Becoming a teacher requires not only the development of a professional identity but the construction of professional knowledge and practice through continued professional learning. This study tracked a sample group of 16 early career teachers through their first year of teaching. The participants were encouraged to write about their experiences in…

The identity work engaged in by Indigenous teachers in school settings is highlighted in a study of Australian Indigenous teachers. The construction of identity in home and community relationships intersects with and can counteract the take up of a preferred identity in the workplace. In this paper we analyse data from interviews with Indigenous…

Caught between the demands of the normative (what they believe they "ought" to be and value) and normalisation (what professional others tell them that they "should" be and value), teacher candidates often experience themselves as belated even though they are newcomers to the profession--simultaneously heirs to a history and new to it. In this…

Current reviews of teacher education pay considerable attention to problems associated with the practicum, and often claim to propose major changes in order to improve the quality of new graduates. Many of the problems they address concerning the practicum and its relation to the "theoretical" component of programs are longstanding, and have been…

This study investigated the relationships between teachers' self-reported classroom goal structures, instructional self-perceptions, teaching efficacy, and perceptions of students' motivation in a developing East Asian nation. This study's participants were 404 teachers, across subject areas, in 14 high schools in an East Asian nation. Similar…

Professional standards in teaching are developed in many education systems, with professional learning and quality assurance being the central purposes of these standards. This paper presents an initiative in developing a professional development progress map (hereafter, progress map) within a learning-oriented field experience assessment (LOFEA) …

The purpose of this study was to characterise the development of a preservice physical education teacher's professional activity over the course of training interactions with her co-operating teacher. The student teacher's professional development was studied using a hermeneutic and inductive approach based on the analysis of data from observation…

This paper examines research into initial teacher education in light of current Australian policy initiatives concerned with both the quality of research conducted in higher education and the quality of teacher education programs. The purpose of the paper is to explore some ways in which the research is, and can be, positioned in the current…

The article proposes that the proper status for teacher education, both historically and in terms of its research-demonstrated importance, is one of full professionalism alongside other professional training regimes in universities. It proposes furthermore that the many reviews and reports of the past quarter-century have been attempting to move…

Australian teacher education, like the rest of the university sector in Australia, is under significant pressure and highly politicised. In this paper, we examine ethical dilemmas facing teacher educators who, in a context of difficult and eroding work conditions, grapple with literacy needs of pre-service students. We focus particularly on…

Taiwanese textbooks play a central role in Taiwanese education. Teachers rely on the textbooks to develop lessons as well as the majority of the content of their classes. The purpose of this article is to explore the historical development of the political and ideological complexities in Taiwan's social studies curriculum. The article begins with…

This presidential address by Richard Bates, President of the Australian Teacher Education Association, discusses teacher-education reform in Australia, particularly in the context of public education. Bates contends that in 2006 there are two sets of interests that are particularly dangerous to education: (1) those who see education simply as a…

This paper argues that we are currently experiencing a debilitating overload of political interference and media hyperbole in respect of teaching and teacher education, and that much of this blitzkrieg amounts to a "political spectacle" and blatant neo-liberal ideology dressed up as rational analysis. The politics of disparagement being unleashed…

Research suggests that understanding new images of mathematics is very challenging and can contribute to teacher resistance. An explicit exploration of personal views of mathematics may be necessary for pedagogical change. One possible way for exploring these images is through mathematical metaphors. As metaphors focus on similarities, they can be…

This study investigated 481 in-service elementary teachers' level of mathematical content knowledge, attitudes toward mathematics, beliefs about the effectiveness of inquiry-based instruction, use of inquiry-based instruction and modeled the relationship among these variables. Upper elementary teachers (grades 3-5) were found to have greater…