogies in the Knowledge Society: Countering Conservative Norms with Creative Approaches with IGI Global, she has jointly edited Learning to Teach: New Time, New Practices (Oxford University Press), currently in its second edition. Julie Faulkner (RMIT University, Australia)

'I was made to feel very discriminated against as an Anglo-Saxon' Grappling with pedagogies of change

Purpose – Critical discussion of the social conditions that shape educational thinking and practice is now embedded in accredited teacher education programmes. Beneath beliefs that critique of educational inequality is desirable, however, lie more problematic questions around critical pedagogies, ethics and power. Emotional investments can work to protect habituated ways of thinking, despite attempts to move students beyond their comfort zone. This strategic process can shift attitudes and promote intellectual and emotional growth, but can also produce defensive reactions. This paper, a self-study in relation to an incident in a tertiary education programme, examines how student feedback on content and pedagogy positions teachers and learners. The purpose of this paper is to frame and reframe ways in which learner feedback to critical approaches might be read. The argument examines, through dialogue, the potential of disruptive teaching approaches for recontextualising both learner and teacher response. S...

Dialogue and reciprocity in an international teaching practicum

ABSTRACT Many teacher education institutions across the world are now initiating and supporting international teaching practicums to better prepare their teaching graduates to teach for diversity. Recently, some of these practicums have embedded service-learning structures and discourses to further encourage pre-service teachers (PSTs) to think beyond their self-interests towards larger ethical and educational questions. This paper employs narrative-based inquiry methods to explore the lived experiences of three co-leaders of an international teaching practicum in South Africa for Australian PSTs underpinned by dialogic service-learning principles. Using Bakhtinian dialogic theory, the authors generate alternative interpretations of reflective narratives they have written, in order to examine the concepts of dialogue and reciprocity in their lived experience of this teaching practicum. The authors conclude that reciprocity and dialogue are indeed valuable discourses for critically researching international teaching practicums with service-learning dimensions, but counsel against romanticising either of these.

“This course made me feel guilty to be an Australian”: Exterior assemblages and continuing reflections

Purpose From one Graduate Diploma Secondary student taking a pro-diversity course that both authors had a connection with there was a very angry response, encapsulated by the statement “This course made me feel guilty to be an Australian”. We are aware that negative student evaluations can be part of the territory for tertiary teachers working in diversity courses. The purpose of this paper is to explore the students’ confronting comment which will be construed as a type of offer that is being extended to us – an offer that we are refusing. We draw on Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of “exterior assemblages”, and we shift our gaze to consider “what constitutes the territory” that is our response to the pre-service teacher’s evaluative claim. Design/methodology/approach The specific methods we deployed involved an eclectic appropriation of various tools. We embarked on this process of exploration by journaling, collective reflection and informal discussions with other colleagues. Our journals responded to the question: What constitutes the place that is the territory that is our refusal of the student’s offer? In order to explore this place we: kept a hand-written journal; used conventional text and arts based practice techniques in our journaling; discussed our journal entries periodically (face to face, via Skype and via e-mail); discussed this project with colleagues – giving them knowledge that we were doing this – and that we might write journal entries about these conversations; and read a variety of relevant texts We engaged in these processes for a three month period. At the end of this period we shared journals, and set about the task of analysing them. We engaged in a number of analyses and detailed our findings over the next month. Further, over a longer period of time we engaged with this incident and our journal entries and presented a series of in progress papers at a variety of conferences and seminars. The analysis of the data generated involved discourse analysis and dialogue. Findings A series of key discourses were identified and listed in the paper. Research limitations/implications The key identified ideas are briefly linked to a series of implications for practitioners. Practical implications One of the key practical implications is the suggestion that where disagreements surface in education that one response to such moments might be for the parties to consider where they are located. Social implications The paper outlines a way of thinking about disagreements that has useful implications when considering issues relating to pedagogical strategies aiming to work towards social justice. Originality/value The paper is an original response to a critical moment that occurred for two lecturers in pre-service teacher education.

‘What Is Finger Knitting?’ Chinese Pre-service Teachers’ Initial Professional Experience in Australian Early Childhood Education

Professional experience in teacher education programmes is being reframed due to the growing intake of international students over the last decade. Early Childhood Education (ECE), as one of the favoured options of many international students, witnesses increasing enrolment from international students, especially those from China. However, due to the philosophical and pedagogical differences between Early Childhood Education in Australia and China, Chinese pre-service teachers can encounter multiple and complex challenges during their professional experiences in the Australian ECE context. This chapter presents the initial professional experience of one first-year undergraduate Chinese student studying in ECE, through a narrative lens. Bourdieu’s field, habitus and capital are employed to understand how pre-service teachers’ perceptions towards the field and different cultural and linguistic capitals that they possess, can inform international pre-service teachers’ success and self-confidence during their professional experiences.

Resilience, Global Threat, and International Professional Experience

Student mobility is growing as an embedded feature of the globalization of university education in Australia. Students electing to complete part of their tertiary study or professional experiences related to their area of study overseas negotiate complex issues pertaining to intercultural understanding in situ and on a daily basis. International professional experience (IPE) can be a richly rewarding, yet also present challenges. One of the international challenges of the twenty-first century is associated with the threat of global terrorism. On a recent Faculty of Education IPE program to Malaysia, pre-service teachers’ anxiety was heightened due to rumors of a terrorism threat. These concerns disrupted the cohort’s equilibrium, despite the Australian Department of Foreign Affair and Trade (DFAT) not raising their security rating for Malaysia.

Self-Interest and Ethical Praxis Agendas in an International Teaching Practicum

For decades now, globalisation and technological advances have promoted the interaction of peoples, practices and cultures across national and international borders. This interaction has sometimes facilitated education projects where culturally diverse groups have been able to work together to address local and global issues (Isar 2014; Samuel and Mariaye 2014; UNESCO 2011). For more culturally homogeneous groups, though, increased interaction with diverse ‘others’ has sometimes generated distrust and fear, as seen in the rise of political movements founded upon nationalistic rhetoric and/or xenophobia (Wodak 2015). In the face of these disturbing developments, governments across the world have urged higher education institutions to play a role in developing greater transcultural understanding and appreciation of difference in their graduates (de Wit et al. 2015).