Abstract
Our first issue of the Australian Journal of Education for 2025 features articles that highlight concerns in teaching, learning for both children and pre-service teachers, and the importance of a work life balance.
Most readers, whether we regularly spend time in a classroom or not, would be aware of the challenges faced by educators, and the past few years have highlighted issues of stress and burnout in the education profession. In the first article, Pamela Patrick and Elizabeth Bensley investigate relationships between teachers’ coping styles and two aspects of professional quality of life identified by Stamm (2010)—compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction. Data from 334 Australian registered teachers including measures of problem-focused, emotion-focused, and avoidant coping styles and compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress (two components of compassion fatigue) were included in regression analyses. Results indicated that avoidant coping strategies were significantly related to both aspects of compassion fatigue, with teachers who reported engaging in high levels of avoidant coping also reporting high levels of burnout and high levels of secondary traumatic stress (STS). Teachers who reported using more problem-focused coping strategies, on the other hand, had lower levels of compassion fatigue and higher levels of compassion satisfaction than teachers who used other types of coping. The authors suggest that the findings can be used to inform professional development in the areas of coping strategies and assist teachers find greater satisfaction in their professions.
The next article, from Youmen Chaaban and Hoa Thi Mai Nguyen, reports on a qualitative case study of pre-service teachers’ professional experiences, using a lens of boundary crossing to explore the perspectives of pre-service teachers and those of their mentor teachers. Data for the study was collected from interviews, field observation sessions and feedback sessions, and reflection meetings conducted with seven pre-service teachers and their assigned mentor teachers. Data analysis, conducted in two phases—an inductive phase followed by a deductive phase—revealed three major themes and nine subthemes. These themes included navigating collaborative and hierarchical relationships (with mentor teachers, with teacher educators, and with peers), integrating converging and diverging epistemologies (theory vs. practice; adopting vs. adapting pedagogical practices; the mediating role of boundary objects—imposition vs. flexibility), and engaging in identity work (enacting agency; gaining confidence; acquiring new understandings and skills). The authors suggest that while the majority of participating mentor teachers provided guidance and support to their pre-service teachers, coordination of the guidance provided by the mentor teachers and the teacher educators was not always in evidence and the connection between the content of university programs (the theory) and the experiential learning that takes place during placements (the practice) remains a challenge in teacher preparation.
In this article, Nicola Bell and Kevin Wheldall examine whether the Martin and Pratt Nonword Reading Test, an Australian-normed assessment of nonword reading accuracy, still validly and accurately estimates the decoding skills of primary school-aged children, despite its norms having been collected in 1996. Reading assessment data, including other measures of nonword reading fluency, single word reading fluency, and reading passages along with the Martin and Pratt nonword test, were collected from 176 Australian students in Years 1 through 6 in three independent schools. Students’ scores on the Martin and Pratt and other nonword measures correlated significantly, indicating that the Martin and Pratt shows criterion validity. The standard scores generated by the Martin and Pratt were consistently higher than those of the other tests, however, and the authors suggest this overestimation may be related to the time that has lapsed and changes in approaches to reading instruction that have occurred since the test was normed.
Karen Guo and Elizabeth Rouse present findings from a qualitative meta-synthesis of Australian research on the Reggio Emilia Approach (REA) to early years education in the next article. A total of 23 articles, published over two decades, met selection criteria and were included in the review. Four main themes were identified in the combined findings of these studies, including empowering children’s voice, rights and agency; fostering children’s learning through multiliteracies; exploring inquiry and co-creation through the project approach; and the learning environment as a teacher. While the findings of the meta-synthesis suggest that REA may be beneficial to both students and teachers, and there appears to be alignment between the key principles of the Australia Early Years Learning Framework and some tenets of the REA, the authors highlight a number of challenges that may impede further integration of the REA into early years education, such as the need for resourcing, and ongoing professional development.
The final article for this issue addresses issues of student engagement and attendance in remote and very remote schools in Australia from the perspectives of members of these communities. Catherine Holmes, John Guenther, Rhonda Oliver, and Robyn Ober present qualitative findings from interviews and yarn groups conducted as part of the broader study Researching school engagement of Aboriginal students and their families from regional and remote areas project. One hundred and thirty-nine interviews were conducted by the research team and trained community-based researchers to gauge participants’ views of what factors impact student attendance and engagement and what educational support structures, practices, and strategies lead to improved student attendance and engagement in their school communities. Thematic analysis identified seven broad themes—school environments, teachers and teaching, governance, leadership, On Country learning, relationships, and family support. The participants, who all live, work, and study in remote communities, also highlighted a priority for a culturally safe school environment for their students and teaching First Nations languages as likely to improve student and community engagement with schools and hopefully increase attendance. As the authors so clearly put it, “To engage young people in learning, schools must be the place of choice for students to be” (Holmes et al., 2024).
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