This paper applies the work of Jacques Lacan, a French psychoanalyst, to decipher the desire of the teacher in Aboriginal education. It argues that the images of Aboriginal people represented in Australian classrooms are effects of the teacher's Imaginary, the Imaginary being one of the three psychoanalytic domains theorised by Lacan over a period…

Over the past decade in Australia, a neo-liberal political climate has delivered to universities and schools increasing expectations concerning accountability and conformity within professional standards frameworks. This has contributed to growing pressure around Professional Experience programs within teacher education. In light of such…

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…