Leo Bartlett

Reforming Teacher Education Policy under Labor Governments in Australia 1983—93

Abstract The paper provides a broad examination of developments in Australian teacher education policies in the postwar period and of the political economy in which they were situated, with particular attention to the last decade when Labor governments have been in power. It argues that there has been a shift in Australia in the 1980s from a policy conception of the teacher as an ‘educated professional’ to that of ‘competent practitioner’, and a concomitant policy shift in teacher preparation from ‘professional education’ to ‘competent practice’. Underlying this shift has been an instrumental approach to education and teacher education in which both are seen as key elements of a broader program for microeconomic reform, the development of human capital for national investment, and the economic restructuring of the nation.

Federal/State Mediations in the Australian National Education Agenda: From the AEC to MCEETYA 1987–1993

Drawing on research interviews and relevant document analysis, this paper analyses the changing forms of the national education agenda as it was developed and modifed in the Australian Education Council from 1987 to 1993. Particular attention is given to four significant developments in this period: national curriculum statements and profiles in schooling, and Mayer competencies; the training reform agenda; higher education; and the National Strategy for Equity in Schools. The study is located against general developments in Australian federalism and the changing political complexion of State governments across the period which led to the creation of the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs.

Restructuring Teacher-Education in Australia

Abstract Debate on teacher quality and quality in teaching and teacher education has been as vigorous in Australia as it has been in the UK and the USA. In Australia, however, reform in teacher education has been subsumed within a national metapolicy of corporate federalism which is an amalgam of beliefs or discourses including neo‐corporatism, economic rationalism, corporate managerialism and human capital. The paper analyses the most recent document on reform of teacher education in Australia (the Ebbeck Report) and shows how its policy formulation is influenced by the discourse of corporate federalism. It also shows how micro‐economic reform in this sector is related to reforms in other sectors of education.

Corporate federalism and the reform of teacher education in Australia

Since 1983, the Hawke Labor government has been engaged in a process of national restructuring of the private and public sector. In Australia, however, it has not always been recognized that education, including teacher education is an industry, is expected to contribute to this national reconstruction, and is itself currently undergoing a restructuring which is revolutionary in extent and effect. With the Green and White Papers on higher education (Dawkins 1987, 1988), the Commonwealth Government effectively established a unified national system of higher education. The Australian Education Council (AEC) comprised the Federal and State Ministers of Education subsequently established a working party to produce a Green Paper, Teacher Education in Australia: Report to the Australian Education Council, (February, 1990) (hereafter referred to as the report) and a supplementary document.

Teacher‐identity Formation through Language Immersion in an Initial‐teacher‐education Curriculum

Abstract Australian education, including teacher education, has witnessed a strong ‘push’ for the introduction of Asian studies and languages in the past seven years. The origin of the national and States policy initiatives is grounded in what we describe as cultural, economic and cultural‐historical imperatives. This paper outlines one response to these developments with a description of the Languages and Cultures Initial Teacher Education Program (LACITEP); up to 80% of this unique immersion programme is taught in the Japanese language. More specifically, this paper analyses issues relating to the identity formation of preservice students as they struggle to become proficient in Japanese language and culture, Asian literate and generalist primary teachers. The complexity of identity formation in the LACITEP immersion programme is also outlined.

The Subject Coordinator: Significance of the Role

Responses from teachers, subject coordinators and school administrators in twenty-three Queensland state high schools were analyzed to ascertain the perceived importance of subject coordinators to teacher satisfaction, teacher dissatisfaction and the learning of students in classrooms. Subject coordinators were seen by respondents to make a more significant contribution to these outputs than occupants of any other hierarchical position in the schools.

Qualitative research in Australia

Qualitative educational research in Australia has been characterized since the early 1970s by vitality and interest in reconstructing in cultural terms the best research practices, particularly those observed in the UK and USA. The formers influence is best demonstrated in case study method and participatory action research in the 1980s. Australian qualitative educational sociology, drawing on critical theoretical methods, continues to command strong international respect. More recently, post‐structuralist theory has influenced many approaches to qualitative inquiry, especially in feminist research, which reflects a more globalized view of research. Whatever theoretical and methodological directions Australian qualitative enquiry takes in the later 1990s, research must address political and economic contexts of change both nationally and globally if it is to make a difference.

Images of reflection: a look and a review

The idea of reflection linked with teaching has a wide semantic array in educational enquiry. In the preceding papers, it has been called reflective teaching [Russell] and reflectivity [Bullough & Gitlin]. While neither of these terms has received any great prominence in Australia, the term “reflection” itself has several images. This paper looks at these images of educational enquiry based on reflection and reviews significant issues that have emerged in Australian research, indicating how these are related to the papers in this issue of QSE.