Neither naïve nor nihilistic: researching for teacher education (original) (raw)

2016, Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education

As the incoming editors of the Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, we open this edition by extending our sincere and heartfelt appreciation to the previous Editorial Team and, as well, to the ATEA Executive they worked with. Under the leadership of Joce Nuttall and Susan Edwards, the journal has continued to play a vital role in fostering, supporting and disseminating research of the highest quality. This research has, in turn, made a significant contribution to the way we think about diverse and diversifying fields of educational activity: within and beyond schools, universities and other formal educational settings. It need hardly be said that this is important work. Teacher education in Australia and internationally remains under close scrutiny (and we use the term teacher education here in its broadest sense, to refer to all parts of a teacher's education whether it takes place in schools, universities or elsewhere and regardless of whether it occurs before or after graduation). Those who work with/in this complex field are regularly called upon to defend the quality and outcomes of our work: to justify decisions, defend actions and share the basis of our conclusions and the outcomes of our research. This is as it should be. While we now negotiate a seemingly endless period of critical analysis and external commentary, it is vital that we stay focused on our key responsibility: not simply to respond to questions raised by others, but to lead the scrutiny of all our practices and the research by which they are underpinned. Our work, in this area, is critical and not because policymakers deem it so. Decades and decades of large-scale and fine-grained research has shown that educational settings are not, and never have been, neutral, safe or fair. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. First Nations Peoples. Migrants, displaced peoples, refugees. Socio-economics, gender and language. Place of birth, cultural background, family groups and family structure. Geographical location. Religion, sexuality and disability. This is more than a list of convenient key terms we can employ to categorise our research. Individually and in combination these differences matter, both in educational settings, and in day-today life. They shape pathways, experiences and short-and long-term educational outcomes. Detailed knowledge of the lifelong and life-wide consequences of good and bad educational experiences has seen teacher educators repeatedly commit to the pursuit of education characterised by excellence and equity. In the current complex political and social climate, this work, we argue, requires a willingness for teacher educators to serve as our own sternest critics: to continually evaluate our successes, to always acknowledge our failures, and to commit, year in, year out, to education as the practice of freedom.