This article examines teachers' work as part of the everyday life of classrooms, schools and communities--as curriculum design, dynamic pedagogies and as an oeuvre which is assembled over time. One of the hardest aspects of the everyday work of teachers, and perhaps one of the most under-rated and under-studied, is listening, really listening.…

Primary school teachers are the group who must alter their pedagogy to improve the literacy performance of Australian children. Statistics suggest that 70% of Australian primary school teachers are female and that 41% are 45 or older and therefore likely to retire within the next decade. This paper seeks to document histories of women primary…

Recent debates focus on literacy curriculum as if it is separate from teachers' other work, almost at times as if teachers and their contexts are irrelevant to what is the most appropriate literacy pedagogy. Perhaps learning to read and write is not hard work, but teaching is, no matter which theoretical orientation about literacy is adhered to.…