Understanding Australian Teachers’ Success Strategies

Karen L. Peel is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. She is an experienced teacher, having taught in Australian schools across decades of educational transformations. Her research interests include implementing practices for effective teaching and self-regulated learning.Deborah L. Mulligan is an Honorary Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. Her research interests include gerontology, where she has published on older men and suicide ideation. Deborah has a strong interest in community capacity-building through examining marginalised societal cohorts.R. E. (Bobby) Harreveld is Professor Emerita at Central Queensland University, Australia. Her interests include socio-cultural understandings of education in diverse contexts; research education and ethics (politics, theory, practice); professional and vocational education and employment transition pathways; and distance, open and online teaching and learning.Nick Kelly is Associate Professor in Design Science in the School of Design at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. He conducts interdisciplinary research across the fields of design and education, with a focus upon design cognition and design science in teacher education and schooling.Patrick Alan Danaher is Professor in Education in the School of Education at Excelsia University College, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. His research interests include academics’, educators’ and researchers’ work and identities, and education research ethics, methods, politics and theories.

"The book provides a reflection quality, writ large, where the authors and teachers they interviewed offer a tantalising narrative for teacher education, interweaving scholarship and teachers’ voices while describing insights that extend complexities and clarify contradictions (e.g., actions), challenges (e.g., policy), and comforts (e.g., institutions). The book is an asset to the international NARRES project providing Australia as context, highlighting resilience (variously), and offering a strong example of narrative as reflection both theoretically and practically."Associate Professor Robert C. Kleinsasser, Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation, Arizona State University, United States; Co-Editor-in-Chief of Teaching and Teacher Education (2019–2024)"This book is both a celebration of teachers and teaching and a sophisticated analysis and evaluation of the current zeitgeist of the profession. A ‘must-read’ for aspiring teachers and those who work beside them."Associate Professor Glenda McGregor, Deputy Head of School (Learning & Teaching), School of Education & Professional Studies, Griffith University, Australia

• Chapter 1: Conceptualising and Contextualising Australian Teachers’ Success StrategiesAbstractIntroductionThe international NARRES studyThe Australian research projectThe research designData collectionData analysisResearch ethicsThe bookConclusionReferencesRecommended further readingChapter 2: Teachers as Designers for LearningAbstractIntroductionSelected literatureDesign and teachingDesign cycles, frames and activitiesDesign expertise and the basic psychological needs of teachersData analysisTeachers framing their design for learningCycles of design for learningImplicationsConclusionReferencesRecommended further readingChapter 3: Teachers as Emotional LabourersAbstractIntroductionSelected literatureData analysisComplexitiesChallengesContradictionsComfortsImplicationsConclusionReferencesRecommended further readingChapter 4: Teachers as Narrative Constructors and DeconstructorsAbstractIntroductionSelected literatureData analysisComplexitiesChallengesContradictionsComfortsImplicationsConclusionReferencesRecommended further readingChapter 5: Teachers as Pandemic NavigatorsAbstractIntroductionSelected literatureData analysisComplexitiesChallengesContradictionsComfortsImplicationsConclusionReferencesRecommended further readingChapter 6: Teachers as Policy RefractorsAbstractIntroductionSelected literatureData analysisAudrey: A case of complexities, challenges, contradictions and comfortsComplexitiesChallengesContradictionsComfortsImplicationsConclusionReferencesRecommended further readingChapter 7: Teachers as Relationship BrokersAbstractIntroductionSelected literatureData analysisComplexitiesChallengesContradictionsComfortsImplicationsConclusionReferencesRecommended further readingChapter 8: Teachers as Self-Regulated LearnersAbstractIntroductionSelected literatureData analysisComplexities and comfortsChallenges and comfortsContradictions and comfortsImplicationsConclusionReferencesRecommended further readingChapter 9: Teachers as Situated EthicistsAbstractIntroductionSelected literatureData analysisComplexitiesChallengesContradictionsComfortsImplicationsConclusionReferencesRecommended further readingChapter 10: Teachers as Teaching IdealistsAbstractIntroductionSelected literatureData analysisComplexitiesChallengesContradictionsComfortsImplicationsConclusionReferencesRecommended further readingChapter 11: Teachers as Technology ReframersAbstractIntroductionSelected literatureData analysisComplexitiesChallengesContradictionsComfortsImplicationsConclusionReferencesRecommended further readingChapter 12: Celebrating Teachers: Lessons for Teachers and Teaching Nationally and GloballyAbstractIntroductionValue-driven success strategiesAgentic success strategiesAdaptable success strategiesRelational success strategiesDiscussionConclusionReferencesRecommended further readingAppendixInterview Protocol: Emotional Experiences of Australian Teachers