Online Forum: What counts as evidence in teacher education research and policy?

Wed, May. 15, 2024 17:00:00 — 18:30:00 AEST

Please join us for an online forum and panel discussion What counts as evidence in teacher education research and policy? jointly hosted by AARE, ATEA and ACDE.

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Teacher education continues to be the subject of multiple reviews, reports, and reforms. Questions about what good teacher education looks like, what’s working, what’s missing or what needs to be fixed are also the focus of extensive professional, academic and popular discussions – from doom and gloom predictions of declining quality to studies of successful innovations and everything in between. A wide range of evidence is marshalled in support of diverse positions and perspectives, with elevated attention given to some issues and inevitably insufficient recognition of others.

This forum asks about the type of evidence that ‘cuts through’ or is seen to matter most in research and policy on teacher education. What evidence is missing from the many conversations, and what new or alternative approaches to evidence are available or needed?  What are compelling examples of good quality, rigorous research on teacher education, and what criteria are used in making such determinations?

You are invited to an online discussion among a panel of education research experts bringing different views and experiences to these and many other questions. Panel presentations will be followed by an audience Q&A.

Our Chairperson is:

Jo Lampert Professor, School of Education Culture & Society, Monash University

Jo Lampert is Professor of Teacher Education for Social Transformation in the Faculty of Education, Monash University. Jo has worked in teacher education for the past 25 years to research how teachers can be prepared to address educational inequalities in the hardest-to-staff schools in metropolitan, regional, rural and remote Australia. She co-leads Monash's Education for the Future Impact Lab, and leads its Teacher Education for Social Impact Research and Scholarship group. Jo is currently Chief Investigator on two Australian Research Council grants: one on co-design with Indigenous communities and the other as Lead Investigator researching the lived experiences of those teachers who remain in very hard to staff schools experiencing extreme teaching shortages.

Our panellists are:

Penny Van Bergen Professor of Educational Psychology and Head of School, Education, University of Wollongong

Penny Van Bergen is Head of School and Professor of Educational Psychology in the School of Education at the University of Wollongong. Her expertise is in the development of memory and emotion; student-teacher relationships; and the science of learning in school and higher education, and she has two current projects: one focused on how family, teachers, and aged care residents reminisce with young people, and one focused on the cultural learning pathways that support children's memory and perspective-taking. Underpinning her teaching is a strong commitment to creating undergraduate research opportunities for education students.

Jenny Gore Laureate Professor and Director of the Teachers and Teaching Research Centre, University of Newcastle

Laureate Professor Jenny Gore is Director of the Teachers and Teaching Research Centre at the University of Newcastle. Her research tackles persistent educational challenges through comprehensive programs of research on teacher development, pedagogical reform, enhancing student outcomes, and the formation of student aspirations. Jenny has been awarded more than $33 million in research funding and her publications have been cited 16,000 times. A recipient of the Paul Brock Memorial Medal in 2018 for outstanding contributions to social justice and evidence-informed policy, practice, and research, Jenny was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of NSW in 2021, recognising NSW leaders in their fields. She has also been recognised by the Australian Council for Deans of Education for outstanding contributions to education reform and as an elected Fellow of the American Educational Research Association for her expertise across diverse research traditions and as a Fellow of The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Jenny was named Australia’s leading researcher in 2022 in the field of teaching and teacher education, an award that filters for both quality and impact, and was most recently awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2024 Australia Day Honours for significant service to tertiary education.

Sam Sellar Professor of Education Policy, Dean of Research- Education Futures, University of South Australia

Sam Sellar is a Dean of Research and Professor of Education Policy at the University of South Australia. His research focuses on education policy, large-scale assessments, and the datafication of education. His latest book is Algorithms of Education: How datafication and artificial intelligence shape policy, co-authored with Kalervo N. Gulson and P. Taylor Webb, and he is the Lead Editor of Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education.

Matthew Clarke Professor of Education, University of Aberdeen

Matthew Clarke is Professor of Education and Director of Research in the School of Education at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. He has previously worked in teacher education at universities in Australia, England, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates, and has taught in schools in England and Australia. His research interests focus on education policy and politics, particularly their implications for teachers and teacher educators. His work draws on a range of interdisciplinary sources, including psychoanalytic, political and social theories. Recent books include Education and the fantasies of neoliberalism: Policy, politics and psychoanalysis (Routledge 2022), Lacan and education policy: The other side of education (Bloomsbury, 2019) and Teacher Education and the Political: The power of negative thinking (Routledge 2017).

 

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