Conceptualising Teacher Professionalism

Opportunities and Tensions in the Experiences of Collaborative Professionalism During the Enactment of the GTPA

“…The full-time staff member describes how teacher educators work together as a team in a manner which is respectful, open to new ideas and to new practices, and in accordance with the principles of mutual dialogue. Moreover, they note that the teaching team does not always agree on the extent to which the conceptualisation of a TPA could, or should, be aligned with notions of managerial professionalism (Alexander et al, 2019), consistent with Ball's (2003) notion of performativity and/or Biestas's (2017) view of evidence-based practice distorting the work of the democratic professional. This staff member notes that despite this lack of agreement around the potentialities of the GTPA, this discord among staff need not negatively impact the experiences of the preservice teachers.…”

“…This view speaks to the notion of fidelity described by Adie & Wyatt-Smith (2020) in that the assessment provides scope to speak to contextual considerations of significance. In other words, the assessment can be enacted through a lens of both democratic (Cochran-Smith et al, 2018) and intelligent (Lillejord, 2020) accountability and in the spirit of democratic professionalism (Alexander et al, 2019). In contrast, the sessional staff member tells of a sense of isolation from this mutual dialogue, recognised here as 'collaborative professionalism', highlighting a lack of affiliation between full-time and casual academic staff members.…”

“…In other words, more organisational recognition of ways of "talking, thinking, acting and being a teacher educator" (Adie & Wyatt-Smith, 2020, p. 274) rather than simply being related to as a 'casual marker' are required. Failure to consider this implication leads to reduced opportunities for professional learning through collaboration for both full-time and sessional academic staff and risks notions of managerial professionalism, rather than democratic professionalism (Alexander et al, 2019), dominating this aspect of the work of teacher educators. When read together, this multi-voiced narrative makes clear that what is imagined by the organisation to be possible in terms of the time and effort required to be invested in the implementation of the GTPA, does not reflect the experience of enactment which is constrained by a university assessment policy that no longer aligns with the regulatory requirements of initial teacher education.…”

“…The contestation surrounding professionalism and teacher education in the Australian context is explored by Alexander et al (2019). These authors note that managerial professionalism is often critiqued within the literature because it is viewed as "control constructed from 'above' or 'outside' the profession and imposed through performance cultures and accountability structures" (p. 11).…”

Academic Supervision of School Principals, Principal Transformational Leadership, and School Climate on Senior High School Teachers' Competence

“…Teachers must demonstrate their work as full of dedication based on certain knowledge or skills (King, 2014). In carrying out their duties in education, teachers are required to demonstrate their ability as qualified and professional educators (Alexander et al, 2019;Sachs, 2016). It happens because teachers are professional educators with the main task of educating, teaching, guiding, directing, training, assessing, and evaluating students in early childhood education through formal education, basic education, and secondary education, as stated in Government Regulation no.…”