Behavioral Impacts Associated With Students With Disabilities in Australian Schools

This chapter explores the link between students with disabilities, the behaviours they exhibit, the impact this has on their schooling, and the impact upon others. The author's school has a population of about 1,000 students, of whom over 10 percent have verified disabilities. According to Education Council (2016), data regarding the number of students with disabilities is inconsistent between schools in Australia's states and territories, however, there are schools throughout Australia that have large numbers of students with verified disabilities. This is reinforced by the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (2018) where in 2017 there were about 18.8 percent of Australian school students with a verified disability. It is not surprising, therefore, that these statistics are concerning and research continues to be a priority. Identifying appropriate pedagogies and more effective management strategies for these students will benefit them, their families, and the community, and contribute to solving pressing issues in these students' lives.

Leading in lockdown: Community, communication and compassion in response to the COVID-19 crisis

This paper examines the ways that Australian school leaders made sense of and responded to situations of crisis and uncertainty that resulted from the COVID-19 global pandemic. The paper draws on a qualitative study of the subjective experiences of eight school leaders and uses a sensemaking theoretical approach applied to crisis leadership to contribute to understanding leadership in unprecedented situations. Data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews undertaken in the middle of 2020. At that time participants were working through significant changes resulting from community lockdowns that required their schools to move to remote provision of education. The findings revealed these school leaders engaged in rapid processes of sensemaking and change implementation. They assessed and managed risks, relationships and resourcing in environments where usual processes of change leadership were not available to them. They reported that their attention was predominantly directed to the well-being of their communities. They noted an increase in the community leadership aspect of their role and the requirement of effective, timely and honest communication. They also demonstrated prospective sensemaking orientations in their capacity to reconfigure for a positive and productive future that could emerge from these disruptive experiences.

School teachers: the forgotten frontline workers of Covid-19

Objective: Australian school teachers have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Teachers have had to face relentless and challenging working conditions, take on new roles and responsibilities, and embrace new ways of working. We searched reports and the available research literature on teacher mental health between September 2020 and October 2020. In our perspective piece, we summarise this literature and draw attention to the struggles of Australian school teachers and how Covid-19 has impacted their mental health. Conclusions: To date, there has been a lack of research focusing on teacher mental health both internationally and in Australia. That which is available indicates that teacher mental health is likely to have deteriorated substantially during the pandemic. We position teachers as the forgotten frontline of Covid-19 and make recommendations to facilitate improvements into the future.

School librarians supporting students’ reading for pleasure: A job description analysis

Reading for pleasure is an undervalued but highly beneficial practice conferring a range of educative and socio-emotional advantages. School librarians may play a key role in supporting reading for pleasure and associated literature advocacy; however, relatively little is known about how reading for pleasure may be valued within the job description of contemporary school librarians. It cannot be assumed that reading for pleasure is positioned as a valued aspect of the school librarians’ educative role in the United States and Australia, given factors such as evolving demands placed on the profession. Through hybrid content analysis of job description documents, this article explores which aspects of the current school librarian role are related to supporting reading for pleasure, comparing expectations between nations. While there are some similarities in the nature of the reading for pleasure role in the United States and Australia, Australian school librarians are far more likely to be expected to foster reading for pleasure.

Valuing the impact of the teacher librarian from an evidence base

Evidence-based practice as it applies to the Library and Information (LIS) sector and in particular teacher librarians is the focus of this research investigation. The context for this research is Australian school libraries and teacher librarians. This is a research in progress and the report here will include some very early findings and lessons learned from the initial pilot study. The contributions of this research will be in developing a framework for the library and information sector with a particular application for teacher librarians. Providing meaningful evidence of work practices that demonstrate contributions to the schools goals and mission statements in conjunction with contributions to student academic, social and cultural achievements are crucial for the future of the teacher librarian.