Refereed Articles
Humanising the Researcher: The Influence of Phenomenological Research on a Teacher Educator
David Giles
pp. 6-12
Phenomenological research is a way of researching that can have teacher educators turning towards a phenomenon which seriously interests them (van Manen, 2002).
In the process of becoming increasingly attuned to the 'essence' of the phenomenon in the participant's stories, the teacher educator–researcher is drawn towards a deeper
consideration of her or his own experiences of the phenomenon. The construction of meaning emerges as the researcher reaches for an understanding that satisfies her or his own
experience (Koch, 1999). In phenomenological research, the researcher remains engaged in an all consuming and dynamic process that increasingly calls for a deep and meditative
attunement to the phenomenon in question. The researcher is found hermeneutically circling for the essence of phenomena as this is shown in the text of lived experiences (Gadamer, 1994).
Schmidt (2005) suggests that such an experience keeps the researcher–teacher educator "awake, alive, and connected with what matters in life" (p. 131) – a transformative and humanising
process that continues to influence praxis. This paper reports on a phenomenological research project where a teacher educator explored the phenomenon of the teacher–student relationship
within the context of teacher education. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the value of the research approach in attuning teacher educators towards the 'taken-for-granted'
subtleties of their own practice. The research experience can have a transformative influence on the way that a teacher educator considers and lives a 'way of being' in practice.
While exploring a phenomenon, the researcher's practice as a teacher educator is constantly to the fore of the inquiry.
Parallels of Lived Experiences in Learning: A Scientist Learning Qualitative Research and Nurses Learning Science
Bernadette K. McCabe
pp. 13-20
This article documents my personal experiences in entering research in tertiary teaching and learning. My role as a science academic has included teaching both undergraduate science and
nursing students, as well as incorporating scientific research in the discipline of microbiology. Through teaching these two different cohorts of students I have come to realise that they
demand different teaching styles and strategies. Previous studies concerning science courses in nursing programs suggested that nursing students have a negative attitude towards the relevance
of science in nursing and lack the confidence to study this subject. In an attempt to improve this situation. I have taken the approach of investigating my teaching and learning practices in
nurse education by undertaking a comprehensive evaluation of the course, and in doing so I have become more open to learning about new teaching and learning activities. This shift in research
experience, from laboratory-based to educational, has produced an interesting parallel. The new experiences and anxieties that I faced in entering a new paradigm of educational research can be
seen as analogous to those experienced by my nursing students when studying science in nursing for the first time. This paper provides a personal account of this shift in research and reflects
on how my lived experience of entering a new field of research has facilitated the way that I understand how students learn.
Pedagogies of Self: Conscientising the Personal to the Social
Andrew Hickey and Jon Austin
pp. 21-29
This paper considers the catalytic potential for autoethnography, one of the "new ethnographies" (Goodall, 2000), to provoke emancipatory consciousness raising activity.
Autoethnography opens possibilities for the development of a critical reflexivity wherein senses of Self and agency might come to be understood in terms of the social processes
that mediate lived experience and the material realities of individuals. It is on this basis that autoethnography offers opportunity for the enactment of a genuinely critical pedagogy.
By means of exploring the Self as a social construct, possibilities for exposing the mediating role that social structures play in the construction of identities become apparent and open
to deep critique and change.
A Grounded Theory Analysis of the Impacts of Multicampus Colleges' Structural Reform on Pedagogies and Learning in 14 Public Secondary Schools in New South Wales
Charles Kivunja
pp. 30-49
Starting in 1998, the New South Wales Department of Education and Training reconfigured three of its Years 7-12 comprehensive schools into 'middle schools' structured with only
Years 7-10 cohorts. It then built a new site structured as the Years 11-12 senior campus for the three middle schools. The four schools were integrated into one "Collegiate" and
thus the multicampus college model was introduced into the New South Wales Department of Education and Training secondary school system. Within six years of that initiative, 34
comprehensive schools were reconfigured and amalgamated into 11 multicampus colleges. By 2004, the model had become a major player providing education to 23,530 students in 10% of
all New South Wales secondary schools. To date, little research has investigated the effectiveness of this relatively new model. This paper uses a grounded theory approach to develop
a Dynamics Paradigm which is then used to analyse the impacts of the multicampus college model on pedagogies and learning in 14 of the secondary schools which are integrated into multicampus
colleges in New South Wales. The paper concludes that: 1) the grounded theory approach is an effective tool for research into the key structural and cultural dynamics that need to be
investigated to extend an understanding of the meaning emerging in the multicampus college model; 2) the multicampus college model creates opportunities for improved pedagogies and learning
outcomes; and 3) the multicampus college model calls for greater research and public debate.
Demonstrating Quality Outcomes in Learning and Teaching: Examining 'Best Practice' in the Use of Criterion-Referenced Assessment
Sara Hammer
pp. 50-58
Australian universities are now required to meet a range of quality assurance indicators directly related to demonstrated excellence in learning and teaching, which are evaluated by
the Commonwealth Government's Learning and Teaching Performance Fund. Consequently, they must now develop ways to demonstrate attainment of these prescribed benchmarks. One pedagogical
practice adopted by Australian universities, as a way of identifying and demonstrating stated learning outcomes, is the use of criterion-referenced assessment. Fundamentally, assessment
criteria should do two things: first, they should clearly articulate the desired qualities or characteristics of students' work that are relevant to the task being assessed; second, they
should show the relationship between the stated learning objectives of a course and the type of assessment task being used. However, correctly applied, assessment criteria also potentially
contribute to students' learning by enabling them to develop a sense of judgement in relation to their own performance. They also potentially provide the means for articulating appropriate
disciplinary standards at a course level. Yet the usefulness of assessment criteria is potentially undermined by issues such as vagueness, confusion over the relationship between criteria
and standards, a lack of consensus over the interpretation of criteria within teaching teams and disciplines and the challenge of articulating desirable qualities for assessment tasks that
require complex, higher order thinking. This paper addresses these issues by reviewing relevant higher education literature and proposing six principles of good practice for the use of
criterion-referenced assessment.
Making the Assessment Criteria Explicit through Writing Feedback: A Pedagogical Approach to Developing Academic Writing
Geof Hill
pp. 59-66
Learning academic writing has traditionally been a stumbling block for Higher Degree Research (HDR) students. HDR supervision pedagogy is not always explicit. Many HDR supervisors
maintain an 'osmosis' approach to learning about academic writing, and others, while acknowledging the importance of feedback on samples of HDR student writing, fail to provide feedback
that enables a student to address the writing problems or to understand the nature of HDR assessment. There is a need to begin to map successful pedagogical practices in the HDR context
and HDR supervisors can start this by researching their own practice. This study elaborates on the author's development of an explicit assessment criteria (Productive Pedagogy) for a
thesis while he was examining Practitioner Investigation reports for postgraduate students. He subsequently used this framework as a basis for providing feedback on writing samples from
his HDR students. The paper encourages other HDR supervisors to explore their own constructs of 'goodness' in academic writing so that these constructs can inform explicit feedback to
students about what makes up the notion of academic writing.
The Re-historicisation and Increased Contextualisation of Curriculum and Its Associated Pedagogies
Robyn Torok
pp. 67-81
Curriculum has traditionally been an ahistorical and technical field. The consequence has been to view curriculum and its associated pedagogical practices as neutral entities, devoid of
meaning - in essence arising ex nihilo. However, this naive assumption has fatefully resulted in revisiting the same swamps over and over again. Standardised curriculum and pedagogy
function invisibly to reproduce class and inequality and to institutionalise cultural norms. Despite lingering attempts to maintain this technocratic approach that ignores subcutaneous
meanings, a strong movement has emerged to reconceptualise curriculum in terms of its historical and sociopolitical context. While it is conceded that this is a step into a larger quagmire,
it is a necessary one if true progress is to be made. Nevertheless, this large quagmire provides the possibility of escape, unlike the fatal determinism of forever returning to the swamps.
Expectedly, this move to reconceptualise curriculum has its critics. Their arguments are also addressed, in particular the perceived tendency to separate theory and practice. Although curriculum
and curriculum practices can be contextualised in many ways, this paper focuses primarily on key political concepts and concealed constructs such as hegemony, reproduction and resistance,
resilience of the institution, the non-neutral nature of knowledge, the inclusion/exclusion principle, slogan systems and the hidden curriculum. Only by understanding the complex historical and
political nature of curriculum can teaching professionals understand the hidden meaning of their practices. This is the first step for professionals to take in order to achieve Giroux's
(1979, 1985, 1992) vision of teachers as transformative professionals (particularly through collaborative frameworks like the IDEAS project) in a climate of standardised curriculum and testing.
Writing Race: Making Meaning of White Racial Identity in Initial Teacher Education
Jon Austin and Andrew Hickey
pp. 82-91
Race has become one of the key defining features of contemporary society, and a considerable body of work has recently emerged in the area of white dominant racial identity and
identification. This paper reports on images, experiences and understandings of white racial identity elicited from initial teacher education students by use of a process of
critical autoethnographic interrogations of Self. Emphasis is placed upon the description and analysis of a particular form of critical self-reflection and (re)presentations of
autoethnographically-derived understandings of racialised identities. These representations provide an insight into nascent processes of conscientisation engaged in by initial
teacher education students. The paper explores possible implications for the development of racially aware teachers, and broader connections with transformative pedagogical practices.
The data comprising the basis of this project were derived from a combination of learning conversations and narrative inquiry, both of which are discussed in this paper.
