Andrea Allard - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Andrea Allard
The Australian Educational Researcher, 2014
ABSTRACT There have been more than 100 reports focusing on the effectiveness of teacher education... more ABSTRACT There have been more than 100 reports focusing on the effectiveness of teacher education in Australia over the last thirty-five years with many positioning teacher education as flawed and in need of reform. These frequent criticisms have drawn attention to the difficulty teacher educators can experience when trying to interrupt or contest this representation: a situation not unique to Australia. In the United States, for example, Pam Grossman has suggested that those in teacher education “seem ill prepared to respond to critics who question the value of professional education for teachers with evidence of our effectiveness” (Grossman J Teach Edu 59(1):10-23, 2008). A key question facing teacher educators, therefore, concerns the kinds of research that will most effectively allow us to lead debates about teacher preparation. This paper outlines an approach to the conceptualization and conduct of research into the effectiveness of teacher education that seeks to move debates in new directions. Drawing upon the theoretical resources of Soja (Thirdspace: journeys to Los Angeles and other real-and-imagined places, 1996) and Lefebvre (The production of space, 1991) we outline the ways in which a spatial approach to conceptualizing teacher education influenced the design and conduct of a large scale, longitudinal project that investigated the question of the effectiveness of teacher education in Australia. In exploring the design features of this ARC Linkage grant the paper demonstrates how research changes when teacher education is conceptualised from a spatial point of view and illustrates the ways in which consideration of the conceived, perceived and lived spaces of teacher education can move research about effectiveness into new directions.
Aare 2002 Problematic Futures Educational Research in an Era of Uncertainty Aare 2002 Conference Papers, 2002
Journal of educational enquiry, 2011
For first-year students, making a successful transition into university studies can be an excitin... more For first-year students, making a successful transition into university studies can be an exciting challenge and a daunting proposition. Recent research in Australia (Mclnnis et al 2000) and internationally (Bridges 2000; Pargetter et al 1998; Tinto 1994, 1998), suggests ...
Learning from the Margins Young Women Social Exclusion and Education, 2007
Allard, Andrea C. 2007, Assembling selves : 'choice' and the classed and gendered schooling exper... more Allard, Andrea C. 2007, Assembling selves : 'choice' and the classed and gendered schooling experiences of 'marginalized' young women, in Learning from the margins : young women, social exclusion and education, Routledge, Abingdon, England, pp.143-156.
Learning from the Margins Young Women Social Exclusion and Education, 2007
... Warr -- Female youth homelessness in urban Canada : space, representation, and the contempora... more ... Warr -- Female youth homelessness in urban Canada : space, representation, and the contemporary female subject / Jo-Anne Dillabough and Anna Van Der Meulen -- Inventing adulthoods : a biographical approach to understanding young lives / Rachel Thomson -- Cross ...
Acsa 2003 Conversactions Conversations and Actions, 2003
In this paper we discuss aspects of a research project designed to investigate young women and ea... more In this paper we discuss aspects of a research project designed to investigate young women and early school leaving. The project develops a biographical and cross-generational methodology to explore the gendered experiences, consequences of, and decisions about early school leaving. It identifies themes and issues in the experiences of several different groups of young women who have been either identified as 'at risk' of early school leaving, or who have actually left school before completing year 12.
Teaching and Teacher Education an International Journal of Research and Studies, Oct 1, 2005
Australia, like the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK), continues to experience a mis... more Australia, like the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK), continues to experience a mismatch between the cultural backgrounds and socio-economic class of teachers and those of the students they work with. This article reports on a study that explored how a group of Australian teacher-education students understand their own ethnic and socio-economic class identities and how they work with students of ethnic and class backgrounds different from their own. Analysis of data from interviews and focus groups with the student-teachers is presented to highlight how they make sense of difference and how they take up the challenges of teaching for diversity. The paper raises issues and concerns regarding how diversity and difference might be addressed in teacher education. r
English Teaching Practice and Critique, May 1, 2014
This article explores the paradoxical situation of early career teachers in this era of standards... more This article explores the paradoxical situation of early career teachers in this era of standards-based reforms, beginning with the experiences of an English teacher working in a state school in Queensland, Australia and expanding to consider the viewpoints of her colleagues. Our goal is to trace the ways she and the other early career teachers at this particular school negotiate the tensions between the current emphases on standardisation of curricula, testing regimes and teaching standards and their burgeoning sense of their identities as teachers. We shall raise questions about the status of the professional knowledge that these early career teachers bring to their work, showing examples of how this knowledge puts them at odds with standards-based reforms, including the professional standards recently introduced by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) and the National Assessment Program -Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN).
This report focuses on ways constructions of gender inform teacher education students' curriculum... more This report focuses on ways constructions of gender inform teacher education students' curriculum experiences and teaching performance in primary schools, in particular regarding a gender inclusive curriculum. The remarks of eight students from a longitudinal study were analyzed using feminist post-structural theory as a means of understanding contradictory discourses and the process by which gender relations become "normalized." By examining "taken for granted" beliefs concerning gender, students were challenged to reexamine their own values,and see the importance of gender inclusive pedagogy and curriculum planning. Students were asked to explain their own understanding of gender relations, how they would address gender equity in their own classrooms, and how their course work enhanced or limited their understanding. Most students were able to demonstrate an awareness of ways gender relations were constituted in their lives and to "problematize" gender relations. Although students requested practical gender inclusive strategies for the classroom, during the interviews it became clear to the research team that providing courses and strategies might be a "band-aid" approach and so hinder students from achieving a deeper analysis. It also became clear that the researchers' commitment to feminism had made them somewhat "hard of hearing" when it came to the students and their interpretation of gender relations. (Contains 29 references.) (LH)
Aare 2001 Crossing Borders New Frontiers in Educational Research Australian Association For Research in Education Conference Proceedings, 2001
The 'rescuing' of Indigenous children (from their communities) through education, and the notions... more The 'rescuing' of Indigenous children (from their communities) through education, and the notions of assimilation associated with that, is an aspect of colonialism that has persisted into the so-called 'postcolonial' era. Recent national policy statements (eg. MCEETYA, 2000; NBEET, 1995) argue the importance of education/research that keeps the locus of control within the Aboriginal community as a means to further the goal of self determination and improve educational outcomes. In this paper, we report on the initial stage of a small empirical research project, Engaging Aboriginal Students In Education Through Community Empowerment.
Area 2001 What We Know and How We Know It the 82nd Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, 2001
Reflective Practice, Apr 29, 2008
... debate on what constitutes success, how success is understood and what teaching practices ena... more ... debate on what constitutes success, how success is understood and what teaching practices enable ... post‐structuralist theories of identity formation, investigating in particular how gender,ethnicity, 'race' and class ... 'What went well, what didn't go so well': Growth of reflection in pre ...
European Journal of Teacher Education, Aug 1, 2006
While for political, economic and social justice reasons, there is now an emphasis on ensuring th... more While for political, economic and social justice reasons, there is now an emphasis on ensuring that all children achieve educationally, including those whose ethnicity, ‘race’ or socio‐economic status are different from the dominant culture, multiple and often contradictory discourses operate concerning how teachers should work with diversity. Within post‐structural theories, ‘race’, socio‐economic status, gender and ethnicity are theorised as fluid,
Aera 2007 the World of Educational Quality American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, 2007
Research in Australia, the USA and Britain suggests that teachers playa vital role in ensuring th... more Research in Australia, the USA and Britain suggests that teachers playa vital role in ensuring that 'at risk', for example, ethnic minority and/or economically disadvantaged students feel connected and engaged in learning . The study, reported on here, focussed on exploring the knowledge and beliefs of experienced classroom teachers who self identified as competent to teach in culturally diverse classrooms in order to: develop a deeper analysis of how teachers understand culture and class; examine how they engage productively with students of diverse cultural heritage; and subsequently, utilise the knowledge base to inform teacher education programs. Through analysis of the data using Critical Discourse Analysis, here we discuss how teachers' own life experiences influenced their pedagogies and how they engage with diversity, for example aroung the complexities of gender. We discuss how such expertise might be used to better inform the next generation of teachers.
Preparing Graduates For the Professions Using Scenario Based Learning, 2010
Nzare Aare 2003 Educational Research Risks and Dilemmas New Zealand Association For Research in Education and the Australian Association For Research in Education, 2003
This paper reports on a research project that explored how student teachers understand ethnic and... more This paper reports on a research project that explored how student teachers understand ethnic and classed difference as it relates to themselves and their students. Discourses of schooling can shape students ethnic and classed identities, frequently positioning nonmainstream students as 'other' and marginalizing them. Significant numbers of our teacher education students have limited experience of diverse educational settings, having mainly attended white middle-class schools as students and as student teachers. Working with diverse student populations productively depends on teachers recognising and valuing difference. The ways in which they engage with students whose ethnic and classed identities are different from their own is important in creating learning environments that build on and engage with diversity.
ABSTRACT This paper reports on the findings of a study, the 'Constructing Classroom Cultu... more ABSTRACT This paper reports on the findings of a study, the 'Constructing Classroom Cultures' project, funded by a small Australian Research Council grant at the University of Melbourne. Located in three primary school classrooms in Melbourne, Victoria, this study investigated how teachers and grade 3-4 students develop shared values and understandings concerning formal and informal codes of behaviour. Drawing on classroom observations, individual interviews with teachers and focus group interviews with children, this paper discusses the ways that teachers and children together build classroom cultures. Practices that work to produce supportive classroom environments as well as problem areas are identified. Examining classroom cultures at the micro-political level offers scope for considering how power relations can contribute positively to educational processes. Additionally, the ways in which informal interactions between teacher and students and among students call into play collaboration, compliance and resistance are opened up for examination. These case studies aim to contribute to understanding how productive classroom cultures are constructed in day-to-day interactions, a significant area of concern for teachers and teacher education students.
The Australian Educational Researcher, 2014
ABSTRACT There have been more than 100 reports focusing on the effectiveness of teacher education... more ABSTRACT There have been more than 100 reports focusing on the effectiveness of teacher education in Australia over the last thirty-five years with many positioning teacher education as flawed and in need of reform. These frequent criticisms have drawn attention to the difficulty teacher educators can experience when trying to interrupt or contest this representation: a situation not unique to Australia. In the United States, for example, Pam Grossman has suggested that those in teacher education “seem ill prepared to respond to critics who question the value of professional education for teachers with evidence of our effectiveness” (Grossman J Teach Edu 59(1):10-23, 2008). A key question facing teacher educators, therefore, concerns the kinds of research that will most effectively allow us to lead debates about teacher preparation. This paper outlines an approach to the conceptualization and conduct of research into the effectiveness of teacher education that seeks to move debates in new directions. Drawing upon the theoretical resources of Soja (Thirdspace: journeys to Los Angeles and other real-and-imagined places, 1996) and Lefebvre (The production of space, 1991) we outline the ways in which a spatial approach to conceptualizing teacher education influenced the design and conduct of a large scale, longitudinal project that investigated the question of the effectiveness of teacher education in Australia. In exploring the design features of this ARC Linkage grant the paper demonstrates how research changes when teacher education is conceptualised from a spatial point of view and illustrates the ways in which consideration of the conceived, perceived and lived spaces of teacher education can move research about effectiveness into new directions.
Aare 2002 Problematic Futures Educational Research in an Era of Uncertainty Aare 2002 Conference Papers, 2002
Journal of educational enquiry, 2011
For first-year students, making a successful transition into university studies can be an excitin... more For first-year students, making a successful transition into university studies can be an exciting challenge and a daunting proposition. Recent research in Australia (Mclnnis et al 2000) and internationally (Bridges 2000; Pargetter et al 1998; Tinto 1994, 1998), suggests ...
Learning from the Margins Young Women Social Exclusion and Education, 2007
Allard, Andrea C. 2007, Assembling selves : 'choice' and the classed and gendered schooling exper... more Allard, Andrea C. 2007, Assembling selves : 'choice' and the classed and gendered schooling experiences of 'marginalized' young women, in Learning from the margins : young women, social exclusion and education, Routledge, Abingdon, England, pp.143-156.
Learning from the Margins Young Women Social Exclusion and Education, 2007
... Warr -- Female youth homelessness in urban Canada : space, representation, and the contempora... more ... Warr -- Female youth homelessness in urban Canada : space, representation, and the contemporary female subject / Jo-Anne Dillabough and Anna Van Der Meulen -- Inventing adulthoods : a biographical approach to understanding young lives / Rachel Thomson -- Cross ...
Acsa 2003 Conversactions Conversations and Actions, 2003
In this paper we discuss aspects of a research project designed to investigate young women and ea... more In this paper we discuss aspects of a research project designed to investigate young women and early school leaving. The project develops a biographical and cross-generational methodology to explore the gendered experiences, consequences of, and decisions about early school leaving. It identifies themes and issues in the experiences of several different groups of young women who have been either identified as 'at risk' of early school leaving, or who have actually left school before completing year 12.
Teaching and Teacher Education an International Journal of Research and Studies, Oct 1, 2005
Australia, like the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK), continues to experience a mis... more Australia, like the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK), continues to experience a mismatch between the cultural backgrounds and socio-economic class of teachers and those of the students they work with. This article reports on a study that explored how a group of Australian teacher-education students understand their own ethnic and socio-economic class identities and how they work with students of ethnic and class backgrounds different from their own. Analysis of data from interviews and focus groups with the student-teachers is presented to highlight how they make sense of difference and how they take up the challenges of teaching for diversity. The paper raises issues and concerns regarding how diversity and difference might be addressed in teacher education. r
English Teaching Practice and Critique, May 1, 2014
This article explores the paradoxical situation of early career teachers in this era of standards... more This article explores the paradoxical situation of early career teachers in this era of standards-based reforms, beginning with the experiences of an English teacher working in a state school in Queensland, Australia and expanding to consider the viewpoints of her colleagues. Our goal is to trace the ways she and the other early career teachers at this particular school negotiate the tensions between the current emphases on standardisation of curricula, testing regimes and teaching standards and their burgeoning sense of their identities as teachers. We shall raise questions about the status of the professional knowledge that these early career teachers bring to their work, showing examples of how this knowledge puts them at odds with standards-based reforms, including the professional standards recently introduced by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) and the National Assessment Program -Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN).
This report focuses on ways constructions of gender inform teacher education students' curriculum... more This report focuses on ways constructions of gender inform teacher education students' curriculum experiences and teaching performance in primary schools, in particular regarding a gender inclusive curriculum. The remarks of eight students from a longitudinal study were analyzed using feminist post-structural theory as a means of understanding contradictory discourses and the process by which gender relations become "normalized." By examining "taken for granted" beliefs concerning gender, students were challenged to reexamine their own values,and see the importance of gender inclusive pedagogy and curriculum planning. Students were asked to explain their own understanding of gender relations, how they would address gender equity in their own classrooms, and how their course work enhanced or limited their understanding. Most students were able to demonstrate an awareness of ways gender relations were constituted in their lives and to "problematize" gender relations. Although students requested practical gender inclusive strategies for the classroom, during the interviews it became clear to the research team that providing courses and strategies might be a "band-aid" approach and so hinder students from achieving a deeper analysis. It also became clear that the researchers' commitment to feminism had made them somewhat "hard of hearing" when it came to the students and their interpretation of gender relations. (Contains 29 references.) (LH)
Aare 2001 Crossing Borders New Frontiers in Educational Research Australian Association For Research in Education Conference Proceedings, 2001
The 'rescuing' of Indigenous children (from their communities) through education, and the notions... more The 'rescuing' of Indigenous children (from their communities) through education, and the notions of assimilation associated with that, is an aspect of colonialism that has persisted into the so-called 'postcolonial' era. Recent national policy statements (eg. MCEETYA, 2000; NBEET, 1995) argue the importance of education/research that keeps the locus of control within the Aboriginal community as a means to further the goal of self determination and improve educational outcomes. In this paper, we report on the initial stage of a small empirical research project, Engaging Aboriginal Students In Education Through Community Empowerment.
Area 2001 What We Know and How We Know It the 82nd Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, 2001
Reflective Practice, Apr 29, 2008
... debate on what constitutes success, how success is understood and what teaching practices ena... more ... debate on what constitutes success, how success is understood and what teaching practices enable ... post‐structuralist theories of identity formation, investigating in particular how gender,ethnicity, 'race' and class ... 'What went well, what didn't go so well': Growth of reflection in pre ...
European Journal of Teacher Education, Aug 1, 2006
While for political, economic and social justice reasons, there is now an emphasis on ensuring th... more While for political, economic and social justice reasons, there is now an emphasis on ensuring that all children achieve educationally, including those whose ethnicity, ‘race’ or socio‐economic status are different from the dominant culture, multiple and often contradictory discourses operate concerning how teachers should work with diversity. Within post‐structural theories, ‘race’, socio‐economic status, gender and ethnicity are theorised as fluid,
Aera 2007 the World of Educational Quality American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, 2007
Research in Australia, the USA and Britain suggests that teachers playa vital role in ensuring th... more Research in Australia, the USA and Britain suggests that teachers playa vital role in ensuring that 'at risk', for example, ethnic minority and/or economically disadvantaged students feel connected and engaged in learning . The study, reported on here, focussed on exploring the knowledge and beliefs of experienced classroom teachers who self identified as competent to teach in culturally diverse classrooms in order to: develop a deeper analysis of how teachers understand culture and class; examine how they engage productively with students of diverse cultural heritage; and subsequently, utilise the knowledge base to inform teacher education programs. Through analysis of the data using Critical Discourse Analysis, here we discuss how teachers' own life experiences influenced their pedagogies and how they engage with diversity, for example aroung the complexities of gender. We discuss how such expertise might be used to better inform the next generation of teachers.
Preparing Graduates For the Professions Using Scenario Based Learning, 2010
Nzare Aare 2003 Educational Research Risks and Dilemmas New Zealand Association For Research in Education and the Australian Association For Research in Education, 2003
This paper reports on a research project that explored how student teachers understand ethnic and... more This paper reports on a research project that explored how student teachers understand ethnic and classed difference as it relates to themselves and their students. Discourses of schooling can shape students ethnic and classed identities, frequently positioning nonmainstream students as 'other' and marginalizing them. Significant numbers of our teacher education students have limited experience of diverse educational settings, having mainly attended white middle-class schools as students and as student teachers. Working with diverse student populations productively depends on teachers recognising and valuing difference. The ways in which they engage with students whose ethnic and classed identities are different from their own is important in creating learning environments that build on and engage with diversity.
ABSTRACT This paper reports on the findings of a study, the 'Constructing Classroom Cultu... more ABSTRACT This paper reports on the findings of a study, the 'Constructing Classroom Cultures' project, funded by a small Australian Research Council grant at the University of Melbourne. Located in three primary school classrooms in Melbourne, Victoria, this study investigated how teachers and grade 3-4 students develop shared values and understandings concerning formal and informal codes of behaviour. Drawing on classroom observations, individual interviews with teachers and focus group interviews with children, this paper discusses the ways that teachers and children together build classroom cultures. Practices that work to produce supportive classroom environments as well as problem areas are identified. Examining classroom cultures at the micro-political level offers scope for considering how power relations can contribute positively to educational processes. Additionally, the ways in which informal interactions between teacher and students and among students call into play collaboration, compliance and resistance are opened up for examination. These case studies aim to contribute to understanding how productive classroom cultures are constructed in day-to-day interactions, a significant area of concern for teachers and teacher education students.
There have been more than 100 reports focusing on the effectiveness of teacher education in Austr... more There have been more than 100 reports focusing on the effectiveness of teacher education in Australia over the last thirty-five years with many positioning teacher education as flawed and in need of reform. These frequent criticisms have drawn attention to the difficulty teacher educators can experience when trying to interrupt or contest this representation: a situation not unique to Australia. In the United States, for example, Pam Grossman has suggested that those in teacher education “seem ill prepared to respond to critics who question the value of professional education for teachers with evidence of our effectiveness” (Grossman, 2008, p. 13). A key question facing teacher educators, therefore, concerns the kinds of research that will most effectively allow us to lead debates about teacher preparation. This paper outlines an approach to the conceptualization and conduct of research into the effectiveness of teacher education that seeks to move debates in new directions. Drawing upon the theoretical resources of Soja (1996) and Lefebre (1991) we outline the ways in which a spatial approach to conceptualizing teacher education influenced the design and conduct of a large scale, longitudinal project that investigated the question of the effectiveness of teacher education in Australia. In exploring the design features of this ARC Linkage grant the paper demonstrates how research changes when teacher education is conceptualised from a spatial point of view and illustrates the ways in which consideration of the conceived, perceived and lived spaces of teacher education can move research about effectiveness into new directions.