The international literature is clear that a professional school culture and supportive administrative arrangements are essential to the retention and development of quality teachers. In this paper the research and conceptual understandings underpinning this statement are elaborated, with discussions of the nature of quality teaching, teachers'…

This paper provides discussion of learning experienced by Applied Learning Educators in a workplace context where everyday teaching activities can involve undertaking unfamiliar tasks to the extent that the concept of 'crossing boundaries', or acting outside 'comfort zones' becomes 'normalised'. This perspective arises from consideration of…

Across Australia and internationally, the vexed problem of staffing rural school remains a major issue affecting the educational outcomes of many rural students and their families. TERRAnova, (New Ground in Teacher Education for Rural and Regional Australia), is the name of a large Australian Research Council funded (2008-2010) project involving:…

Many of the schools in regional and inland areas of Australia find it difficult to attract and maintain quality and experienced staff, as do some of the more difficult to teach in schools in urban areas. To help overcome these problems Tasmania has instituted a transfer policy for state school teachers, as had other Australian state systems.…

Education and teaching have changed in significant ways over the last decade. Since the late 1980s the Commonwealth of Australia has encouraged the development of "multi-skilled workers"; however, Alvin Toffler (1990) points out that changes in technology would create a deskilled work force with overly specialized, noninterchangeable…

In this study, 12 preschool teachers in Queensland, Australia were given opportunities to record and describe their work within their specific teaching context, as well as within the wider contexts of the school campus and the educational and social system. Subjects kept a reflective journal each day over a 2-week period, and entries frequently…

This survey was undertaken to build upon and validate understanding of teacher satisfaction and dissatisfaction, orientation to teaching, teachers' values, and teacher health. The purpose of this endeavor was also to develop an instrument suitable for identifying and quantifying the sources and relative strength of factors contributing to teacher…

This paper describes a study that investigated Western Australian senior high schools' cultures. Researchers developed the School Cultural Elements Questionnaire to examine six aspects of school culture: professional values, emphasis on learning, collegiality, collaboration, shared planning, and transformational leadership. A group of 422 teachers…

Academic freedom for precollegiate teachers in the United States is less clear than that expressed and confirmed in law and custom for college faculties. The question studied was how academic freedom is perceived in theory and practice by secondary school teachers outside of the United States. The interview schedule was modeled after schedules…

Recent studies of teachers and teaching pay greater attention to relationships among teaching contexts, teachers' practical knowledge, and enacted curricula. As a contribution to this body of work, this study grappled with the problem of understanding the knowledge teachers use to create curricula within workplace demands. Survey, participant…

This paper presents the Australian perspective on a study conducted by the Consortium for Cross-Cultural Research in Education. Only 23 percent of the Australian teachers in the sample perceived the main objective of significant change as relating directly to their own work context. While most respondents saw themselves as "adapters" (63…

This paper describes the first phase of a study of teachers and school administrators in Western Sydney, Australia. A survey to measure teacher satisfaction, motivation, and health was designed based on findings from earlier research. Participants were 529 teachers and school administrators at 47 primary, secondary, and special purpose schools.…

This paper explores the perceptions of three rural secondary school teachers in the Riverina area of New South Wales, Australia. In-depth interviews were conducted with three secondary teachers: three male teachers aged 25, 32, and 60. The original objective of the grounded theory study was to examine the teachers' perceptions about the state's…

Findings of a study that examined teachers' personal reasons for resigning are presented in this paper, which develops a model of teacher persistence. Interviews were conducted with 57 teachers who resigned from primary schools, and various regional and Head Office positions with the New Wales (Australia) Department of School Education during the…

This study was designed to compare the psychosocial environments of different types of schools (primary, high schools, district schools, and secondary colleges). The Moos's Work Environment Scale (WES) was administered to teachers from government and non-government schools in Tasmania. The WES focused on the dimensions of involvement, work…