This unique book explores school improvement policy - from its translation into national contexts and school networks to its implementation in leader and teacher practices in individual schools and classrooms within this network of schools and its impact on students' learning. It draws on multiple conceptual and theoretical resources to explore the complexities attached to a school improvement process in a network of schools in Australia. These conceptual and theoretical resources include discourse, practice, representation and network, concepts common to both policy research as well as studies of leadership and classroom practice. They lead to a more detailed understanding of the intersections between educational policy and intervention processes, and the complex reality of school processes and teaching practices. In the book we trace the implementation of school improvement policies through its multiple phases, levels and contexts. Our data-collection and analysis methods draw on a variety of perspectives in the way different players perceive their roles and the nature of the initiative and the ways in which these intersect. The research findings are used to seek productive approaches to school improvement that combine policy integrity with local flexibility. The book contributes to the school improvement literature through its exploration of tensions between global and systemic settings and local practices and histories.

This unique book explores school improvement policy - from its translation into national contexts and school networks to its implementation in leader and teacher practices in individual schools and classrooms within this network of schools and its impact on students' learning. It draws on multiple conceptual and theoretical resources to explore the complexities attached to a school improvement process in a network of schools in Australia. These conceptual and theoretical resources include discourse, practice, representation and network, concepts common to both policy research as well as studies of leadership and classroom practice. They lead to a more detailed understanding of the intersections between educational policy and intervention processes, and the complex reality of school processes and teaching practices. In the book we trace the implementation of school improvement policies through its multiple phases, levels and contexts. Our data-collection and analysis methods draw on a variety of perspectives in the way different players perceive their roles and the nature of the initiative and the ways in which these intersect. The research findings are used to seek productive approaches to school improvement that combine policy integrity with local flexibility. The book contributes to the school improvement literature through its exploration of tensions between global and systemic settings and local practices and histories.

Academic capitalism (Slaughter and Leslie, 1997) and the globalisation of political economies at the beginning of the twenty first century have led to a further destabilisation of the patterns of university professional work that had developed over the past hundred years. Faculties are now positioned squarely in the marketplace and increasing competition amongst universities for revenue producing students has led many universities to enthusiastically embrace the marketing possibilities of online teaching and learning and the discourse of the market place. Globally, universities are increasingly promoting online teaching, so it was timely to carry out this research which places the case study of one academic community within the wider global context. Drawing particularly on the theoretical resources of Foucault this work presents the lived experience of being academic and the often contradictory subjectivities within the power relations of the managed university in the 21st century.

Becoming a Teacher of Language and Literacy explores what it means to be a literacy educator in the 21st century. It promotes a reflective and inquiry-based approach to literacy teaching and examines three central questions: 1. How do teachers approach the teaching of reading and writing, speaking and listening within a digital age? 2. How do teachers approach the standardisation of literacy, including high-stakes testing? 3. How do teachers work within the framework of the Australian curriculum: English? The book covers a range of contemporary topics in language and literacy education, including reading and creating digital texts, supporting intercultural engagement in literacy education and developing community partnerships. Each chapter features teacher narratives, current theoretical perspectives, examples of practice and reflective questions. The narratives are designed to prompt reflection about teachers' professional practice within local school settings. They convey the voices of teachers as they grapple with the challenges of their professional practice.