Abstract
In 2014, the Australian Commonwealth government appointed the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group (TEMAG) to investigate and make recommendations regarding initial teacher education in Australia, with the view to better preparing new teachers for the classroom. In early 2015 the TEMAG report, Action Now: Classroom Ready Teachers, was released. An overriding concern within this document was the need for pre-service teachers to be ‘classroom ready’ upon graduation. In this chapter, we provide a critique of the notion of classroom readiness. Underpinning our critique is the assumption that teaching is an intellectual exercise requiring constant informed and complex decision making. These decisions require knowing about curriculum, pedagogy and assessment and a knowledge and understanding of students and their backgrounds.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Australian Education Council. (1987). National policy for the education of girls in Australian schools. Canberra: Australian Government Printing Service.
BERA/RSA. (2014). Research and the teaching profession: Building the capacity for a self-improving education system. London: BERA.
Furlong, J. (2013). Education—An anatomy of the discipline: Rescuing the university project. Abington: Routledge.
Hardy, I., & Boyle, C. (2011). My school? Critiquing the abstraction and quantification of education. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 39(3), 211–222.
Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. London: Routledge.
Hoskins, K., & Maguire, M. (2013). Teaching the teachers: Contesting the curriculum. In L. Beckett (Ed.), Teacher education through active engagement: Raising the professional voice (pp. 71–82). London: Routledge.
Lampert, J., & Burnett, B. (2014). Teacher education for high-poverty schools: Keeping the bar high. In S. Gannon & W. Sawer (Eds.), Contemporary issues of equity in education (pp. 115–129). Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Lingard, B., & McGregor, G. (2014). Two contrasting Australian curriculum responses to globalisation: What students should learn or become. The Curriculum Journal, 25(1), 90–110.
Lingard, B., & Sellar, S. (2013). ‘Catalyst data’: Perverse systemic effects of audit and accountability in Australian schooling. Journal of Education Policy, 28(5), 634–656.
Masters, G. N. (2009). Improving literacy, numeracy and science learning in Queensland primary schools. Melbourne: Australian Council for Educational Research.
Mills, M., & Mitchell, J. (2013). Where is pedagogy in teaching and teacher education? The production of pre-fabricated teachers. In L. Beckett (Ed.), Teacher education through active engagement: Raising the professional voice (pp. 83–95). London: Routledge.
Mills, M., Monk, S., Keddie, A., Christie, P., Renshaw, P., Geelan, D., et al. (2014). Differentiated learning: From policy to classroom. Oxford Review of Education, 14(3), 331–348.
Reid, J., & Brennan, M. (2013). The standards cage: A contradictory politics of control. In L. Beckett (Ed.), Teacher education through active engagement: Raising the professional voice (pp. 110–124). London: Routledge.
Rowan, L., Mayer, D., Kline, J., Kostogriz, A., & Walker-Gibbs, B. (2015). Investigating the effectiveness of teacher education for early career teachers in diverse settings: The longitudinal research we have to have. Australian Educational Researcher, 42, 273–298.
Sahlberg, P. (2011). Finnish lessons: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland? New York, NY: Teachers’ College Press.
TEMAG. (2015). Action now: Classroom ready teachers. Canberra: Department of Education.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mills, M., Goos, M. (2017). The Place of Research in Teacher Education? An Analysis of the Australian Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group Report Action Now: Classroom Ready Teachers . In: Peters, M., Cowie, B., Menter, I. (eds) A Companion to Research in Teacher Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4075-7_43
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4075-7_43
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-4073-3
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-4075-7
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)