Judith MacCallum

Teacher retention in the classroom is a pervasive and complex global issue with large numbers of graduate teachers leaving the profession after 3-5 years and experienced teachers feeling frustrated with constant change (Darling-Hammond, 2003; Fullan, 2001). Mentoring is one means to support new teachers’ transition into the classroom and retain experienced teachers through renewal of practice. However, mentoring remains ‘a contested concept’ without conceptual cohesion and often used for multiple purposes that can be in conflict with each other (Kemmis, Heikkinen, Fransson & Aspfors, 2014). Different purposes create different mentoring practices resulting in different mentee dispositions that orient them differently to themselves, to others and their professional work (Kemmis et al., 2014). Vygotsky’s cultural historical theory (1978) and Hedegaard’s (2014) concepts of demands and motives are used as theoretical frameworks to underpin conceptualisation and interpretation in the current research. The aim was to examine the dispositions, motives and practices of three teachers, mentored by a teacher-leader to navigate the demands made on them by students, parents and the school administration. ETC. Two teachers were experienced year 1 and 4 teachers and the third was a year 4 teacher in her second year. The teacher-leader taught a year 2 class that included students previously taught by the year 1 teacher who was being mentored. All teachers had worked on various school projects together but not in a formal mentoring program with each other. Qualitative methods were chosen as suitable for data collected from the naturalistic setting of the classroom and to highlight teachers’ perspectives from the formal teacher focus group meetings (Patton, 2002). The main sources of data for this paper are based on the transcripts of the teacher focus groups, pre and post teacher surveys, teacher reflective logs in emails, and the teacher mentor’s reflective log that provide insights into the issues that underpinned different teachers’ motives and orientations to engage in new practices in the classroom. The data are examined using Hedegaard’s (2014) institutional, activity and person perspectives. New demands in transitions created the possibility for teachers to renew their classroom practice. Although teachers expressed interest and value in the research project and commitment to innovate in the classroom, institutional demands restricted the practice teachers perceived was possible. Examining teachers’ participation in the mentoring activity shows the dynamic of teachers’ motives and orientation to the demands made on them by the principal and parents despite the support they experienced from each other and the teacher-leader. Teachers develop motives through participation in institutional practices which are embedded in the “the dynamic relation between person and practice” (Hedegaard and Chaiklin, 2005, p. 64). The findings lend support to Weldon’s (2018) analysis that environmental factors are important in understanding teacher attrition. The current research has implications for how mentoring is conceptualized and implemented in schools where the purpose is pedagogical renewal and retention. Developing robust professional cultures that support renewal require school policies that articulate an understanding of mentoring as an integral part of everyday practice for all teachers (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2000).

Digital media is increasingly used in classrooms around the globe, however little data are available on daily educational digital media use in schools within Australia. Screened devices accessed for learning activities by students continue to increase in number and range including interactive whiteboards, iPads and phones. Technological tools used for learning activities in schools have altered from light reflective (paper based) to light emitting (digital media) devices Although educational research has demonstrated the positive influence of digital media in learning environments little recognition of medical evidence based research has been incorporated into established inclusive pedagogy to support those students who are adversely affected students. This research is part of a larger study investigating screentime in classrooms and accommodations for students with light sensitivity. Two hundred high school students participated in this study that captured digital media use over a school day in Western Australia. The study was modelled on the 2007 Media and Society Research Project survey. At the end of a single day students recalled the type of digital media devices used in each lesson, duration by fraction of each lesson, and online homework completed after school hours. Student diaries used school timetables for time period segmentation throughout the day, as segmentation improves recall. Findings revealed that the most frequently used digital media device in the classroom was the Interactive whiteboard (69% of classes) and ‘total digital media’ duration ranged from 1 - 9 hours per day which included ‘in school’ and ‘home’ (range: 0 – 4 hours). Subject area use of digital media ranged from information technology/computer science (92% of classtime) to other/ home economics (0%). Science, Maths, English and HASS were all above 50%. For many participants, laptop and interactive whiteboard use was simultaneous, as indicated by entire class duration of both devices. Interviews with parents, teachers and students (who have graduated from high school) provide details of digital media duration, access and accommodations. For example, the daily need for individual cost/benefit analysis regarding school attendance for a student with chronic migraine. The relatively high screentime reported in most secondary school subjects places constraints on the learning of students with light sensitivity. While the benefits of educational digital media use have been established, effective guidelines for its use within schools is limited. The research points to the need for policies to ensure the development of inclusive practice accommodations.

In this paper we examine participation processes to develop a collaborative primary school classroom in which all students had opportunities to contribute to transforming classroom practices. It is informed by Stetsenko’s reconstruction of Vygotskian sociocultural concepts, proposing a transformative activist stance perspective, which defines learning as “contributing to collaborative practices of humanity” rather than as merely participating in those practices. The teacher has an active role and in terms of Valsiner’s notion of ‘canalization’, the teacher channels a student’s activities in certain ways so that development is organised in a particular direction, consistent with the teacher’s goals and values. A year-long ethnographic study in a Year 3 classroom was used to understand how a teacher channels student participation to create a collaborative classroom and what changes in participatory roles and contribution are possible. The teacher developed a range of participatory opportunities, including social circles and class meetings, which provided a means for all students to participate in authentic decision-making and collective action. Thirty hours of recorded class meeting and group interactions were analysed qualitatively using fine-grained micro level analysis method (Kovalainen & Kumpulainen). The paper discusses the range of communicative functions used in different activities, the changing participatory roles and resultant action and the changing role of the teacher over the year. The research highlights ways that a skilful teacher can guide and direct student participation and action, so that the students understand how they contribute to transforming collaborative practices that have currency beyond the classroom.

In this paper we examine ways teachers guide and scaffold motivation in a primary school classroom. Motivation is conceptualised as negotiated participation. Three sociocultural concepts are used to examine motivational development: zone of proximal development (Goldstein, 1999; Vygotsky, 1978), canalisation and self-canalisation (Valsiner, 1997), and mastery and appropriation (Wertsch, 1998). When motivation is re-conceptualised in social terms and considered from the perspective of sociocultural developmental psychology, the complex interrelations of persons and contexts involved in motivational development and change become the focus of research rather than change in specific motivational variables. The larger project was a year-long ethnographic study in a year 3 classroom, and interviews the following year. Multiple data sources included classroom observation, interviews, sociometric surveys, school documents, and reflective accounts of the students, their parents and the co-researchers. Video recordings of classroom activities made it possible to revisit interaction and observe and analyse a particular student's participation and dialogue. The analyses for this paper focuses on two students, Tina and Trent. There are clear instances that when the teacher provided social guidance both students were working within their affective zone of proximal development. Tina was always keen to provide her opinion, but not always appropriately in relation to the functioning of the class community. The teacher's actions appeared to be supporting but also transforming Tina's self-canalisation of participation in that class. When Tina moved to another class in year 4 with different participation structures, Tina initially resisted her new teacher's canalisation of ways to participate. Tina had not only mastered the cultural tools of decision making in year 3 but she had appropriated them and made them her own. Trent's motivational journey is different. Accounts of his journey show that the broader scaffolding provided by the teacher through the daily social circle and weekly class meeting enabled him to master, but not appropriate, the practices of the classroom. In the following year, Trent did not resist the new teacher's canalisation of ways to participate in that classroom. The accounts of student motivation journeys show that development is not linear. Guidance of others contributes to canalising possibilities for development, while the individual also contributes to possibilities for development through self-canalisation processes. Thus students may master the cultural tools for participation in a particular context but not necessarily make those tools their own, with implications for their motivation and learning. Each of the sociocultural concepts helps to describe aspects of motivational development that illuminate different parts of the complex process. We discuss how these differences can enable closer examination of classroom interaction to support motivation and learning. The research contributes to our understanding of the role of social interactions and cultural practices in promoting and constraining students' motivational development.

Purpose This paper examines motivation of four teachers to develop aspects of their instructional practice in an Australian primary school. Perspectives Framed within a sociocultural perspective that positions motivation as social in nature, the paper explores the complex relationships between the social world and the world of the individual (Walker, 2010). Method One teacher developed a collaborative classroom in 2004 using a range of strategies (such as social circle, class agreements, weekly class meeting) to engage students in decision-making about their learning (MacCallum & Morcom, 2008; Morcom & MacCallum, 2009). This paper is based on the teacher’s implementation of a collaborative classroom in a second primary school in 2007, and her subsequent mentoring of three colleagues (two experienced and one second-year teacher) to introduce more interactive elements into their classroom practice. The classes of two teachers included students who had been taught by the teacher mentor in previous years. The study was principally qualitative and data sources included interviews (with the teachers, students and their parents), reflective journals of the teachers and researcher, and classroom observation. Transcripts of dialogue and interview responses were examined for motivation concepts, such as interest, self-efficacy, self-competence and value (Murphy & Alexander, 2000; Watt & Richardson, 2007), and documented in relation to the contexts in which they emerged and changed over time. Rogoff’s (1995, 2003) three planes (personal, interpersonal and community) were used as an interpretative framework. Rogoff (1995) maintains it is incomplete to consider “the relationship of individual development and social interaction without concern for the cultural activity in which personal and interpersonal actions take place” (p. 141). Thus in this kind of analysis, each plane in turn is fore-grounded with the other planes in the background allowing consideration of the contributions from individuals, their social partners, and historical traditions and materials. Thus teacher interactions with each other, with students, parents and colleagues are important at the interpersonal plane, and school and wider educational issues at the community plane. Results The first teacher was interested, self-efficacious and confident to develop her practice, and her motivation was supported by the changing outcomes she observed in the students in the class. While acknowledging the conflicting messages about her instructional approach from the school system and research findings, school principal, some parents and colleagues, she was able to sustain her motivation to continually develop her practice. The three teachers whom she mentored struggled to change aspects of their practice. They were interested in doing so for the benefit of their students and valued the approach modelled, but had difficulty maintaining self-efficacy as they negotiated the expectations of the principal and parents. The paper explores each teacher’s action in turn. The teachers’ motivation to develop their practice in particular ways cannot be explained fully by considering the individuals or the context alone. Significance By using a sociocultural perspective and examining the motivation of more experienced teachers as they act to change their practice, this study contributes to our understanding of the complex and dynamic nature of teacher motivation.

Mobile learning is not pervasive in higher education and yet its potential is enormous. This paper describes a project to instigate mobile learning in a School of Education using a whole-of-school approach to technological literacy and professional learning among academic staff. The project involves supporting every academic in the School to use an iPhone or iPodTouch in their professional lives, and to research their use of the device in pedagogical contexts. The paper describes the planning process together with the professional development initiatives to be implemented and issues associated with the acquisition and use of mobile phones in professional contexts.

As part of a National Review of Visual Education, commissioned by the Australian Government, research in Australia, informed by international research and scholarship, revealed that education in the visual is transforming. This process of transformation is driven by changing contexts in technology, curriculum, social, economic and political forces and research itself. The process is changing what is happening in Australian classrooms. Analyses of the process reveal a number of principles for a re-designed Education in the Visual. The process also presents implications for Visual Educators, curriculum designers, schools and teacher education programs.