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As higher education providers respond to increasing financial pressures with restructures and downsizing, teacher education is often subsumed into larger faculties that result in teacher educators' work, especially related to accreditation lost in the myriad of benchmarks and measures to be achieved. Even during a worldwide pandemic, teaching and teacher education continue to be subjected to scrutiny and portrayed as problematic by policymakers. In the 50th year of the Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, it is timely to reflect on our role as public intellectuals and explore possibilities to engage with discussions that shift the negative gaze in both teaching and teacher education to explore and generate new sensibilities. The paper critically analyses possibilities for teacher educators as public intellectuals through their research, teaching and service endeavours to make cultural contributions to education research and practice.

The editors of APJTE invited a group of teacher education scholars to have a conversation about what is 'missing' from the journal and/ or the field. In line with our celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the journal, we thought that it would be interesting to think about what hasn't been in the journal but might have been. We worked with people who have been, or are becoming, influential in the field, and/ or have been editors of the journal before; to have a conversation about what's (been) missing from the journal and/ or perhaps from teacher education scholarship more generally; what's been excluded and why, and what that tells us about the current state of the field, and the future perhaps.

Effective school leadership preparation has been regarded as desirable if not mandatory in Australia and globally for decades. Schools and school systems, higher education institutions and education jurisdictions have attempted with varying degrees of success to encourage teachers aspiring to become principals to prepare well for the complex role ahead. Research involving postgraduate education students identified that peer support, collaboration and collegial professional learning contributed towards self-development, strengthening the required Personal qualities, social and interpersonal skills of contemporary school leaders.

The tsunami of global educational reform in the past decade has led to national, regional and school-based policy redevelopment to elevate teaching standards, enrich student learning and improve results. Consequently, principals are frequently charged with leading mandated pedagogical reform in their schools. Building on earlier research concerning school improvement, principal leadership and pedagogical reform, a case study aimed to discover the benefits and challenges of implementing such change in one region of Queensland's Department of Education and Training, through listening to regional administrators', principals' and teachers' stories. The 'common language' for student learning and the move towards authentic pedagogical improvement were applauded by all. Principals reflected on their leadership of the reform and advocated additional regional support, training and leadership skills development to maximize sustainability. Regional administrators' stories revealed assumptions about staff understanding the big picture of pedagogical reform and how to implement strategies in the classroom, whilst teachers' stories emphasized that capacity-building must occur more from the ground up and not be characterized by the top-down nature of systemic mandated reform. The alignments and disconnects between the principals' and others' stories, reflect the real challenges faced by principals in today's global climate of ongoing educational reform.

This study compares the use and efficacy of assessment grading tools within postgraduate education courses in a regional Australian university and a regional university in the US. Specifically, we investigate how the quality of postgraduate education courses can be improved through the use of assessment rubrics or criterion referenced assessment sheets (CRA sheets). The researchers used a critical review of rubrics from Master of Education courses, interviews and a modified form of the Delphi method to investigate how one can assure the quality of assessment grading tools and their effects on student motivation and learning. The research resulted in the development of a checklist, in the form of a set of questions, that lecturers should ask themselves before writing rubrics or CRA sheets. The paper demonstrates how assessment grading tools might be researched, developed, applied and constantly improved in order to advance the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

This paper builds on an earlier study that developed a 10 question framework for improving the quality of criteria sheets (also known as rubrics) used in Master of Education programmes. To test that framework 15 rubrics were independently evaluated by seven teachers using the above mentioned framework. Raw data from the evaluations were collated and coded and then further analysed in three sequential, substantive conversation sessions, in order to investigate the inter-connectedness of three assessment concepts, namely, grading, moderation and feedback. The study revealed that the key to criteria sheet effectiveness is the explicitness of the standards descriptors. The research also identified three broad questions that can help teachers evaluate the quality of their criteria sheets. These questions focus on the clarity of the task description and ways of improving the criteria and standards by which student responses are to be judged. The revised questions provide an effective framework for assuring the quality of these three aspects of assessment within units (also known as courses) in postgraduate programmes.

Sustainability is an important issue that we all face, including higher education students. We assert that the transition into the contemporary higher education context needs educators to plan transition pedagogy that engages students with the world during their studies, instead of solely using curriculum as preparation for the future world of work. To investigate this, we explored how students position themselves in relation to sustainability as part of an assessment task in a first-year university transition course and whether this type of assessment provides opportunities for students to experience subjectification. Drawing on Biesta's ([2022]. World-Centred Education: A View for the Present. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group) conception of world-centred education, we applied a novel methodology based on dialogical self theory, developed by Hermans and Bartels ([2021]. Citizenship Education and the Personalization of Democracy. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. ), to analyse the data comprising student reflections on an assessment item oriented toward current sustainability issues. Our findings suggest that when students interact with their peers and encounter challenging content, conflicting internal positions can lead to subjectification and an intention for further action on real-world issues from the commencement of their studies. We propose that the principles of opposition, cooperation and participation provide a practical framework for educators and course designers to purposefully designate space for students to explore positions and practise the generative dialogue needed for thinking and acting in the world as subjects now and in the future. In analysing students' reported experience, our paper contributes to the discussion around implementing world-centred education and provides useful insight into how students engage with sustainability in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Many disciplines use outdoor fieldwork (OFW) as an experiential learning method in higher education. Although there has been an increase in research into the pedagogical approaches of OFW, the use of OFW is contested. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to synthesize the OFW literature across a range of disciplines to identify common strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) and outline implications for how OFW is used as an experiential learning pedagogy in higher education. Methodology/Approach: A descriptive literature review was undertaken to examine each aspect of the SWOT at the micro, meso, and macro levels, drawing from disciplines using OFW including biology, outdoor and environmental education, archaeology, and the associated geosciences. Findings/Conclusions: Strengths of OFW include engagement, outreach, and professional competencies; weaknesses exist in the areas of equity, logistics, and standards. Opportunities include improving pedagogical practices, diversity, and collaboration, while threats to OFW were costs, funding, outdated practices, and governance. Implications: Academics from a range of disciplines using OFW have similar experiences; therefore, exploring ways to collaborate or learn from each other will further develop OFW as an experiential learning strategy in higher education.

There is increased accountability of initial teacher education (ITE) programs in Australia to develop Graduate teachers who are better prepared. Most ITE programs have been designed using Pedagogical Content Knowledge. Informed by the growing Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) research, this journal article suggests that ITE programs need to develop Graduate teachers who have the TPACK capabilities to use technologies to support teaching and student learning. Insights from the research and evaluation of the "Teaching Teachers for the Future (TTF) Project," which was guided by the TPACK conceptualisation, are provided. The "TTF Project," which involved all Higher Education Institutions providing ITE programs in Australia, drew upon the TPACK conceptualisation. The "TTF Project" research and evaluation included the development and administration of a "TTF TPACK Survey" and the implementation of the Most Significant Change Methodology. Key findings resulting from the employment of these methodologies are summarised to provide guidance to inform the improvement of ITE programs to develop Graduate TPACK capabilities.

This article will discuss some of the findings from a qualitative research project that explored the connections between alternative education and Indigenous learners. This study investigated how flexi school leaders reported they were supporting Indigenous young people to remain engaged in education. The results of the survey provide demographic data focusing on Indigenous participation in this sample of flexi schools. The results revealed that a high number of Indigenous young people are participating in flexi schools within this sample. Furthermore, a high number of Indigenous staff members are working in multiple roles within these schools. The implications of these findings are twofold. First, the current Indigenous education policy environment is focused heavily on "Closing the Gap," emphasising the urgent need for significant improvement of educational outcomes for Indigenous young people. The findings from this study propose that flexi schools are playing a significant role in supporting Indigenous young people to remain engaged in education, yet there remains a limited focus on this within the literature and education policy. Second, the high participation rates of Indigenous young people and staff suggest an urgent need to explore this context through research. Further research will assist in understanding the culture of the flexi school context. Research should also explore why a high number of Indigenous young people and staff members participate in this educational context and how this could influence the approach to engagement of Indigenous young people in conventional school settings.

Despite complex reasons for disengagement and exclusion from conventional schooling, all children have a right to education that is of a high quality. Disenfranchised young people require alternatives for re-engaging in education. This necessitates a rethinking of what it means to be an educator in alternative education settings and how to relate to young people who have experienced exclusion and failure in conventional school settings. Relational ways of being an educator are vital to support the creation of lifelong learners, not merely school completers. Flexible learning programmes offer a model of re-engagement in which relational ways of being an educator are prioritised. This article explores key aspects of trauma-informed practice and relational pedagogy in a network of flexi schools in Australia. Relational pedagogy can redress the impact of trauma and social exclusion experienced by young people. In flexi schools educator identities are challenged and changed by a willingness to explore and understand the impact of trauma on young people's development and capacity to learn. A commitment to trauma-informed practice and relational pedagogy requires educator identities to be co-constructed and negotiated in relationship with young people and colleagues. These shifts in educators' sense of identity in the flexi schools context are explored.

The Teaching Teachers for the Future (TTF) project engaged teacher educators from all Australian institutions in a professional learning network that provided targeted professional development and fostered collaboration within and between teacher education institutions and relevant teacher education partners to build capacity within each institution. This paper explores the Most Significant Change (MSC) method used to demonstrate the impact of the National Support Network on Information Communication Technology Education (ICTE) in teacher education that formed part of this project. The MSC approach was developed as a tool for sharing practice and monitoring project impact in a participatory way. The process involved collecting stories from the field to establish the impact of the project. These stories were shared by participants to identify the Most Significant Change across the three domains of change: Course development, ICT capacity of teacher educators and ICT capacity of pre-service teachers. The stories and comments by participants in the project represent the initial secondary data analysis presented in this paper. These data were analysed to identify the patterns of change using content analysis and Leximancer analysis. The results indicate that the development of confidence, knowledge and understanding are important when developing TPACK in teacher education. (Contains 4 tables, 6 figures, and 1 footnote.)

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to outline the evidence-based development of a learning approach to school renewal that employs information from key members of a school community (teachers, parents, students) to promote school-based discussions about school renewal. Setting: The study took place in an independent system of Catholic schools. Schools in this tradition have an enduring history in the development of Catholic education and have partner schools in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, India, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Research Design: The study employed a qualitative sociocultural design focused on generating narratives that could be used to describe the school as a community of practice and the development of a valid and reliable School Renewal Profiling Tool (SRPT) that provides an empirical picture of a school's culture and practice. Data Collection and Analysis: Data collection included school visitations, classroom observations, in-depth interviews, and publicly available school documentation and data gathered from a case study site, a coeducational secondary college located in the center of a metropolitan city. Data collected were subjected to thematic analysis and principal components analysis (PCA). Data gathered from the SRPT items were then presented to the school community in the form of a collated report for feedback and school renewal purposes. Findings: Findings suggest that the SRPT has the potential to capture local ways of knowing and doing as resources to promote organizational school renewal through reflecting individual perceptions of participation in collective practice. Conclusions: The research surrounding the development of the SRPT contributes to the field of school renewal in two distinct ways. First, the development of the SRPT offers an approach to school renewal that focuses on the values upon which a school community is based. Second, the SRPT avoids the difficulty of what Fielding (2004) refers to as "speaking about and for others," where the original thoughts of respondents are couched in the language and values of the researcher.

The implementation of the Australian Curriculum: Science across the compulsory years of schooling (F-10) in most Australian states this year, requires science teachers to address the teaching of scientific argumentation in their classrooms. To attend to this challenge, we conducted an argumentation professional development program with practicing secondary science teachers, who possessed a range of teaching experience. Examples of the pedagogical activities implemented in the program will be outlined in this paper, in addition to a discussion of five teachers' experiences of the program sourced from pre- and post-intervention interviews. Shifts in participants' views of argumentation, participants' perceived implementation of argumentation, and barriers to the successful implementation of argumentation will also be discussed. (Contains 4 figures and 2 tables.)

The tsunami of global educational reform in the past decade has led to national, regional and school-based policy redevelopment to elevate teaching standards, enrich student learning and improve results. Consequently, principals are frequently charged with leading mandated pedagogical reform in their schools. Building on earlier research concerning school improvement, principal leadership and pedagogical reform, a case study aimed to discover the benefits and challenges of implementing such change in one region of Queensland's Department of Education and Training, through listening to regional administrators', principals' and teachers' stories. The 'common language' for student learning and the move towards authentic pedagogical improvement were applauded by all. Principals reflected on their leadership of the reform and advocated additional regional support, training and leadership skills development to maximize sustainability. Regional administrators' stories revealed assumptions about staff understanding the big picture of pedagogical reform and how to implement strategies in the classroom, whilst teachers' stories emphasized that capacity-building must occur more from the ground up and not be characterized by the top-down nature of systemic mandated reform. The alignments and disconnects between the principals' and others' stories, reflect the real challenges faced by principals in today's global climate of ongoing educational reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds on an earlier study that developed a 10 question framework for improving the quality of criteria sheets (also known as rubrics) used in Master of Education programmes. To test that framework 15 rubrics were independently evaluated by seven teachers using the above mentioned framework. Raw data from the evaluations were collated and coded and then further analysed in three sequential, substantive conversation sessions, in order to investigate the inter-connectedness of three assessment concepts, namely, grading, moderation and feedback. The study revealed that the key to criteria sheet effectiveness is the explicitness of the standards descriptors. The research also identified three broad questions that can help teachers evaluate the quality of their criteria sheets. These questions focus on the clarity of the task description and ways of improving the criteria and standards by which student responses are to be judged. The revised questions provide an effective framework for assuring the quality of these three aspects of assessment within units (also known as courses) in postgraduate programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Many disciplines use outdoor fieldwork (OFW) as an experiential learning method in higher education. Although there has been an increase in research into the pedagogical approaches of OFW, the use of OFW is contested. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to synthesize the OFW literature across a range of disciplines to identify common strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) and outline implications for how OFW is used as an experiential learning pedagogy in higher education. Methodology/Approach: A descriptive literature review was undertaken to examine each aspect of the SWOT at the micro, meso, and macro levels, drawing from disciplines using OFW including biology, outdoor and environmental education, archaeology, and the associated geosciences. Findings/Conclusions: Strengths of OFW include engagement, outreach, and professional competencies; weaknesses exist in the areas of equity, logistics, and standards. Opportunities include improving pedagogical practices, diversity, and collaboration, while threats to OFW were costs, funding, outdated practices, and governance. Implications: Academics from a range of disciplines using OFW have similar experiences; therefore, exploring ways to collaborate or learn from each other will further develop OFW as an experiential learning strategy in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]