Misty Adoniou

Teacher Knowledge: A Complex Tapestry.

Teachers need to know a great deal, in many areas and in multiple ways. Teacher knowledge is a complex tapestry, and teachers must successfully weave the multiple threads. In this article, I present a conceptualisation of teacher knowledge that provides a framework for describing the complexity of teacher knowledge. The framework describes three ways of knowing: “knowing how,” “knowing why,” and “knowing what” and then applies these three knowledge discourses across six domains of teacher knowledge. The framework was developed from a study of 14 teachers in their first year of teaching, and in this article the framework is applied to their experiences to illustrate specific gaps in their teacher knowledge. It is proposed that this conceptualisation of teacher knowledge allows those involved in teacher education and induction to more clearly identify professional learning needs and develop their programmes with specificity.

Drawing to Support Writing Development in English Language Learners.

Writing is the dominant mode through which most learning and assessment is mediated in schools. It is through writing that learners are most often asked to demonstrate their understanding of learned concepts and share their understandings of these concepts. If English language learners are to succeed in English medium schools, they must become proficient English language writers. In this article, drawing is presented as an effective strategy for teaching writing based on the hypothesis that drawing and writing are comparable semiotic systems and learning is most powerful when these semiotic systems work together. It reports on a study involving children from a Year 3/4 class in a government Introductory English Centre situated in a primary school in Australia. The Introductory English Centres are for students who are newly arrived in the country with a language and cultural background other than English and who have limited English language skills. The study found that drawing before writing improved the writing of the informational text types of procedures and explanations. A discussion is presented for why this may be so, along with recommendations for using drawing as a teaching strategy when teaching English language learners.

School to University Transitions for Australian Children of Refugee Background: A Complex Journey

Despite strong overall growth in Australian university participation, the representation of individuals from low-socio-economic status (SES) background, as a proportion of the total student population, remains below parity. Indeed, the proportion of domestic undergraduate students studying in Australia decreased between 2001 and 2008 (Universities Australia, A smarter Australia: an agenda for Australian higher education 2013–2016. Universities Australia, Canberra, 2013). As a result of this decline, the federal government adopted a target that by 2020, approximately 20% of all students would be of low-SES origin (Bradley D, Noonan P, Scales B. Review of Australian higher education: final report. Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, 2009, recommendation 4). Many students in this low-SES category are of refugee backgrounds, and these numbers may accelerate in the future. For instance, in 2012–2013, 64% of applications for humanitarian status came from young people under the age of 30 (Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC), Australia’s offshore humanitarian program: 2012–13. Retrieved from https://www.immi.gov.au/media/publications/statistics/immigration-update/australia_offshore_humanitarian_prog_2012-13.pdf, 2013a, 2012–2013: annual report. Retrieved from http://www.immi.gov.au/about/reports/annual/2012-13/pdf/2012-13-diac-annual-report.pdf, 2013b, p. 1). Many refugee background students have high aspirations for educational attainment, a strong desire to succeed academically and demonstrate desirable attributes such as high levels of resilience and problem-solving capacities (Naidoo L, Wilkinson J, Langat K, Adoniou M, Cunneen R, Bolger D, Case study report: supporting school-university pathways for refugee students’ access and participation in tertiary education. University of Western Sydney Print Services, Kingswood, 2015). However, forced migration, interrupted schooling and significant differences in teaching pedagogy represent major barriers to mainstream pathways to higher education. The pedagogic experience is different for various refugee groups based on the complexity of their journey to Australia and their response to the changes in demography. Refugees are not homogenous, and their life histories therefore cannot be reduced to deficit thinking about their ability to transition. This chapter examines findings from a recent large study of school-to-university transition which examined the barriers and challenges faced by refugee background students transitioning from Australian secondary schools to university. In particular, it focuses on the kinds of enabling practices and structures at school level, which supported this transition, drawing on vignettes to illustrate these pathways. It concludes that although there are examples of exemplary school practices to support transition to university, these pathways are not systemic and are too often dependent on the knowledge, excellent practice and good will of individual schools and teachers.

Professional standards for teachers—what are they good for?

Abstract This article reports on a study of teacher and principal attitudes to newly mandated teacher standards in Australia. The qualitative study of 36 teachers and principals was conducted over 12 months as the new educators in five schools completed a mandatory teacher probation process framed by the teacher standards. The study found positive attitudes to teacher standards from both teachers and principals. Contextual reasons, including teacher ownership over the standards and their implementation, are discussed as possible reasons for the positive manner in which the participants in the study received these new standards for teachers.

Beginning teachers’ responses to education reform agendas

ABSTRACT National education reform agendas are increasingly prevalent in school systems around the world. Whilst we have a substantial body of research exploring the ways in which schools manage change agendas, there is less discussion of the impacts these agendas may have on beginning teachers and their retention in the profession. Here I report on a study of 14 beginning teachers at a time when two major reforms were being introduced – national standardised literacy teaching and the public reporting of those results. I describe the ways in which these reforms were experienced by the teachers and discuss the implications for school leaders seeking to support beginning teachers in their schools.

It's Very Much Taken as an Insult if I Say Anything: Do New Educators Have a Right to Speak Their Mind?.

This article describes the challenges beginning teachers face in schooling contexts that have become increasingly subject to direct political intervention. To tell the story it focuses on the experiences of five teachers in their first year of teaching in an urban jurisdiction in Australia, examining the ways in which they taught literacy, and were required to teach literacy. Government-driven political agendas of national testing, teacher standards and performance pay were all gaining traction as they commenced their first year of teaching. The ways in which these new educators felt they were discouraged from voicing their own opinions about these issues are examined and the consequences of silencing new educators are considered. The article concludes with recommendations for teacher education programmes to better prepare teachers for the politics of teaching.

Forced Migration and Displacement: Understanding the Refugee Journey

This chapter unpacks notions of forced migration and displacement, arguing that understanding different migratory patterns is crucial to locating the educational experiences of refugee youth globally. It will explore, through examples from UNHCR resettlement countries, how forced migrants are positioned as “the other” and are disconnected from the dominant discourse causing repercussions for education. It argues that policymakers and practitioners have a critical role to play in reframing thinking about education for forced migrants such as refugees, by helping to shape a narrative which incorporates and values the experiences of those affected by displacement.

Navigating the Terrain of Higher Education

This chapter highlights some of the challenges faced by refugee youth as they negotiate the alien terrain of higher education. Drawing on interviews and case studies of refugee-background youth and university staff (academic and support), we document the journeys of students through three phases of their tertiary education: getting in to university, getting through their tertiary studies and getting on to employment in their chosen career. We argue that despite high aspirations and a desire to transition to tertiary education, refugee youth at university face a range of challenges in relation to the directed support so necessary for successful transition and participation at university. These challenges are examined in terms of two of the six key themes that emerged in our case study of refugee youth pathways from school to university: aspiration and politics and policy .

Contextualising the Complex Spaces of Refugee Youth Transition into Higher Education

This chapter explores issues relating to the education of refugee youth through a rights-based framework to provide conceptual clarity and theoretical engagement about the development of human rights as a critical social justice instrument. The aim of this chapter is to trace the roots of rights-based education and to consider its changing conceptual frameworks. Such an insight would allow for the development of a critical pedagogical framework for human rights education. As such, the chapter explores the conceptual, historical development of rights-based education to transformative action in an open and democratic society. This chapter links an understanding of human rights to education as a humanising practice.

The Role of Communities in Supporting Refugee Youth Transition into Higher Education

There is a hidden but crucially important role that communities and out-of-university organisations play in enabling the successful transition of refugee background youth into higher education. This chapter maps the often invisible learning spaces and networks afforded by community organisations and government and non-government refugee youth providers in this process. It argues that refugee background students’ successful transition and participation in new educational contexts needs to be reconceptualised by universities as a partnership process that builds on community strengths. Through partnerships, the chapter maintains that universities can tap into pre-existing community support programmes in order to enhance good transition pathways for the students.