Theresa Bourke

The teacher as reflexive professional: making visible the excluded discourse in teacher standards

In the current climate of accountability, political manoeuvring, changing curriculum, increasingly diverse student cohorts and community expectations, teachers, more than ever, need to develop the skills and abilities to be reflective and reflexive practitioners. This study examines national teacher professional standards from Australia and the UK to identify the extent to which reflexivity is embedded in key policy documents that are intended to guide the work of teachers in those countries. Using Margaret Archers theories of reflexivity and morphogenesis, and methods of critical discourse analysis, we argue that these blueprints for teachers’ work exclude reflexivity as an essential and overarching discourse of teacher professionalism.

Reflexive professionalism: reclaiming the voice of authority in shaping the discourses of education policy

The nature and value of “professionalism” has long been contested by both producers and consumers of policy. Most recently, governments have rewritten and redefined professionalism as compliance with externally imposed “standards.” This has been achieved by silencing the voices of those who inhabit the professional field of education. This article uses Foucauldian archaeology to excavate the enunciative field of professionalism by digging through the academic and institutional (political) archive, and in doing so identifies two key policy documents for further analysis. The excavation shows that while the voices of (academic) authority speak of competing discourses emerging, with professional standards promulgated as the mechanism to enhance professionalism, an alternative regime of truth identifies the privileged use of (managerial) voices from outside the field of education to create a discourse of compliance. There has long been a mismatch between the voices of authority on discourses around professionalism from the academic archive and those that count in contemporary and emerging Australian educational policy. In this article, we counter this mismatch and argue that reflexive educators’ regimes of truth are worthy of attention and should be heard and amplified.

Possibilities for an international assessment in geography

ABSTRACT A recent editorial in International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education (IRGEE) highlighted an opportunity for the inclusion of geography as a subject in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) tests. At present, TIMSS tests only encompass mathematics and physical sciences. The IRGEE editors encouraged geography educators to take the initiative and be proactive for a TIMSS international assessment in geography to become a reality. This paper reports on a research project to identify the perceptions of the global geography education community on the advantages and challenges of initiating and implementing such tests. The authors highlight a number of consistencies and tensions revealed by the respondents as well as potential issues of validity, reliability and fairness of a geography assessment instrument. The implications of these findings for ongoing research are discussed.

A Comparison of the International Charters on Geographical Education

Abstract This article uses discourse analysis techniques associated with Foucauldian archaeology to examine the two international charters developed by the International Geographical Union Commission on Geographical Education (IGU-CGE), the original one in 1992 and the revised version endorsed in 2016 at the Beijing conference. The examination considers the consultation and development processes before outlining similarities and differences in the messages communicated and how discourses have changed through time. The article concludes with recommendations for the geography education community for the future.

Concepts, Conceptualization, and Conceptions in Geography

Abstract This article explores concepts and the conceptualization process in geography. Much of the literature around these ideas uses terminology and ontological descriptions in multiple ways, leading to complexity and confusion when applied to pedagogical practice. Equally, the use of the term “concept” can depend on the context. We synthesize some of the overlapping categories by defining the nature of concepts in geography. Then we outline the process of conceptualization (development of deep understanding) and the role of alternative conceptions. Finally, we explain how students’ alternative conceptions can be restructured to master threshold concepts, and outline the implications for geographical educators in terms of pedagogy.