The Australian Context: National, State and School-Level Efforts to Improve Schools in Australia

Australia, like many countries, has a history of colonisation and extensive controlled and humanitarian immigration, with this shifting from an Anglo-Celtic emphasis to include, in succession, an emphasis on migrants from Europe, Asia and Africa. This chapter provides several perspectives on evidence-based school development in this changing context. The first focus is on national school-wide improvement initiatives: IDEAS (Innovative Designs for Enhancing Achievements in Schools), which utilises professional learning communities to improve student outcomes; and PALL (Principals as Literacy Leaders) which provides principals with literacy and leadership knowledge to support teachers to improve student reading performance. The second perspective explores the state level through considering work at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education in terms of evidence-based teacher training through the development of a clinical teaching model, and evidence-based school improvement through the Science of Learning Schools Partnership. The final perspective is at the school level, where the development of two schools in challenging contexts are described: the first a school formed from the closure of three failing schools; the second a school that was at the point of closure when the current principal was appointed to turn-it-around.

Veteran Teachers’ Understanding of “Balanced Literacy”

The term balanced literacy was popularized in the mid-1990s to describe a middle ground in terms of text selection, instruction, skills, and strategies. The intention was to merge the promising elements of whole language and phonics. Interactions with educators and literacy leaders across the country currently suggest that a term that had been seemingly well defined 20 years ago had become more vague. This descriptive study polled 25 veteran teachers to identify commonalities among their definitions and instructional applications.

Not Just a Teacher

In this chapter, the author reflects on her development as a teacher leader. Using self-study based in narrative inquiry, she describes the current interest in teacher leadership and why it has become such a prominent topic in education. By exploring her own experiences in light of current research on the topic, she analyzes how teachers become leaders, the benefits to the profession of teacher leadership, some of the challenges teacher leaders face, and possible paths forward for teacher leaders. In addition, she delineates new expectations and challenges facing today's literacy leaders.

Becoming Literacy Leaders: Teacher Candidates Initiate a Community-Based Literacy Program

This paper presents a case study of a community-based literacy program that was initiated by teacher candidates. Program goals, purposes and opportunities for ongoing learning beyond coursework and practicum are explored. Key themes for discussion include: literacy as social and life-long; moving beyond print literacy; capitalizing on strengths; freedom in planning and freedom from assessment; feedback from the community; and, the opportunity to become literacy leaders. Mentorship roles are explored, along with questions for ongoing reflection and conversation.