key: cord-0060174-8vilzjyk
authors: Buchanan, John
title: Introduction and Context
date: 2020-08-19
journal: Challenging the Deprofessionalisation of Teaching and Teachers
DOI: 10.1007/978-981-15-8538-8_1
sha: 4958f7db8b81ab26124b020b25445d8c0af23996
doc_id: 60174
cord_uid: 8vilzjyk

This chapter outlines and sets the scene for the book. It offers an introduction to and overview of some of the pressures and policies that shape, and purportedly serve, the standing and professionalisation of teaching. The chapter also explores the possibility that some of these pressures and policies actually serve to undermine that professionalism and standing, as well as the autonomy, creativity, agency and energy of teachers. The book sets out to generate and test some theorems based on evidence and observation—my own and others’. The chapter investigates some turning points in (teacher) education, to explore how we have come to view education and educators the way we do. The chapter and the book focus particularly on circumstances in Australia, but also draw on findings and current trends internationally. This chapter and others in the first two sections hint at possible futures given current trends—a theme that will be reprised more boldly in the final section. The chapters and the book progressively draw together several threads pertinent to education and society. Arguably, this should not be the first chapter of the book. Proceed to chapter 3 first if you wish, which also sets out some historical context for where we are, educationally. Or keep going here.

In my moments of quiet desperation, I sometimes wonder, could we return to another dark ages? A time where, for example, democracy could be lost for a millennium? It's already happened once. A world where people could routinely abandon or ignore the quest for evidence-based truth?

I usually dismiss the idea as preposterous. 1 And yet… Is the veneer of civilisation wafer-thin? As in Lord of the Flies (Golding, 1954) ? I'll be writing about some of these things in more detail in subsequent chapters, but the Internet, which brought about a wave of information, does not appear to have ushered in a wave of (critical) thinking. Has abundance of knowledge led us to treat it with contempt? The statistics on drug use in Australia as elsewhere are alarming, even though some may see my view on this as conservative or reactionary. There are other disturbing signs. We live in an age where science comes under attack. The scientific evidence of climate change and vaccinations, for example, is dismissed by some people who, in most cases, have little or no understanding thereof. This is also perhaps not new; the battle between science and superstition is an ongoing one, and new knowledge always vies for supremacy with old. We live in a society where people attack paramedics, the people who arrive to assist. There were no bollards that I can recall during my childhood, to prevent people from using a vehicle as a weapon to commit mass murders, typically targeting a particular ethnic or religious group. When I was a child, and even more recently when I was a schoolteacher, there was no "lock down" policy for a school, as there is today; it seemed unnecessary. Among my students' biggest concerns is managing their students' behaviour-but that perhaps has also always been so.

These and other signs are enough to make me believe Shakespeare's (1610) 2 warning, that "there are liars…enow [enough] to beat the honest men [sic] and hang them up". Giroux (2015) sketches a dystopian world, lying somewhere between Orwell's (1949 ) 1984 and Huxley's (1932 Brave New World, in which, the established democracies of the West were moving quickly toward a historical moment when they would willingly relinquish the noble promises and ideals of liberal democracy and enter that menacing space where totalitarianism perverts the modern ideals of justice, freedom, and political emancipation (p. 3).

Compliance and obedience have their place-and their price. These and other competing imaginaries for the future will form a backdrop for discussions in this book.

It seems to me that in some aspects of life at least, things have regressed this century, in terms of surrendering some of our democracy-won freedoms. How has an educated society allowed this? 6 1 Introduction and Context If the future appears somewhat as a black hole, then education, like most things, fails to escape its gravity. Masters (2016, pp. 2-4) outlines five problems facing education in Australia currently. It makes for stark reading: Australian students' literacy and numeracy levels have been in decline in the twenty-first century; there is a growing disparity in the performance of schools, which is increasingly being linked to socioeconomic factors; large numbers of Australian students are failing to meet minimum standards; one in five children beginning school is developmentally delayed, and at risk of long-term low achievement, and a teaching is becoming less attractive for high-performing school leavers. The last of these is perhaps unsurprising in light of the previous four. With these circumstances, and the responsibilities of education, in mind, I will now turn to examine teaching, and its status as a profession.

The first (hard copy-they're still out there) dictionary I consulted, placed "profession" and its cognates between "profanity" and "proffer". I'm sure that's not significant. Definitions of "profession" tend to include references to the necessity of "special training" (HarperCollins, 1999 (HarperCollins, , p. 1233 , "advanced learning" (Oxford University Press, 1995 , p. 1153 or "knowledge of some department of learning or science" (Macquarie Dictionary Publishers, 2010, p. 996). Collins (p. 1233) adds "in the liberal arts or sciences".

In the context of medicine, which few of us would exclude from the professions, Cruess, Johnston and Cruess (2004, p. 74 ) offer a comprehensive definition of "profession" as follows:

An occupation whose core element is work based upon the mastery of a complex body of knowledge and skills. It is a vocation in which knowledge of some department of science or learning or the practice of an art founded upon it is used in the service of others. Its members are governed by codes of ethics and profess a commitment to competence, integrity and morality, altruism, and the promotion of the public good within their domain. These commitments form the basis of a social contract between a profession and society, which in return grants the profession a monopoly over the use of its knowledge base, the right to considerable autonomy in practice and the privilege of self-regulation. Professions and their members are accountable to those served and to society. I will devote some time to unstitching this definition, to explore how and where "teaching" appears to align or otherwise.

…mastery of a complex body of knowledge and skills… The gender-constricted nature of "mastery" aside, managing teaching and learning is, most would agree, complex, and its application, necessarily skill-ful. It is arguably more complex, and therefore more demanding, than most outsiders understand, and this will become a point of discussion later in the chapter and the book. As Sinnema, Meyer and Aitken (2017) argue, "knowledge is central to the agentic positioning of teachers" (p. 19). I'll add here that learning, the by-product of teaching, is complex. It equates to "knowing the contents of other minds", notes Scott, (2011, p. 155) . Säljö (1996, p. 91 ) defines learning as "the appropriation and mastery [sic] of communicative (including conceptual) and technical tools that serve as meditational means in social practices". Tomlinson (2001, p. 4 ) defines learning as "how students go about making sense of ideas and information", while Metcalfe and Game (2006, p. 150) see learning as "a meeting with difference". Returning to the definition, …knowledge of some department of science or learning or… Effective teachers need to be in command of at least two bodies of knowledgesubject matter, and pedagogy, or "pedagogical content knowledge" (Shulman, 1986, p. 9) . More recently, a third corpus of knowledge, the application of technologies to pedagogical ends, has been added to the mix, resulting in technology, pedagogy and content knowledge, or TPACK (Koehler & Mishra, 2009 ). This combination of content and pedagogical knowledge is arguably the preserve of teachers alone.

…the practice of an art founded upon it… While this sentiment is music to my soul, it may also be the beginnings of a fracture line between education and medicine. To the extent that teaching has been excluded from the professions, it has been positioned as a craft or a trade. Surely, it is all of these. It is certainly art-full. Part of the reason for this fracturing might be as follows. Good teachers:

• Make it look easy-they can orchestrate classroom management, knowledge management and the delivery thereof seamlessly. Shulman (2004, p. 504) describes teaching as "perhaps the most complex, most challenging, and most demanding, subtle, nuanced, and frightening activity that our species has ever invented". More broadly, teaching is one of the most unpredictable and unscriptable pursuits there is. Labaree (2000, p. 228 ) described teaching as "an enormously difficult job that looks easy". • Beyond making their work look easy, teachers render it invisible. They don't show their work. Much of the work of teachers, like that of magicians, is invisible to the untrained eye. One difference is that teachers' magic does not routinely rely on sleight of hand. This invisibility applies particularly to classroom management, including preventive strategies. I occasionally ask my student teachers to ask their supervising teacher while they are on in-school professional experience, "can you tell me something you believe you prevented today?" Even experienced teachers aren't always forthcoming with an answer. Some of their management work becomes habitual and subliminal even to them with time. Of course, a teacher's work isn't all preventive; it also consists in creating conditions for learners and learning to flourish.

I believe that the above two attributes of good teachers can mislead the public into believing the claim that "anyone can teach", and it can lead to an unfortunate belief that watching and copying teaching is sufficient. Lortie (1975, p. 61 ) disparaged this as an "apprenticeship of observation". Most of us, particularly in richer nations, have observed up to 13 years of school education. This, we can be lulled into believing, makes us experts. Bandura (1977) observed that "most human behavior is learned observation through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action" (p. 22). I believe that learning how to teach might be one exception to Bandura's "most behaviour" in the above quote, in that how to do it well cannot easily be inferred from mere observation. Forgive the personal reference here, but I've observed a lot of golf, and listened to a lot of singing. It hasn't worked.

A spotlight needs to be put onto the art, craft and science of teaching itself. Palmer (1988, p. 141 ) mused as follows:

When I imagine the community of truth gathered around some great thing -from DNA to [Conrad's] Heart of Darkness to the French Revolution -I wonder: Could teachers gather around the great thing called "teaching and learning" and explore its mysteries with the same respect as we accord any subject worth knowing? Palmer proceeded to observe, "we need to learn to do so, for such a gathering is one of the few means we have to become better teachers". If teachers struggle to render their teaching visible to their own trained eyes, how much more so do the uninitiated, or the uneducated-in-education fail to apprehend (in both senses of the word) good teaching?

Teaching is a trade inasmuch as it involves an exchange of goods. (I enjoy savouring the term "goods" in this context.) Not only is knowledge exchangedsometimes for marks, which risks cheapening that knowledge-but more of that in a subsequent chapter; the (I concede, slippery) terms "common good" and "public good" also come to mind. Returning to the definition of profession by Cruess et al. (2004) , it is.

…used in the service of others… Service of others is most certainly true of teaching; 'a teacher is like a candle -in shedding light for others, it consumes itself' -attribution unknown.

…members are governed by codes of ethics… Given that a schoolteacher operates in loco parentis, in the place of a parent, the ethical implications are obvious. Other ethical considerations of teaching with regard to, for example, curriculum design and delivery, and assessment, will be discussed in later chapters.

…profess a commitment to competence, integrity and morality, altruism, and the promotion of the public good within their domain…

These are among the words that can carry me through a hard or discouraging day's teaching-surely they are integral to the point and purpose of teaching. Teachers often rank highly in public perceptions of trustworthiness, or trust-worth. According to a USA Gallup poll (Brenan, 2018) , trust in (secondary) teachers ranked more highly than that in the police and the clergy, for example, and only beneath that in the medical profession. Interestingly, nurses outranked doctors in this poll. Perhaps their relatively lower pay rate is seen as evidence of altruism. Teachers ranked similarly favourably, behind only the medical profession, in an Australian poll (Kimmorley, 2015) . The word "profession" is applied unproblematically to teachers in such data collection exercises. I add here that the call for trust, appealing though it is, butts heads with my instinct to apply scepticism.

…members are accountable to those served and to society. This is the closing excerpt of the quote above, but it's been placed here, since, while it's true enough, it seems to be the pivot point for "public ownership" of teaching, in a way that the public doesn't seem to feel it owns the medical profession. Consider the final two quotes from the definition: …a monopoly over the use of its knowledge base… Here is where teaching and medicine appear to fracture more brutally. This may not be a bad thing, in that teaching seeks, naturally enough, to educate, and, in so doing, to "share its wares". Nevertheless, the public and media seem reluctant to concede an exclusive body of professional, pedagogical knowledge to teachers. In this, the public is arguably unconsciously unskilled in the ways of teaching.

…the right to considerable autonomy in practice and the privilege 3 of self-regulation…

This, I imagine, looks totally alien to most teachers, particularly to newer members of the profession. The importance of an autonomy-oriented approach, and agency, in all learning, including teacher-learning, and the debilitating impact of their absence, will be discussed later in the book.

Above, I identified a fracture line starting at the third excerpt from the definition. In reality, though, the rift extends back to the very first excerpt. Most of us who are untrained medically would concede that we cannot do the work of a medical practitioner. Yet many of us, watching a skilled teacher, might be lulled into thinking "I can do that". That teaching has little if any mystique, is probably, on balance, positive, in that teaching, unlike magic, seeks to unlock, rather than create, mysteries. As asserted above, good teaching tends to render itself invisible to the untrained eye, resulting in the truism that "anyone can teach". It is perhaps against this truism that teaching and teachers need to defend themselves and provide counter-evidence.

Increasingly, children provide feedback on their teachers. It can be valuable for children to have input into how they would prefer their classes to operate, and this process can provide teachers with useful information on how their students have made sense of the learning activities. Nevertheless, I am left wondering what theories the children draw upon in compiling their feedback. Dewey, Vygotsky…? Lejonberg, Elstad, and Christophersen (2018, p. 283 ) note that some "have questioned students' ability to evaluate teaching". Yes. It is possible that children's feedback on their teachers resembles that given by learned peers in the profession. I confess to being torn here. The autonomy-oriented teacher in me wants to breathe life and fire into the expression of student views, as part of their "presence, participation, and power" (Cook-Sather, 2006, p. 363) in learning and living, and as a means of getting purchase on buy-in from students, to invest in their learning and its outcomes, to grow their "agency, belonging and competence". Nevertheless, children are in a limited position to offer evidence-based pedagogical advice to teachers, in my experience.

The other main definition of 'profession' in the dictionaries cited above and others is gerundive in nature-the act of professing something. In this, too, teachers are professors. Speaking of professions (of faith), it is perhaps worth pondering the following quote: I swear…to hold my teacher…equal to my own parents.

It is an excerpt from the Hippocratic Oath, undertaken by doctors, in reference to those who teach them.

And before moving on from definitions, the word "pedagogue" derives from the Greek paidagogos-a slave (oh, the irony!) charged with guiding or leading the son of his master. It was all sons and masters back then.

If teaching is a profession, how did the profession fall so far from a widely accepted professional outward appearance? Much that is currently being done to education focuses on "performativity", which, according to Ball (2003) , "produces opacity rather than transparency as individuals and organizations take ever greater care in the construction and maintenance of fabrications" (p. 215). When I think about education's current state, I find John Dewey's words of over a century ago, both prescient and chilling:

The vice of externally imposed ends has deep roots. Teachers receive them from superior authorities; these authorities accept them from what is current in the community. The teachers impose them upon children. As a first consequence, the intelligence of the teacher is not free; it is confined to receiving the aims laid down from above. Too rarely is the individual teacher so free from the dictation of authoritative supervisor, textbook on methods, prescribed course of study, etc., that he [/she] can let his mind come to close quarters with the pupil's mind and the subject matter. This distrust of the teacher's experience is then reflected in lack of confidence in the responses of pupils. The latter receive their aims through a double or treble external imposition, and are constantly confused by the conflict between the aims which are natural to their own experience at the time and those in which they are taught to acquiesce. Until the democratic criterion of the intrinsic significance of every growing experience is recognized, we shall be intellectually confused by the demand for adaptation to external aims (1916, pp. 104-105, emphases added).

The first selected emphasis underscores the importance of a meeting between teacher, learner and subject matter, an important theme of this book. The consequences of external imposition, and of answering to several managers, the second emphasis, are also central to this book. If, as is reported, teachers tend to choose the profession for intrinsic and altruistic reasons (Heinz, 2015; Buchanan, 2009; OECD, 2005) , why are they accorded so little trust? As Churchward and Willis (2019, p. 253) point out, "teacher educators [and teachers] can find it difficult to speak back to the crisis narrative fomented in media, political and public debate".

There are further signs that teaching is viewed as a generic ability, rather than as professional expertise. At university, students, including those not from education faculties, routinely score their teachers' performance. I am not convinced they are well placed to do so, but more about that in Chap. 9. If my doctor's other patients and I were to offer feedback on him (he's a he), it would be on his bedside manner-not that comes to my bed routinely. We would be unqualified to comment on his medical knowledge, or the reasons behind the diagnoses he makes. Similarly, if I'm judging art, I know what I like. But I don't know which way is up with most abstract art. And what makes me yet more of a Philistine is that I'm not convinced that anyone knows with confidence which way is up-that's perhaps art's beauty? I'm certainly unqualified to judge art. Why, then, do we presume non-teachers can evaluate teachers in any more than in an "I-know-what-I-like" way?

This bit is mainly for non-teachers: If you reminisce on your "best teachers"-they were probably your favourite teachers, the teachers who "got you". I think that's a proxy for "respected you", believed in you and saw potential in you. As a result, they probably got the best out of you. There was probably some sort of bond or resonance between you and that teacher. They probably had a passion for their subject area, and ignited or further inflamed that passion in you. They helped you to catch the love they had for their subject area.

Does the above constitute pedagogy? Probably. Palmer (1998) , above, observed that connecting with his students, and them to the subject matter, is key to teaching (see also Chap. 2). Hopefully, your favourite teachers also explained things clearly. But can you go to the heart of how they theorised their work (unless you, yourself are a teacher)?

Naturally, as part of the democracy of everything (and that's not meant to be as cynical as it sounds) giving students voice in what they dis/like in their teachers is a reasonable thing. But it arguably offers little helpful advice and may not be as benign as it seems on the surface, particularly when outsiders might see banks of such comments and make judgements summarily. It is also a further mechanism that feeds into the notion that all can teach. By contrast, when it comes to the medical profession, few would believe that "anyone can cure".

Popular movies probably don't assist in promoting the status of teaching, with their "accidental teacher" narratives. Think Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act, or Jack Black in School of Rock-someone who "becomes" a teacher by virtue of being in a witness protection programme, or impersonating someone else. These movie themes derive from, and feed into, the 'anyone can teach' mentality. I remind myself that these are works of fiction-any resemblance to anyone living or dead is incidental. All their lines, and, more crucially, their students' lines, have been scripted in advance, and are known to the other players. These characters are not to be taken any more seriously than (other) superheroes. In defence of these movies, "anyone can teach" is probably not their central social premise-they are comedies. Perhaps worse still-I'm not sure-is the teacher-as-wounded-martyr-a teacher who lives their life vicariously through their students. Apart from that notion being somewhat creepy, the teacher needs to be able to bring the world to the student, and the student to the world, and needs to "live in the world" to do so. Shulman (1986, p. 4 ) reports on "tests for teachers used in licensing candidates", from over a century earlier. He adds, "These tests show us how teacher knowledge was defined…we can compare those conceptions with those analogues today". While space in this chapter does not permit a comprehensive overview of the development of teacher education, this section outlines some turning points in the preparation of teachers over time. Some of these turning points shed light on how we view (or fail or refuse to view) teachers, teaching and learning.

The credentialing of teachers has risen quite dramatically in the last half-century or so in developed nations, particularly with regard to teaching in the early years of school. In the 1970s in Australia, primary school teachers were typically 2year trained following matriculation. Teacher education was conducted in Teachers' Colleges, or Colleges of Advanced Education, few of whose staff may have had doctorates. Such colleges were probably not sites of rigorous research, nor were they expected to be. More recently in Australia and similar countries, teacher education institutions have become, or been subsumed by, universities-usually in the form of a Faculty or School of Education, or-often more recently still-"Education and…", or "…. and Education", reflective, perhaps of a declining status of Education (and education?) in universities, even though universities are fundamentally sites of learning and teaching-even in the accretion and dissemination of their research. As Labaree (2018, p. 290) points out, in the USA, "since the 1970s, teacher education has been a wholly owned subsidiary of the university".

Taking a further step back in time, Labaree (2018, p. 291) observes that prior to the establishment of normal schools, which specialised in teacher education, in the mid-nineteenth century, "the assumption was that anyone who had reached a certain level of education could turn around and teach it". Familiarity with the subject matter was deemed sufficient unto teaching that material. In eighteenth-century France, a similar notion was proposed, that school teachers needed but one level of education higher than that of their students; a secondary qualification to teach in the primary years, for example. This is not uncommon in less developed nations today. The French established a new level of education provider, the école normale, to train secondary schoolteachers (Edwards, 1991) . A similar assumption prevails in some universities today, in that the teacher is usually expected to have a qualification at least one level higher than that of their students-a Master's-to teach at undergraduate level, for example. Universities often require little in the way of a teaching qualification for staff outside their Education faculties or schools. As such, current approaches to education (outside Education) at university bear similarities to education more broadly in the 1800s and 1900s in developed nations.

The term "normal school" is curious, and appears, well, normalising in its intent. It might lead to teacher socialisation if not institutionalisation? Edwards (1991, p. 249) , citing a Ph.D. thesis by Rexford (1936) , reports that normal schools in Quebec "would train up young men to act as teachers and instructors". The system appears to model itself on theological training. Indeed, education, or at least literacy instruction, was the preserve of religious institutions for many centuries, perhaps not unlike madrassahs in some countries today. 4 A few words in the from Edwards' quote above are troubling: "train", "men" and "act"; the two troublesome verbs appear to suggest little in the way of theorising, diagnosing, questioning or problematising teaching and learning. "Train" suggests watching and mimicking, and while many teachers would readily agree that teaching entails acting, "act" here conjures up a relatively narrow skillset or range of competencies. Education appears to be a mechanism for maintaining the status quo-even to the extent of the "men" aspect. There appeared to be little hope of interrogating, critiquing and challenging, much less overturning, society.

The above definitions and snapshots from history suggest a default view of teaching as equating to telling. In some ways, it is curious and fortuitous that we have ever outgrown this view of something being learned, and of a person being learned-that is, of a person-teacher or learner-knowing stuff, and their capacity to recite it (to others). Of course, it is not only modern societies, or Western traditions, that have discovered deeper truths in pedagogy. Other traditions delightfully counter our predilection for individualism with approaches that seek oneness with others, or oneness with Place. Eastern (Buddhist, Confucian, Dao) philosophies seek interpersonal balance and harmony (e.g. Wang, 2019), while Indigenous traditions have applied spiritual and other worldviews to learning from Country (e.g. Country et al., 2015) . And, of course, for all and any tradition, there is more wisdom yet to be yielded in the pursuit and service of learning.

The science of learning, and the business of devising practices and establishing circumstances in which this happens optimally-that is, pedagogy-is what establishes teaching as unique among the professions. Naturally enough, teaching also proceeds from command of a body of related content knowledge. At all stages, though-and perhaps particularly at elementary stages, the essence of teaching is that of facilitating (critical) understanding of concepts, potentially complex ones.

The above accounts provide some glimpses of what might be called "credentialling creep"-that is the raising of minimal credentials for teachers. This is, in one sense, the cause for celebration. It is a symptom of, and necessitated by, a more educated society, a society ever more concerned with education, and the means and the will to prioritise education. But this credentialing needs to be educative in its operation. It needs to adopt some of the best aspects of teaching and learning hinted at earlier in this chapter and elsewhere.

In terms of credentialing teachers, and protecting and defending the standing of teaching in the eyes of its members and the public, two competing narratives can be discerned: I refer to them here as the "security guard" and "security blanket" options. The security guard approach decries current shortfalls in teacher expertise, and demands ever-increasingly stringent entry and accreditation requirements, while the second calls for further support of teachers in their work. Each of these narratives arguably has some claim on truth, but for me, the overriding message of these two is: greater support for teachers. Even if one wishes to tread the security guard beat of stricter entry requirements, then an effective way to do so is to make the profession more attractive. That will, in turn, make it more competitive, entry-wise, which will then make the profession more prestigious and exclusive. Caldwell (2010, p. 53) longs for a future in which "new world-class facilities have been an important factor in attracting able people to the profession". I'm inferring a very broad definition of "facilities" here, to encompass anyone and anything that facilitates learning. More specific ways of making the teaching profession more attractive are explored in the final section of this book.

Teacher improvement, that is, teacher learning, thrives when: there is trust; it is improvement-oriented (even if it might be, potentially, high-stakes); there is scope for error-making, and experimentation; there is a lower power difference between evaluator and evaluated. Proceeding from this, in the absence of trusting the system, the evaluator and the motives, one is unlikely to trust or embrace any advice on offer. There is possibly an optimal middle way, that I'll refer to as a Comfort Zone of Proximal Development (with apologies to Vygotsky 1978) 5 ; a point where there is sufficient challenge and sufficient comfort, support and trust, for the teacher/learner to take steps forward, and maximise professional growth, rather than adopting a fight or flight response (obstruction and resistance, or resignation). Recognising the intellectual work and the research contribution of teachers would also be of value, and would raise the standing of the profession in the eyes of the public. Ways of doing this are explored in the final section of the book. One of the best ways of supporting students' learning is to affirm, support and defend their teachers in their work.

Attrition has other consequences. It drains the corporate knowledge and experience of a school staff, which adds to the burden of those charged with the responsibility of teacher professional development. One current characteristic of the teachforce is the flight of men from the profession, particularly from the early years of schooling. McGrath and Van Bergen (2017) tracked the proportion of male teachers in Australian schools over a half-century, from 1965 to 2016. From these figures, they extrapolated a vanishing point for male teachers in another half-century, by 2067. It is possible that we are degrading the environment and habitat for all teachers, putting in jeopardy their capacity to thrive.

The relationship between teacher, learner and the to-be-learnt, Palmer's (1998) interconnection between teacher, learner and subject matter, is a potentially volatile one. Much learning, much of it that is significant anyway, is likely to challenge and seek to dethrone existing knowledge and views. Our attempts to keep this privileging of old knowledge in check, like an approach to dieting, needs to be unrelenting. Furthermore, there is a knowledge and power imbalance in the classroom (even though the Internet and other factors have lessened this imbalance). This may well offend the ego of the learner. In response to a learner's defence, a teacher, too, may become defensive. Teachers can become habituated into being the only ones in the room with knowledge worthy of considering as such. This can have several problems for teacher and, indirectly, for the learner: arrogance and inflexibility among them. Of course, this doesn't mean a call to cognitive anarchy-anything goes; "the collapse of open-mindedness into anarchy" (Sinnema et al., 2017) . All claims need to be subjected to scrutiny and supported by evidence, and, in turn, all evidence needs to be scrutinised for its reliability and precision. "It's complicated", as the saying goes.

I set out hereunder a precis for the remaining chapters of this book. They are repeated at the beginning of each chapter, so disregard them here if you choose.

The book comprises 12 chapters, in three sections. Chapter 2 The Purpose of Education, and of Teachers This chapter sets out some of the nobler aims of teaching. It is anticipated that the chapter may provide inspiration to aspirant teachers, and reinvigoration to current teachers, about education, its contributions and its capacity for value-adding to individuals' lives-including teachers themselves-and to the societies they serve. It intertwines discussions of the demands of teaching, and on teachers, and teacher morale and retention/attrition, informed by related literature. More specifically, it introduces some ways in which teacher education authorities have set out to ensure that teachers and aspirant teachers embody qualities commensurate with the professional and personal demands assumed of them, and some potential-associated pitfalls. It includes some autobiographical illustrations, and some personal testimonials (to which the reader might bring their own) illustrating the benefits of education, direct and indirect. The chapter presents implications for teacher education and teacher professional development.

Chapter 3 (Why) Are We Falling Behind and (Why) Does it Matter? This chapter discusses the dynamic that drives many of the issues that are discussed in subsequent chapters: the perception and/or reality that Australian students are falling behind their international peers. This is leading to outcomes such as greater accountability from teachers and teacher educators, pressure for more content to be added to the curriculum. The chapter investigates to what extent and how current approaches are remedying the problem of positioning on international league tables. The chapter also visits some possible causes of less-than-optimal performance among Australian students at school, and implications of this for teachers' day-to-day work.

Section 2: The "Players" This section examines, in turn, some of the major forces shaping education, and their capacity for good or ill. These include paperwork and reporting; the foregrounding of basic skills and standardisation in teaching, among other issues, as indicated by the chapter headings.

Chapter 4 "If I Could Just Teach" This chapter explores how various pressures, such as the international competitions referred to above, are leading to onerous reporting and accountability, which distract teachers from the core business of teaching, and may be sapping them of the time, energy, creativity, agency and will essential for good teaching. The chapter examines the proliferating complexity of being a learner and teacher in the twentyfirst century, and at concomitant cognitive and emotional load for teachers. It also investigates other issues such as student resistance to learning, and their possible links to teacher attrition and burnout. It discusses teachers' experiences against a framework of demands made on, and support offered to, the teacher. This chapter also introduces some of the above issues, and others affecting teachers, as a means of setting the scene for the chapters that follow in this section.

Chapter 5 Basic, Basal Skills and Their Effects on Higher Order Thinking This chapter investigates the impact of NAPLAN (Australia's Literacy and Numeracy testing regime), as well as other forms of (basic skills) testing, both in terms of literacy and numeracy standards, and for the profession more broadly. It also examines the impact of the My School website, with regard to school branding and reputation, and in/consistencies between intended and actual outcomes thereof.

The chapter compares what appears to be a rather dour preoccupation with testing basic skills, with some of the lofty aspirations contained in documents such as the Melbourne Declaration.

Chapter 6 The Pressures on, and of, Curriculum This chapter follows on logically from the previous one, in that increasingly crowded curricula are symptomatic of concerns about "falling behind". The chapter explores some of the pressures shaping curriculum design-usually in the direction of cramming more content into a course of study. This is likely to make the teaching and learning experience less satisfying, and probably less satisfactory, for both teachers and learners. The chapter incorporates a series of continua, devised by the author, which might provide a backdrop for curriculum development. Alternatives or complements to current subject-based curricula will also be explored.

Chapter 7 The Standardisation of Teaching The development of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers presents an opportune moment to investigate and evaluate such standards, the nature of standards-based accreditation, and the impact of standardisation on pedagogy, and on a profession where one size doesn't fit all. This chapter investigates notions of "quality teaching" and forming a "quality teacher". The chapter also holds up to the light the concept of a standard as a measure against which others can be judged, and the basis on which a standard assumes and accretes authority and credibility, and explores the extent to which teachers serve standards or vice versa. The study focuses on Australia's Graduate Level standards in particular. The chapter builds on an existing Springer book chapter, (Buchanan, 2017) , which critiqued standards and standardisation. In particular, the chapter will include a discussion of recent research on Teaching Performance Assessments, which are linked to the Standards, and the impact these are having and are likely to have on teaching and on the profession, including initial teacher education providers.

Chapter 8 Teacher Professional Assessment and Teacher Professional Development This chapter focuses on the Teaching Professional Assessment, the newly introduced capstone assessment task for all graduating pre-service teachers in Australia, and the nexus between pre-service and in-service. The chapter considers the backwash effect of the TPA in pre-service teacher education. It also considers the nature of in-service teacher professional development. The chapter reports on the potential of, and weaknesses of, the TPA, emerging from preliminary research, and will propose suggestions for modification accordingly. It discusses the TPA and TPD in the context of an issue central to the teaching profession: assessment.

This chapter focuses mainly on teacher education, where student feedback surveys have routinely been conducted for many years. It looks at how these are contributing to the shaping of teaching and learning, and some associated potential pitfalls. In doing so, it examines the commonly held notion among non-educators that everyone is an expert in education, as we're all experienced it. The chapter sets out some alternative and supplementary means of assessing the quality of teaching and learning more comprehensively. The chapter deals with key concepts of student satisfaction, teacher evaluation, teacher quality and the complexity of teaching. This has implications beyond teacher education, for the evaluation of all teaching and learning.

Chapter 10 Digital Devices, Online Learning and All That: How They Are Shaping Education

Mobile devices can arguably deliver for and deliver from (worthwhile) learning. This discursive chapter examines current literature regarding the problems and prospects with regard to the use of mobile devices in classrooms, and arguments for and against their use at school, and the kinds of uses they are being, and might be, put to. The chapter also discusses the contribution of digital technologies to conforming and potentially constraining teachers. The chapter will also reprise in brief a discussion of student behaviour more generally, and the respect accorded, or not, to teachers, from students and parents. The chapter explores this in light of recent homeschooling, necessitated by Covid-19, and the newfound respect this has garnered for teachers from parents.

Section 3 Playing Our Professional Part (or, "It's Play-Back Time!") This section explores ways forward to reclaim the profession for those who profess it-teachers. Chapter 11 eyes possible futures, while Chap. 12 sets out some possible courses of action to bring about preferred futures for the profession and the generation, and the planet, it serves.

Chapter 11 Which Future? A Note of Hope? This chapter explores current and potential developments in education that have the potential to invigorate it, and teachers, and to revolutionise the world. It examines these current trends in terms of the futures they may create or contribute to. It touches on some of the dangers-and benefits-of an educated and informed, articulate and fired up caucus of young learners. The chapter then showcases some of the creative and innovative practices evident in education today. The chapter concludes with an exhortation for teachers to reassert their professionalism, as those who know teaching, and their students, best.

Chapter 12 Recommendations: What We Know and What We Can Do. This chapter is a call to action, and outlines some of the practical measures that teachers can undertake to reclaim their profession and its standing. In short, it sets forth how teachers can leverage their own skills and knowledge about teaching and learning, and apply these to the re-education of others, not just their students.

There are also themes, or hypotheses, that inform and are informed by the processes of investigation for this book. They emerge in various chapters, and will be reprised more specifically in the second-last chapter. These are.

• Teaching is unrelentingly complex (Cochran-Smith, 2003; Mayer et al., 2017) , and teachers work amidst multiple layers of complexity, ambiguity and unpredictability. • Not everyone can teach. That is, not everyone can do the work of a teacher. • All education should be agency-and autonomy-oriented. Accordingly, the professional development of teachers, in all its guises, should be similarly oriented. • Teachers are, and should be helped to be, experts at assessment and discernment.

This expertise in discernment has the capacity to address many problems facing education. The expertise should be given opportunity to flourish, and teachers should be accorded trust, with support from expert others, to develop responses to local challenges. • The unpleasant nature of something, such as testing, should not be sufficient in itself to cause its abandonment. Each initiative should be retained, modified or discarded on its own de/merits. There are numerous unpleasant life experiences, such as vaccinations, colonoscopies and dental work. Their unpleasantness does not merit their abandonment. New experiences typically instil some fear. • The above notwithstanding, there are risks associated with high-stakes testing (of teachers and students). It risks constricting or distorting a teacher's, a school's or an education system's repertoire, as well as the courage to be frank, and to explore, so necessary for learning. • The quest for meaning, including prediction-we are all eager, to the point of distraction if not desperation, to establish meaning, find patterns and predict. No doubt the ability to predict has served as a useful evolutionary and survival skill. Despite this, humans are not necessarily highly adept at judging and predicting. Our keenness to predict can lead us into all manner of superstition. It always rains on my golf day. Yours too? It can't be just coincidence, then. • Linked to the above, we also seek tidiness and resolution, and to be in control. But this can lead to a safe, over-simplistic view of and outlook on the world. Biesta (2009, p. 36 ) observes that educational strategies that "provide opportunities for students to explore their own ways of thinking, doing and being" may prove superior to "those that effectively proceed to a pre-specified end". This applies, too, to teacher-learning. • Some of the most productive learning emerges from the potentially confronting business of self-analysis and reflection. This can occur most productively when faced with those different from me. Watching-and-copying teaching is unlikely to incite reflection.

In short, teaching and learning, particularly given their complexity, volatility and capacity to confront, flourish best in a climate of trust and mutual respect.

This year or perhaps last, we met our first intake of pre-service teacher students who were born after the events of 11 September 2001. For some time, though, we've had incoming students who have grown up in the shadow of those events. Not just terrorism, but stranger danger, cyberdangers and the like cast their shadow over our young people. Even nature seems to be conspiring against us, with the dangers from sun exposure and global warming (although nature is victim rather than perpetrator of global warming). I believe it's an anxious time to be a parent, and to be a child. These dynamics may interfere with the boldness and creativity of teaching at several levels, and may compound the instinctive cautiousness of some. Students, parents, teachers, school executive, bureaucrats and politicians may all be hesitant to take risks, particularly if the stakes are high. How mightily this stumbles in the face of Australia's education blueprint document, the "Melbourne Declaration" (MCEETYA, 2008) , that "all young Australians become…confident and creative individuals". professional foul n … a deliberate foul committed as a last-ditch tactic to prevent an opponent from scoring (HarperCollins, 1999 (HarperCollins, , p. 1233 ).

The above entry caught my eye while I was consulting "profession" in the dictionary. It would be unfair to accuse educrats and others of committing professional fouls against teaching, to suggest that they are wilfully and knowingly scoring own goals. Yet, the impact of some of their behaviours may have similar effects. Giroux (2015, p. 14) refers to "the push toward pedagogical ignorance and the assault on reason". I'm not going out of my way to find adversaries here, but I do need to say some things that may prove unpalatable to some sectors. Anything that is toxic to the creativity, risk-taking and craft of teaching needs to be (re-)considered for its potential to harm and stunt the profession. Such themes are explored in this book.

Mindfulness for adulting. Learning: Research and Practice

The teacher's soul and the terrors of performativity

Social learning theory

Good education in an age of measurement: On the need to reconnect with the question of purpose in education

Nurses again outpace other professions for honesty

How do the standards stand up? Applying quality teacher frameworks to the Australian Professional Standards

Introduction and Context

Where are they now? Ex-teachers tell their life-work stories

The impact of high-stakes test-driven accountability. Professional Voice

The pursuit of teacher quality: Identifying some of the multiple discourses of quality that impact he work of teacher educators

The unforgiving complexity of teaching: Avoiding simplicity in the age of accountability

Student Voice" in educational research and reform

Working with and learning from country: Decentring human authority

Profession": A working definition for medical educators

Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education

Theory, history and practice of education: Fin de siècle and a new beginning

Dangerous thinking in the age of new authoritarianism

Why choose teaching? An international review of empirical studies exploring student teachers' career motivations and levels of commitment to teaching

#Adulting and the disordered state of American adulthood

Brave new world. London: Chatto & Windus

Ranked: Australia's 20 most trusted professions

What is technological, pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK)? Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education

An uneasy relationship. The history of teacher education in the university

On the nature of teaching and teacher education: Difficult practices that look easy

Teaching evaluation: Antecedents of teachers' perceived usefulness of follow-up sessions and perceived stress related to the profession. Teachers and Teaching Theory and Practice

Schoolteacher: A sociological study

Are male teachers headed for extinction? The 50-year decline of male teachers in Australia

Macquarie encyclopaedic dictionary

Five challenges in Australian school education. Policy Insights, 5. Australian Council for Educational Research

Studying the effectiveness of teacher education

Melbourne declaration on educational goals for young Australians

Teachers who change lives

Teachers matter: Attracting, developing and retaining effective teachers

Nineteen eighty-four

Oxford English reference dictionary

The courage to teach

And its ghost may be heard": Policy and practice in civics and citizenship education in Australia over two decades

Mental and physical artifacts in cognitive practice

The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age Crisis-and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance

Assessment reform: High-stakes testing and knowing the contents of other minds

The wisdom of practice: Essays on teaching, learning and learning to teach

Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching

Capturing the complex, situated, and active nature of teaching through inquiry-oriented standards for teaching

Texas GOP rejects 'thinking skills'. Really. Washington Post

How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms

The decline in adult activities among

Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes

Learning from and for one another: An inquiry on symbiotic learning