Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190101140
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$383,157.00
Summary
The role of teacher expertise, authority and professionalism in education. This project aims to provide new insights about the role of education in modern democratic societies, with a particular focus on teachers and teacher expertise. Specifically, the project will use case studies from three Western Democracies - Australia, United Kingdom, and the United States of America - to investigate the role of teachers in these education systems, and the ways in which contemporary policy and practice is ....The role of teacher expertise, authority and professionalism in education. This project aims to provide new insights about the role of education in modern democratic societies, with a particular focus on teachers and teacher expertise. Specifically, the project will use case studies from three Western Democracies - Australia, United Kingdom, and the United States of America - to investigate the role of teachers in these education systems, and the ways in which contemporary policy and practice is impacting their professional expertise and authority in their classrooms and schools. Using an innovative approach to comparative case studies, this project will advance knowledge about the relationship between schools, professional expertise and democracy, and the role of teachers within these spaces.Read moreRead less
Improving outcomes through accessible assessment and inclusive practices. Complex assessment tasks and pedagogies present barriers to the learning and achievement of students with disability, including those with language and/or attentional difficulties. This research will test: 1) whether accessible assessment task design leads to improved student outcomes; 2) whether enhancing teachers’ inclusive practice improves student access to formative assessment pedagogies, enabling more accurate studen ....Improving outcomes through accessible assessment and inclusive practices. Complex assessment tasks and pedagogies present barriers to the learning and achievement of students with disability, including those with language and/or attentional difficulties. This research will test: 1) whether accessible assessment task design leads to improved student outcomes; 2) whether enhancing teachers’ inclusive practice improves student access to formative assessment pedagogies, enabling more accurate student understanding of assessment aims and requirements; and 3) how improvements in task design and teacher practice can be sustained and upscaled across secondary school departments. Expected outcomes of international significance are more inclusive learning and assessment practices with the potential to benefit all students.Read moreRead less
Career change teachers: Addressing teacher shortages in Australia . Australia is facing a teacher shortage crisis. Consequently, there have been concerted efforts by governments to attract people into teaching from other sections of the workforce. However, career change teachers often do not stay longer than five years in the profession. There is little evidence on how their retention can be enhanced. This project aims to better understand the differing motivations and experiences of these teach ....Career change teachers: Addressing teacher shortages in Australia . Australia is facing a teacher shortage crisis. Consequently, there have been concerted efforts by governments to attract people into teaching from other sections of the workforce. However, career change teachers often do not stay longer than five years in the profession. There is little evidence on how their retention can be enhanced. This project aims to better understand the differing motivations and experiences of these teachers from diverse backgrounds, and to determine how they can be better prepared and supported through their early years of teaching. A clear benefit of this project will be the longer term success for career change teachers and their schools and will ensure young people are not disadvantaged by high teacher turnover. Read moreRead less
Reading climate: Indigenous literatures, school English and sustainablity. Reading Climate aims to investigate the connections between sustainability and Indigenous knowledge in the context of school English and directly responds to imperatives for climate education and racial justice in Australian schools. It links teachers, students, authors and scholars through book clubs, exploring the potential of literature as an interdisciplinary site for knowledge building and for reimagining social and ....Reading climate: Indigenous literatures, school English and sustainablity. Reading Climate aims to investigate the connections between sustainability and Indigenous knowledge in the context of school English and directly responds to imperatives for climate education and racial justice in Australian schools. It links teachers, students, authors and scholars through book clubs, exploring the potential of literature as an interdisciplinary site for knowledge building and for reimagining social and environmental futures. With partners the Stella Prize, the Australian Association for the Teaching of English, Feral Arts and VoicEd Radio, the project will develop strong collaborations between literary education, industry, and Indigenous writing, producing an open access digital resource for use in schools nationally.
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Shifting the Culture of Out-of-field Professional Education for Teachers. This project aims to model an education system that would diversify the expertise of teachers as part of attending to long-term teacher shortage. It responds to a pressing national need for a system of valued and accessible professional education (PE) for out-of-field teachers. The project draws on perspectives from schools, governments and PE providers to expose current practices, cultural norms, and policies; propose an ....Shifting the Culture of Out-of-field Professional Education for Teachers. This project aims to model an education system that would diversify the expertise of teachers as part of attending to long-term teacher shortage. It responds to a pressing national need for a system of valued and accessible professional education (PE) for out-of-field teachers. The project draws on perspectives from schools, governments and PE providers to expose current practices, cultural norms, and policies; propose an 'ideal' PE ecosystem that values re-specialisation in the core subjects; and develop principles to inform policy and practice needed to attain this ideal. The evidence-based framing of PE will inform efforts by schools, PE providers and policy makers to sustain a highly capable, adaptive and specialised teaching workforce.Read moreRead less
Early career teacher induction: Supporting precarious teachers. This project aims to investigate the ways in which Australian induction policies support precariously employed early career teachers to effectively manage student classroom behaviour. This project expects to generate new knowledge of workforce development and induction experiences of early career teachers employed on casual and short-term contracts. Expected outcomes of this project include alternative policy and practice recommenda ....Early career teacher induction: Supporting precarious teachers. This project aims to investigate the ways in which Australian induction policies support precariously employed early career teachers to effectively manage student classroom behaviour. This project expects to generate new knowledge of workforce development and induction experiences of early career teachers employed on casual and short-term contracts. Expected outcomes of this project include alternative policy and practice recommendations to support the transition of insecure replacement teachers within the profession. The benefits of this research include, improving teachers’ classroom management practices; the retention of new teachers; improving teacher workforce development; and building a healthier education system. Read moreRead less
Learning-rich leadership for quality improvement in early education. This project aims to establish Australia's first evidence base to inform quality improvement in early childhood education services through the development of educational leaders. Effective leadership is essential to ensuring the effective implementation of the Australian government's national quality standards for early childhood education. A new theory of 'learning-rich' leadership for quality improvement will be developed to ....Learning-rich leadership for quality improvement in early education. This project aims to establish Australia's first evidence base to inform quality improvement in early childhood education services through the development of educational leaders. Effective leadership is essential to ensuring the effective implementation of the Australian government's national quality standards for early childhood education. A new theory of 'learning-rich' leadership for quality improvement will be developed to influence leadership education in the early childhood sector. Expected outcomes from this project have potential benefits for the increased effectiveness in service quality for early childhood education.Read moreRead less
Educator-child interactions and childhood social and emotional learning. This project aims to enhance educator-child interactions to support young children’s social and emotional learning in Early Childhood Education and Care. It expects to generate new knowledge about adult-child interactions for improved child outcomes by examining the effectiveness, theories of change and implementation of an online Social-Emotional Engagement and Development Program to promote educators' engagement with thre ....Educator-child interactions and childhood social and emotional learning. This project aims to enhance educator-child interactions to support young children’s social and emotional learning in Early Childhood Education and Care. It expects to generate new knowledge about adult-child interactions for improved child outcomes by examining the effectiveness, theories of change and implementation of an online Social-Emotional Engagement and Development Program to promote educators' engagement with three tiers of social and emotional learning strategies. The intended outcome is a confirmed evidence base supporting the program at scale and aligned professional learning resources. This project has potential to mitigate against the financial and social costs associated with mental ill-health in early childhood.Read moreRead less
Teaching workforce development through integrated partnerships. This project aims to understand integrated school-university partnerships’ effects on schools as workplaces and as learning spaces for beginning teachers. Australian governments endorse integrated partnerships to enhance the quality of teaching and address changing environments, but the effects of these partnerships on teaching workforce development are unknown The project will research partnerships as complex and entangled networks ....Teaching workforce development through integrated partnerships. This project aims to understand integrated school-university partnerships’ effects on schools as workplaces and as learning spaces for beginning teachers. Australian governments endorse integrated partnerships to enhance the quality of teaching and address changing environments, but the effects of these partnerships on teaching workforce development are unknown The project will research partnerships as complex and entangled networks, develop a theory of partnership work, and identify practical models that inform partnership development and capacities and strategies necessary in partnership work. The project is expected to contribute to the renewal of teaching workforce development in Australia.Read moreRead less
Multiliteracies for addressing disadvantage in senior school science. Multiliteracies for addressing disadvantage in senior school science. This project aims to develop discipline-specific pedagogies in senior physics, chemistry and biology to improve disadvantaged students’ engagement and achievement. Many students from disadvantaged backgrounds fail to develop the linguistic precision and symbolic representational dexterity needed to comprehend and communicate senior school science concepts. T ....Multiliteracies for addressing disadvantage in senior school science. Multiliteracies for addressing disadvantage in senior school science. This project aims to develop discipline-specific pedagogies in senior physics, chemistry and biology to improve disadvantaged students’ engagement and achievement. Many students from disadvantaged backgrounds fail to develop the linguistic precision and symbolic representational dexterity needed to comprehend and communicate senior school science concepts. These pedagogies will ‘infuse’ multiliteracies in senior school science to improve access to science-based pathways for these students, and enable them to understand progressively more complex scientific concepts and demonstrate this in examinations. This project is expected to improve student retention, arrest declining enrolments in senior school science, and increase young people working in science.Read moreRead less