Abstract
Teacher quality has emerged as a powerful construct over the last 20 years at a global level. In Australia, it is a major discursive term in government-initiated inquiries, policy statements and enactment strategies. The quality discourse, driven by standardisation and large-scale testing, acts as a major force re-shaping teacher identity, narrowing teaching practices, and re-forming the teaching profession and professionalism. This technical framing of teaching under the mantra of quality has a significant effect on teacher education—what teachers are expected to learn, how they learn, and how they demonstrate achievement of learning. Governance of education through the mantra of quality restricts teacher education at the same time as teacher educators’ perspectives are marginalised. Critical analyses are needed to map workings of the term in the policy landscape. This chapter, framed within the research field of critical policy studies, identifies the distinctive contribution of teacher educators in the most recent Australian inquiry into the teaching profession and challenges the regimes of truth that constrain teacher education at both local and global levels.
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Acknowledgements
Research supported under the ARC Discovery Project scheme, DP190100518 (Investigators: Singh, Exley, Heimans & Ivinson).
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Appendix 1
Appendix 1
Analysis of Submission references to ‘quality’ with respect to teachers and teacher education
University category and identifier | Reference to quality | Approach to ‘teacher quality’ | |
|---|---|---|---|
G8 | A | No direct mention of teacher quality Quality leadership- as a goal to address ‘status’ | i |
B | Quality of learning outcomes directly linked to: Quality of graduates (and the support they receive) Policy interventions influence ‘quality and effectiveness of teaching’ | ii | |
C | ‘Teacher quality… a key element that will sustain the profession’ New teachers are ‘overwhelmed with the enormity of the job despite the completion of high quality ITE program’ ‘Teacher quality is an important factor in quality student learning outcomes’ ‘high quality teachers’ dependent on their wellbeing ‘teacher quality’ is questioned in the face of poor educational outcomes Quality of school system- linked to teachers- TEMAG reference | ii | |
Australian Technology Network | D | No mention of teacher quality, quality teaching or teacher education quality | i |
E | No mention of teacher quality, quality teaching or teacher education quality Mentions of ‘good teaching and learning’ | i | |
Innovative Research Universities | F | Direct reference to quality: ‘the quality of content and delivery for teachers is nationally consistent’, ‘quality of teaching is important for high performing schools’ establishes the need for ‘prioritising time for quality professional development’ (p4) | ii |
G | Three mentions of quality that affirm: Importance of quality teachers and teaching (UN goals) Affirm ‘high quality (teacher education) courses’ Affirm ‘high quality of the work of teachers’ | ii | |
H | Claims there is: Quality in initial teacher education Quality in teachers BUT not in teaching environments | ii | |
Other | I | Affirms that: Quality learning in Initial teacher education and Quality learning in Professional development Contribute to quality teachers | ii |
J | No mention of quality | i | |
K | No mention of teacher quality | i (iii) | |
L | Discusses teacher quality in the discourse—reference to negative media coverage Focus on early childhood sector—National Quality Framework | iii | |
Councils of Deans of Education | M | ‘highest quality graduates’ is stated as the goal of Initial Teacher Education providers References ‘quality’ in the discourse—explicit intertextual references (quality teaching force, quality education) and identifies ‘quality teacher’ as a problematic discursive term | iii |
N | No mention of quality | i | |
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Hoyte, F., Singh, P., Heimans, S., Exley, B. (2020). Discourses of Quality in Australian Teacher Education: Critical Policy Analysis of a Government Inquiry into the Status of the Profession. In: Fox, J., Alexander, C., Aspland, T. (eds) Teacher Education in Globalised Times. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4124-7_9
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