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This paper presents reflections on an international field trip for Indigenous students enrolled in an Education degree at a university in Australia. The field trip was co-developed with staff, students, and community partners of a Canadian university, as a pilot project to prepare Indigenous students for work in various cultural contexts. This paper outlines considerations for planning and coordinating an international career development opportunity, from inception to completion. Successes and failures of the program are discussed, recognizing the pitfalls that plague many well-intentioned program developments. The paper then argues for an intentional and generative approach in co-developing and co-delivering international learning experiences. Finally, it offers reflections on the need for more explicit alignment between academic outcomes and career aspirations, supporting students to articulate knowledge and skills acquired to translate them into the world of work.

COVID-19 calls for new approaches and frameworks for the delivery of work-integrated learning (WIL). Standalone WIL opportunities are also increasingly difficult to realize, with the current economic climate limiting industry resources available for placements and WIL partnerships. The hybridized WIL model presented in this paper thus proposes the scaffolding of simulated WIL experiences into core undergraduate design curriculum to promote deep, authentic, transformational learning, fostering broader student employability. Noting a gap in design educational research relating to embedded scaffolded WIL, the paper refers to examples of scaffolded WIL experiences across core design studio subjects of a four-year embedded honors interior architecture program. Conceived as a way to prepare students for more significant standalone, cross-disciplinary and cross-national WIL, the authors argue that this model develops the professional skills required by industry and better prepares students to navigate the dynamic real-world problems that societies face, particularly during the pandemic.

Initial teacher education programs regularly engage students in service-learning programs, providing an additional pathway to personal, professional and pedagogical transformation in their learning journey. One of those pathways is through service-learning placements in community arts projects. This paper reports on a study of arts-based service-learning programs at two universities. Eight initial teacher education (ITE) students were interviewed after their placements and a number of key themes emerged. These include the importance of productive discomfort as part of the service-learning experience and transformative pedagogy resulting from the art-based experience. This paper also explores some critiques of traditional service-learning models that have opened spaces for critical service-learning approaches. The analysis of ITE students' narratives led to findings about the path of transformation from traditional to critical service-learning approaches through arts-based projects, an area which has been largely unexplored in previous research. The paper concludes with discussion of future avenues for related research that orientate service-learning in the arts towards social and creative justice.

Schools have long played a significant role in teaching students the values of gender respect and equity. These values have been embedded in education policy and practice in contexts such as Australia for decades. In the current #MeToo moment, there has been renewed emphasis on gender transformative teaching in schools. This work, however, is difficult and discomforting especially in relation to problematising issues of masculine entitlement with boys. The complexities and intensities of emotion associated with this discomfort are the focus of this paper. The paper considers three areas that are important for educators to contemplate in how they approach this work: (1) the significance of pedagogic discomfort; (2) the pedagogical principle of mutual vulnerability; and (3) the value of strategic empathy and ethical self-reflection. These areas of focus are central to engaging boys in gender transformative pedagogy and are particularly important given the broader backlash context against feminism.

Purpose: This paper aims to draw on an in-depth qualitative case study of an undergraduate sustainability education course to show the extent of pedagogical reflection and teaching capability demonstrated in lived practice to support transformative, systemic and capability building learning processes, as advocated in the literature, for effective sustainability education. Design/methodology/approach: Transformative learning and capability building are an essential part of sustainability education according to the growing body of literature. This approach to education, however, necessitates critical, learner-centred pedagogies which challenge traditional transmissive modes of teaching. Findings: This paper finds that pedagogy which supports the learning experiences and outcomes advocated in sustainability education literature requires significant reflection on behalf of the educator and also motivation, capability and experience to do this, thus more research and academic support is needed which focusses on pedagogical development within sustainability education. Originality/value: Literature on sustainability education often assumes that teachers are capable of reflecting on and transforming their pedagogical practice, and therefore, the pedagogical implications of sustainability education are often understated in research findings. This paper highlights why pedagogical reflection plays a crucial role in the effective implementation of sustainability education.

'Intercultural understanding' (ICU) and its core concept 'interculturality', was introduced in the new national curriculum, implemented across Australia from 2013 (Australian Curriculum, ACARA. [2013]. Australian curriculum V.60. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/copyright). This paper draws on a study conducted in Victoria, Australia, which asked: "how history teachers conceptualise interculturality for history teaching and learning?" The study used two methods to gather data: textual analysis and focus group interviews. This paper only reports on specific findings from the focus group interviews, analysed through a methodology of crystallisation and discourse analysis, framed by four modes of historical thinking; "traditional, exemplary, critical and transformative." The paper argues that interculturality is a significant challenge to history education often located in discourses constructed over time which disrupt "how things have always been taught." By analysing the "teachers' talk" through a lens whereby the construction of language reveals the educational problematic, the research looks for a "way in" for interculturality into history teaching and learning.

Epistemology has been recognized as a useful conceptual tool to explore how knowledge has been produced and/or reproduced in higher education research and its linkages to hidden global geopolitics and historical forces. The topic has attracted considerable attention in the literature, particularly that of scholars in the Global South (Canagarajah, 2008; Chen, 2010; Kenway & Fahey, 2008; Rizvi, 2006a, 2006b; Santos, 2014). Equally, utilizing the researcher's self to carve out the complex trajectories of the researcher's ontology and epistemology seems to add value to the research and debate on this topic. This research topic especially applies to researchers who have crossed the border and lived and worked abroad. "Educators working in international contexts encounter these ontological and epistemological borders daily and are brought to grapple with the role of Otherness in their scholarly practices," remarks Kester (2021). In this paper, we draw on autoethnography as a research methodology to answer two key questions: "What sorts of ontological and epistemological transformations might educators experience during long-term periods abroad?" and "How might these transformations initiate decolonial moves in regard to educational pedagogy, policy, and practice?" We critically reflect on and thus manifest the journeys of Dr. Nhai Nguyen and Dr. Yeow-Tong Chia--diasporic academics in Australia. Regarding this journey, these scholars provide insights into how they decolonize their research imagination, regain their research agency, and thereby transform their research epistemology and ontology. They finally put forward some implications for shaping a defiant research imagination for novice researchers.

This paper discusses the dynamic and complex dimensions of 'becoming' a cosmopolitan teacher educator through an overseas study tour. It employs autobiography as a research method to interpret the experiences of an overseas study tour, and how it has engaged the teacher educators in self-reflexivity of their negotiation of multiple identities: academic, personal and cultural. Our self-narratives reveal how becoming cosmopolitan educators is not only intimately linked to the process of re-construction of oneself as a reflexive person. The process can also be conflicting and unsettling because of how we were positioned by our pre-service teachers. It concludes by highlighting the conditions in which our multiple identities come into existence and how they shape our ways of becoming, and the need for teacher educators to engage in a continual process of professional development as cosmopolitan teacher educators.

This paper examines activist spaces for gender justice within two elite independent schools situated in an affluent part of the USA. Drawing on student interview data gathered as part of a broader study that sought to identify new educative approaches to addressing gendered violence, the paper explores attempts at these schools to engage boys in such spaces. With reference to two activist stories, the paper highlights the driving concern for including boys in discussions of gender justice (and, in particular, sexual misconduct and assault) as about ensuring their comfort. This concern is critically examined in light of the necessity of discomfort as central to gender transformative work. The paper examines how the emotional intensities of this work can both close down and open up conversations about gender justice and argues the significance of finding ways to support boys to critically explore these intensities towards engaging them in gender activism.

Although common barriers to studying abroad are well documented, this paper proposes a more-overarching barrier is that prevalent evaluation strategies provide little evidence of how study abroad contributes to discipline-specific learning outcomes. Such direct evidence is likely to encourage more employers to view studying abroad as adding value to a graduate resume and hence motivate more students to participate. Studying abroad is often represented in the literature as delivering a transformative impact for all students, regardless of their specific academic programme. While this may be true, it frames the benefits of studying abroad as being generic and supplementary to any discipline-specific curriculum. This paper provides a specific example derived from an Australian national data set and reviews other methodologies that can deliver outcomes data for specific disciplines and for different study programmes, enabling more effective programme evaluation and more effective promotion of the benefits of studying abroad for different students.

This paper reports on a study that investigated Australian pre-service teachers' (PSTs) experiences in mobility programs undertaken in Santiago, Chile. Through the methodological lens of sense-making, our analysis aims to further current understandings of international teaching practicums and to examine how discursively (re)produced binary categories of cultural Self and Other continue to shape intercultural encounters. Our research suggests that there is a need to support PSTs in finding new ways to engage more deeply with the complexity of their experiences overseas, and their expanding sense of identity. This complexity might be explored further through a more critical interrogation of neo-colonial discourses that continue to frame the objectives of global mobility programs. The paper concludes by arguing that a conscious disruption of such inherent discourses is key in ensuring that international teaching practicums actually provide the transformative shifts in personal and professional experiences they are intended to generate.

This paper describes how an action research process, centred around a professional development program for teaching critical thinking, enabled teachers in a specialised program for high-achieving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students (Solid Pathways) to develop their pedagogical practices to support student cognition. It argues that a well-structured action research approach supports and enables teachers to link theory to practice in developing their pedagogy, especially where such development implies a shift away from content and curriculum-oriented pedagogy. Principal among these mechanisms are the grounding of practice in theory, well-designed practical activities, special materials that help bridge theory and practice, and collaboration among practitioners in undertaking transformative pedagogical change. The conclusions from this study support the claim that these four key mechanisms are crucial to the implementation of a critical thinking pedagogy and describe how action research can support the advent of such mechanisms into pedagogical development programs that have the capacity to contribute to significant and sustainable change. Overall, findings suggest that where support of student cognition is the goal, pedagogical development predicated on theory and focused on independent practice in a culture of collegial collaboration and dialogue, works best to create sustainable practices of teaching for thinking.

In this paper we describe the long-term impact of engagement in a short-term outbound mobility program (OMP) that connected Australian preservice teachers with Malaysian preservice teachers at an education institution in Kuala Lumpur. The university program was funded in the first iteration by Australia's Study Overseas Short-term Mobility program and subsequent iterations by the New Colombo Plan. These grants are a government soft power initiative that partners Australian students with colleagues in Indo-Pacific countries to further Australia's influence in the area. This qualitative research focuses on the transformative learning of graduate teachers who participated in a two-week OMP as undergraduates. Transformative learning occurs when new experiences challenge individuals' prior knowledge, beliefs, practices, and basic assumptions about things, prompting them to reflect and consider new ways of thinking and being. Our research followed the Australian teachers up to seven years after they completed their Bachelor of Education program to learn what transformative learning from their engagement in the OMP was realised in their current teaching practice as a result of the government's soft power initiative.

University-community engagement often involves students engaging with people who experience multiple forms of disadvantage or marginalization. This is particularly true when universities work with communities in developing nations. Participation in these projects can be challenging for students. Assumptions about themselves, their professional practice, and broader society are tested while dealing with the challenges of life in a developing nation. In light of this, students' learning and their personal well-being need to be supported before, during, and after participating in international community engagement. This paper reports on the development of a conceptual framework for the support and enhancement of student learning during international community engagement. The paper then reports on the development of a resource that aims to support student learning. Early pilot data suggested that the resource is effective in supporting student learning and well-being and that the resource shows potential for wider use in the higher education sector.

This paper describes a public pedagogy project embedded into The Global Teacher, a subject within the Bachelor of Education program for student teachers at an Australian university. The subject provides a global perspective on socio-political issues that shape education. In 2013, The Global Teacher introduced an approach that asked student teachers to create a museum-style exhibition depicting six global education themes. This exhibition was displayed in the State Library and the public were invited to engage with the installations and the student teachers who created them. Our paper describes how the project was implemented by means of close collaboration between the QUT teacher educators, curators at the State Library of Queensland (SLQ), and student groups working on visually translating their understandings of global educational issues into a public exhibition. We discuss what was learned by our students and ourselves, as teacher educators, by engaging in this public pedagogy.

Digital technologies are a part of schooling, however, given the significant focus on using of digital technologies in teaching and learning, there is little evidence of wide scale transformation. It is within this context that this paper reports on a qualitative, explanatory case study of six teachers, with experience in enhancing pedagogies in a well-established ubiquitous technologies environment, consciously seeking to transform their practice to enact personalized digital learning. The findings indicate three interacting factors contributed to the degrees of transformation: teachers' frames of reference (beliefs and attitudes), habits of mind (prior experience), and modes of transformative learning. This paper highlights how diversification of classroom roles, relationships and actions created challenges for teachers with experience integrating digital technologies in teaching and learning.

The United Nations (UN) asserts that children and young people should have access to human rights education (HRE) and that schools are one of the key means through which HRE should be made available. However, there is currently limited knowledge about the presence and form of HRE in school contexts, and there is no established means through which HRE provision within schools is evaluated. This paper proposes a theoretical framework to support the classification of teachers' responsibilities in relation to HRE and argues that systemic change is needed within education systems if HRE provision is to be realised in more extensive and consistent ways. The curriculum documents of three nations -- Australia, England and Sweden -- were analysed to determine teacher responsibilities for educating pupils about human rights. The viability of the developed framework was then tested through applying it to the outcomes of these analyses. The theoretical contribution made by the paper deepens knowledge and understandings about the nature of responsibilities placed on teachers to educate pupils about human rights, and provides a foundation from which to stimulate debate about what constitutes effective school-based HRE practices.

Previous studies have documented the personal transformation that many low literate adults undergo when they engage in literacy campaigns. In particular, research has captured how improved literacy leads to a greater willingness and capacity to speak out, or what is often referred to as voice. This paper focusses on the impact of an adult Aboriginal literacy campaign on those responsible for implementing it. Through the words of these 'maestras', we reveal how the teachers and trainers of the campaign, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, experience a similar trajectory of transformation to the literacy students. This transformation, we argue, is the result of the pedagogic relationship between students, local campaign staff and national trainers. This dialectical relationship in which teacher is learner and learner teacher is at the heart of the literacy campaign model and is part of what Giroux (1988) characterises as a radical theory of literacy and voice. We further argue that the impacts of the literacy campaign at the individual and collective levels and crucially, the sustainability of these impacts depend largely on this pedagogic relationship and the new, shared understanding of the world which results.

"Learning from home" was a collective response to school closure in Australia amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, we offer a description of the learning-from-home event, highlighting changes that were required of teachers, students and parents. Drawing on Engeström's cultural-historic activity theory, we reflect on these changes and query the extent to which the changes amount to a transformative pedagogy recognizing home and community as a significant source of and place for learning. It is argued that cultural knowledge and family practices have not been sufficiently acknowledged and utilized in the current practices associated with the learning-from-home event. Based on the notion of funds of knowledge, we argue that a transformative pedagogy should build purposeful connection between school curriculum, cultural knowledge and family practices. This approach is illustrated using an example of play-based learning where a parent engaged her Year 4 daughter in a home café enabling informal learning that met the requirements of the school curriculum. This case invites further reflection on important questions related to what counts as learning and what worthwhile learning encompasses.

Service-learning is used by universities to promote community engagement thatbenefits both the students and the recipient community; however, evidence largely demonstrates only the shortterm effects of such experiences. This paper presents ananalysis of the transformational learning of a group of Australian students who travelled to Fiji in an organised service-learing project. Using Kiely's model oftransformational learning, this case study describes the dissonance felt by a sub-groupof three (n = 3) students, from a cohort of thirteen (n = 13), who subsequently used this transformational learning to make major changes in their career and life goals. Rather than being adversely affected by the dissonance they experienced, these students used this learning as an opportunity for personal and professional growth. These findings support the notion that service-learning has the potential to provide students with challenging, life-changing opportunities that can have long-lasting effects.

In this paper, we present findings from an eighteen-month research project conducted in a remote community school in Western Australia. The data from this project includes documentation pertaining to the practices of educators engaging with Aboriginal Elders and children on Country. The aim of the project was to document the transformative potential of learning on Country for young Aboriginal children (4-8 years). We discuss our findings in the context of Pink Floyd's metaphor of formal education being built and maintained as a Wall in which children are 'just another brick'. We argue that education is an institution that produces and reproduces inequalities for Aboriginal children through conforming and colonial pedagogical practices. To support our analysis and framing of this research we draw on Habermas' knowledge interests (1978) and MacNaughton's curriculum positions (2003). Using this framework, we propose that transformative pedagogies necessitate the school and the community to be 'ready, willing and able' to engage in an approach to learning and teaching that is grounded in 'Country'. We juxtapose the conforming pedagogies of the Wall with the transforming pedagogies represented by Pink Hill, a sacred feature of the landscape alongside the community where the research took place.

This paper elaborates on a number of key criticisms of Mezirow's transformative learning theory as well as providing arguments that validate it. Our paper exemplifies how Mezirow's theory can help adult educators and prospective school teachers understand that social structures and belief systems can influence student learning, that learners make meaning of their experiences in various ways which influence the sort of value systems they develop and that disorienting dilemmas often challenge the validity of one's values and the assumptions that underpin them. It exemplifies how Mezirow's theory can be put into practice in Adult and Higher Education via three case studies undertaken by the authors in different places, at different times and with different sets of learners. These include mature aged women returning to study, PhDs at a Swedish Engineering University, and domestic and international students studying at an Australian regional university. The case studies make use of a values survey, interviews and subsequent focus groups. Data from the survey and interviews are analysed and used to argue that transformative learning (Mezirow, 1991) can be practiced, to good effect, in university staff development and teacher education courses.

The article on which this paper reflects ["Exploring a Cross-Institutional Research Collaboration and Innovation: Deploying Social Software and Web 2.0 Technologies to Investigate Online Learning Designs and Interactions in Two Australian Universities"] presented elements of a research project investigating learning interactions in online courses at two Australian universities. This paper revisits that earlier account of researching "classrooms without walls" by distilling and updating the authors' propositions and by examining these propositions' potential wider applicability. The twin foci of this examination relate to effective online learning designs and innovative cross-institutional research collaborations. [For "Exploring a Cross-Institutional Research Collaboration and Innovation: Deploying Social Software and Web 2.0 Technologies to Investigate Online Learning Designs and Interactions in Two Australian Universities," see EJ1001776.]

Nebulous combinations of face-to-face and online learning are increasingly common across Australian higher education contexts. This paper reports on part of a redesign project of an undergraduate education subject at a regional university. The aim of the redesign was to enhance e-learning and blended learning environments. An approach that maps the evaluation research activities to the design and development cycle of e-learning tools and learning tasks was adopted (Phillips et al., 2012). The research took a participatory format involving ongoing reflective exchange with pre-service teachers with the aim of transforming practice. The article presents the context of e-learning, blended learning and drivers of curriculum renewal in teacher education at a regional institution and discusses the phases of the redesign project which adopted an action research approach. Finally the paper discusses the implications of the redesign for informing future practice and in approaching e-learning and blended learning curriculum design.

This rapid systematic review examined the reported effects of large-scale online education on the behaviour and, ultimately, practice of health and social care professionals. Electronic databases of health and education literature were searched, 193 unique records were screened against inclusion and exclusion criteria, 31 papers were accessed for full text reading and six were included. Identified studies reported primarily qualitative results, which were synthesised according to outcomes. Factors that contributed to the results were also identified. All papers reported that participation in e-learning programmes resulted in changes in behaviour and practice, including: increased awareness, changes in attitudes, improved communication, increased confidence and the actual changes applied in a workplace. Observed benefits of these programmes ranged from gaining new insights into own practice, through feeling empowered to apply changes, to eventually being able to provide more person-centred services and willing to adopt and spread a more humane evidence-based practice. While the current study is an early indication of the potential of large-scale online education to effect practice change, further research is recommended as is further in-depth investigation into how these changes are achieved and what factors contribute to success.

Inclusive education remains a challenge for Australian tertiary education, particularly specialized pedagogical approaches like work-integrated learning (WIL) and service learning. Critiques of mainstream pedagogical approaches raise questions about the predominant models of educating students (Butin, 2010; Howard, 1998). There is a definitive need to recognize the diversity of the student population within course structures, rather than integrating diverse student needs into a static curriculum (Harrison & Ip, 2013) "Wise practice" takes WIL objectives--professional skills development and professional experience--and positions inclusion and transformation at the center of the learning experience. This paper explores inclusive education in WIL and service learning and examines how a wise practice approach can help all students equally benefit from the transformative potential of service learning

Mentoring and coaching are primarily intended to develop "mentees," net of any benefits for mentors. This paper details the construction of a mentor-coaching model to develop leadership capability in Higher Education Academy Fellowship program mentors at an Australian university. We elaborate developmental benefits for mentors of an iterative approach, in which mentee experiences inform subsequent mentor training and help to build community. This serves the key aims of our program, including anticipated benefits for the institution flowing from this strategy for driving broader change in learning and teaching cultures and practices. We propose that dyadic and group mentoring can be structured to support growth in leadership capability in a community of mentors, if participation in that community is framed as a form of continuing professional learning. We detail the program level mechanisms through which this capability building model of mentor-coaching may potentially transform learning and teaching at Deakin University.

Teaching about gender-based violence involves dealing with a form of difficult knowledge and as such calls for substantial emotional, political and pedagogical labour on the part of educators. In this paper, we discuss how we have drawn on theoretical perspectives offered by Judith Butler, along with the Deleuzian notion of affective assemblages to inform the design of professional learning for teachers. We trace the ways in which a combination of naturalistic and non-naturalistic role-play activities was used to structure embodied encounters with difficult knowledge and to evoke the possibility of being and doing differently. We discuss methods used to de-individualise experiences of violence, evoke compassion for others, and foster the capacity to translate caring into action. In doing so we add to knowledge about the use of collective, embodied, critical and creative methods to explore the affects and discourses that inform professional norms and practices.

Critical reflection on practice is a hallmark of professionalism in early childhood education. In the Australian context, reflection is highlighted as a principle in the national curriculum framework. This paper focuses on the professional learning of early childhood educators by drawing on a pedagogy of discomfort, an approach that aims to disorientate learners through unsettling their taken-for-granted assumptions and engaging them in collegial deliberation. Interview data from 13 early childhood educators who participated in a Reflective Practice Research Project was analysed to identify disjuncture, deliberation and moments of transformational learning. The findings point to the changes in practice reported by the participants. Barriers and mediators to learning and participation in the project are noted along with the important role reflection plays in teachers' professional learning. We argue that a well-designed and well-delivered professional learning program can lead to a change in disposition and accordingly transformative learning for participants.

Purpose: This paper aims to explore Master of Business Administration (MBA) students' "reflections" and/or "reflection on practice" of sustainability into responsible management education using Bain et al.'s (2002) 5Rs (reporting, responding, relating, reasoning and reconstructing) reflective scale. Design/methodology/approach: This study adopted a case study approach using content analysis and written reflective journals analysis from MBA students' assignments. Findings: This study revealed that responding and relating (emotionally-based reflections) scales are dominant reflections while reasoning (cognitively-based reflections) is a slightly less dominant reflection. The findings confirm that effective management education for sustainability should encourage and motivate students to reflect on their emotional learning to improve leadership values, attitudes and activities. Such reflection can lead to transformative experiences. Research limitations/implications: This study adopted a small-scale content analysis using an Australian university's MBA case. To increase validity and generalisation, researchers will benefit from a wide range of quantitative analyses in different countries and cultural contexts. Practical implications: Curriculum design using reflections and reflective journals should be enhanced in management education for the practice of sustainability and/or sustainable development. Social implications: Higher education should encourage socially and environmentally responsible management in programme and curriculum design with a reflective approach. Originality/value: This study presents a conceptual framework and analysis approaches that can serve as some bases for the development of a more robust analysis in responsible management education.

Study abroad programs at university are supported as a means to expand university operations beyond the study walls of the institution, and to help students become aware of and cope with the demands of an increasingly interconnected and globalised world. This paper questions the assumptions that underlie the tendencies in contemporary study abroad programs, whose ethos it is argued, at the same time misunderstands and underestimates the potential effects of the study abroad practice. Using a theoretical framework derived from the French philosophy of science of Gilbert Simondon, Gaston Bachelard and Georges Canguilhem, this paper puts to work fully elaborated and contextualised concepts, which look to change and expand one's notion of the learning possible due to study abroad programs, beyond experiential change. Simondon's individuation questions the ways in which particular student agencies and learning characteristics are constructed in study abroad tours, Bachelard's concept of space questions the reality of precise coordinates and concrete analyses of the study abroad tour itinerary, and Canguilhem's vitalism puts under pressure "the life" of the tour learnings and effects. This paper will be furnished with empirical evidence taken from a recent overseas tour involving Australian students performing teaching practicums in schools in Penang, Malaysia.

Framing professional learning as a social practice underscores the interplay between subjective meaning systems and objective conditions of the social space where learning occurs. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's theory of social practice, and methodologically guided by critical realism, the paper identifies what constitutes effective teacher professional learning through mentoring. The empirical focus of the paper is an Early Childhood teacher mentoring programme in the state of Victoria, Australia. The findings show that: (a) relevant circumstances that make teacher professional learning a necessity are associated with individual aspirations and systemic requirements; (b) collegial relationships and critical deliberation constitute meaningful learning experiences; and (c) teacher learning takes place in the domains of professional dispositions, pedagogical knowledge and social capital. The implication is that in designing professional development programmes such as mentoring, it is important to take teachers' contexts of practice into account; conceptualise learning as a socially situated practice; and recognise the value of teachers' lived experiences as a locus of deliberation and learning.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors which enhance transformational learning in adult learning spaces for people experiencing cultural marginalisation. Design/methodology/approach: This paper reports on a study which compared the transformational experiences of long-term unemployed migrants within two very different programs in Melbourne, Australia. One was an adult refugee mentoring programme run by a non-government organisation, the other was set in the social space of the contemporary adult learning classroom. A theoretical framework constructed around understandings of social and dialogical learning informed the method of data collection, based on one-to-one interviews, observation and personal reflection. Findings: Findings revealed similarities across the two case study sites in terms of the cultural, social as well as functional challenges facing learners and the desire of teachers and mentors to act on these challenges. A recourse to human values of caring and sensitivity supported meaningful learning spaces. Transformation was limited, however, within an institutional agenda which highlighted individual values of competency above the aspirations of learners and their sense of identity. Research limitations/implications: This research focuses on only two of the many approaches to adult learning. Nevertheless, as the author contends, they collectively reveal the limitations of focusing on employability skills and a competency-based curriculum in the lives of marginalised learners. Originality/value: The paper draws attention to the concept of transformation and how it may be supported even in the adult education classroom framed by the neo-liberal agenda of economic rationalism.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the first-year university experience as an agent for the (re)learning and (re)making of masculine identity as it intersects with other categories of identity. Historically, male students from working-class backgrounds have often struggled with identity issues and many leave school early for vocational employment where their masculinity is reinforced and validated. A small percentage, however, re-enrol in higher education later in life. This paper explores how "Deo", a tradesperson who became a university student, reconstructed his identity during this transition. Design/methodology/approach: The primary methodology for this case study is semi-structured interviews. Findings: Deo articulated his transition in terms of "change" and "transformation", in which a theme of risk was central. He also drew attention to cultural practices that regulate hierarchies of masculinity as they intersect with the identities of age, sexuality, ethnicity and socio-economic status within his work and study. Research limitations/implications: This study focusses on one student's experience in an Australian public university, so findings may not be generalisable. However, single stories are an important means of illustrating the intersection of shared socio-cultural practices. Originality/value: Within adult education literature there is limited engagement with intersecting cultural narratives that shape experiences, inequalities and barriers in learners' lives. Deo's story gives voice to socio-cultural narratives around masculinity, age, ethnicity, sexuality and socio-economic status, highlighting their central significance to learning, being and belonging.

This paper explores the transformative power of digital humanities in teaching family history online to large cohorts of Australian domestic students. It takes as a case study a unit developed specifically for students to learn about how to research their convict ancestors' lives and how to situate their ancestors' lived experiences within relevant wider contexts. Its focus is twofold. The convergence of rapidly expanding digital repositories and databases of family history-related information and increasingly sophisticated online teaching platforms and how this has facilitated a shift from face-to-face to fully online learning and teaching is examined. The ways in which this transformative change was engineered through the unit design, delivery, and evaluative processes are then canvassed. The case study demonstrates how, with thoughtful, well-structured, and innovative approaches to design and by adopting a bespoke delivery model for online delivery, students can readily learn to access and engage critically with extensive online resources and can be equipped with the digital tools to use these optimally and to their satisfaction.

The success of alternative and flexible education settings, serving young people for whom mainstream schooling has not worked well, rests on the practices of their staff. This paper explores interview and survey data on the professional learning experiences and perceptions of staff working in flexible learning programmes across Victoria, Australia. These settings are often associated with innovative educational practice, as well as a freedom to act outside of dominant neoliberal logics governing teachers' work and limiting possibilities for "transformative" professional learning. This paper shows staff engaged in a diversity of professional learning activities mediated through interactions with colleagues and responsive to locally determined needs. The paper focuses on three core components -- "external events", "internal stuff" and "cross program" -- to explore what staff perceive to be valuable professional learning in supporting their practice. Themes of authenticity, collegiality and trust, as well as tensions between reworking and reaffirming practice are considered. The highly collaborative nature of professional learning and apparent privileging of internal "within sector" knowledge is argued to bring possibilities for strong support for staff and expeditious cross-fertilisation of practice whilst also posing risks in terms of endangering innovation, flexibility and diversity. Areas of fruitful future research are identified.

This article uses an auto-ethnographic approach to explore the reflections and insights that occurred during my teaching of a subject in adolescent development on the Thai Burma border. This paper adopts a relatively descriptive style to a personal reflection of teaching on the border and how it transformed the way I teach and made me look at the pedagogy that underpins my teaching practice. I found a lack of congruence between the pedagogical theories that are espoused and how I could apply these to a border setting. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to explore some of the ways I began to develop a Thai Burma classroom praxis that drew on the theoretical underpinnings of a humanising critical pedagogy.

This paper explores the work of "becoming exceptional" amongst a group of preservice teachers taking part in the National Exceptional Teaching for Disadvantaged Schools program (NETDS). The NETDS program is directed towards mentoring and supporting outstanding preservice teachers to transition into the schools where they can make a significant difference. For us, as teacher educators leading the teaching of our University's NETDS program, the most important questions became ones of self and transformation for the participating preservice teachers. To begin these explorations we make use of concepts provided by Deleuze and Guattari, and expanded upon by Braidotti; the notions of "becoming" and "collective assemblages". These concepts help us explore the work of becoming exceptional within the collective assemblage and space of the NETDS program.

Recent reforms for the early childhood education and care sector in Australia have led in part to the development of a national Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) which presents play based learning as "a context for learning through which children organize and make sense of their social worlds, as they engage actively with people, objects and representations." While play is considered to be an important element in an early years' environment, many teachers are unsure of how to plan for such a curriculum. This paper reports on the findings from a small-scale research study that sought to investigate and explore the effects a series of play workshop classes had on the pre-service teachers' knowledge of the value of play for children's learning and development.

Promoting teacher professionalisation has become a key policy agenda in Australia and internationally. Professional learning is often invoked as a means to achieve this goal. In this paper, drawing on findings of a series of studies we conducted on the topic in the Early Childhood Education and Care sector, and guided by a range of theoretical tools, we propose a three-step cyclical approach to understanding, assessing and promoting teacher professional learning. The first step introduces spaces of assessment of teacher professional functioning. The second step outlines the core elements of transformative teacher professional learning. The third step highlights two interrelated aspects of teacher professional capabilities: confidence and agency. This work has been guided by the research question: How can teacher professionalisation be understood, assessed and advanced? In closing, we briefly state the implications of the findings for policy and practice.

Evidence suggests that increasingly young adolescents are finishing school with poor literacy skills limiting their access to further education, training and employment. This has lifelong effects in terms of their economic participation and health and wellbeing. This paper examines the spatial practices of one school's approach to improving literacy outcomes for its Years 8 and 9 students, in order to increase positive pathways after school. It shows how staff at this school have begun to work collaboratively with each other and community members in trying to address the reading needs of their students. Using the conceptual frameworks of spatial theory and reflection the paper will share the conceived and perceived spatial practices of staff identified in interview data. We argue that when ongoing reflective practice occurs potential transformative or "third space", practices result; ensuring positive literacy learning outcomes for all students.

Higher Education institutions face specific challenges preparing graduates to live and work in transdisciplinary and transcultural environments. It is imperative for these institutions to provide their students with the skill sets that will give them the mobility and flexibility to be able to operate efficiently in different cultural and professional contexts. This position paper proposes that developing proficiency in Cultural Literacy will allow graduates of Higher Education institutions to transcend such cultural and disciplinary boundaries. In this paper we define Cultural Literacy in Higher Education as a modus operandi and a threshold concept, following Meyer and Land's understanding of the term. We also propose "Destabilisation" and "Reflection" as two strategies for teaching Cultural Literacy, and examine three case studies where these strategies were successfully embedded into teaching and learning spaces.

"Research has consistently found that pedagogy informed by knowledge of students' existing ideas is more efficient in promoting conceptual change than traditional methods of instruction". Learners in the sub-field of environmental geography exhibit preconceptions that frame and sometimes hinder their knowledge acquisition. Those preconceptions need to be harnessed and where appropriate displaced and replaced with more effective understandings if learning is to be successful. University educators have a crucial role to play in assisting this process. This paper examines a community-based teaching approach within the geography discipline at an Australian university deployed to clarify, then displace learners' preconceptions and replace them with more empowering capacities. The learning context involves a diverse range of university undergraduates undertaking environmental geography courses for the first time. The examination is framed by the notion of multiple forms of capital, some of which students bring with them to this learning context and others of which need to be acquired during the course of study. The paper employs an exploratory case study design, augmented by a qualitative analysis of students' and academics' experiences. The interdependent processes of displacing preconceptions and replacing them with heightened capacities are demonstrated to be crucial ingredients of capitalising (on) sustainable and sometimes transformative learning places.

Purpose: This paper aims to argue that substantive changes are required in both curricula and pedagogical practice in higher education institutions to challenge dominant epistemologies and discourses and to unsettle current ways of thinking about, and acting in relation to, the environment. Central to such a shift, it is argued, is the need for higher education curricula to be interdisciplinary and for pedagogical practices to work to build capacities in students for critical and reflective thinking. Design/Methodology/Approach: In this paper, a case study of our reflections is offered on a subject designed to promote capacities in students for critical and reflective thinking via an interdisciplinary approach. The paper uses data from student reflective essays and student course evaluations to make an argument for the success of this approach. Findings: Genuine transformative learning can occur within a constructivist informed pedagogical approach to teaching for sustainability. Research Limitations/Implications: Research implications are that genuine transformation can occur in students' thinking processes (which the paper argues is critical for effective education in sustainability) with appropriately designed courses in higher education. Practical Implications: More effective environmental actors and thinkers, who can critically engage with the complexity of environmental problems. Social Implications: Social implications include a more effective and socially just higher education for sustainability Originality/Value: The authors know of no other narrative that addresses attempts to educate for sustainability using this approach.

Online learning has an important place in widening access and participation in higher education for diverse student cohorts. One cohort taking up online study in increasing numbers is that of mature-age, first-in-family students. First-in-family is defined as those who are the first in their immediate family, including parents, siblings, partners and children, to undertake university studies. This paper looks at the experience of 87 first-in-family students, for whom the opportunity to study open-entry, online undergraduate units through Open Universities Australia made it possible for them to embark on a university education. Using a qualitative methodology, in-depth interviews and surveys were conducted with these students as part of a wider study into first-in-family students (O'Shea, May & Stone, 2015). Findings include the important role that opportunity plays in providing the impetus for study, as well as the importance of support and encouragement from family, friends, colleagues and institutions in being able to continue the journey.

This paper describes and analyses, through the use of case studies, two experiences of transformative learning in an undergraduate arts education unit. Pre-service teachers designed and engaged with arts-based curriculum activities, created their own artwork, participated in a modified production of The Tempest and kept a reflective journal. These activities constituted the data which was analysed using creative frameworks such as case writing, script writing, narrative analysis and found poetry as ways of developing richer understanding of pre-service teachers' self-perceptions and self-awareness as teachers and as potential artists. The stories explored here uncover two different ways of encountering the challenges of learning--resistance and struggle--and highlight the significance of the educator's response to individual student needs, and the value of reflective skills in shifting pre-service teachers' cultural, political and institutional understandings.