Rebecca Saunders

Australian schools are diverse, and support students from a wide range of racial, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds, as well as students with disability. Ironically, efforts to ensure equally diverse teacher workforces have been ineffective. Attempts to improve broader representation in teachers have been hampered by a homogenous approach to teacher recruitment and education. In 2016, Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education (LANTITE) became a graduation requirement for teachers. The aim of this research is to explore the test-taking experiences of students (pre-service teachers) from diverse backgrounds, and the stakeholders who support them. A thematic analysis of data from a larger mixed methods study revealed additional tensions for students from diverse backgrounds including unintended consequences such as traumatic experiences and having to encounter additional hurdles to be successful. This study provides unique insights into additional pressures and hurdles students from diverse backgrounds experience when completing this high-stakes test.

This article investigates pre-service teachers’ experiences of undertaking LANTITE, a high-stakes literacy and numeracy test for initial teacher education students. In this mixed methods study, 189 initial teacher education students from 28 Australian universities participated in an online questionnaire, with 27 students going on to take part in semi-structured telephone interviews. Indicative findings give voice to those most impacted by the implementation of LANTITE in 2017, revealing student concerns about the processing and return of results, and test anxiety. This study provides a unique insight into the experiences of completing this high-stakes test.

A significant body of literature assists researchers and program designers to identify the desirable characteristics of professional development for teachers. Few studies, however, specifically examine the operation and outcomes of programs built upon research-led principles. This study uses a sequential mixed methods design to examine a four-year systemic-change professional development initiative designed to extend and refine the instructional processes of teachers working in the vocational education and training (VET) system in Western Australia. The program’s design incorporated theory and research on systemic change and teacher professional development. Findings reveal that the program was successful in helping teachers extend and refine their instructional practice, but also uncovered several barriers that hindered teachers’ implementation of change. Findings from this study contribute to a better understanding of the complexities and issues involved in the implementation of teacher professional development programs based on research and have the potential to inform future program design.

Research literature in the field of teacher emotions and change broadly accepts that behaviour and cognition are inseparable from perception and emotion. Despite this, educational reform efforts tend to focus predominantly on changing individual behaviours and beliefs and largely neglect or at best pay token attention to the emotional dimensions of the change process. This study examines teacher emotions in the context of educational reform and focuses on the role emotions play when teachers transfer new instructional processes into their practice. The teachers involved in this study took part in a four year systemic change professional development program designed to refine and extend their instructional practice. A sequential mixed methods research design consisting of the administration of a quantitative questionnaire followed by in-depth qualitative narrative interview analysis was used to gain insight into this complex area of educational change. Findings revealed that the teachers involved in this study experienced a range of emotions when participating in professional development and their emotional responses directly impacted their use of new instructional processes. A cyclical pattern of emotions emerged influenced by time, place and interpersonal relationships. Implications for the future design and implementation of professional development change initiatives are discussed.

The purpose of this article is to describe the use of the Concerns Based Adoption Model (Hall & Hord, 2006) as a conceptual lens and practical methodology for professional development program assessment in the vocational education and training (VET) sector. In this sequential mixed-methods study, findings from the first two phases (two of five) of data collection and analysis are used as examples to profile the journeys of professional change experienced by 27 VET teachers involved in a four-year systemic-change professional- development initiative designed to extend and refine their pedagogical practice. The examples support the view that a Concerns Based Adoption Model provides an effective framework for better understanding teachers' professional change in aVET context. The conceptual and practical usefulness of this approach is discussed in terms of its implications for the future design, implementation and assessment of professional development initiatives.