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A staffroom plays a number of roles, from café, through professional learning space, to independent work area. As a place of community, personal and professional relationships and camaraderie can thrive in a staffroom. Conversely, it can be a place where personal and professional relationships become fractured, resulting in a negative emotional response for the individual teacher. This qualitative case study explored the social and micropolitical factors that existed within a staffroom and played into the daily interactions and relationships of 17 Australian secondary school teachers who shared the same space. Individual interviews were conducted, focussing on emotions and emotional experiences encountered in the staffroom. This paper examines collegial relations and their impact on the emotional disposition of the individual teacher while sharing a staffroom. Thematic analysis revealed three principal factors as being in operation when participants discussed the nature of their relationships with colleagues in the staffroom: the role of emotional labour and emotional work, the sense of surveillance from visiting senior staff members, and the influence of different forms of collegiality developed with their peers. Findings emphasise the important effect of staffroom relationships on the professional and personal emotionality of a high school teacher, an underexplored area of teachers' work.

The first year at university is always challenging, but particularly in 2020 when COVID-19 triggered lockdowns and a rapid shift to online learning. This mixed methods study tracked the wellbeing and engagement of 60 new students in an undergraduate teacher education program at an Australian university throughout the first trimester of 2020. Follow-up focus groups with 14 students used interview and photo elicitation to explore how COVID-19 influenced wellbeing and engagement. Quantitative results demonstrate both student wellbeing and student engagement dipped strongly at the start of lockdown but recovered towards the end of the trimester. Focus group findings illustrate the diversity of experience in terms of student access to time and space to study, their ability to sustain relationships online, and the cumulative stress of COVID-19. The findings lead to recommendations for supporting this cohort and for future research.

Poor social-emotional reciprocity (SER) has been identified as one of the defining traits of autism. It is a key criterion in recent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders editions, DSM-IV and DSM-V (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 1994, 2013). Yet this difficulty related to socially engaging and interacting with others is poorly understood. The study reported here was a small-scale, qualitative inquiry underpinned by a phenomenological approach in which social-emotional reciprocity (SER) was the phenomenon being studied. Semi-structured interviews with three experienced teachers at an Australian autism-specific school were used to capture their understandings and experiences related to the trait. Interestingly, our teachers found it challenging to discuss SER in isolation from other key autistic traits such as repetitive behaviour and restricted interests. When data were formally explored using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), teacher viewpoints clustered around three interconnected themes: perspectives about SER; relationships and friendships; and impact on teachers. Limitations of this inquiry and recommendations for future research in this area are provided.

Limited research is available with a focus on adolescent Autistic girls and their needs during secondary schooling. Consequently, many issues are often not recognised and addressed by educators. The small-scale Australian research reported here explored the experiences of five Autistic girls during their first 2 years of secondary school, with data being gathered via an online survey and semi-structured interviews. Findings are presented from the perspective of the girls themselves and highlight the negative impact of sensory, communication, and social difficulties, as well as the influence of anxiety and executive dysfunction on their learning and academic success. Unique insights into how the girls feel about school and the anxiety they experience there, together with everyday barriers to learning they encounter provide some important messages to schools and teachers.

Over the past decade, the intentional promotion of student and staff wellbeing (i.e., positive states of psychological, cognitive, social and physical being) has become recognized as an essential dimension of quality schooling. This development has coincided with a growing body of research that demonstrates significant correlations between wellbeing and positive school outcomes (i.e., attendance, academic achievement, classroom engagement, disciplinary absences). While this body of literature identifies why wellbeing is important to school improvement, it is not necessarily clear whether it provides insight into how wellbeing may be effectively incorporated into the praxis of school improvement. This paper reports on a scoping review that sought to identify how the construct of wellbeing is presented as an imperative within the school improvement (SI) literature. The review identified that promoting wellbeing in schools as a means of improving school outcomes can be understood through three core concepts: (a) the development of personal wellbeing and academic capability are complementary; (b) significant cultural and structural reform is necessary in schools to enable effective approaches to promoting wellbeing; and (c) a nurturing style leadership is a determining factor in a school's capability to substantively promote wellbeing. The paper also provides recommendations for further research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although prevalently focused on research-based outcomes (i.e. better understanding of a particular phenomenon, process or experience), arts-based researchers have widely emphasised the transformational potentialities of arts for individuals. In particular, the arts create space for thinking differently and provide opportunities to explore intuitive and emotionally connected ideas that do not rely on words alone. The arts are powerful instruments to activate individual and collective reflection, creativity and ability to approach life situations from different perspectives. Thus, arts are particularly powerful to promote the creative and transformational processes that are essential for professional identity development, including reflection and reflexivity on self. In this paper we aim at conceptualising the high potential of art-based research, as a creative process, for teachers' identity development. Based on a systematic scientific literature analysis we intend to map the different ways arts can be used to support teachers' professional identity development while clarifying which transformational and learning processes are involved.

School-based mentoring (SBM) is an intervention that addresses the disengagement of "at-risk" youth. Currently, empirical evidence that SBM may help to stem youth disengagement remains largely inconclusive and inconsistent, and few studies have sought to examine the relational element of SBM. This article reports on a study that used a hermeneutic phenomenological methodology to identify and describe the constructs that constitute the lived experiences of two professional mentors working with young adolescents. The study's analysis revealed the mentor-mentee relationship as the principal operative element of such programs and identified mechanisms for the successful generation of mentor-mentee relational quality.

In this paper, we use an engagement framework to understand the experiences of university students midway through their initial teacher education programme. Analysis of interview transcripts revealed that engagement is being influenced negatively by a convergence of political, economic, structural and psychosocial factors. Despite the influence of these converging factors, some students maintained high levels of engagement, while others adopted survival strategies not conducive to deep learning. We argue that one way to deal with disengagement is to support learners to develop critical consciousness, a concept that includes learning agency, learning success, learning well-being and learning social justice.

Preservice teachers enter university with a range of personally held beliefs related to inclusive education and themselves as educators. This article reports on one case study from a larger qualitative research project. The study examined a preservice teacher's perceptions of herself as an inclusive educator as she approached the final year of her undergraduate degree. Data included a metaphorical representation of being an inclusive educator, and two semi-structured interviews held 6 months apart. The use of collage and a structured written response completed the data set. Evelein and Korthagen's model of core reflection and Voice-Centred Relational Method were used to analyze the data. Analysis exposed the dissonance between the layers that separate the preservice teacher's core qualities and the environment. Data are presented using I-poems and discussed using the emerging themes. The consequences for her emerging identity as an inclusive educator and sense of belonging in the profession are discussed.

Preservice teachers enter university with a range of personally held beliefs related to inclusive education and themselves as educators. This article reports on one case study from a larger qualitative research project. The study examined a preservice teacher's perceptions of herself as an inclusive educator as she approached the final year of her undergraduate degree. Data included a metaphorical representation of being an inclusive educator, and two semi-structured interviews held 6 months apart. The use of collage and a structured written response completed the data set. Evelein and Korthagen's model of core reflection and Voice-Centred Relational Method were used to analyze the data. Analysis exposed the dissonance between the layers that separate the preservice teacher's core qualities and the environment. Data are presented using l-poems and discussed using the emerging themes. The consequences for her emerging identity as an inclusive educator and sense of belonging in the profession are discussed. Keywords initial teacher education, reflection, teacher identity, Australia, like other developed countries, experiences high attrition rates among beginning teachers (Ewing & Manuel, 2005; Queensland College of Teachers, 2013). Factors including low job satisfaction, school policies, workload, future [...]

Intervention programs designed to improve literacy skills also produce unintended outcomes that sustain a deficit view around some students. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions about learning of a group of 12-14-year-old Australian students assigned to a reading intervention class. The article reports on data collected from students over a six-month period through interviews, including illustrated responses, and classroom observations. Thematic analysis was used to interpret the data. Findings suggested that the ecology of the classroom was instrumental in how these adolescents determined an economy of effort, oscillated power and control, and positioned themselves as learners. Further research about how to position students as decision makers within the intervention programs to which they are assigned is required to counter the deficit views that surround and are sustained by some adolescents.

This paper draws on Lewis Carroll's character of Alice as a metaphor for interrogating identity construction and agency amongst early career academics, a process which can seem like Alice's pursuit of the White Rabbit in a strange land. Keeping in mind the effects of neoliberalism on the tertiary sector, we recognise the centrality of personal lives in decision-making about academic careers and the shaping of professional identities. We also foreground how communities of practice not only build agency amongst ECAs but can also be supported by academic developers.

The initial years as an early career academic (ECA) are challenging times as those new to the academy attempt to balance the three aspects of their role: teaching, research and service, while also coming to terms with both overt and hidden expectations. Formal mentoring arrangements for ECAs are threatened by competing demands on time. Additionally, they may not fully support the needs of ECAs as they can be more closely aligned to university needs than those of the ECA. The purpose of this paper is to open conversations about ECAs finding ways to develop agency. We use a reflective inquiry approach to identify and respond to the ideological and hegemonic influences on the experiences of ECAs. We also promote self-sustaining peer support and informal mentoring from more senior staff as complementary forms of professional learning.

Evidence suggests that increasingly young adolescents are finishing school with poor literacy skills limiting their access to further education, training and employment. This has lifelong effects in terms of their economic participation and health and wellbeing. This paper examines the spatial practices of one school's approach to improving literacy outcomes for its Years 8 and 9 students, in order to increase positive pathways after school. It shows how staff at this school have begun to work collaboratively with each other and community members in trying to address the reading needs of their students. Using the conceptual frameworks of spatial theory and reflection the paper will share the conceived and perceived spatial practices of staff identified in interview data. We argue that when ongoing reflective practice occurs potential transformative or "third space", practices result; ensuring positive literacy learning outcomes for all students.

Scholars report desirable outcomes for all participants in classrooms where diverse learners are welcomed members. Data suggest teachers leave the profession early because of the demands of their work made increasingly difficult by the diverse range of students, lack of assistance to support the diverse range of student needs and the resulting burnout. This paper presents qualitative data from six beginning teachers, juxtaposed with the author's personal narrative, to illustrate the ongoing problems beginning teachers face, contending with political, historical and cultural barriers when teaching students with diverse learning needs. Despite policy advances and mandated courses in inclusive education in initial teacher education, beginning teachers are overwhelmed by the magnitude of teaching diverse learners in contemporary classrooms. Of note in the data are the preservice teachers' fluid conceptions of inclusive education. The polarity of success and failure of inclusive education is re-envisaged through Deleuze and Guattari's [(1987). "A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia." Trans Brian Massumi. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.] rhizome. The data illustrate the challenges and messiness of learning to become an inclusive educator. It is important to listen to the experiences of beginning teachers given the value of supportive classroom environments for students with diverse needs and the impact creating these environments has on beginning teachers' longevity in the profession.

A staffroom plays a number of roles, from café, through professional learning space, to independent work area. As a place of community, personal and professional relationships and camaraderie can thrive in a staffroom. Conversely, it can be a place where personal and professional relationships become fractured, resulting in a negative emotional response for the individual teacher. This qualitative case study explored the social and micropolitical factors that existed within a staffroom and played into the daily interactions and relationships of 17 Australian secondary school teachers who shared the same space. Individual interviews were conducted, focussing on emotions and emotional experiences encountered in the staffroom. This paper examines collegial relations and their impact on the emotional disposition of the individual teacher while sharing a staffroom. Thematic analysis revealed three principal factors as being in operation when participants discussed the nature of their relationships with colleagues in the staffroom: the role of emotional labour and emotional work, the sense of surveillance from visiting senior staff members, and the influence of different forms of collegiality developed with their peers. Findings emphasise the important effect of staffroom relationships on the professional and personal emotionality of a high school teacher, an underexplored area of teachers' work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limited research is available with a focus on adolescent Autistic girls and their needs during secondary schooling. Consequently, many issues are often not recognised and addressed by educators. The small-scale Australian research reported here explored the experiences of five Autistic girls during their first 2 years of secondary school, with data being gathered via an online survey and semi-structured interviews. Findings are presented from the perspective of the girls themselves and highlight the negative impact of sensory, communication, and social difficulties, as well as the influence of anxiety and executive dysfunction on their learning and academic success. Unique insights into how the girls feel about school and the anxiety they experience there, together with everyday barriers to learning they encounter provide some important messages to schools and teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we use an engagement framework to understand the experiences of university students midway through their initial teacher education programme. Analysis of interview transcripts revealed that engagement is being influenced negatively by a convergence of political, economic, structural and psychosocial factors. Despite the influence of these converging factors, some students maintained high levels of engagement, while others adopted survival strategies not conducive to deep learning. We argue that one way to deal with disengagement is to support learners to develop critical consciousness, a concept that includes learning agency, learning success, learning well-being and learning social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although prevalently focused on research-based outcomes (i.e. better understanding of a particular phenomenon, process or experience), arts-based researchers have widely emphasised the transformational potentialities of arts for individuals. In particular, the arts create space for thinking differently and provide opportunities to explore intuitive and emotionally connected ideas that do not rely on words alone. The arts are powerful instruments to activate individual and collective reflection, creativity and ability to approach life situations from different perspectives. Thus, arts are particularly powerful to promote the creative and transformational processes that are essential for professional identity development, including reflection and reflexivity on self. In this paper we aim at conceptualising the high potential of art-based research, as a creative process, for teachers' identity development. Based on a systematic scientific literature analysis we intend to map the different ways arts can be used to support teachers' professional identity development while clarifying which transformational and learning processes are involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars report desirable outcomes for all participants in classrooms where diverse learners are welcomed members. Data suggest teachers leave the profession early because of the demands of their work made increasingly difficult by the diverse range of students, lack of assistance to support the diverse range of student needs and the resulting burnout. This paper presents qualitative data from six beginning teachers, juxtaposed with the author's personal narrative, to illustrate the ongoing problems beginning teachers face, contending with political, historical and cultural barriers when teaching students with diverse learning needs. Despite policy advances and mandated courses in inclusive education in initial teacher education, beginning teachers are overwhelmed by the magnitude of teaching diverse learners in contemporary classrooms. Of note in the data are the preservice teachers’ fluid conceptions of inclusive education. The polarity of success and failure of inclusive education is re-envisaged through Deleuze and Guattari's [(1987). A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Trans Brian Massumi. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.] rhizome. The data illustrate the challenges and messiness of learning to become an inclusive educator. It is important to listen to the experiences of beginning teachers given the value of supportive classroom environments for students with diverse needs and the impact creating these environments has on beginning teachers’ longevity in the profession. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]