Teacher quality is not often defined but can be understood through the way that policies and expectations for teaching quality are talked about and talked into being. How do early career teachers (ECTs) navigate high expectations of becoming quality teachers, especially when there are several discourses of quality, some prominent and others less…

Clinical reflection with a focus on student impact is now a mandated attribute for graduate teachers across Australia via the capstone teacher performance assessment task. This policy move is forcing teacher educators to examine their programs to find space for activities that help pre-service teachers to develop the skills and dispositions…

Educator reflective practice is fundamental to quality early childhood education with robust practice benefitting pedagogy and improving outcomes for children. Yet, examination of individual and collaborative reflective practice in experienced professional early childhood teams is scarce. This qualitative case study used an action research design…

When first released in 2009, the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) recognised intentional teaching as one of its eight core practices (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) (2009). In 2022, the EYLF was revised to include a broader understanding of 'intentionality', encompassing both the educator and the child…

An educator's ability to engage in critical reflection is core to provision of high quality early childhood education and care (ECEC), and is a priority for quality improvement in Australia. This study explored the nature of critical reflection using the example of sleep-rest practices. These practices have been identified as a 'barometer of ECEC…

Teaching in today's complex and competitive university environment has become increasingly demanding as teachers try to respond to the stress and burnout negatively impacting their work performance. In this environment, it is more important than ever that university teachers build resilience to overcome stress and burnout and continue a…

Validation of ideas are of paramount importance in STEM fields. Learning and converting ideas into practical application is the main purpose of technical education. Aviation is a highly safety sensitive field where confusion and mistakes are not acceptable. This brings serious challenges for academia that provides higher education in this field. A…

Education tends to colonize. Established authorities (teachers, curricula, and examinations) instruct newcomers, extending conditional membership. This presents a dilemma for teachers seeking to instill in their students habits of critical, creative, and lateral thinking. In Australia as elsewhere, blueprint educational documents embody lofty…

This article proposes the diffractive practice of blogging-with Place as an alternative to a reflective journal. Reflective practice is a priority for teachers, with reflective journaling often employed as a method for documenting a teacher's experiences and knowledge about sites that are intended for place-based teaching and learning. However,…

This article discusses infant-toddler educators' perspectives of using the Observe, Reflect, Improve Children's Learning tool (ORICL) in practice. ORICL is a new tool informed by implementation science and co-designed with Australian early childhood education and care policy-makers, practitioners, and service providers. It aims to support…

Academics' experiences of transitioning assessments to emergency remote teaching (ERT) during COVID-19 were investigated in a Block Model (BM) higher education context. Students studied one subject at a time in small classes over four weeks. Evaluation cycles were short. An institution-wide qualitative survey highlighted three themes impacting on…

Global attention continues to focus on the quality of teaching, teacher quality, teacher education programs and the preparation of graduates who are ready to teach. This self-study research focuses on one aspect of the preparation and assessment of graduates for teaching: the marking and moderation of a Teaching Assessment Performance (TPA), a…

This paper reports on three Victorian early career Foundation to Year Two (F-2) teachers and the impact of leadership on their daily pedagogic decision-making about the teaching of reading. Data sets from each teacher drew on observations of three of their reading lessons and researcher-generated field notes, a semi-structured teacher interview,…

The current anthropogenic climate crisis presents unique challenges to the higher education classroom. Pedagogy in the context of climate change must be attuned to complex and varied student experiences that can contend with feelings of anxiety, disconnection, distress and hopelessness. As educators and researchers, we collate our pedagogical…

Capstone experiences function as a process in which students consolidate knowledge and skills throughout their degree programme and apply this understanding towards real-world contexts. This process is most often understood, in undergraduate programmes, as a transformation of identity, moving from "student" to "professional".…