Judith MacCallum

This study examines professional standards policy documents for teachers and school leaders in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States of America to ascertain where and how the concepts of wellbeing and resilience are addressed and enacted within each nation’s policy. Eight policy documents comprising four professional standards documents for teachers and four professional standards documents for school leaders from the four countries were selected and analysed using content and critical discourse analysis. The documents were examined through keyword search and then analysed using the policy threads framework comprising People, Place, Philosophy, Process and Power. Analysis revealed that teaching professional standards across the four nations explicitly address the wellbeing and resilience of students and school leaders but are silent on the wellbeing and resilience of teachers. Based on the findings, we propose a recalibration of core policy documents and teaching standards that explicitly address the wellbeing and resilience of teachers, particularly given the increased burden and violence teachers face in the workplace.

This study contributes to the research in Early Childhood Education for Sustainability (ECEfS) by exploring a case study of two Western Australian early childhood education classes who welcomed an Indigenous Elder to share their expertise about the native plants in the schools’ bush space. The findings from this study demonstrate the impact Indigenous perspectives had on teacher’s and children’s relationship with the bush and the development of their botanical literacies. Indigenous peoples in Australia, and across the world have botanical practices that have existed for tens of thousands of years. This study acknowledges botany as a settler colonial practice and contemplates changes to botanical practices and pedagogies that include Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing.

This volume examines the diversified and challenging experiences of Chinese international STEM doctoral students at Australian institutes of higher education, exploring how intersections between research, personal life, and social experiences can be negotiated to achieve academic success and personal transformation. By drawing on a range of qualitative and longitudinal research methods, the book foregrounds student narratives and utilizes a novel three-dimensional multi-world framework as an effective approach for understanding student experiences in a holistic way. It integrates Chinese philosophical perspectives and theories in the fields of educational psychology, international education, and doctoral education to interpret the nuances, complexity, and particularities of the cross-cultural STEM PhD experience, highlighting the importance of the supervisor–mentee relationship and the role of students’ cultural, social, and philosophical values in supporting their successful completion of the PhD degree. The analysis thus provides new insights into the ways in which these experiences vary across students, and might apply in other national contexts, and to non-STEM student cohorts. This book will be a valuable resource for researchers and academics engaged in cross-cultural education, the sociology of education, and international and comparative education. It will be of particular interest to those with a focus on international doctoral education and cultural Asian studies.

This longitudinal qualitative research is framed within a sociocultural perspective and examines experienced teachers and their mentor as they changed their practice. The data, sourced from three teacher focus groups, email correspondence and the mentor's reflections are analysed using Rogoff's personal, interpersonal and institutional/community planes. This small-scale study gives insights into the complex nature of professional learning, particularly when teachers are challenging the status quo which creates tensions that need to be addressed. Teachers had real concerns about time to teach the curriculum and complete the research activities. They worried about ‘fitting in’ with colleagues and parent perceptions. A collaborative self-development framework is advocated as a culturally appropriate way of for teachers to continue to learn during their careers, encourage risk taking and innovation.

This paper examines myths and misconceptions about university student volunteering. Our study explored the experiences of students, host organisations and universities participating in volunteering in Australia, identify good practice, and discover barriers to success. A qualitative approach involved 60 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders. Students were often seen as being energetic, having flexible time and having skills associated with their studies. Some organisations, however, viewed students as unreliable, hard to manage and requiring specific programs. Some hosts were viewed as not valuing student volunteers, or not having the capacity to supervise. These perceptions were found to be nuanced. Erroneous myths were seen to develop from a single event, later confirmed by a ‘related’ event; in scenarios with multiple players, motivations, and complexities. The potential for misconceptions to undermine the true value of student volunteering for all stakeholders is ameliorated when there is common understanding, clear expectation setting, and ongoing dialogue.

As leaders of school communities, principals have a significant impact on school culture and teachers’ well-being at work. A school principal’s positive or negative emotions can influence the mood of their teaching staff and can enhance or hinder a teacher’s resilience. Unfortunately, though, many school principals suffer from their own high levels of stress, emotional exhaustion and fatigue-related issues, whilst concurrently being tasked with the responsibility and management of the well-being of their staff. In this chapter, we explore the role of mindfulness and self-care in promoting resilience as a way for school principals to meet the challenges of their role. Principals who are mindful and employ self-compassion are better placed and more resilient to positively impact others and flourish in their role. Leadership does matter and ensuring that we address leaders’ well-being and resilience will mean they will be better equipped to engender resilience in their staff.

Technological developments allow students to access visual information from digital devices as small as phones or as large as whiteboards. Education technology research and policy typically address the software product, yet little research has focused on optimal viewing parameters or the impact it has on student users. Students with light sensitivity (migraine, concussion) potentially face a barrier with e-learning activities in the classroom. This review aimed to identify points of convergence and inconsistency across various literature sources containing guidelines for digital media use by students in schools. Inconsistencies were found between academic, manufacturer and school guidelines. Six parameters were identified for modification on behalf of students with light sensitivity relating to image colour, image flash frequency, duration of viewing, luminance and environmental lighting – both natural and artificial. The findings highlight the need for revision of school policies regarding digital learning environments and awareness raising to support inclusive access and use by students with light sensitivity.

This chapter brings together the research on teacher resilience and approaches to supporting resilience and wellbeing discussed in this volume. As many of the approaches utilised aspects of the BRiTE and Staying BRiTE projects, I highlight common themes as well as the different ways the authors developed and implemented their work to reflect their specific contexts and participants. I also reflect on broader issues related to conceptualisation of resilience, consider where responsibility for resilience lies, and explore future directions. The chapter also provides some insights regarding the collegial collaboration that has made the body of work possible.

University student volunteering is prevalent in Western countries, but has rarely been critically evaluated by researchers. Little is known about the different ways in which student volunteer programmes are organised. Using a matrix constructed from the publicly available websites of all Australian universities, and 60 interviews with key stakeholders at six universities, this paper identifies nine different models of student volunteer programmes. The models show the different ways in which universities, faculty and students are involved in organising student volunteer programmes. These nine models are presented in a continuum of increasing direct management by universities. In addition to identifying the models, the analysis revealed trends in student volunteering, particularly the way that Australian universities are packaging student volunteering as part of their service learning, leadership or employability agendas. The continuum facilitates a common language and understanding of university student volunteering, leading to cross-disciplinary recognition of the different models available.

With the trend of student mobility, talented individuals have been pursuing doctoral education opportunities abroad. Prior research addressed specific aspects or challenges of doing a PhD in a cross-cultural context, leaving a need to understand the nature of students’ experiences from a holistic perspective. To address the need, this study develops a framework that conceptualises an international doctoral student’s research, personal, and social worlds as multi-worlds, highlighting transitions across the worlds that make a difference in student experiences. It also structures the continuous, interactive, and situative nature of study abroad as a three-dimensional space to encompass the multi-worlds and transitions across and over time. Illustrated by one international student’s in-depth narrative inquiry, this framework offers both theoretical insights and practical approaches to the comprehensive understanding of PhD abroad experiences.