Education Commons^™

In 2006, an intensive one-year Graduate Diploma of Education course leading to registration as a teacher was introduced in universities in Queensland. In the first few years of the course there was concern from professional associations and schools that a one-year course (when compared with a four-year undergraduate course of two-year Graduate Diploma course) allowed insufficient time to 'become a teacher'. At James Cook University, the Cairns Professional Advisory Group (a board of representatives from professional experience schools, comprising teachers, principals and union and employer groups) expressed deep concern at the observed inability of some Graduate Diploma pre-service teachers to …

Indigenous literacy policy implementation in Queensland schools. The persistence of poor literacy outcomes for Indigenous students in Australia has been an educational policy focus for successive federal and state governments for decades. This book charts the implementation over three years through the perspectives of teachers, principals and administrators. It provides both a social archive and unique insight into policy implementation dynamics as they play out in systems and schools and gives understanding of the relationships between social contexts and educational outcomes for Indigenous students who do not speak English as their home language. Further, it gives voice to marginalised voices …

In 2007, a wholly-online Bachelor of Early Childhood Education degree was introduced into James Cook University School of Education's suite of pre-service teacher preparation programs. The online degree provides access and opportunity for (predominantly) women in the childcare or associated fields to gain qualifications as a teacher. The majority of students in the first and subsequent years of the program are mature-aged women with significant family and work commitments and have had little prior opportunity to engage in online technologies or in further education opportunities. The university has had a very successful face-to-face Peer Mentoring Program (PMP) for almost 20 …