From Surveillance to Formation? A Generative Approach to Teacher ‘Performance and Development’ in Australian Schools

This paper explores the possibilities and limitations of the AITSL Performance and Development Framework as a vehicle for authentic teacher professional learning. It suggests that the Framework offers a range of implementation possibilities, from surveillance of teaching practice at one end of the spectrum to ongoing and generative formation of teachers at the other, and argues that at its best, the Framework will be interpreted and implemented as a catalyst for school-developed, inquiry-based professional learning that builds collegial professional practice and supports teachers to develop and take an inquiring stance toward their practice

Rotas alternativas e caminhos para a identidade profissional dos professores: Explorando as diversas identidades dos membros Teach For America

Research on the development of professional identity for teachers who enter the profession through alternative routes is still in its infancy. In contrast to their peers who complete traditional initial teacher education programs, these teachers are exposed to different conditions and constraints that produce a range of sub-identities previously unidentified in the literature. This paper draws on interviews with 27 teachers who entered teaching through Teach For America and wrestled with these sub-identities as they considered their emerging professional identity. We argue that these sub-identities point to structural challenges embedded within Teach for America, and we highlight the need for additional research on the growing cadre of teachers entering the teaching profession through alternative routes, and subsequently influencing policymaking processes.La investigación sobre el desarrollo de la identidad profesional de los maestros que ingresan a la profesión a través de vías alternativas todavía está en su infancia. A diferencia de sus colegas que completan los programas tradicionales de formación docente inicial, estos maestros están expuestos a diferentes condiciones y limitaciones que producen una multitud de identidades no identificadas previamente en la literatura. Esta investigación se basa en entrevistas con 27 maestros que ingresaron a la enseñanza a través de Teach For America y lucharon con estas subidentidades cuando consideraban su identidad profesional emergente. Presentamos argumentos que estas subidentidades apuntan a desafíos estructurales integrados en Teach for America, y destacamos la necesidad de investigación adicional sobre el creciente grupo de profesores que ingresan a la profesión docente a través de rutas alternativas, y que posteriormente influyen en los procesos de formulación de pólitica.A pesquisa sobre o desenvolvimento da identidade profissional dos professores que entram na profissão através de meios alternativos ainda está em sua infância. Ao contrário de seus colegas que completam os tradicionais programas iniciais de treinamento de professores, esses professores estão expostos a diferentes condições e limitações que produzem uma multiplicidade de identidades não identificadas anteriormente na literatura. Esta pesquisa é baseada em entrevistas com 27 professores que entraram no ensino por Teach For America e lutaram com essas subidências quando consideraram sua identidade profissional emergente. Apresentamos argumentos de que essas subentendências apontam para desafios estruturais integrados no Teach for America e destacamos a necessidade de pesquisas adicionais sobre o crescente grupo de professores que entram na profissão docente através de rotas alternativas e que posteriormente influenciam os processos de formulação de pólitica

A luminosity distribution for kilonovae based on short gamma-ray burst afterglows

The combined detection of a gravitational-wave signal, kilonova, and short gamma-ray burst (sGRB) from GW170817 marked a scientific breakthrough in the field of multi-messenger astronomy. But even before GW170817, there have been a number of sGRBs with possible associated kilonova detections. In this work, we re-examine these "historical" sGRB afterglows with a combination of state-of-the-art afterglow and kilonova models. This allows us to include optical/near-infrared synchrotron emission produced by the sGRB as well as ultraviolet/optical/near-infrared emission powered by the radioactive decay of $r$-process elements (i.e., the kilonova). Fitting the lightcurves, we derive the velocity and the mass distribution as well as the composition of the ejected material. The posteriors on kilonova parameters obtained from the fit were turned into distributions for the peak magnitude of the kilonova emission in different bands and the time at which this peak occurs. From the sGRB with an associated kilonova, we found that the peak magnitude in H bands falls in the range [-16.2, -13.1] ($95\%$ of confidence) and occurs within $0.8-3.6\,\rm days$ after the sGRB prompt emission. In g band instead we obtain a peak magnitude in range [-16.8, -12.3] occurring within the first $18\,\rm hr$ after the sGRB prompt. From the luminosity distributions of GW170817/AT2017gfo, kilonova candidates GRB130603B, GRB050709 and GRB060614 (with the possible inclusion of GRB150101B) and the upper limits from all the other sGRBs not associated with any kilonova detection we obtain for the first time a kilonova luminosity function in different bands.Comment: Published in MNRAS, 24 pages, 14 figure

Principals of audit: Testing, data and ‘implicated advocacy’

Historically, school leaders have occupied a somewhat ambiguous position within networks of power. On the one hand, they appear to be celebrated as what Ball (2003) has termed the ‘new hero of educational reform’; on the other, they are often ‘held to account’ through those same performative processes and technologies. These have become compelling in schools and principals are ‘doubly bound’ through this. Adopting a Foucauldian notion of discursive production, this paper addresses the ways that the discursive ‘field’ of ‘principal’ (within larger regimes of truth such as schools, leadership, quality and efficiency) is produced. It explores how individual principals understand their roles and ethics within those practices of audit emerging in school governance, and how their self-regulation is constituted through NAPLAN – the National Assessment Program, Literacy and Numeracy. A key effect of NAPLAN has been the rise of auditing practices that change how education is valued. Open-ended interviews with 13 primary and secondary school principals from Western Australia, South Australia and New South Wales asked how they perceived NAPLAN's impact on their work, their relationships within their school community and their ethical practice

A luminosity distribution for kilonovae based on short gamma-ray burst afterglows

The combined detection of a gravitational-wave signal, kilonova, and short gamma-ray burst (sGRB) from GW170817 marked a scientific breakthrough in the field of multimessenger astronomy. But even before GW170817, there have been a number of sGRBs with possible associated kilonova detections. In this work, we re-examine these ‘historical’ sGRB afterglows with a combination of state-of-the-art afterglow and kilonova models. This allows us to include optical/near-infrared synchrotron emission produced by the sGRB as well as ultraviolet/optical/near-infrared emission powered by the radioactive decay of r-process elements (i.e. the kilonova). Fitting the light curves, we derive the velocity and the mass distribution as well as the composition of the ejected material. The posteriors on kilonova parameters obtained from the fit were turned into distributions for the peak magnitude of the kilonova emission in different bands and the time at which this peak occurs. From the sGRB with an associated kilonova, we found that the peak magnitude in H bands falls in the range [−16.2, −13.1] (⁠95 per cent of confidence) and occurs within 0.8−3.6d after the sGRB prompt emission. In g band instead we obtain a peak magnitude in range [−16.8, −12.3] occurring within the first 18 h after the sGRB prompt. From the luminosity distributions of GW170817/AT2017gfo, kilonova candidates GRB130603B, GRB050709, and GRB060614 (with the possible inclusion of GRB150101B, GRB050724A, GRB061201, GRB080905A, GRB150424A, and GRB160821B) and the upper limits from all the other sGRBs not associated with any kilonova detection we obtain for the first time a kilonova luminosity distribution in different bands

Control of Flowering and Cell Fate by LIF2, an RNA Binding Partner of the Polycomb Complex Component LHP1

Polycomb Repressive Complexes (PRC) modulate the epigenetic status of key cell fate and developmental regulators in eukaryotes. The chromo domain protein LIKE HETEROCHROMATIN PROTEIN1 (LHP1) is a subunit of a plant PRC1-like complex in Arabidopsis thaliana and recognizes histone H3 lysine 27 trimethylation, a silencing epigenetic mark deposited by the PRC2 complex. We have identified and studied an LHP1-Interacting Factor2 (LIF2). LIF2 protein has RNA recognition motifs and belongs to the large hnRNP protein family, which is involved in RNA processing. LIF2 interacts in vivo, in the cell nucleus, with the LHP1 chromo shadow domain. Expression of LIF2 was detected predominantly in vascular and meristematic tissues. Loss-of-function of LIF2 modifies flowering time, floral developmental homeostasis and gynoecium growth determination. lif2 ovaries have indeterminate growth and produce ectopic inflorescences with severely affected flowers showing proliferation of ectopic stigmatic papillae and ovules in short-day conditions. To look at how LIF2 acts relative to LHP1, we conducted transcriptome analyses in lif2 and lhp1 and identified a common set of deregulated genes, which showed significant enrichment in stress-response genes. By comparing expression of LHP1 targets in lif2, lhp1 and lif2 lhp1 mutants we showed that LIF2 can either antagonize or act with LHP1. Interestingly, repression of the FLC floral transcriptional regulator in lif2 mutant is accompanied by an increase in H3K27 trimethylation at the locus, without any change in LHP1 binding, suggesting that LHP1 is targeted independently from LIF2 and that LHP1 binding does not strictly correlate with gene expression. LIF2, involved in cell identity and cell fate decision, may modulate the activity of LHP1 at specific loci, during specific developmental windows or in response to environmental cues that control cell fate determination. These results highlight a novel link between plant RNA processing and Polycomb regulation

The slippery slope to efficiency?: an Australian perspective on school/university partnerships for teacher professional learning

Large-scale school/university partnerships for the enhancement of teacher professionalism and teacher professional learning have been part of the teacher development landscape in Australia for the past two decades. This paper takes a historical perspective on Australian school/university partnerships through detailing three national projects over a 15-year period, arguing that regimes of increased compliance and accountability that have characterised education policy in Australia over the past decade in particular, have impacted upon the way that school/university partnerships for professional learning have been conceptualised and framed. The kinds of transformative and emancipatory approaches described and advocated by scholars such as Stenhouse, and Carr and Kemmis, in the 1980s, which visibly guided earlier iterations of national projects, are largely absent from their successors. Increasingly, projects have been guided by instrumentalist approaches that emphasise efficiency, such that university-based partners are positioned more as 'providers' of professional development than learning partners, and relationships are conceived of as short-term and funding-dependent. Finally, the paper explores the capacity of school/university partnerships to overcome this trajectory, meeting the accountability demands of the current age of compliance while also working into the more transformative domain of teacher development. It suggests conditions under which such partnerships might flourish and concludes with a challenge to both school- and university-based practitioners to reclaim this generative edge in their partnership work, regardless of the policy framework within which it is enacted

Beyond 'what works': understanding teacher identity as a practical and political tool

Drawing on previous research that focused upon the formation and mediation of teacher professional identity, this paper develops a model for conceptualising teacher professional identity. Increasingly, technical-rational understandings of teachers’ work and ‘role’ are privileged in policy and public discourse over more nuanced and holistic approaches that seek to understand teacher professional identity – what it is to ‘be’ a teacher. This article seeks to offer an alternative view, presenting the idea that an understanding of the processes by which teacher professional identity is formed and mediated is central to understanding the professional learning and development needs of teachers and advancing a richer, more transformative vision for education. I argue that instrumentalist notions of teachers’ work embedded in neo-liberal educational agendas such as those currently being advanced in many western countries offer an impoverished view of the teaching profession and education more broadly, and suggest that the concept of teacher professional identity holds the potential to work as a practical tool for the teaching profession and those who work to support them in the development of a more generative educational agenda

Trans/forming teachers: new professional learning and transformative teacher professionalism

This article focuses upon the development of transformative teacher professionalism. It explores issues of teacher professional identity and the ways in which this is contributed to by teacher responsiveness to the changing and demanding educational environments in which they find themselves. It includes a review of significant literature within the field and suggests ways in which professional learning can support the development of a transformative teaching profession. Finally, it points to a number of conditions under which such a profession might emerge