Abstract
Teacher education courses at Australian universities tend to qualify graduates to teach in age-related contexts of early childhood/primary/secondary. For some considerable time these longstanding structural school divisions have been by-passed in terms of teacher employment. Shortages of teachers, in certain subject disciplines, for example languages, science (in particular physics and chemistry) and mathematics teachers, have resulted in schools employing staff to teach in subjects or grades for which they are not qualified. More recently, the development of various school models and structures has created demand for teachers with generic skills able to teach across a wide age range. The intent of this chapter is to present perspectives from graduate teachers with a F-12 qualification ('F' refers to Foundation that signifies the first year of school), and their school supervisors, on the benefits of employing a teacher qualified to teach across the primary and secondary sectors. The findings from this study indicate that a F-12 qualified teacher has flexibility in terms of employment opportunities and has broader curriculum understanding and pedagogical experiences that enhance teacher performance, something seen as a major benefit to both employers and graduates. This chapter argues that innovation in course design will not come from teacher registration institutes or the school sectors. For pragmatic reasons, the leadership that universities can provide in modifying the long-standing models of teacher education programs is of significance.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aspland, T. (2006). Changing patterns of teacher education in Australia. Education Research and Perspectives, 33(2), 140–162.
Auchmuty, J. (Chair) (1980). Report of the national inquiry into teacher education. Canberra AGPS.
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. (2015). National professional standards for teachers. http://www.aitsl.edu.au/initial-teacher-education-program-accreditation.html. Melbourne: AITSL.
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. (2014). Initial teacher education: Data report 2014. http://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/initial-teacher-education-resources/ite-data-report-2014.pdf. Accessed 30 Apr 2015.
Australian Secondary Principals Association Incorporated. (2007). Survey – Beginning teachers. http://www.aspa.asn.au/images/surveys/2007beginningteachersreport.pdf. Accessed 24 Sept 2009.
Baker, L. J. (1975). Governance of the Australian colleges of advanced education. Queensland, Australia: Darling Downes Institute of Advanced Education.
Barratt, R. (1998). Shaping middle schooling in Australia: A report of the national middle schooling project. Canberra, Australia: Australian Curriculum Studies Association.
Campbell, C., & Proctor, H. (2014). A history of Australian schooling. Crows Nest, Australia: Allen & Unwin.
Carrington, V. (2004). Mid-term review; the middle years of schooling. Curriculum Perspectives, 24(1), 30–41.
Chadbourne, R. (2001). Middle schooling for the middle years; what might the jury be considering? Victoria, Australia: Australian Education Union.
Cumming, J., & Cormack, P. (1996). From alienation to engagement; opportunities for reform in the middle years of schooling. Canberra, Australia: Australian Curriculum Studies Association.
Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. (2012). Summary of the 2012 full year higher education student statistics. Canberra, Australia: Department of Education.
Hatton, N. (1996). Changing initial teacher education: Limitations to innovation in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 21(2), 50–61.
Haynie, D. (2003). Contexts of risk? Explaining the link between girls’ pubertal development and their delinquency involvement [electronic version]. Social Forces, 82(1), 355–397.
Hollenstein, T., & Logheed, J. (2013). Beyond storm and stress: Typicality, transitions, timing and temperament to account for adolescent change [electronic version]. American Psychologist, 68(6), 444–454.
Hyams, B. K. (1979). Teacher preparation in Australia: A history of its development from 1850 to 1950. Hawthorn, Australia: Australian Council for Educational Research.
Knight, J., Lingard, B., & Bartlett, L. (1994). Reforming teacher education policy under labour governments in Australia 1989–03. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 15(4), 451–466.
Knipe, S. (2012). Crossing the primary and secondary school divide in teacher preparation. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 37(5). Accessed http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2012v37n5.6.
Knipe, S. (2015). A generic teacher education program that meets contemporary schools’ needs. In S. Groundwater-Smith & N. Mockler (Eds.), Big fish, little fish; teaching and learning in the middle years (pp. 223–235). Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press.
Knipe, S., & Johnston, K. (2007). Problematising middle schooling for middle schools and middle years education. In S. Knipe (Ed.), Middle years of schooling; reframing adolescence (pp. 3–20). Frenchs Forest, Australia: Pearson Education Australia.
Mayer, D. (2014). Forty years of teacher education in Australia: 1974–2014. Journal of Education for Teaching: International Research and Pedagogy, 40(5), 461–473.
Parkes, R.J. (2013). Challenges for curriculum leadership in contemporary teacher education. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 38(7). Accessed http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/atje.2013v38n7.8.
Polesel, J., & Teese, R. (1998). The ‘Colleges’ growth & diversity in the non-university tertiary studies sector (1965–74). Canberra, Australia: Department of Education, Training & Youth Affairs, Commonwealth of Australia.
Productivity Commission. (2012). Schools workforce. Research report. Canberra, Australia.
Reid, J. (2010, November 8). [AARE Presidential Address 2010]. Doing it by numbers? Educational research and teacher education. Speech presented at the Australian Association for Research in Education Conference. Melbourne, Australia.
Reid, J. (2011). A practice turn for teacher education? Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 39(4), 293–310.
Schools Council. (1992). In the middle schooling for young adolescents. Project Paper no. 7 Compulsory Years of School Project. Canberra, Australia: NBEET, AGPS.
Williams, D., Deer, C., Meyenn, B., & Taylor, A. (1995). Reform, restructuring & innovation in teacher education down under. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (47th Washington, DC, February 12–15 1995).
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge that the collection of data for this research project was supported by Strategic Initiates Funding, La Trobe University.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Knipe, S., Miles, R., Garoni, S. (2016). Innovation and Transformation of Initial Teacher Education: Employer and Graduate Perspectives. In: Brandenburg, R., McDonough, S., Burke, J., White, S. (eds) Teacher Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0785-9_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0785-9_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-0784-2
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-0785-9
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)