Narelle Lemon

New practices in doing academic development: Twitter as an informal learning space

Using social media platforms to build informal learning processes and social networks is significant in academic development practices within higher education. We present three vignettes illustrating academic practices occurring on Twitter to show that using social media is beneficial for building networks of academics, locally and globally, enhancing information flows, inspiring thinking, and motivating academic practice. Using a reflective and diffractive methodology, we illuminate how different flows of forces and relations are enacted. We argue it is in this fluidity of informal learning that perspectives are contested and shaped, and that academic developers can benefit by encompassing such practices.

Pre-Service Teacher Self-Efficacy in Digital Technology.

Self-efficacy is an important motivational construct for primary school teachers (teachers of children aged 5–12 years) within Australia. Teacher self-efficacy beliefs will determine the level of teacher confidence and competence to engage with a task. In this study, we explore engagement with digital technology and the associated learning and teaching of digital technology. Exploring the teacher self-efficacy beliefs towards technology of pre-service teachers, this study surveyed pre-service teachers studying to become primary teachers in two states within Australia (Victoria and Queensland). Findings are important as they provide insights into current levels of perceived competence and confidence towards engaging with digital technology as a future teacher. Findings highlight vast difference across a variety of teacher skills and actions. Given that beliefs are resistant to change after the beginning phase of teaching, it is important to understand the current beliefs of pre-service teachers who will soon be present in Australian classrooms.

Enhancing the Australian early childhood teacher education curriculum about very young children

Research has shown that the care and education of infants and toddlers is an under-represented area in early childhood teacher education. This is also the case in Australia, meaning that pre-service teachers have few opportunities for learning about infants and toddlers and thus tend to have limited theoretical and practical knowledge about infancy and early development. The project reported in this paper targeted this need by providing an online learning resource called U3Vid (u3vid.com.au) for early childhood teacher educators and pre-service teachers to gain knowledge and experience for the education and care of very young children. Overall, the U3Vid website has proved to be an effective online resource for Australian early childhood teacher education for understanding the pedagogy and curriculum associated with children aged birth to three years. This paper reports on findings from the project on pre-service teacher perspectives of engaging with online learning focusing on very young children. Findings from the online survey provide important insights into the suitability of online learning in early childhood teacher education as a way of engaging with reflective practice to combat the gaps in early childhood teacher education regarding infants and toddlers.

Academics who tweet: “messy” identities in academia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the growing use of Twitter in academic and artist practices. The authors explore commonalities, overlaps and differences within the reflections on the initial and ongoing motivations, usage and learnings the authors have encountered whilst immersed in this environment. Design/methodology/approach – The authors locate the particular inquiry by drawing on the literature surrounding digital identities, academic literacies and digital scholarship. Departing from other studies, the focus is on a narrative inquiry of the lived experiences as academics and as artists using Twitter. Findings – Academics use of Twitter plays a distinctly social role enabling communication that connects, and fostering accessible and approachable acts. It enables a space for challenging norms of academic ways of being and behaving. In addition, the authors draw conclusions about the “messiness” of the interconnected space that incorporates multiple identities, and highlight the r...

Flights of two female academics’ entry into the profession

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to illustrate what can be learnt about early career researchers through a narrative self-reflection of two academics’ moving towards the end of the early career into middle career stage. Design/methodology/approach – The two academics’ share their experiences as self- study reflective inquiries, specifically as a want and need for “more” through this respective involvement in critically thinking about and planning their career trajectory. Using Schwabs (1969) flights from the field as an interpretative tool, this event is the trigger used to story and re-story the personal experience of the academics through a reflective inquiry approach. Findings – Looking across the reflective self-studies, the final analysis reveals similarities, differences and tensions of the lived experiences of early career researchers’. Originality/value – Through listening to the voices of early career academics insights are gained that highlight the need for active agency in the academy wh...

Social Media Challenges and Affordances for International Students: Bridges, Boundaries, and Hybrid Spaces.

Many higher education institutions around the world are increasingly motivated to incorporate social media for pedagogical benefit. At the same time, many institutions are also attracting an ever-growing number of students from overseas countries. With this in mind, researching how the use of social media applications impact on international students’ experiences of new cultural and pedagogical contexts in the host country is relevant. This article is a systematic review of current literature on international students in higher education and their use of social media, focusing on both the personal and educational aspects of use. This analysis reveals three central themes related to the role of social web technologies for international students, that is creating bridges, boundaries, or hybrid spaces.

Perceptions of Pre-Service Teachers Value of Art Museums and Galleries

Art museums and galleries provide many educational opportunities for generalist classroom teachers to engage in learning experiences with students. Beliefs about engagement with art museums and galleries can begin in teacher education programs. This paper explores the beliefs of pre-service teachers in a Bachelor of Education (primary) program in the state of Victoria, Australia, about engagement with art museums and galleries at the start of semester and at the end of semester after a visit to a gallery. Using a survey, open-ended questions, and course evaluations about the teacher education program, data was collected to show the changes in perceptions regarding beliefs towards engagement with art museums and galleries as a primary teacher. Findings highlight the importance of engaging with art museums and galleries during teacher education to allow pre-service teachers to experience and understand the importance within their teaching and educational contexts.

Voice, choice, equity and access: young children capture their art gallery education experiences.

Introducing a digital camera in the art gallery space is somewhat confrontational. Most museums have strict protocols on what can and cannot be captured. From the educational perspective it does, however, offer a new and innovative way of working that supports young peoples ability to record what they see and how they experience the gallery, the art works, and the learning programs. This article shares insights from a pilot project, called Ways of Seeing, with the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, where a digital camera was used in a trial capacity as part of a learning program that took place in a primary school and an art gallery. Voice and choice, access and equity, and participation through flexible movement around the gallery were seen as vital outcomes from a collaboration that honored young peoples voices and their capability to be photographers of their gallery learning experiences.

It is About Fun Stuff! Thinking About the Writing Process in Different Ways

Publish or perish! Publish or perish! The alarm rings out. The academic under pressure to publish is a significant issue in the contemporary academy because of the constraints of what this productivity means and what this pressure to publish does. Publish or perish is an active force because of its permeation throughout the contemporary academy. But we think this force can be encountered and made into a response, positioning ourselves differently in relation to academic writing. In this chapter, we focus on the notion of making academic writing together as a mindful activity interspersed with moments of creative making. The chapter draws on our reflexive thinking with our writing collaboration for the project Academics who Tweet which is an investigation of our, and 34 other academics’, practices, identities and use of social media in academia. We are attending to this thinking and writing to show that the force of publish or perish thinking can be mindfully counted through a response of creatively making. We present a case to rethink the approach to academic writing and the ways we creatively construct a response; a response that encompasses making in different ways that sustain collaborations, networks and relations. We argue that in thinking mindfully through and with the process of making academic writing, we are able to transform it into a pattern of generative thinking and writing. We conclude by suggesting that it is the relations we are making that become a way to encounter the force and material of academic writing.

The recursive practice of research and teaching: reframing teacher education

ABSTRACT As a field, Teacher Education has lived with continued criticism from governmental and research bodies on the quality of professional preparation and the lack of a strong research base. We respond to such criticisms by considering possibilities for further exploration of the research of practice and the practice of research in both initial and continuing teacher education. As both a theoretical and methodological challenge, this is tied recursively with research and practice in teacher education, for teacher educators, about teacher education. We draw on the theoretical resources of practice theories, to argue that teacher education practice must be informed by the study of the practice of teaching as well as research addressing the teaching of practice. In conclusion, we make a methodological case for reframing the roles of teacher and researcher within a “thirdspace” to consider the practice of researching teaching as recursive and always regenerative.