Professional paradoxes : context for development of beginning teacher identity and knowledges

It is anticipated that the current workforce of teachers in Victoria, Australia will retire within the next 5-15 years. The paradox for teachers at the career entry point is that while they are expected to quickly assume responsibility for education in this state, beginning teachers are reporting dissatisfaction with teaching and describing it as an &lsquo;unprofessional&rsquo; profession. Drawing from recently commissioned research for the Victorian Institute of Teaching, a study of sixty beginning teachers and a micro study of the &lsquo;internship&rsquo; experience of teacher educators, this paper explores the consequences of what counts as professional knowledge. By problematising identity issues for beginning teachers it is hoped that greater understanding of the complexities of their realities is revealed. The aspirations for the (re) generation of a profession are entangled in discordant displacement of meanings of what it is to become a teacher. What do &lsquo;othering&rsquo; and power(less) positions of beginning teachers mean for the immediate future of the profession? What then are the implications for school contexts, colleague support and pre-service teacher education?<br /

Partnerships for learning : an international perspective on the development of inclusive schools

One of the most difficult issues faced in school university partnerships is the legitimacy of the collaborative relationship. Getting invited in as a university partner and staying on to support teacher knowledge is challenging. Through an account of a case study set in one large secondary school located in the western suburbs of Victoria, we disentangle the importance of seldom considered barriers that impact on professional learning. Shaping our understanding through a theoretical model where the movement between identity, beliefs and decision and action is identified as \u27noticing\u27 (Moss et al. 2004, Mason 2002) we describe the potential of the model in developing a \u27pedagogy of hope\u27 (hooks 2003). Noticing, working at the elusive intersections of observation and construction, permits non-linear connections. A \u27pedagogy of hope\u27 works for a sustainable learning community- a community for all students, teachers and school leaders.<br /

Discovering the Healthcare Beliefs and Practices of Rural Mestizo Ecuadorians: An Ethnonursing Study

Purpose This qualitative ethnonursing study was to discover and understand the role of the nurse, healthcare beliefs and practices of rural mestizo Ecuadorians. Discovering these beliefs and practices will enable nurses and other healthcare workers to provide care that is acceptable, congruent in culture and health promoting. Background The current literature regarding Ecuadorian health practices has been limited to the study of indigenous Americo-Indian groups living in Ecuador. No studies have been conducted in the mestizo rural setting. Research Design An ethnonursing method developed by Leininger was used to guide this study which took place in Tosagua, Ecuador. Conclusions and Implications The findings are consistent with the cultural life ways of rural mestizo Ecuadorians. The rural Ecuadorians live in community with one another. To be a part of the community means you have others who support and stand with you through health, illness, and life. The role of the family in illness and health is one of support and presence. Rural mestizo Ecuadorians, though they live in an area of great need and multiple barriers to healthcare are very interested in their health and desire to be enabled to care for themselves. The nurse has not been a part of the day to day healthcare of the informants. The desire of the informants is for a relationship with the nurses in the in-patient and out-patient setting that promotes presence, self-care, and education. These three elements have been teased out from the informant interviews and observational data. These findings will also impact nursing care of rural mestizo Ecuadorians who reside outside of Ecuador. Understanding their unique needs enables nurses to provide care that is culturally acceptable. These findings also support the usefulness of international nursing studies of people groups in the context of their home environment and the use of these findings in areas where they may reside outside of their home culture

Email management in the government sector: A case study

Email has become the significant tool for correspondence in all sectors, displacing and drastically changing usual letter composition. It has been acknowledged as a formal method of giving and accepting commands, agreements, decisions etc. Email is also an information communication system which captures organisations’ decisions. Therefore, every organisation needs to develop and implement an email policy to manage email as records for evidence and information. In the government sector there are examples of poor email management. For instance, Michael Gove, former UK Secretary of State for Education, conducted government business using his wife’s personal email account; and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email account and server for both government and personal business. This paper discusses preliminary findings from a study of email management in the government sector. It is based on a case study at a selected government ministry in Malaysia involving interviews with twelve participants in different roles across three departments and two policies and guidelines’ providers, comparing practices on the ground with the policies and guidelines. The records continuum model, which comprises the creation, capture, organisation and pluralisation of information in an organisation, was used to design the interview questions. The study aimed to critically explore the management of email in the context of the transition to digital information management (record keeping). Its context is the introduction of the 1Malaysia email project, which will provide a free email account for each Malaysian citizen over 18 years old to access e-Government services via a single sign-on user ID, as part of the move to e-government in Malaysia to accomplish its Vision 2020. This case study will contribute to the evolution of record keeping policies and practices in a former UK dependency during the transition to the digital and the identification of good practice that could be transferrable to other similar national government contexts

The changing motivations of students' use of lecture podcasts across a semester: an extended theory of planned behaviour approach

We extended the previous work of Moss, O’Connor and White, to include a measure of group norms within the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), to examine the influences on students’ decisions to use lecture podcasts as part of their learning. Participants (N = 90) completed the extended TPB predictors before semester began (Time 1) and mid-semester (Time 2) and reported on their podcast use at mid-semester (Time 2) and end of semester (Time 3). We found that attitudes and perceived social pressures were important in informing intentions at both time points. At Time 1, perceptions of control over performing the behaviour and, at Time 2, perceptions of whether podcast use was normative among fellow students (group norms) also predicted intended podcast use. Intentions to use podcasting predicted self-reported use at both Time 2 and Time 3. These results provide important applied information for educators to encourage student use of novel on-line educational tools

Narrative and portfolio approaches to teacher professional standards

This paper analyses various uses of narrative in the exploration of teacher identity. It highlights the way many contemporary education writers use terminology such as &lsquo;storying lives&rsquo; and &lsquo;storied landscapes&rsquo; to describe teacher processes of reflection on practice. In this paper the authors discuss some recent approaches to narrative that incorporate or suggest systematic uses of narrative theory (Conle 2003, Kamler, 2001, Richardson, 2003). Consideration is also given to the links between critical ethnography and narrative in order to critique the use of teacher portfolios, as in a recent Australian initiative for the appraisal of beginning teachers. The authors conclude with an argument for the rehabilitation and refinement of narrative theory in the &lsquo;writing&rsquo; of teacher identity.<br /

Noticing a flow of networks

The world of the classroom is no less a &lsquo;flow of networks&rsquo; (Castells 1999) than the globalised world outside its doors. In this fluid context of the world outside and the inner world of identity, the linear and somewhat found understandings of reflective practice (Schon 1987) and observations of classroom practice may serve to limit rather than reveal. The authors of this paper have been engaging with the ways teachers shape personal and professional theory through a movement - oriented process of noticing (Moss et al 2004). Noticing,working at the elusive intersections of observation and construction, permits non-linear connections. Noticing theorised in this way draws on the physical (Mason 2002). The movement occurs between the seen and the seer &ndash; between beliefs, identity and responses. The movement of the eye in noticing touches the seen in various places &ndash; pulling in and out of focus that which is seen. The same movement brings in and out of focus the seer- the beliefs and values held and let go in the seeing. The focusing in the act requires convergence and divergence (&lsquo;Notitia&rsquo; being known -&lsquo;Middle English from Old French from Latin Notitia being known from notus past part. of noscere know&rsquo;). The paper will report on early data on the impact of implementing this theoretical model in mass teacher education at the University of Melbourne, Australia.<br /