Robyn Ewing

Building community in academic settings: the importance of flexibility in a structured mentoring program

Academic mentoring is increasingly being used by many universities as a tool to enhance the quality of research‐led teaching, promote cross‐faculty collaboration and encourage a mentoring culture and community. This article reports on a pilot project established to investigate the benefits of building flexibility into a structured academic mentoring program at the University of Sydney. Twenty‐six academics from the Faculty of Business and Economics and the Faculty of Education and Social Work participated in the program. The mentors ranged in position from lecturer to professor and the mentees from associate lecturer to senior lecturer. Flexible arrangements were shown to be important in a variety of ways, from the pairing of mentor with mentee, to focussing on issues of work survival and life balance, research outcomes and career advancement. The project highlighted the lower number of male academics involved in formal mentoring, which merits further exploration. All participants reported positive outcomes, although refinement of the pairing process was recommended. A variety of unanticipated outcomes was reported by mentees.

Arts-Informed Inquiry in Teacher Education: Contesting the Myths.

Arts-informed inquiry has attracted a great deal of controversy in recent times as it has gained popularity as an educational research methodology in teacher education. As with other innovative approaches and methodologies, there have been lively debates about its rigour, authenticity and appropriateness. This article suggests principles for its use in exploring relevant questions in teacher education research and examines some of the issues that have been used to challenge its integrity. Several recent teacher education research projects undertaken by staff and research higher degree graduates at the University of Sydney are discussed initially as exemplars and to provide a context for the discussion. The authors demonstrate how research using arts-informed inquiry contributes perspectives and understandings that are distinctive from other methodologies and so can offer new understandings about some of the liminal issues in teacher education.

Competing issues in Australian primary curriculum: learning from international experiences

There is no doubt that the increasing politicisation of education in an economically rationalist climate is contributing to less equity, access, participation and, therefore, social justice for many Australian primary children. This article initially explores how the development of the impending national Australian curriculum replete with a high stakes testing regime and a website, My School, with its propensity to create league tables is problematic if an improved quality education for all Australian children is the goal. It contends that continuing to ignore the need for new ways of thinking about curriculum and pedagogy will continue to contribute to educational inequities. Recent research and writing from similar educational initiatives in both the United Kingdom and the United States of America support these assertions. Secondly, this article discusses the need to consider research about the potential role the arts can play in transforming childrens learning across the curriculum to improve both academic and affective outcomes. The implications for teacher education and the preparation of primary teachers for the profession are considered throughout the discussion.

Young audiences, theatre and the cultural conversation

The focus of this chapter is on how teachers can and do play a critical role in selecting, scaffolding and sustaining theatre attendance for young people. Both the potential for developing less experienced young people’s understanding of theatre form and the extension of the responses of more experienced young theatre goers are explored in this chapter.

English Learning Websites and Digital Resources from the Perspective of Chinese University EFL Practitioners.

English language learning (ELL) websites and digital resources have been recognized as an important source of linguistic and cultural knowledge for English as a foreign language (EFL) learners to explore. The up-to-date information carried by authentic materials is invaluable for learners to develop an understanding of the target language/culture. However, there appears to be a gap between what the designer intends and what the user wants. This paper investigates Chinese university EFL teachers’ perceptions of online English language websites and resources. The study focuses on a number of components of major language areas and skills in ELL websites, website materials, language users’ preferences, and website usability. A total of 1519 English academics from 139 universities across China completed the online survey, and 164 of them voluntarily participated in focus group interviews anonymously. The empirical evidence of this study has highlighted that a pedagogically-oriented ELL website, targeting audiences with a variety of language proficiencies, was much liked by the Chinese EFL teachers. A preference was observed to see more current authentic language, examination-oriented English learning materials and tasks, and Eastern/non-Anglophone topics in the websites. In addition, it is found that website usability is another key factor that would impact ELL website popularity. A well-designed ELL website can effectively assist Chinese EFL learners to enhance their language competence and achieve optimal learning outcomes. This study provides a context-specific empirical base for innovative web-based EFL learning and teaching as well as website design and materials development in China. The proposed key features of a preferred ELL website may help better inform website designers, content writers and evaluators in their ELL website design/evaluation.

Talking About Liveness: Responses of Young People in the Theatrespace Project

Abstract This paper draws on analysis of interviews with over 500 young people who attended theatre performances as part of the Australian TheatreSpace project. The paper focuses on one small but critical aspect of the larger project. Asked what they valued in a theatre experience, a significant number of young people spoke about liveness. The paper addresses the question: what are the key points/ideas about liveness that we can learn from listening to the young people? Our discussion includes a consideration of: the comfort or discomfort of presentness; performer vulnerability, risk and uncertainty; proximity to the live action; perceptions of realness; a sense of relationship with the actors; and intensity of engagement. A brief consideration of the implications for teachers and theatre providers concludes the paper.

Action Research and Professional Learning: Some Reflections on Inquiries that Advance Professional Knowledge and Practice

This response chapter argues that action research is more than ‘an orientation to inquiry with an obligation to action’. It begins by exploring the epistemological assumptions underpinning action research. Further, along with improving practice, action research allows practitioners to come to a deeper understanding of their practice. Hence the often advanced distinction between action research and action learning becomes blurred. A number of recent exemplars in which action research has led to changes in beliefs, knowledge and practice, and ultimately sustained curriculum reform, are considered, together with some constraints and challenges facing action researchers.

Investigating the Liminal in Professional Education Through Arts-Informed Research

As with any new or innovative approach and methodology, there have been lively debates about the rigour, authenticity and appropriateness of arts-informed research, outlined by Cole and Knowles in Chapter 11. This response seeks to take the discussion further by demonstrating the relevance of arts-informed research in data collection, analysis and representation when investigating professional issues, dilemmas and questions. Several recent teacher-education research projects undertaken by university teachers and research higher degree graduates are be used as exemplars to demonstrate how new understandings about some of the liminal issues in professional education can be developed through such arts-informed inquiry.

Conversation around the art of asking and responding to the big questions

This conversation furthers and deepens our discussions about the roles of twenty-first-century teachers. It examines, in particular, teachers asking, eliciting and responding to ‘big questions’ and takes a close look at two ways big questions can be explored with literature that is complex and challenging and appropriate for younger and for older readers. It also explores how arts-based practices can enhance new understandings.

Conversation around selecting quality literature

This conversation focuses on the pleasures of reading and the need to select engaging, imaginative and challenging literature for the classroom in order to foster generative conversations. It explores some of the reasons why such selections are made and touches on the role children can play in making these choices. Some selection principles are offered as a starting point for parents and teachers to consider.