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Dilemmas, challenges
and opportunities
Teaching: Dilemmas, challenges and opportunities © 2020 Cengage Learning Australia Pty Limited
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 23 22 21 20 19
v

Brief contents
PART 1 CHALLENGES AND DILEMMAS OF TEACHING 1
1 So, you want to be a teacher! Working in a changing context 2

2 Ethical practice 24
PART 2 UNDERSTANDING LEARNING 41
3 Understanding learner diversity 42

4 The nature of learning 68
5 The learning environment 103
6 Communication in the educational environment 129
7 Teaching, learning and curriculum in a changing world 161
PART 3 THE EFFECTIVE TEACHER 189
8 Teacher as co-learner 190

9 Planning, preparing and assessment for teaching 220
 Managing a positive learning environment 250
 Building family–school–community partnerships 274
 Practitioner inquiry 300
 Drawing the challenges, dilemmas and opportunities together 325
vi
Contents
GUIDE TO THE TEXT xii
GUIDE TO THE ONLINE RESOURCES xv
PREFACE xvii
ABOUT THE AUTHORS xix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xxi
PART 1 CHALLENGES AND DILEMMAS OF TEACHING 1
CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2
So, you want to be a teacher! Working in a Ethical practice 24
changing context 2
What is ethical practice? 25
The school as text 9 A code of ethics for teaching 28
Deconstructing texts 10 Learners and educators 28
Considering education stakeholders 10 Parents, caregivers and families 29
Becoming critical 10 Colleagues 29
The diversity of the teaching profession 11 Community and society 30
Schools as postmodern places 12 Teachers as professionals 30
Globalisation 12 Implications of a code of
Wellbeing and learning 13 ethics – learning to be reflective 30
Dilemmas of schooling 14 Ethical dilemmas 31
Applying the Berlak dilemmas 15 Bullying and cyberbullying 33
Contributions of the social sciences and Legal issues 35

humanities disciplines 18 Duty of care 36
New teaching for new times 20 Professional conduct in education settings 37

Conclusion 21 Conclusion 37
Go further 21 Go further 38
Following through 22 Following through 38
Useful online teaching resources 22 Useful online teaching resources 39
References 23 References 40
PART 2 UNDERSTANDING LEARNING 41
CHAPTER 3 Using funds of knowledge 47

Understanding learner diversity 42 Children and young people living in
poverty and growing inequality 48
Defining diversity 43 Disadvantage and educational opportunity 49
Family life and funds of knowledge 44 Living on the edge 49
Difference, not deficit 45 Reinforcing disadvantage 50
Contents vii
Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Multi-age classes 87

learners 51 Peer mentoring 88
Indigenous Australians and education 52 Learning centres 88
Cultural diversity 54 Shared decision making 89
Reggio Emilia 89
Thinking about cultural diversity 56
Project for Enhancing Effective
Sex, gender and sexuality 57 Learning (PEEL) 90
Understanding sex and gender 57 Teaching for Effective Learning framework 91
Sex and gender issues in education 58 Quality teaching models 92
Sexuality and education 60 Revitalising Indigenous languages 94
Learning difficulties and disabilities 61 Big Picture Education Australia 95
Middle school initiatives 95
Supporting gifted and talented learners 63
Relational pedagogy 96
Conclusion 64 The Arts as critical quality pedagogy 96
Go further 64 Visible Thinking 96
Following through 64 Conclusion 97
Useful online teaching resources 65 Go further 98
References 65 Following through 98
Useful online teaching resources 99
CHAPTER 4 References 100
The nature of learning 68
Defining learning 69 CHAPTER 5
How learning happens 70
The learning environment 103
Major theoretical approaches to learning 71 Learning environments 104
Behaviourist views of the learning process 71
The classroom as a learning environment 106
Cognitive theories about learning 72
Physical environment 108
Constructivist theories about learning 74
Social–emotional environment 111
Learning as a social, collaborative process 76
Interactions 112
The importance of language in the learning
Developing positive learning relationships 114
process 78
Know learners’ names 114
Motivation, engagement and the learning Get to know learners individually 115
process 80 Share yourself with your learners 116
Learning what is intended and what is not Establish yourself as ‘the educator’ 117
intended 82 Building positive self-esteem 120
Investigating learning styles 83 Building class cohesiveness 123
Providing for learning: some principles and Conclusion 125
exemplars 86 Go further 126
Clear expectations 86
Following through 126
Educator knowledge 86
Inclusivity 87 Useful online teaching resources 127
Grouping for different purposes 87 References 127
viii Contents
CHAPTER 6 CHAPTER 7
Communication in the educational Teaching, learning and curriculum in a
environment 129 changing world 161
What you already know about Schooling for an industrial age: school as place 164
communication 130 Technological changes 166
Communication in educational settings 133 Social, cultural and environmental changes 168
Significant relationships 135
The future of formal education 169
Effective interpersonal communication 137
Implications for curriculum decision
Effective interpersonal communication making in early childhood and school contexts 171
skills 139 1 A rational or ends-means approach 171
Listening skills 140 2 A process or procedural approach 172
Speaking skills 145 3 A critical approach 174
Questioning 151
Multiliteracies 175
Effective conflict-management skills 154
Education for sustainability 176
Restorative Justice 156
Learning outside the classroom 177
Conclusion 157
Implications for teaching and learning 178
Go further 158
Transitions 179
Beginning school 180
Useful online teaching resources 159 The middle years transition 181
References 159 Conclusion 182
Go further 183
References 185
PART 3 THE EFFECTIVE TEACHER 189
CHAPTER 8 4 Cultivate collaborative work practices 208

Teacher as co-learner 190 5 Build your capacity to be resilient 210
Maximising the value of your experiences 213
The changing context 192
Early career teaching 214
Opportunities and challenges for
Conclusion 215
pre-service educator learning during
professional experiences 193 Go further 216
How to maximise your learning in professional Following through 216

experiences 198 Useful online teaching resources 216
1 Analyse your attitude towards your learning 198 References 217
2 Reflect on your learning 201
3 Understand the context within
which you are working 205
Contents ix
CHAPTER 9 Guidelines for managing the learning

environment 262
Planning, preparing and assessment for
Case study examples 265
teaching 220
Managing challenging classroom behaviour 269
Factors affecting educator planning 222 Conclusion 271
External factors 223
Go further 271
Internal factors 225
Planning 226
Principles of planning 226
Careful preparation balanced with flexibility 226
References 273
Planning based on current knowledge
about how students learn 229 CHAPTER 
Planning needs to consider diversity 230 Building family–school–community
Planning backwards: analysis of partnerships 274
achievements and future needs 232
Planning must be negotiable 232 Defining family–school–community partnerships 276
Planning should consider integration
possibilities 233 Reasons to build family–school partnerships 277
Planning involves attention to Understanding diversity in families and family
detail and resources 233 structures 279
Planning includes planning for assessment 234
Getting to know your learners 279
Assessments many purposes 234 Understanding sociodemographic influences 280
The challenges of assessment 236 Understanding some perceived tensions between
Balancing efficiency and effectiveness parents and educators 281
in assessment 237
Classroom assessment 239 Parent involvement and participation 283
Reporting to families 241 Parent involvement – what it ‘looks like’ 284
Lesson planning 243 As a pre-service educator, what can I do? 287

Writing a program 244 What happens if things come unstuck? 288
Getting started 245 What would I do? 289
Conclusion 246 Working with the wider community 294
Go further 247 Conclusion 296
Following through 247 Go further 297
Useful online teaching resources 247 Following through 297
References 248 Useful online teaching resources 298
References 298
CHAPTER 
Managing a positive learning CHAPTER 
environment 250 Practitioner inquiry 300
Managing classroom interaction 253
Communities of professional practice 301
Managing classroom behaviour 256
Dynamic and intelligent learning
Approaches to classroom management 257
organisations 302
x Contents
Inquiring into professional practice through CHAPTER 

action research 307 Drawing the challenges, dilemmas and
Why practitioner inquiry? 308 opportunities together 325
Action learning 308
Planning for evaluation through centre/ Purposes of education 326
school-based inquiry 309 The competent learner 327
Gathering evidence 311 Human diversity in schools 327
Avoiding harm 311 Teachers as learners 328
Being explicit 311
Teaching as an ethical profession 329
Participatory interpretation 312
The dilemmas of schooling 329
Data analysis 321
Go further 330
Conclusion 321
Go further 322
References 330
Useful online teaching resources 323 GLOSSARY 332
References 323 INDEX 337
xii
Guide to the text

As you read this text you will find useful features in every
chapter to enhance your study of Teaching and help you
understand how the theory is applied in the real world.
PART OPENING FEATURES

© source line to come
PART 2
Understanding
learning
3 Understanding learner diversity
4
5
The nature of learning
The learning environment
The Chapter list outlines the chapters
6
7
Communication in the educational environment
Teaching, learning and curriculum in a changing world
contained in each part for easy reference.
Each learner brings a unique personality, together with a wealth of

experiences, to the learning process. Educators need to consider this
Part opening quotes give an insight into the
diversity in planning an inclusive classroom. content to be covered in the part.
41
BK-CLA-EWING_6E-190044-Chp03.indd 41 27/07/19 12:47 PM
FEATURES WITHIN CHAPTERS
1
So, you want to be a teacher!
Working in a changing
context
Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique;
good teaching comes from the identity and
See the teaching experience through the eyes

Mara
integrity of the teacher.
Parker Palmer
of a student with chapter opening student

artworks, related to the content covered in the
A sh er
chapter.
When children imagine what

a teacher is, they see them
doing things differently.
CHAPTER 3 UnDERsTAnDIng lEARnER DIvERsITy 47
perceived her own attitude as not particularly relevant. The extract below outlines her
thoughts:
I sort of went into it thinking ‘Well let’s get this five weeks GUIDE TO THE TEXT xiii
Using funds of Iknowledge
over with’. And it wasn’t until after the first week that I
thought ‘Hell, could probably get something out of this’. I
went into it half-hearted. It’s a bit scary isn’t it?
Educators need to acknowledge the experiences, strengths and resources of families and
communities to respond
Your attitude toHow
is crucial. individual learners.
you view Gonzalez,
professional Mol & Amanti
experiences (2005)
and your rolerefer
willto ‘funds
make all
of knowledge’
the difference totohow
describe
muchthe mosaic
you learn of bodies
during of knowledge,
your placements. skills and practices
A positive and openthat exist
mindset
within your
during the daily experiences
professional of individuals.
experiences Learners
will enable you toare
getactive, skilled
the most out ofandtheknowledgeable
opportunities
in their lives,
presented. Your and actively
attitude willuse thehave
also resources
an effectandonrepertoire of practices
your emerging available
professional to them
identity, as
to learn,
‘being develop,
a learner’ hasgrow
beenand shownnavigate
to be the
a keyworld.
aspectThe challenge
of identity for educational
(Cohen, 2010; Johnson settings is
et al.,
to recognise
2012). Many and value the
situations canknowledge,
be interpretednorms,
in a behaviours and literacies
number of different ways.that learners bring to
FEATURES WITHIN CHAPTERS classroom
Consider contexts. Not doing
the following
and miscommunication.
this can lead to disengagement, under-achievement, conflict
case studies.
When educators build bridges and make connections between learners’ homes and
educational settings, they are able to develop trusting and respectful relationships with
families and communities. Educators can use the formal curriculum as a ‘cultural broker’ to
mediate between the experiences of home, community and school contexts. For educators, Case study
Attimeans
this tudes connecting
a r e i m p o rwith
t a n t what it is that the learner knows and using this as the basis for
·4
introducing new knowledge (McLachlan et al., 2018). Negotiating curriculum and planning
Two pre-service educators were sent to the same school for their first professional experience.
learning experiences in this way enables learners to access their ‘virtual schoolbag’ (Thomson,
They were placed in the same classroom with an enthusiastic educator who was very pleased to
2002). This cannot be tokenistic though. Rather, learners should be enabled to meaningfully
have them. After the first few days, this educator became ill and was unable to return to school.
draw upon their household and community resources to participate in learning experiences
Another educator, who was obviously not happy about having two pre-service educators, was primary secon dary
that are relevant to them.
placed in the class. One pre-service educator was very upset about the change in educators and
However, sometimes there are challenges and dilemmas. Learners and families may feel
complained constantly to his pre-service teacher colleague and everyone at home. He did not
uncomfortable using their funds of knowledge. Hedges (2015) provides an example of a child
initiate conversations with the replacement educator and was irritable throughout the two-
living in a household where more than one language is spoken. Where the educator viewed
week professional experience. When asked what he had learnt from the experience his reply, e a r ly
the child’s bilingualism as a valuable resource, the parents (who were not native speakers of childhood
not surprisingly, was ‘Not much’. The other pre-service educator was naturally disappointed
English) viewed it as detrimental to their child’s learning. The parents expected their child
by the change in educators, but spent time talking to the replacement educator and reflected
to only use and learn English at school. There are examples,CHAPTER though,4 ofTHE
strategies
nATuRE of tolEARning
support 79
upon the differences in teaching styles between the first and the second educator. He enjoyed
families; for example, Dutton et al.’s (2018) work on oral and written identity texts shows
his placement even though it was only by the end of it that he felt more comfortable with the
how learners’ home language(s) and personal stories might be used to support language and
replacement. He was able to identify many areas of learning during the placement.
literacy development.
In Australia, Brian Cambourne (1984) proposed that children’s successful learning Reflection
of Opportunity
language usually by the age of three provides some important principles that should underpin
1 learning
all How could this situation
situations. Hishave been handled
‘Conditions differently for
for Learning’
Respondi ng t o l e a r n e r s ’ d i f f e r e n c e s
by the replacement
successful educator?
language Howinclude:
learning could it Case study
• have been handled differently byinthe
thecomplaining pre-service educator? ·1
Case studies present issues in 2
immersion,
If you
Educators were in
or involvement
this
need to know
• the importance
situation, how
about their
of modelling
would
learning process
you respond?
learners, which what
or demonstrating mightisinclude learning
to be learnt by about
a moretheir families,
experienced
context, encouraging you to family norms and expectations, the communities they live in and belong to, the language/s
knower
spoken at home, household chores, family outings and experiences, favourite TV shows and
• the need for joint construction or scaffolding of the process with the learner as an
integrate and apply the family occupations.
apprentice
Use the vignettes below to evaluate the alignment (or lack thereof) between the home life of
primary secon dary
• perhaps
concepts discussed in the the learners most
and theimportantly, the expectation that the learner will succeed in learning to talk;
expectations of the learning setting described.
that is, children learn to talk by talking.
Budi is seven years old and has recently moved to Australia from Indonesia. His life in Indonesia
chapter. While these conditions for learning are important, too much emphasis on the naturalness
was very different to that in Australia. He loves running, playing and watching sports, and is
of language learning can also be problematic given that language learning is also about learning
described by others as a ‘free spirit’. He struggles to follow the school rules where he must sit down,
a particular rather than a universal way of life or culture. In addition, many children living
line up before class, listen to and read stories selected by the educator, complete worksheets and
in poverty or experiencing difficult family circumstances do not always experience these
follow classroom rules. Budi’s educator thinks his lack of English language proficiency is causing
conditions at home and will need to be provided with these opportunities in early childhood
him to not concentrate and follow instructions.
centres, preschools and schools.
Consider199
BK-CLA-EWING_6E-190044-Chp08.indd Jake’s case below. 21/05/19 5:17 PM
Capti ve i n t h e cl a s s ro o m Case study

·1
Jake, 10 years old, has limited English on arriving in Australia with his family after seemingly
endless years of being on the run and then in a refugee camp. His family fled Sierra Leone
during the civil war. Both parents are not able to read and write in their mother tongue and have
264 PART 3English.
difficulty with THE EFFECTivE
Jake hasTEACHER
thus had limited experience with books. There are only a small primary
number of African children in his school and there is little understanding of the ordeal Jake’s
family has experienced. It is clear Jake seems to feel captive or constrained in the classroom,
especially when reading and writing tasks begin. He sits alone when he is in the classroom and
on the playground,
• Establish andclear
already appears
routines andisolated from (e.g.
procedures the other
how students. Heday
to start the is gruff when his
or lesson), although be
teacher tries to encourage
open him tothese
to changing play when
with his peers.
and The
if the teacher
need is worried
arises. Workableabout his progress
routines and procedures
but finds it difficult
ensure to communicate
that her concerns
recurring activities to his parents.
flow smoothly. Also, establish verbal and/or non-verbal cues
to guide and direct learner conduct (e.g. placing one’s hands on one’s head or beginning a
rhythmic hand clap to get attention or indicate a transition to theReflection
next part ofOpportunity
a lesson).
1 What are some of the issues that need to be addressed for Jake and his family?
2 Reflection
How shouldOpportunity
they be approached?
Reflection opportunities
Establishing routines and procedures makes expectations in the learning environment clear, and this
The waystructure
learners helps learners will
use language engage in their
depend learning.
upon howFor example,
language some at
is used educators
home and ensure that on their
in their
prompt you to pause and arrival inSome
local communities.
more highlysong,
the morning
while than
regarded otherothers
learners
‘ways with
educators
are welcomed
words’
establish
in the
and asked
(Brice Heath,
the routine
preschool
1983)how they are, others
as discussed
of having primary
and classroom context:and
start the
in Chapter
it issecondary
day with a
3 are
clear thatschool
some students
reflect on the way certain children beginlinewithout
up quietly
theoutside the classroom
‘linguistic to establish1990)
capital’ (Bourdieu, order.needed
Createfor
a list of routines
success and procedures
with language
and literacy.thatAsyou expect will
educators we be useful
need to and importantto
be sensitive for:these cultural differences and provide
issues reflect teaching 210 explicitPART 3•• THE
learning beginning and TEACHER
EFFECTIVE
experiences ending theenable
that will day all learners to extend their use and understanding
of language •in beginning
• ways thatand
willending
enhancelearning
theirexperiences
learning as well as their growth as individuals.
practice. •• steering the learning experience.
can’t get to that level you have to hold them back and give them
Manage
Specialand
Ed. monitor educator conduct
•Danielle
Act confidently. In primary
held a different view: and secondary school contexts, students need to see you as
efficient, organised, prepared, consistent and authoritative (but not authoritarian). You
My views are a result of working with children with special
need to disguise any nerves because students are very good at reading body language (see
needs. You come to realise that it doesn’t matter what their
Hughes, 2010).
Read authentic educator
chronological age is you can’t push them to know stuff. I mean
• Cultivate
I used to theget
ability to be flexible
really angry and usethem,
with opportunities
saying for learning
‘You thatknow
should arise rather than
sticking rigidly what
to what youyou
havedoing?’
planned But
for itsthen
own it
sake.
insights that illustrate key
this stuff, are suddenly hits you,
‘Are you going
• Concentrate to let
on positive them
aspects fail constantly
of learners’ because
behaviour. Take youto want
the time focus on individual
them to know fractions when they can’t tell the time, what’s the
points of interest. These are effort and involvement, and provide constructive feedback on behavioural improvements
point?’... And like non-Special Ed. kids, why should you expect
and the progress of their learning. We all need to be affirmed. Giving positive feedback needs
them to reach a particular line? Then you have the danger that
embedded throughout to to be bright
the
(for
authentickids
and appropriate.
reach thatEnsure that praise
so they just given
stop.publicly
That’sis silly.
understood
Andby others
how example,
long are ‘I appreciated
you goingthe toway
keep you waited
them patiently
down? ... for yoursee
I can turn, Enrico’). In this
what
ensure the reading flow is not way,
Sam’syoutalking
are modelling
abouttheand
positive
I can affirmation that learners
understand can also give
his feelings to each other.
entirely
but educator
• The then atshould
the same time
always work I to
don’t think an
de-escalate I issue
want ortoconflict
jeopardise my it from
to prevent
interrupted. health and my entire class’s health just to try and get them to
getting worse or from damaging the learning atmosphere in the room. If something that
the stage where some will go beyond and some will never reach.
happens makes you angry, try not to respond or discipline while you are still emotionally
Byinvolved
engagingasin wethis debate,say
sometimes Samandand
do Danielle are enabled
things in anger that weto listen
later to more sides than
regret.
one.
• This is an
Follow enactment
through of Dewey’s ifprecept
on consequences of open-mindedness.
these are expected or stated. The Theyimportant point
should always
here isbebeing prepared
emotionally to be open-minded
neutral, and being able
rational and depersonalised to express
(Larivee, your
2005), andview. As noted
conducted in
in Chapter 1, you need to be able to engage in critical debate in a context that recognises
private if appropriate (e.g. to protect a student’s self-esteem). Take the time to ensure that
that the
youdiscourses
are being are
fairmanifold and vexatious. Although they are difficult, and consensus is
and consistent.
sometimes
• Monitor impossible
your useto
of reach, debates
sanctions such
as their as these enable
effectiveness pre-service
often varies – missingeducators to further
breaks and giving
understand the complexities,
detentions dilemmas and
can be counterproductive opportunities
to encouraging involved
engaged learningin educators’ work
(Payne, 2015). and
Severe
the implications
punishmentsofcan their
lead beliefs for and
to defiance classroom practices.behaviour
further disruptive These discussions
(Way, 2011).are notensure
Also, about
proving a point but
punishments doare
notdialogues
damage yourwhere differentwith
relationship views
the are expressed in a supportive and
learner.
encouraging environment. We may not agree with one another but may well learn from
others if we remain open-minded and whole hearted.
Reflection Opportunity
How do May
Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. you disagree
not be agreeably?
copied,Whatscanned,
do you say oror
doduplicated,
to indicate to someone else that
in whole or you
in part. WCN 02-200-202
respect their view, even though you may not agree with it?
xiv GUIDE TO THE TEXT
FEATURES WITHIN CHAPTERS

12 PART 1 CHALLEngES AnD DiLEMMAS oF TEACHing
engaged in extended sociopolitical action that requires them to be concerned about equity and When you see key terms marked in
bold, study the margin definitions
social justice for their learners and for their learning. In addition, they need a sophisticated
38Pedagogy refers PART 1 CHAllENGES AND DilEMMAS OF TEACHiNG
understanding of pedagogy and how different strategies meet the needs of individual learners.
to the interface
between teaching
38and learning and Schools as postmodern places
PART 1 CHAllENGES AND DilEMMAS OF TEACHiNG nearby to learn important vocabulary
curriculum. It is not
only what is taught,
but also how it
Schools are physical sites with a great diversity of actors within their walls. They are also
of the professional
situated historically,can be found in
ideologically, that profession’s
micropolitically andcode of ethics’
socially. They are (p. beset
207). bySociety has a
dilemmas,
for your profession. See the Glossary
is taught, why it is right to consider that its teachers
on allare honest, fair, sense
trustworthy
we canand seecommitted
schools asprofessionals
taught and how it is
received.
tensions
who recognise
texts.
and opportunities
‘Postmodern’and respect
is a wordtheused
human
sides.
to
In this
dignity of
describe thethose with whomcondition,
contemporary
of the professional can be found in that profession’s code of ethics’ (p. 207). Society has
they deal.inWe
postmodern
all have
which thereaa at the back of the book for a full list
responsibility to uphold professional behaviour in teaching.
alongsideThis requiresthecourage, fortitude,
are
rightcontradictions
with
to consider that
intelligence
the and the
novel,
andits
insight.
past
juxtapositions.
leaps into
The oldfair,
teachers are honest,
Behaving ethically
the
lies
lies Anyone
future.
trustworthy
at the very
theand
heart one
visiting
who recognise and respect the human dignity of those with whom they deal. We all have a
new,committed
of teaching,
of our
customary
for teachers
large cities
battles
professionals
have
would of key terms and definitions.
aseegreat
old responsibility
facadestobehind in educating
standfor what the St James Ethics Centre has called ‘a good
responsibility upholdwhich professional new buildings;
behaviour nostalgia
in teaching. for requires
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is combined with
fortitude,
society’ functionalism.
modern (St James Ethics Centre & The Philosophy in the
Schools Association NSW, 2001).and In
intelligence and insight.Many schools
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END-OF-CHAPTER FEATURES capacities

to beand
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of – aof children
just who will
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society toall.
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A good society is a socially just society – one in which the wellbeing of individuals is bound up
Globalisation
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withchapters
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need toto consider
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be part of –asa you
follow we shall
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society for all.
you will
want
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as youfeature
attend of the postmodern
to these issues, whether world
theyinbewhich we should
in relation have an interest
to communicating is the one
in the classroom,
In the chapters that follow we shall be turning to the many practical matters that you will
Atglobalisation
the end
results
from a relentless of each chapter you will find several tools to help you to review, practise and extend
characterised
assessing
resurgentyou
learning,
by learning,
student the twinconducting
nationalism.
will keepWe
and apparently
see,
these
contradictory
yourselves
at theconsiderations
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tendencies
as a professional of globalisation
or considering
need to consider as you take up the challenges of becoming an educator. It is our hope that
in mind astransnational
theoriesand
a touchstonecorporations
of
and
for being a fully
interchange of world as you attend to these issues, whether they be in relation to communicating in the classroom,
your knowledge
practices in such
fields as economics of the key topics.
localised struggles
actualised for language and place. Globalisation is reflected even in popular culture.
practitioner.
assessing student learning, conducting yourselves as a professional or considering theories of
Reality television programs such as My Kitchen Rules crop up in countries all over the world,
and impacts directly learning, you will keep these ethical considerations in mind as a touchstone for being a fully
on education. from Austria to Australia, but each country’s program has its own particular features. The
actualised practitioner.
school in the postmodern world similarly takes part in global functions as well as operating
in highly localised ways. Knowingly – or otherwise – much of the information that flows
Go Further contains extra
STUDY TOOlS through schools is part of an ever-shifting global discourse. It may be curriculum information,
resources and study tools for each
information about assessment and reporting strategies, information about ways for teaching
STUDY TOOlS reading or mathematics, information about technologies, even information about school
management. Or it may be about issues such as the gun control debate following the shootings chapter. Ask your instructor for
Go further in a range of United States schools. At the same time, each early childhood centre and school
Go Further with extra resources and study tools for this chapter. Ask your instructor
is encouraged to develop highly localised responses to its immediate community, to run the Go Further resource and
for the Go Further resource and deepen your understanding of the chapter content.
Go further itself as an independent small business. Schools and early childhood centres are accountable
Go Further with
nationally. extra resources
Nationwide andisstudy
testing eventools
beingforsuggested
this chapter. Ask
for allyour instructorsix year olds.
Australian deepen your understanding of the
topic.
Following
1 Make a list of ethical dilemmas you may experience when planning and evaluating a curriculum unit
through When we think of preschools and schools as postmodern texts and apply to them principles of
on a sensitive topic like the environment or refugees. Imagine that you are an educator in a small
deconstruction, we can read for the contradictions and difficult questions.
Following country town that is dependent on the local timber industry, which CHAPTERis significantly
2 ETHiCAl logging
PRACTiCE native 39
1 Make
Whya list
is itofthat
ethical
our dilemmas you may experience
most disadvantaged learners act when planning and
sometimes evaluating
against a curriculum
their own long-term unit
through forests. Imagine you work in a community that is a site where many newly arrived refugees settle or in
on a sensitive
interests by being topic like the environment
complicit in disrupting or refugees.
their Imagine that you are an educator in a small
own learning?
a community where there is strong political opposition to immigration.
country
How has
2 particular
town
During aImagine
forests.
it that
comeis to
professional
learning you
dependent
be that fun
experience
work
process?
on the
has local
become
placement,
in a community
timber
that
an industry,
a pre-service
is a site where
which
end in itself,
teacher
is significantly
rather
manybecomes
logging native
than a by-product
awarerefugees
newly arrived
of a
that learners
settleare
or in Test your knowledge and
3 In the category for isparents,
amisbehaving and caregivers
verythere isand
disrespectfulfamilies in the
during our generic
weekly code of ethics,
religious it was posited
lesson provided that in the
voluntarily
community
Why
teachers ‘respect
school.family
However,
where
intellectual
privacy
theand
strong
playfulness political
not
treat information
pre-service
opposition
recognised
teacher iswith
as fun?to immigration.
an appropriate
concerned that if helevel
wereoftoconfidentiality’.
2 During a professional experience placement, a pre-service teacher becomes aware that learners are
You the class
intervene or advise consolidate your learning through
witness in the staffroom
teacher he may of be
thereducing
school a the
discussion in quite
authority of thepejorative terms about
visiting teacher. Whataother
familyconsiderations
that seems might
misbehaving and very disrespectful during the weekly religious lesson provided voluntarily in the
to be knownaffect
to several teachers,to
his reluctance and the ways Isinitwhich
intercede? thishis
possible family
own conducts
stance onitself. Howeducation
religious and with in
school. However, the pre-service teacher is concerned that if he were to intervene or advise the class
whom
government Following through exercises.
should you schools
raise thisis matter?
affecting his actions?
teacher he may be reducing the authority of the visiting teacher. What other considerations might
4 Select one affectof the his
other categories
reluctance in the codeIsofitethics
to intercede? possibleforhis
teaching described
own stance in this chapter
on religious educationandinwrite
government
indicators for practice.
schools For example,
is affecting what would indicate to you that a teacher was ‘demonstrating
his actions?
unconditional respect for the uniqueness and dignity of each individual student’?
5 Begin to construct your own philosophy of practice. We encourage you to return to it from time to
time; is it changing? How and why?
http://www.qct.edu.au/standards-and-conduct/code-of-ethics Ethics code from the Queensland College

BK-CLA-EWING_6E-190044-Chp02.indd 38
Useful 18/05/19 4:40 PM
of Teachers
online
teaching
https://www.vit.vic.edu.au/professional-responsibilities/conduct-and-ethics Ethics code from the Victorian
resources
Institute of Teachers
http://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/about/who-we-are/open-access-information/
policy-documents/conduct-ethics Ethics code from the NSW Education Standards Authority
https://www.trb.sa.edu.au/code-of-ethics Ethics code from the Teachers Registration Board of South
Australia
https://www.education.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/17692/TeachersCode_ Extend your understanding
ofProfessionalPractice.pdf Ethics code from the ACT Education Directorate
40 PART 1 CHAllENGES AND DilEMMAS OF TEACHiNG
https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index.aspx APA ethics code
through the Useful online
http://www.ethics.org.au/articles.aspx This is the website for the St James Ethics Centre. It contains a
range of definitions, articles and accounts of research.
teaching resources and
References
http://www.curriculum.edu.au/verve/_resources/National_Declaration_on_the_Educational_Goals_for_
Cross, D., Shaw, T., Hearn, L., Epstein, M., Monks, H., St James Ethics Centre, www.ethics.org.au/ things_
References relevant to each
Young_Australians.pdf This document sets out theCovert
stated national to_read/articles_to_read/professions/
educational goals. Each state and article_0118.
chapter.
Lester, L., & Thomas, L. (2009). Australian
territory has developed
Bullying websites
Prevalence for(ACBPS).
Study responses that
Child contain arguments
Health shtm,in relation
accessed to the2005.
8 March efficacy of
these goals.Promotion Research Centre, Edith Cowan University, McBurney-Fry, G. 2002, Improving Your Practicum: A
Perth. deewr.gov.au. Retrieved on June 6, 2018. Guide to Better Teaching Practice, 2nd edn, Social
http://www.aitsl.edu.au This is the website for the Australian Institute Science
Dempster, N. & Berry, V. (2003) ‘Blindfold in a minefield:
for Teaching and School Leadership
Press, Katoomba, NSW.
(AITSL). It Principals’
is a new organisation established
ethical decision in 2010 (replacingMcCallum,
making’, Cambridge Teaching Australia) and the website
F. 2001, ‘Inhibiting and enabling factors that
continues to grow ofand
Journal develop.33 (3), pp. 457–78.
Education, influence educator reporting of suspected child abuse
Education and Care Services National Regulations, and neglect’, in I. Berson, M. Berson & B. Cruz
http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/our-publications/eca-code-ethics/
New South Wales Government, last modified 1 July
Early Childhood Australia
(eds), Cross Cultural Perspectives in Child Advocacy,
has also developed a set of statements about ethical behavior specifically
2018, https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/ for early
Information childhood
Age Inc., educators.
Connecticut.
regulation/2011/653, accessed 9 April 2019. —— & Johnson, B. 2002, ‘Decision making processes used
Ellsworth, E. 1992, ‘Why doesn’t this feel empowering’, by teachers in cases of suspected child abuse and
in C. Luke and J. Gore (eds), Feminisms and Critical neglect’, Child Maltreatment, 14 (1), pp. 7–10.
Pedagogy, Routledge, London, pp. 90–119. Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young
Ewing, R. Fleming, J. & Waugh, F. 2019, Becoming Australians 2008, Ministerial Council on Education,
reflective: Exploring the contribution of reflective Employment, Training and Youth Affairs, www.
practice on the employability of graduate teachers curriculum.edu.au/verve/_resources/ National_
and social workers. Symposium, University Declaration_on_the_Educational_Goals_for_
of Sydney, February. Retrieved from https:// Young_Australians.pdf, accessed 13 March 2010.
reflectionsemployability.net. Office of the High Commissioner 1989, Conventions
Higgins, D., Bromfield, L., Richardson, N., Holzer, P. on the Rights of the Child, United Nations
& Berlyn, C. 2009, Mandatory Reporting of Child Human Rights, https://www.ohchr.org/en/
Abuse, Resource Sheet #3. Australian Institute of professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx, accessed 9 April
Family Studies, www.aifs.gov.au/nch/pubs/sheets/ 2019.
rs3/rs3.html, accessed 24 August 2009.
BK-CLA-EWING_6E-190044-Chp02.indd 39
St James Ethics Centre & The Philosophy in Schools 18/05/19 4:40 PM
Johnson, B. 1995, Teaching and Learning about Personal Association NSW 2001, Educating for a Good Society:
Safety, Painters Prints, Adelaide. A National Conversation, St James Ethics Centre,
Kervin, L. & Mantei, J. 2019, ‘“We don’t have time”: The Sydney.
challenge of designing interventions for time-poor Tangen, D., Campbell, M. (2010), ‘Cyberbullying
students’, in R. Ewing, J. Fleming & F. Waugh (eds), prevention. One primary school’s approach’,
Becoming reflective: Exploring the contribution of Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling,
reflective practice on the employability of graduate 20 (2) pp. 225–34.
teachers and social workers. Tsekeris, C. & Katrivesis, N. 2008, ‘Reflexivity in
Le Cornu, R. & Peters, J. 2005, ‘Towards constructivist sociological theory and social action’, Philosophy,
classrooms: The role of the reflective teacher’, Journal Sociology, Psychology and History, 7 (1), pp. 1–12.
of Educational Enquiry, 6 (1), pp. 50–64. Whitton, D., Sinclair, C., Barker, K., Nanlohy, P. &
Longstaff, S. 1995, ‘Professions in society’, Australian Nosworthy, M. 2004, Learning for Teaching: Teaching
Financial Review, December, republished by the for Learning, Thomson, Melbourne.
xv

Guide to the online resources

FOR THE INSTRUCTOR
Cengage is pleased to provide you with a selection of resources

that will help you prepare your lectures and assessments.
These teaching tools are accessible via cengage.com.au/instructors
for Australia or cengage.co.nz/instructors for New Zealand.
MINDTAP
Premium online teaching and learning tools are available on the MindTap platform – the
personalised eLearning solution.
MindTap is a flexible and easy-to-use platform that helps build student confidence and gives you a
clear picture of their progress. We partner with you to ease the transition to digital – we’re with
you every step of the way.
The Cengage Mobile App puts your course directly into students’ hands with course materials
available on their smartphone or tablet. Students can read on the go, complete practice quizzes
or participate in interactive real-time activities.
MindTap for Ewing’s Teaching: Dilemmas, challenges and opportunities 6th edition is full of
innovative resources to support critical thinking, and help your students move from memorisation
to mastery! Includes:
• Ewing’s Teaching: Dilemmas, challenges and opportunities 6th edition eBook
• Portfolio activity: Your Philosophy of Teaching
• Lesson plan templates
• Video activities and more!
MindTap is a premium purchasable eLearning tool. Contact
your Cengage learning consultant to find out how MindTap can
transform your course.
INSTRUCTOR’S GUIDE
The Instructor’s Guide includes:
• learning goals
• chapter structure and pedagogy
• additional cases and discussion activities.
POWERPOINT™ PRESENTATIONS
Use the chapter-by-chapter PowerPoint slides to enhance your lecture presentations and
handouts by reinforcing the key principles of your subject.
xvi GUIDE TO THE ONLINE RESOURCES
ARTWORK FROM THE TEXT

Add the digital files of graphs, tables, pictures and flow charts into your course management
system, use them in student handouts, or copy them into your lecture presentations.
GO FURTHER RESOURCE
Provide your students with the Go Further resource to help deepen their understanding of the
content. It includes:
• “Your Philosophy of Teaching” portfolio activity
• Lesson plan templates.
FOR THE STUDENT
GO FURTHER RESOURCE
Deepen your understanding of the chapter content by asking your instructor for your Go Further
resource, which includes:
• “Your Philosophy of Teaching” portfolio activity
• Lesson plan templates.
MINDTAP FOR TEACHING: DILEMMAS, CHALLENGES AND

OPPORTUNITIES 6TH EDITION
MindTap is the next-level online learning tool that helps you get better grades!
MindTap gives you the resources you need to study – all in one place and available when you need
them. In the MindTap Reader, you can make notes, highlight text and even find a definition directly
from the page.
If your instructor has chosen MindTap for your subject this semester, log in to MindTap to:
• Get better grades
• Save time and get organised
• Connect with your instructor and peers
• Study when and where you want, online and mobile
• Complete assessment tasks as set by your instructor
When your instructor creates a course using MindTap, they
will let you know your course key so you can access the
content. Please purchase MindTap only when directed by your
instructor. Course length is set by your instructor.
xvii

Preface
How does one learn to become a teacher? How does one learn to be patient, to be analytical, to be inspirational, to
be resourceful, to be creative, to be hopeful, to be ethical and to be courageous? How does one learn when to hold
on and when to hold back, to do and to undo? How does one learn that choosing to become a teacher is choosing
a profession that is endlessly gratifying, but always incomplete?
These were the opening words to the preface of the first edition of Teaching: Challenges and Dilemmas and
we would not change one of them. In fact, we would alter few of the remaining words of the preface because,
while the educational landscape is dynamic and some features have shifted greatly, the principles remain the
same. In this sixth edition of the book you will find new issues, case studies and resources that illustrate the
paradoxical nature of teaching, which constantly changes and simultaneously remains the same. In more
recent editions of this book we have seen intervention by the federal government in education, especially in
relation to national testing, national curriculum development and the establishment of professional teaching
standards. Traditionally, the states and territories have exercised significant autonomy in determining what
happens in education. Today, there is stronger direction by the Commonwealth.
Throughout the book we argue that the first step in becoming a competent and respected educator is to
recognise that good teaching, done well, is both hard and satisfying. It is intellectual, emotional and physical
work and it is also socially responsible work. It is incontestable that teachers need a considerable array of skills
in identifying, analysing and assessing learning, and in designing, implementing and evaluating programs.
Educators must be capable communicators beyond the centre or classroom. They need to be effective
colleagues, careful and sensitive in working with the community and guided by precepts of equity and justice.
HOW THIS BOOK IS ORGANISED

The book’s structure has three sections:
PART 1:
• The nature of teachers’ work including the ways in which it has been historically constructed and the
ways in which it has changed
• Teacher professionalism and ethical behaviour
PART 2:
• Learner diversity
• The nature of learning
• The learning environment
• Learning in changing times
PART 3:
• Practical skills and competencies
• Teacher learning
• Assessment and reporting of student learning
• Working with parents in building family/community partnerships
• The forms of practitioner inquiry
xviii Preface
PEDAGOGICAL FEATURES
Each chapter identifies and explains key terms, and challenges you, as the reader, to pause and reflect upon
the important issues raised. We anticipate that you will find yourselves fully engaged in these moments of
reflection. Perhaps they could be an opportunity for you to have a conversation with your peers.
Each chapter draws extensively upon a wide range of literature in the field and upon the profession’s own
voice through case-study material. A ‘following through’ section concludes each chapter to enable you to
pursue the major issues that have been raised. Again, we hope they will be useful in generating discussions
and debate. After all, inquiring teachers are committed to investigating taken-for-granted practices.
OUR LEARNING
As authors we too have been learners. We have read chapters aloud and debated their structure, function and
content. Over time, we have variously experienced schooling in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland,
South Australia, Western Australia and England. We have been early childhood, primary, secondary and
tertiary teachers, drawing upon our own narratives and biographies. We have refused technical reductionism
as a way forward in the professional education of teachers.
This edition of the book explores early childhood learning as well as the primary and secondary years of
schooling. A number of studies have shown a pattern of regression, even alienation, as learners move from
one sector to the other.
As readers of this text, we encourage you to read against the grain and to question and challenge
implicit assumptions. We hope that you will be prompted to reread this book – that, as you become more
experienced, both through your initial teacher education and as you embark on teaching careers, you will
return to the text and continue to be provoked and stirred by it.
Robyn Ewing
Lisa Kervin
Chris Glass
Brad Gobby
Susan Groundwater-Smith
Rosie Le Cornu
xix

About the authors

DR ROBYN EWING AM, PROFESSOR OF TEACHER EDUCATION AND THE ARTS,
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND SOCIAL WORK, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
A former primary teacher, Robyn continues to work extensively alongside teachers interested in creative
pedagogies and curriculum reform. Her current research interests include: the role of the Arts in
transforming learning; using drama-rich learning processes with literature to enhance children’s language
and literacies; issues in teacher education, especially the experiences of early career teachers and mentoring;
teacher professional learning; the role of reflection in professional practice; and arts-informed research
methodologies. She has worked in partnership with Sydney Theatre Company on the School Drama teacher
professional learning program since 2009.
DR LISA KERVIN, PROFESSOR IN LANGUAGE AND LITERACY, FACULTY OF SOCIAL

SCIENCES, UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG
Lisa also leads research on Play, Curriculum and Pedagogy in Early Start Research. Lisa’s current research
interests are focused on young children and how they engage with literate practices and she is currently
involved in research projects funded by the Australian Research Council focused on young children and writing,
digital interactions and literacy learning. She has researched her own teaching and has collaborative research
partnerships with teachers and students in tertiary and primary classrooms and prior-to-school settings.
DR CHRIS GLASS, HONORARY RESEARCH FELLOW, SCHOOL OF EDUCATION,

MURDOCH UNIVERSITY
Chris started in education as a primary teacher and has had a varied career across the years of schooling and
works with pre-service teachers to support their developing capacity as a teacher. Her research interests
are the development of teacher identity, international professional placements for pre-service teachers and
the use of arts based research methodologies and methods.
DR BRAD GOBBY, SENIOR LECTURER, SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, CURTIN UNIVERSITY

Brad is the Chief Investigator of an Australian Research Council funded national project entitled School
autonomy reform and social justice in public education. He has experience as a secondary school teacher, and
currently researches and teaches in the areas of education policy, school autonomy and curriculum. Brad’s
research into education policy has been widely published in international peer-reviewed journals and edited
books.
DR SUSAN GROUNDWATER-SMITH AM, HONORARY PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION,

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND SOCIAL WORK, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
Susan is the Honorary Professor of Education, Sydney School of Education and Social Work, University of
Sydney, and also chairs the Teacher Education Advisory Board. In recent years she has given her attention to
issues in relation to consulting with children and young people and has published and researched extensively
in this area of ‘student voice’. Thus her commitment to teacher inquiry has extended to include students as
active inquiring agents into the circumstances of their learning.
xx About the authors
DR ROSIE LE CORNU, ADJUNCT ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, SCHOOL OF EDUCATION,

THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Rosie has worked in education for over 40 years, which includes 12 years as a primary teacher, R-12 Advisor
and deputy principal and 30 years as a teacher educator. She has a strong commitment to high-quality
teaching and teacher education, underpinned by the notions of reflection, collaboration, partnerships
and social justice. Her research has focused primarily on pre-service teachers and early career teachers,
providing insights and ideas that can help them become creative and agentic professionals who are able to
support student learning effectively and responsibly.
xxi

Acknowledgements
In this book there are photographs of students working in many contexts across Australia. These images are
more than mere illustrations; they remind us of the diversity of learners and the many ways in which they
are engaged in learning in our schools. We want to thank the owners of these photographs for their use. Each
chapter opens with student drawings that we have selected from many that were submitted to us by children
and young people aged from three to 12 years. So, of course, we also wish to thank them. We also thank the
many teachers in schools across Australia with whom we have worked and who have kept us grounded in
their complex worlds of practice.
We would like to thank Shanti Clements for her contribution on how to develop a positive learning
community in Chapter 10. We would also like to thank Jaci Hockley and Bronwyn Honey for their
contributions on how to work with parents and communities in Chapter 12. Finally, we thank the School of
Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney and University of Wollongong, Murdoch and Curtin
Universites and the University of South Australia for providing the thinking space necessary to work on this
reconceptualisation of the original text.
The authors and Cengage Learning would also like to thank the following reviewers for their incisive
and helpful feedback:
• Robyn Babaeff Monash University
• David Cleaver University of Southern Queensland
• Anne Coffey University of Notre Dame
• Lexi Cutcher Southern Cross University
• Anitra Goriss-Hunter Federation University
• Gillian Kidman Monash University
• Lynette Longaretti Deakin University
• Bill Lucas University of South Australia
• Michelle Ludecke Monash University
• Robyn McCarthy University of Tasmania
• Amanda McFadden Queensland University of Technology
• Peter O’Brien Queensland University of Technology
• Rebecca Reid-Nguyen University of South Australia
• Jennifer Ryan La Trobe University
• Lisa Sonter University of New England
• Matthew Thomas Deakin University
• Kenneth Young University of Sunshine Coast
PART 1
Challenges and
dilemmas of teaching
1 So, you want to be a teacher! Working in a changing context
2 Ethical practice
Good teaching, done well, is challenging but rewarding intellectual,

emotional and physical work. It is also socially responsible work, given it
profoundly affects children’s life chances. Teachers must strive to ensure
that learners will achieve success not only in literacy and numeracy,
but also in developing their creativities and imaginations, their critical
thinking and their understanding and appreciation of the many cultures
that will touch their lives.
1
1
So, you want to be a teacher!
Working in a changing
context
Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique;
good teaching comes from the identity and
integrity of the teacher.
Mara
Parker Palmer
Asher
When children imagine what

a teacher is, they see them
doing things differently.
2
CHAPTER 1 So, you want to be a teacher! Working in a changing context 3
C ongratulations on your decision to teach! You are beginning an important journey,

one that can have enormous potential to change learners’ life chances. On receiving his
Honorary Doctorate from the University of Western Australia, Tim Minchin’s nine
reflections about life included that:
Teachers are the most admirable and important people in the world.
Speech transcript from Tim Minchin. Retrieved from https://www.timminchin.com/2013/09/25/occasional-address/
We wondered if people have responded to your decision to teach similarly? Or have there
been different kinds of responses?
In reflecting on your decision to teach, we thought that thinking about the way teachers and
their role in today’s ever-changing world are perceived and represented might be interesting.
For example, think about how the actor Chris Lilley represented the drama teacher, Mr G.,
in the comedy Summer Heights High.
Recently, Eddie Woo, a passionate mathematics teacher at Cherrybrook High School in
Sydney, was named 2018 Australian local hero. His decision to record his mathematics lessons
and make them available online has had a profound influence on many people all over the
world. The Australian Story aired on ABC in 2018 included a number of his current and former
students’ testimonies of how their perceptions of mathematics had been transformed. Later
in 2018 Eddie was named as one of the world’s 10 best teachers. Eddie’s story demonstrates
how teachers can make a huge difference in the lives of the learners they teach.
In May 2018, a report, Through Growth to Achievement: Review to achieve educational
excellence in Australian schools (also known as Gonski 2.0) asserted that there was a pressing
need to raise the status of the teaching profession by ‘strengthening the attractiveness of
the teaching and school leadership professions by creating clearer career pathways, better
recognising expertise, and strengthening workforce planning and development’ (p. xi).
There are many depictions of teachers in popular films and great film classics, representations
of teachers in popular culture and lots of stories about iconic teachers who have changed the
lives of their students. Have any of these influenced your decision to teach? Are there real-life
inspirational teachers who have played a critical role in your life?
Parker Palmer’s words above from The Courage to Teach written in 1998 are as true today
as they were two decades ago. They underline that teaching is at one and the same time a great
pleasure and a great responsibility. Choosing to be a teacher is not an easy path to take. It
involves myriad skills, attributes, knowledge and understandings, which must be embodied
Can you think of a movie or a television series Or is there a real-life teacher who has
about a teacher that was really inspiring? Why changed your world? Who? How?
did it inspire you? What teacher qualities are List three reasons why you have chosen to
highlighted in the way this teacher is portrayed? teach. What kinds of reasons are they? Intrinsic
Are there similarities and differences in these reasons around making a difference in the lives
portrayals? What kinds of learners do they teach? of children/young people? Or are they more
Where? (For example: Miss Honey in Matilda; Dead extrinsic; for example, related to the pay or
Poets Society; Mr Holland’s Opus; Freedom Writers;The conditions?
Classroom; Stand and Deliver;To Sir with Love.)
4 PART 1 CHALLENGES AND DILEMMAS OF TEACHING
and enacted daily in a complex and dynamic environment – and in ethical and socially just
ways. Educators must meet the needs of many stakeholders, ranging from the students and
their parents to the community, and more broadly to the education sector in which they
work, and to state and federal governments.
We have touched on the way some filmmakers have represented teachers. As Nicole
Mockler (2017) writes:
The way teachers are talked about in the public space is important. It affects teacher morale and
how people might interact with them both professionally and socially. It even affects the way
new teachers perceive their career pathway unfolding, or not.
The media also constructs teachers in a variety of ways and helps shape public opinion
about them. Yet it does not always portray teachers in a positive light (Shine and O’Donoghue,
2013). Sometimes it seems that teachers are held solely responsible for improving all learners’
academic and emotional needs and improving Australia’s standing in international literacy
and numeracy benchmarking tables. And many community members also have advice for
teachers based on their own or their children’s experiences at school. In addition, it frequently
seems that teachers must respond to every new community issue that arises. These issues
must be addressed in the classroom – from bike safety to sexual education. As you navigate
others’ perceptions of teachers, it will be important to develop your own identity as a teacher.
In this sixth edition of our book it is our purpose to discuss with you, as active readers,
the skills, attributes and understandings of and about teachers. Education draws upon a range
of underlying disciplines, including psychology, sociology, philosophy, history, anthropology
and social geography. Each of these will be briefly explored later in this chapter, as will the
process of reading not only this book as a text, but also schools themselves as richly woven
texts. Throughout the book we will embody the portrayal of teaching and learning through the
use of authentic case study material, which will anchor our various themes, discussion areas and
arguments in real-life teaching and learning situations spanning preschool to secondary contexts.
Given it is our intention to draw across educational contexts – from prior-to-school, through
primary to secondary – as such we shape our conversation of the work of ‘educators’ to be
inclusive of the important work in all stages of education. Some of the cases we share thoughout
this book arise from our own experiences as teachers and as researchers in the classroom; others
are drawn from our colleagues and students, others from publications in the field.
Irrespective of source, the cases emphasise the importance of context. While all educational
institutions share a great many fundamental characteristics, no one preschool or school is
quite the same as another. They vary in size, in the composition of the student and community
populations, in social class, in settings and in the ways they are organised for teaching and
learning. We believe that too often people’s understanding of the work of school teachers
is oversimplified and codified and based on their own past experiences. It is as though, by
mastering a series of formulae and atomistic skills, as well as the tricks of the trade and tried
and true recipes, it is possible to train those engaged in a teacher education course to become
highly technically competent. Teaching is far more sophisticated than using so-called best
practice models in challenging learning settings. Good teaching requires intellectual, creative
and critical thought and careful, systematic reflection to meet the needs of individual learners.
We see this book as one that will engage you in making sense of what it is that preschools
and schools are, what they do and why they do it. Professional knowledge about education
today differs significantly from how we might remember our own experiences of preschool
and school. While throughout the book we encourage you to reflect upon your own experiences
through a series of reflection opportunities and to consider the experiences of others around
you, we remind you that though these may colour what we imagine a ‘good’ education to
be, it is important to reach more deeply into the field of practice and understand something
of its purposes and the ways in which it may be captured by specific interests. We wish to
emphasise that, in the end, the education that matters contributes to both the development of
individuals and that of our society in terms of national and global consequences. In writing
of the work of Professor Petra Ponte, a highly regarded Dutch educator, Groundwater-Smith
described a meaningful and transformative education as one that:
nurtures a human flourishing, building on both the desirable features of the past that has
provided us with a rich legacy, and an openness to the future in which young people can be
active and imaginative agents.
Transmission
Groundwater-Smith, 2012, p. 14 model of schooling
is a model of
The current discussion about whether robots could replace educators underlines how education that sees
the educator as
lamentable it would be if teaching were to become subservient, semiskilled and unreflective. merely transmitting
Today’s teachers need not only to be resourceful, adaptable and knowledgeable, they also have knowledge and
skills they have into
to be activist professionals, capable of being discerning, imaginative problem solvers who are
the minds of their
visionary and able to deal with constant and relentless social, economic and technological passive learners.
change. They need to appreciate and foster the artistry in their teaching as they strive to meet Community
the needs of each learner. And they need courage to assert their professional understandings of practice
A community of
in a world looking for simple recipes that will work for all learners and also imposing narrow practice refers
and rigid notions of teaching, curriculum and forms of learning. to a collective of
More than 40 years ago a famous Brazilian educator, Paolo Freire, urged societies to change the practitioners with
a shared interest,
traditional banking model of education in which educators deposited education in their learners’ who are prepared
minds. For education to transcend a mere transmission model of schooling, where educators to work together to
better understand
transmit knowledge to passive learners, requires that learners are acknowledged as active their professional
participants in the learning process, as they explore and question the many and varied experiences work and the ways
that they encounter in the classroom and beyond. They must also be able to see their educators as in which it can be
improved.
co-learners who are members of communities of practice (Lave and Wenger, 1991, 1998) that are
Collective
mutually supportive and generous to its members. In her investigation of collective responsibility responsibility
among teachers, Whalan (2012) argues that when educators take joint ownership of monitoring emphasises that
educators are not
the quality of the learning experience in the learning environment and when they engage in mutual operating alone
trust, the result is the enhanced achievement of the many outcomes that they would wish for their behind closed doors,
learners. Teaching should not be seen as a solitary profession with the classroom doors closed but are members
of a community of
against all comers; instead it is one that is dynamic, collegial and welcoming. practice with shared
In this book we shall set before you the challenges, dilemmas and opportunities of responsibility for the
learning of all within
teaching in ways that we hope will lead you to understanding that your work as an educator the school.
is best done in a framework of career-long reflective learning and built upon passion, Beginning
artistry, skill development and professional judgement. At the end of your initial teacher competencies
education, as graduates you should expect to have beginning competencies that will permit are the essential
capabilities that you
you to be safe practitioners in the classroom, working relatively independently but hopefully need as an early
with mentoring support. All the way through your teaching lives you need to be alert for career educator
that will grow and
opportunities to further your professional growth and development. We have included many develop as you gain
opportunities for your reflection, but we are mindful of the fact that reflection is an activity experience.
that goes beyond ‘just thinking about’ things. Rather, reflection requires us to simultaneously
examine our ideas and critically explore where those ideas came from, how they are shaped
and, if they need to change, how they might be re-conceptualised.
As well as taking examples from theories of teaching and learning, we shall be examining
and debating practices that have been used with success in early childhood centres, preschools
and primary and secondary classrooms.
In the interests of obtaining a quick snapshot of the complexity of what it is to be an educator,
we have asked many educators over the years at various meetings to recall where they had
been and what they had been doing at 10 a.m. on Tuesday morning. Some had been sharing
a picture book with their students, some were coaching sport, others overseeing individuals
and groups of young learners in literacy and numeracy activities, others had been listening to
older learners using multimedia resources to report upon their project research, several had
been organising learners into groups so that they might work together effectively as a team,
one had been comforting a learner who was distressed about events outside school, another had
been in conference with a school counsellor about special assistance needed for a learner in her
class, a few were engaged in curriculum planning with colleagues and others were developing
assessment strategies for a new project; still others were learning about recent changes in ways
in which they might employ multimedia tools in their early learning centres or classrooms.
Each was professionally engaged in one of the broad range of activities that we can loosely call
‘teachers’ work’. Over the years the list has grown and expanded, particularly in relation to the
use of information and communication technologies and all that this entails.
Already, it must be clear to you that becoming an educator means far more than just
being an instructor. Educators are arbitrators, accountants, nurses, data analysts, stock clerks,
judges, guides, counsellors, investigators, mediators, navigators and much more. Closely
observing one educator for just one day would quickly disabuse you of any idea that teaching
is an easy or undemanding profession.
In preparing for the first edition of this book more than two decades ago, Lorna Parker,
an experienced school principal, was asked to complete the sentence ‘Teaching is …’ She
compiled the list shown in Figure 1.1 based on her observation of her teachers at work. We ask
you if it still holds true today.
FIGURE 1.1
WHAT IS TEACHING?
Teaching is:
➜➜ writing programs for key learning areas and special-focus areas
➜➜ preparing and implementing lessons
➜➜ organising and preparing for excursions
➜➜ setting assessment tasks
➜➜ cutting up fruit for morning tea
➜➜ marking students’ work (preferably with them)
➜➜ assessing student performance
➜➜ diagnosing reasons for performance levels
➜➜ designing remedial programs
Teaching is:
➜➜ doing library research
➜➜ attending inservice professional development courses
➜➜ compiling individual student portfolios
➜➜ getting to know new curricula documents
➜➜ collecting data about student progress
➜➜ contributing to the formulation of school plans
➜➜ undertaking playground and bus duty
➜➜ discussing professional issues with other staff
➜➜ coaching for sport, chess, debating
➜➜ attending parent and citizen meetings
➜➜ talking with parents
➜➜ talking about student progress with parents at interviews
➜➜ writing submissions for special-purpose grants
➜➜ ordering and purchasing
➜➜ designing a stimulating learning environment
➜➜ attending to student welfare
➜➜ settling playground disputes
➜➜ compiling personal professional development profiles
➜➜ maintaining social relationships with other staff
➜➜ keeping up with professional reading
➜➜ talking with newly arrived refugees
➜➜ referring students requiring special assistance
➜➜ evaluating own teaching behaviours
➜➜ keeping attendance rolls and other records
➜➜ assessing student health problems
➜➜ identifying child abuse and sexual assault
➜➜ implementing behaviour management programs
➜➜ monitoring occupational health and safety issues, etc., etc., etc.
Looking at the list, a group of early career educators added that they also see teaching
as a profession where it is important to be supported and mentored by their colleagues.
There are increasing opportunities for educators to observe each other at work, particularly
in situations where they are in teams. While examining such a list, principals commented
that their additional responsibilities are multiplying given all the changes associated with
‘the education revolution’. Nevertheless, they also emphasised how important it is to have a
How does this list compare with your own expectations about being an educator today? What other
activities can you add? Talk to any educators you know and see what they would add to the list.
deep understanding of learners’ interpersonal skills, idiosyncrasies and intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation in a world of social networking.
While teaching itself is multidimensional, so too are schools. Each school has its own
history, and each is bound up in the regulatory frameworks that govern different sectors and
systems in states and territories. Education is still a state and territory responsibility, even
though the Commonwealth government is exerting more and more pressure to standardise
learning, so that we need to be mindful that each school is set in a different context. A
newly built school in a wealthy Darwin suburb differs from one that has served a Hobart
community for over a 100 years, or a remote two-teacher school in Far North Queensland, or
a middle school that is part of a Kindergarten-to-Year 12 low-fee-paying private independent
college in Adelaide. The above list of the ways in which educators work is a generic one. The
specifics of that work, however, vary from one school to another. Managing behaviour will
be done somewhat differently if one is working in an independent Christian school in one
state or territory than it will if the teacher is employed in a government-funded preschool
in another. Meeting the needs of refugee children in urban schools (Lynch, 2011) is a very
different challenge than taking action for the social inclusion of Indigenous children in remote
communities (Rigney, 2011).
To better understand the great diversity in educational contexts we suggest that preschools
and schools, like this book, should be read as complex social texts. To read schools well
requires skill and insight. As well, we need to be ready to read ‘against the grain’; that is, to
bring a critical eye to the text.
Consider the people who are around you in your teacher education program – where did they go
to school? What is the same and different about their experiences when compared with your own?
What do they consider to be the core work of today’s educators?
Alamy Stock Photo/Bill Bachman
Shutterstock.com/photobank.ch
Old and new:

two contrasting
school buildings
The school as text

Let us turn now for a moment to the notion of reading a school and imagine each preschool
and school can be read as a text. What do we mean by that? Any text, whether it is a novel,
a magazine, a radio program, a television show or a digital text, such as might be found on
YouTube, is something that has been constructed by its author(s), and so it is capable of being
taken apart by its reader, listener or viewer. If we read a preschool or school as a narrative,
what kind of story does it tell? How has this story been shaped by the cultural influences in
the community? If it were read as a television documentary, what kind of information would
it contain and how would it be viewed?
Robyn Ewing (2014), in the preface to Curriculum and Assessment: Storylines, reminded
us that we ‘live our lives through stories and it is thus natural that as teachers [educators]
we frequently make sense of our work through narrative’ (p. xix). Using narrative, Robyn
created her account of curriculum and assessment as a series of storylines, each with its own
history and particularity. Just as these practices have their own ways of being narrated, so too
does the school itself. Hence our claim that the school can be read as a text; and that just as
the world of literature is rich and layered, so too are educational communities, in all of their
infinite variety.
Alamy Stock Photo/Greatstock Photographic Library
What can you

read about this
classroom from
Whether recent school leavers or mature-age learners, you are experienced readers. You the image?
have been engaged in reading and analysing literary texts during your own learning journeys
and hopefully when reading for pleasure over many years. In this chapter we are asking you
to consider reading preschools and schools as different kinds of texts.
Deconstructing texts
Deconstruction Texts can be deconstructed. Deconstruction is an important tool for exploring the surface and
involves taking a deep features of a text to identify the hidden contradictions, while embedded vested interests
text apart so that
its messages can be are made explicit and problematic. It pushes to one side the notion of a single preferred
identified, analysed reading. Every text’s meaning is subjective, as each of us will interpret a text through the lens
and critiqued.
of personal experience and feelings. But each reading, if defensible, must itself be available for
the consideration and critique of others. We should be prepared to engage in recursive reading;
that is, reading and rereading in the light of ongoing debate and discussion. So we can read and
reread the way a particular preschool or school presents its philosophies, expectations and goals
to the parent and broader community. Are there different ways its policies, procedures and
practices can be interpreted by different families depending on their own cultural experiences
and understandings? How, for example, might a learner interpret a sign that says ‘No children
past this point’ or ‘Staff only’? Or, if we were to explore the subtext of power in a school
we may find that while an educator may feel powerful and respected in their own centre or
classroom, they may feel powerless in the face of the policies of external agencies.
Breaking apart the binaries

Deconstruction also breaks apart traditional binaries such as teacher-learner, teaching–
learning. More and more we find in the classroom that educators are learners and learners may
be educators, that the roles of educator and learner are interchangeable. This is clearly evident
when it comes to new technologies and social media, a space where young people are often
more comfortable and confident and their educators may be less experienced and tentative.
Considering education stakeholders

Considering preschools and schools as texts is not a neutral activity. We also need to consider
how portrayals of schooling are actually made and by whom. Nameless workers, educators,
parents, learners, policy makers, government officials, members of parliament and media
personalities all play a part in constructing the texts about education. As we have already
suggested, educators are often powerful characters in these texts. At the same time they are
subject to the regimes of power that lie outside the early childhood centre or school and which
themselves shape and reshape the text. Education, after all, is a big budget item. State and
territory governments and the federal government all have an interest in it and will, from time
to time, bring acts and regulations before parliament that will impact directly upon educators’
work. In a number of chapters that follow we shall be closely examining the ways in which
the federal government has significantly changed the educational text with the introduction
of a national curriculum, national testing and national professional standards for educators.
Becoming critical
To be an intelligent reader of schooling one needs to be familiar with the conventions and
codes of early childhood centres and schools but not to be blinded by that familiarity. One
of the great challenges that you face in becoming an educator is, at one and the same time, to
acknowledge your own educational experience and the way it has shaped your understanding
of educational institutions and to subject that experience to questioning. For many people
intending to become educators, preschools and schools were places where they experienced
success so it can sometimes be difficult to understand that for many others schools were – and
sometimes continue to be – threatening and uncomfortable places. Those who had negative,
even painful, times may find it difficult to analyse the context and interactions that led to such
experiences.
We emphasise throughout this book that there are many ways in which the work of
educators and of learners can be represented. We challenge you, as readers of this particular
text, to be intelligent and acute readers and to be cautious about attempts to romanticise
preschool or schooling. Too often teaching has been laden with romanticised notions of
what the work is and how it is best conducted. The preschool or school is constructed as
an unproblematic caring and nurturing environment. The leader is generous and just, the
educators are even-handed and even-tempered, the learners are innocent and eager to learn.
The consequences of reading preschools and schools as idealist texts are most significant
when we relate them to the least advantaged and least powerful in our society, for they are the
most silenced and marginalised by such a stereotypical and linear narrative. Stroud’s (2018)
extraordinary personal memoir, Teacher, presents a more authentic portrayal of the joys and
the challenges she faced everyday of her 16 years of teaching.
Can you identify other examples of the way educators have been represented in popular culture?
What impact do such representations have on how the educator is positioned in society and
what might be the implications? How are educators across different stages positioned (e.g. early
childhood compared to secondary)?
The diversity of the teaching profession

Another concern that is often cited by employers and parents is that early childhood and
primary teaching in particular is perceived to have been feminised since the 1960s when this
kind of data was first collected. McGrath and Van Bergen (2017) actually found, however, that
from 1977 the decline in male representation in the profession was similar in both primary
and secondary schools, and that this was more marked in the government sector. There have
never been many male early childhood educators. Perhaps it is important to consider why this
is the case. Cruickshank’s (2017) study of male primary teachers examined the gender-related
challenges that were sometimes triggers for male primary teachers to leave the profession. He
suggested it was important to focus on retention of those men who were already teachers.
Nevertheless, it is well documented that the distribution of power and responsibility in
schools is not necessarily equitable. For example, the ratio of males in executive positions and
in physical and science education is higher than women in these roles, despite the fact that
there are twice as many women in the profession.
Perhaps a far more significant issue, however, is that we want to ensure that educators
reflect the diversity in their communities. For example, it has been difficult to attract and
retain Aboriginal teachers in the profession (Burgess, 2013). What message does this send
learners about what is appropriate in education?
Caring for young children and young people is highly worthy but educators, as responsible
professionals, need to go beyond the caring ethos. They need to acknowledge that they are
engaged in extended sociopolitical action that requires them to be concerned about equity and
social justice for their learners and for their learning. In addition, they need a sophisticated
Pedagogy refers understanding of pedagogy and how different strategies meet the needs of individual learners.
to the interface
between teaching
and learning and Schools as postmodern places
curriculum. It is not
only what is taught, Schools are physical sites with a great diversity of actors within their walls. They are also
but also how it situated historically, ideologically, micropolitically and socially. They are beset by dilemmas,
is taught, why it is tensions and opportunities on all sides. In this sense we can see schools as postmodern
taught and how it is
received. texts. ‘Postmodern’ is a word used to describe the contemporary condition, in which there
are contradictions and juxtapositions. The old lies alongside the new, the customary battles
with the novel, the past leaps into the future. Anyone visiting one of our large cities would
see old facades behind which stand new buildings; nostalgia for the past is combined with
modern functionalism. Many schools too have echoes of the past through their architecture and
design (the industial model talked about in Gonksi’s report referred to earlier) combined with
modern teaching resources. As educators we were often successful learners in schools that were
institutions built in the past. Now we are working in a context of rapid change to help build the
capacities and skills of children who will need to negotiate an as yet unforeseen future.
Globalisation
One feature of the postmodern world in which we should have an interest is the one
Globalisation results characterised by the twin and apparently contradictory tendencies of globalisation and
from a relentless resurgent nationalism. We see, at the same time, burgeoning transnational corporations and
interchange of world
practices in such localised struggles for language and place. Globalisation is reflected even in popular culture.
fields as economics Reality television programs such as My Kitchen Rules crop up in countries all over the world,
and impacts directly
on education. from Austria to Australia, but each country’s program has its own particular features. The
school in the postmodern world similarly takes part in global functions as well as operating
in highly localised ways. Knowingly – or otherwise – much of the information that flows
through schools is part of an ever-shifting global discourse. It may be curriculum information,
information about assessment and reporting strategies, information about ways for teaching
reading or mathematics, information about technologies, even information about school
management. Or it may be about issues such as the gun control debate following the shootings
in a range of United States schools. At the same time, each early childhood centre and school
is encouraged to develop highly localised responses to its immediate community, to run
itself as an independent small business. Schools and early childhood centres are accountable
nationally. Nationwide testing is even being suggested for all Australian six year olds.
When we think of preschools and schools as postmodern texts and apply to them principles of
deconstruction, we can read for the contradictions and difficult questions.
Why is it that our most disadvantaged learners act sometimes against their own long-term
interests by being complicit in disrupting their own learning?
How has it come to be that fun has become an end in itself, rather than a by-product of a
particular learning process?
Why is intellectual playfulness not recognised as fun?
Wellbeing and learning

The Melbourne Declaration (MCEETYA) states that, ‘Schools play a vital role in promoting
the intellectual, physical, social, emotional, moral, spiritual and aesthetic development and
wellbeing of young Australians’ (p. 4) (© 2008 Curriculum Corporation as the legal entity for
the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA)).
We acknowledge ‘wellbeing’ is an ubiquitous term that has different interpretations, but
it is often identified as a significant concept in education systems. We define ‘wellbeing’ as
the state of being comfortable and happy, and emphasise the importance of emotions within
this. We also want to emphasise that both educator and the learner wellbeing are important.
In considering a school as a text, we look to learning spaces (such as classrooms) as complex
social worlds where people interact in multifaceted ways with other people, spaces and materials.
These are, then, complex and dynamic spaces where the experiences enacted within are in part
determined by the educators’ and contexts’ philosophies of education as they interplay with
the lives of learners. The sense of wellbeing from all participants within these spaces therefore
is critical. Learning spaces are social and negotiated spaces as learners and educators navigate to
make sense of what is expected of them. For example, the learner that is deliberately seated near
the educator’s desk comes to realise that s/he is often the subject of educator attention, sometimes
to be helped, sometimes for behaviour management purposes. It is through the process of
negotiation in learning spaces that learning identities are constructed and consolidated.
So then, in this understanding of wellbeing it is critical to consider how our emotions
affect our ability to teach, and for our learners, their ability to learn. We might consider the
impact of emotions on learning as Groundwater-Smith and Kelly (2003) did when examining
how young people experienced what assisted and inhibited their learning in the Australian
Museum. Learners wanted to be emotionally connected while at the same time not be
emotionally confronted. A sabre-toothed leopard exhibit was so powerful for some that they
could not look at it because they were frightened by it. The exhibit was quite explicit in that
it portrayed the leopard with its fangs embedded in the skull of its prey – a young boy. It
had been reconstructed from an archaeological dig. The exhibit invoked both awe and fear
simultaneously. That a creature could so attack its prey clearly engaged the learners. Even
though they were in no personal danger, many still felt threatened and found themselves
turning away from both the exhibit and its educational purpose.
Reading is not a passive, one-way process. Rather it is one in which readers bring to the text a
range of experiences and dispositions that colour how they understand particular phenomena.
At the same time we should not become entrapped by the limitations of our own experiences.
We need to explore how our own biographies influence the ways in which we read the text of
schooling. As mentioned earlier, Stroud (2018) brilliantly demonstrates the interplay between
her own life history, her emotional journey as she worked hard to meet the individual needs
of all her students and her professional role as a teacher as she tells her story.
In initially developing this book we found the use of a dilemmas framework valuable.
It enabled us to examine what happens in our preschools and schools and ways in which
educators can manage in them. In this edition of Teaching: Dilemmas, Challenges and
Opportunities, we continue to draw upon the notion of dilemmas as a central construct for the
book. Teaching will never be straightforward; it will always require the exercise of carefully
considered professional judgement in the context of competing demands, expectations and
opportunities.
Case study Divers e p re - s e r v ice tea ch e r i d e n t i t i e s

·1
Consider the following preservice teachers who are just beginning their teacher education
courses.
Mia is a mature-age Aboriginal student from western New South Wales. Over a number
of years she has worked in her community, encouraging young people to stay at school. She
has qualified and worked as an Aboriginal education assistant in several primary schools, but
now feels ready to develop her qualifications and take on the full range of challenges facing
the classroom teacher. Mia is more than a little apprehensive. Will she cope with the distance
education elements of her program? How will she manage her large family’s needs? When Mia
was a secondary school student all those years ago she felt alienated and marginalised; she has a
great determination that her students will not have similar experiences. Mia’s reading of school
is one marred by pain and hurt.
How different from Andy’s experience. Andy is a school leaver in Perth. Although his exit
qualifications could have gained him a place in a range of high-status courses, he deliberately
chose primary teacher education. He attended a prestigious independent boys’ school where he
was acknowledged for his achievements in athletics and swimming. His family were surprised at
his career choice of primary school teaching, but they respect it and have encouraged him. Andy
is accustomed to success.
Unlike Mia and Andy, Houda was born overseas. Houda and her parents came from Lebanon
when she was three. They settled in a part of Melbourne that had a well-established Arabic
community. Houda had no encounters with English until she started school and she is the first
in her family to attend university. Andy and Houda’s reading of schooling will vary as much
from each other’s as they will from Mia’s.
Identify two different texts in your own journey through preschool and primary and secondary
schooling. Were there times when you experienced education as an adventure, a tragedy, an
experiment or a comedy? How do those readings influence and affect you emotionally?
Dilemmas of schooling
Dilemmas are defined by Lyons (1990, p. 169) as ‘practical conflicts’ with no ready answers
to these conflicts. A variety of resolutions each carrying its attendant costs and benefits are
plausible. Normally, when thinking about dilemmas, we imagine being trapped between a
rock and a hard place. Whichever way we turn we are beset by unimaginable difficulties and
the choice is that of the lesser of two evils. If this were so, teaching would be impossible.
Rather, we are constructing dilemmas as complex situations where the choices have to be
unravelled and the consequences for taking particular paths weighed up to find potential
opportunities.
An often cited dilemma faced in education is that of the theory/practice divide, a divide
which itself is the kind of binary that deserves to be challenged. The literature on teaching
often asks the profession to consider what counts as valid knowledge about teaching – the
theoretician’s knowledge or the practitioner’s knowledge? Academics and practitioners often
see things in different ways. This is a dilemma you will face when you first begin teaching in
your professional experiences. Whose view of good practice should I follow? Does the divide
really exist? More and more, through current professional learning strategies, educators are
becoming theorists about their work and academics themselves are recognised as educators
in tertiary settings, not just as idealists, remote from the practical work of the centre or
classroom.
Many writers question the notion of separating theory from practice. Indeed, it is seen
that the reflective practitioner (a term you will come across throughout this book, cf. Schon,
1983) thinks deeply about his or her professional work and challenges not only the practice,
but also the theory that lies behind it. In order to do this it is essential that one’s theories
are explicit and that contradictions are identified. As Ball (2001) puts it ‘Theory is a vehicle
for thinking “otherwise”; it is a platform for “outrageous hypotheses” and for unleashing
criticism’ (p. 19). It offers a language for challenge, and modes of thought, other than those
articulated for us by dominant others. In a similar vein, Carr (2009) argues that educational
theorising is a practice. As we sift through and sort out what we are to do under different Theorising
circumstances we are weighing up the consequences for our learners and ourselves; we are When we engage
in theorising we
effectively enacting our theory of practice. are also doing
For example, an educator might ask, ‘If I believe that learners learn best when they have something that is
practical for the
clear, well-structured goals that they have developed in partnership with me, why do I give consequences will
so little time to establish these goals in the learning process? Is it because I am only paying lip affect what it is that
service to goal setting and don’t really believe in it, or is it because I have let other demands we do and how and
why we do it.
on my time get in the way?’ Clearly, we have a dilemma here.
Applying the Berlak dilemmas

Arguably the most comprehensive and enduring work that has been undertaken with respect
to dilemmas in education has been that which Berlak and Berlak (1981) engaged with in their
study of British classrooms in the early 1980s. They developed a theory about dilemmas in
schooling by closely observing practice. Their work has been invaluable in thinking through
some of the conflicting values and problems inherent in education that cannot be resolved
Best practice
by the one correct solution. Today, many discourses in education across the sectors are implies that there is
dominated by the notion of ‘best practice’, which, as we commented earlier, undermines sufficient evidence
the complexity of schooling with its contextual and historical variations. It is for this reason to identify a
particular way of
that we have adopted the Berlak framework as one that can guide us throughout this book, doing things as the
more as a tool for thinking than as a set of principles. From time to time we shall enjoin you very best. However,
given the variability
to consider and discuss an issue as a dilemma. For example, in the chapter that focuses upon in contexts and
learning, Chapter 4, we shall demonstrate that the adoption of different learning theories has educator attributes
different implications with regard to what educators and learners do in the classroom. There that we have
discussed thus far, it
are attendant costs and benefits to any one set of practices. may be more helpful
The Berlak dilemmas have been organised into three sets: control, curriculum and societal to think in terms of
‘sound and defensible
(Berlak & Berlak, 1981, pp. 22–3). In each case the researchers have named the choices that practice’ rather than
are to be made and, in the text, they have looked at the consequences of these. Here, we shall the superlative form.
outline the sets and discuss them briefly, but for a fuller account it would be helpful for you
to return to the original work.
Control set
• Whole learner versus learner as student. Here, educators have to consider whether they
will assume a social responsibility for the learner as a whole person or whether they will
concentrate on the learner’s intellectual/academic needs. This decision is influenced by the
developmental needs of the learner (for example, a preschooler compared with a senior
secondary learner). How this dilemma is resolved will have an effect on all those dilemmas
that follow.
• Educator versus learner control of time. Educators may decide upon the time allocation
to individual curriculum areas or they may wish to allow the learner to make decisions
regarding the time they need for learning (in self-directed tasks). Time management in
schools and preschools – and who can control this – has considerable implications for the
ways in which learning is to be organised.
• Educator versus learner control of how things are organised and implemented. Who makes
the decisions about how things are to be done? What resources are used? In some places
the ‘how’ question is resolved by tradition and habit, rather than reason and negotiation.
• Educator versus learner control of standards. The questions that arise in this case are, ‘How
good is good enough?’ and ‘Who decides?’ If the educator determines the standards, then
this has consequences for the ways in which learners will be motivated to learn; on the
other hand, if the learner determines the standards, it may be the case that they have
underestimated his or her own capability, consistently leading to underachievement.
Curriculum set
• Personal knowledge versus public knowledge. Here, the contrast is between knowledge
that is important to the learner and may be quite idiosyncratic and knowledge which
is publicly valued. The greater the orientation to statewide norms, through government
curriculum documents and mandated learning policies, the greater the affirmation of
public knowledge.
• Knowledge as content versus knowledge as process. The decision here is whether to
emphasise the knowledge itself or how to gain it. Currently in Australia we have an
ongoing debate about the relative merits of content knowledge and the key competencies
(process knowledge). Both are essential: how is balance achieved?
• Knowledge as given versus knowledge as problematic. Some believe that knowledge is
fixed and static or absolute, others consider that knowledge itself must be challenged. It
has been claimed that the learners we teach today will be using human knowledge that has
not yet been invented. The more static a view of human knowledge, the more difficult it is
to deal with change.
• Learning is holistic versus learning is molecular. Should teaching and learning be integrated
teaching or siloed? Some preschools and primary schools organise the curriculum
thematically (and even to the interests of learners), while many divide the day into subject
blocks, with little connections made. Secondary schools also often teach in quite separate
faculties, although some middle schools apply more integrated processes.
• Intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. Educators have to consider their beliefs regarding
how learners are motivated to learn. Is it inherent or do we have to provide rewards and
sanctions? How do the actions of educators encourage motivation among learners?
• Each learner is unique versus learners have shared characteristics. It is suggested by
some educators that individual differences and individual characteristics override group
differences and characteristics such as social class, gender and/or ethnicity.
• Learning is individual versus learning is social. Some programs of learning are directed to
isolated, individual performance, while others look to social interaction with opportunities
for collaboration to support the learning process.
• Learner as person versus learner as client. This dilemma is closely related to the first in the
control set. It determines the educator’s relationship with the learner. Is it one of emotional
bonding or of professional detachment? What about their relationship with the learner’s
family?
Societal set
• Childhood as continuous versus childhood as unique. Is childhood only a part of a lifelong
process of learning or is it an exceptional time for learning? Another concern embraced
by this dilemma is the distinction between the learner as an individual or as a member of a
historically constructed social group.
• Equal allocation of resources versus differential allocation. Some would recommend that
resources are allocated on a per capita basis while others argue that those with special
needs (intellectual, physical, social) require additional support.
• Equal justice under law versus ad hoc application of rules. Do educators set up specific
rules for behaviour and apply them to all at all times, or do they take account of specific
learners or specific circumstances?
• Common culture versus subgroup consciousness. We may see our learners in national
cultural terms or we may construct them in terms of cultural diversity. This is important
as now we have a National Curriculum. For example, should Aboriginal children from
remote areas experience the same curriculum and processes of teaching and learning as
recently arrived non-English-speaking background learners? Or should learners from
strongly oral cultures be taught in the same way as those from strong literacy-based
cultures?
It is clear that there are no easy answers. Too often teaching is constructed as a delivery
system designed to transmit a predetermined body of undisputed knowledge to more or less
passive learners. In such a view, educators are technicians, primarily concerned with effective
and efficient delivery methods and the accomplishment of ends that have been determined by
others. The view we wish to advance is that of teaching as essentially a critical and thoughtful
activity where educators are engaged in questioning the social, educational, moral, ethical and
political implications of their work in order to meet the individual needs of their learners.
This is not to say that there are many requisite skills that an educator needs to have in
order to engage their learners in learning; such skills as explaining, questioning, organising,
communicating etc. are all to be identified and nurtured, and will be closely examined in the
chapters that follow.
Take one dilemma question from the previous section that you see as most relevant to you.
How might you work it through? How does this dilemma look from an early childhood, primary
or secondary perspective?
There are many other intellectual tools that we need to use as well, not the least being the
social science and humanities disciplines, which give us particular insight into practice.
Contributions of the social

sciences and humanities
disciplines
In the past, when you intended to become a teacher/educator and chose to study ‘education’ at
university, you would have taken what were designated ‘foundation’ courses. The metaphor
was a well-chosen one from the perspectives of the day. It was believed that if you had solid
foundations in the contributing disciplines, these would be the bedrock on which you would
build your personal theories of practice in education. The progression was a linear one – from
grand theory to personal theory to practice. Today, the relationship is seen to be far more
interactive. Education itself is far more likely to be constructed as an interdisciplinary study,
and the nexus between theory and practice is a continuing set of connections, disconnections
and reconnections.
At the same time, we need the disciplines as our intellectual touchstones. They provide us
with ways of seeing those problems and challenges that we have written about, as Figure 1.2
demonstrates.
To be serious about the study of teaching and learning we need to return time and again to
the insights that the disciplines offer us, not as foundations, but as powerful intellectual tools.
For example, we may be interested in the question, ‘How should we be providing for
intellectually gifted learners in the primary school?’ Philosophy will help us untangle our
terms in relation to the ways in which intellectual giftedness is defined. Psychology will assist
us in sorting out some of the methods by which giftedness might be identified and assessed
and what the identifiable attributes of the gifted learner might be. Sociology will help in the
consideration of equity questions, such as whether giftedness is constructed in ways that
benefit only specific groups of learners and disadvantage others. History will enable us to
see the patterns and trends in the provision of education for gifted learners, while social
geography will enable us to understand contexts and how and why provisions for the
education of exceptional children are distributed as they are. For example, is it the case that
those who are geographically isolated have the same opportunity as those who are located
in metropolitan areas? Anthropology will assist us in understanding that, for some cultures,
selecting and affirming individual learners is not seen as appropriate, that each member of the
FIGURE 1.2
CONTRIBUTION OF DISCIPLINES TO CONSIDERATION IN
EDUCATION
DISCIPLINE FOCUS
Philosophy Defining the questions more acutely.
Unravelling the issues.
Identifying the contradictions.
Psychology Exploring perception, cognition, motivation and engagement, different kinds
of human intelligence and ways learners learn.
Identifying children’s and young people’s developmental stages and their
consequences.
Sociology Examining how society (the interactions between people, and people
and material objects) produces and maintains phenomena such as power,
knowledge and ideas, emotions, actions, practices, technologies, institutions,
systems, etc.
Analysing how formal education operates as a social phenomenon that
reflects and produces the operation of power, that privileges some and
disadvantages others, and shapes how people perceive the world and what is
true.
History Tracing the antecedents to contemporary educational thought and practice.
Social geography Recognising and analysing the consequences of ‘place’ on the provision of
educational services and opportunities to benefit from them.
Anthropology Developing comparisons between cultures and cultural groups, and the
arrangements they make for the education of their people.
Economics Investigating the allocation of human and material resources to education and
the policies governing such allocation.
group has something to contribute and that individualism is a particularly Western construct.
Economics will tell us something about the notion of treating our gifted learners as a form of
human capital and that the ‘clever country’ needs to invest in its most talented individuals for
the economic good of the collective.
Each discipline thus has the capacity to make a significant contribution to our understanding
of educational issues. It is not within the scope of this book to sufficiently apprise you of the
power of each one. It is assumed that you will be undertaking studies of these areas in their
own right. What is important here is to remind you that such discipline studies are relevant
to your becoming an educator and that you need to apply what you learn in these disciplines
as a careful and reflective practitioner.
Of course, reflection can be problematic. When the practitioner gets caught up in his or
her taken-for-granted world view there is a danger that reflection can become introspection.
Using the disciplines as a touchstone allows us to broaden our perspective. The challenge
we wish to set is embodied in the question, ‘How might we, as educators, be able to engage
in critical debate in a context where there are many discourses and such debates are often
controversial?’ We need to become teacher–scholars, deeply and profoundly connected to our
professional work as intellectual work. We live in preschools and schools that are postmodern
texts; we are not characters in romantic novels and we need to transcend those constructions
of schooling that oversimplify and trivialise the roles and responsibilities of the educator.
Consequently, teacher education must reinvent itself so that its sophistication and
complexity may be revealed through sustained debate. We need to make critical dialogue
a cornerstone of our work. Particularly, we need to discard any suggestion there is an easy
answer, which attends only to the immediate, and move to resolutions which themselves may
continue to be challenged. We cannot intellectually impoverish our profession by treating
schools as simple romanticised sites where, if only educators and learners do their work in a
manner prescribed by others, the outcomes will be fair and just.
New teaching for new times

There can be no question that we need to develop new teaching for these new times where we
see such major changes in learner identities, social structures, workplace reconstruction, new
and converging technologies and globalisation. Technology and social media are changing the
ideas and practices of children and young people At the same time that we are urged to foster
learners’ critical and creative thinking, flexibility and problem-solving processes (see The Four
Cs in Useful online teaching resources), however, educators are also facing many other seemingly
oppositional challenges. These include: constant government intervention; regulation of the
profession; increasingly high stakes testing; increased cultural diversity as well as nationalism;
unprecedented growth of inequality with the ever widening gap between rich and poor; and
increased authoritarianism across the globe (strong leaders) eroding democracy and freedoms.
We need to rethink and reconceptualise the purposes and practices of education. We
need to build with new resources that recognise the changing social, cultural, economic and
technological environment. Recent work in various Australian states and territories, and
federally also, have taken up the challenge in various ways as they develop new frameworks
for learning that will be discussed in the chapters that follow.
International frameworks have also been constructed, such as Project Zero, a major
educational reform unit located at Harvard University (Ritchhart, 2001, 2003, 2012). Ritchhart
has evolved a thinking framework in which he argues that intelligence may be constructed as
a collection of cognitive dispositions that will contribute to good and productive thinking.
He suggests that learning is a consequence of thinking and involves the learner in the flexible,
active use of knowledge. He asks for educators to seek to make learning visible. He has
re-established the agency for learning with the learner through the concept of ‘intellectual
character’. The work offers a significant complement to current Australian frameworks
that focus upon pedagogy and what it is that educators need to do. Ritchhart gets inside the
framework and looks outward from the learner’s point of view.
Ritchhart (2001, pp. 148–9) argues that it is the educator’s role to cultivate the skills and
abilities of learners such that the full array of cognitive dispositions can be operative.
Dispositions depend on the requisite skills and abilities to carry them out. This means that
dispositions must be fleshed out and operationalised as sets of skills. For example, open-
mindedness can take the form of generating alternatives, considering other points of view or
looking for bias in oneself or others. To cultivate the ability to be open-minded necessitates
development of these and many other associated skills.
In developing intellectual character he argues that the learner needs to:

• look out – engage in creative thinking, be open minded and curious
• look in – engage in reflective thinking, use metacognition and be a truth seeker
• look at – engage in critical thinking, be strategic and sceptical (Ritchhart, 2001, p. 149).
Do you think it is an exciting time to be entering the teaching profession? What are the current
challenges that seem greatest to you? What are the opportunities? When you tell people you want
to be an educator, what reasons do you provide in support of your decision?
Conclusion
So, do you still want to be an educator?
In moving through this book you will not find a compendium of ready solutions to
the challenges and dilemmas you will encounter as an educator, but you will find many
opportunities to invigorate your thinking about teaching and challenge some of the
stereotypes you may carry about educators and learners. As Tim Minchin also advised in the
same address quoted at the beginning of the chapter:
We must think critically, and not just about the ideas of others. Be hard on your beliefs. Take
them out onto the verandah and beat them with a cricket bat … Be intellectually rigorous.
Identify your biases, your prejudices, your privilege.
Speech transcript from Tim Minchin. Retrieved from https://www.timminchin.com/2013/09/25/occasional-address/
We hope you will also find a range and variety of ideas and strategies to reflect on as you
begin to develop your own unique professional philosophy and practice.
In this opening chapter we are suggesting that your choice to become an educator will
challenge, confront and delight you. Teaching can be immensely satisfying but it is never easy.
As educators, we bring our own social and personal histories to the preschool, classroom or
alternative learning space as do the children and young people we teach. What wonderful
learning opportunities you will have, alongside the challenges.
STUDY TOOLS
Go Further with extra resources and study tools for this chapter. Ask your instructor
Go further
Following
1 Draw your image of a ‘good’ educator, or create a mind or concept map. What features are prominent?
through Do they relate to a teacher you once had? Or are they in direct contradiction to a not-so-positive
experience?
2 Reflect on a preschool or school that you attended. What sort of story does it trigger for you? What
memories do others share (your family members, peers)? Are there people in your group who have
very different stories to tell? What were some of the things that contributed to those differences?
3 Consider how education should be viewed in terms of responsibility and entitlement. What are the
responsibilities of the learner when he or she engages with schooling? What are the responsibilities of
the educator? And the parent? What happens when we see the learner and their parent(s) as clients?
4 Interview a person who was at school over 30 years ago. Ask your interviewee about the curriculum.
What was the most valuable thing that they learnt? What was the least valuable? What was valued
more greatly – knowing how or knowing what? Compare and contrast your findings with your fellow
learners.
5 Working with some people who have had life experiences that vary from your own in significant
ways, discuss a recent public issue in education. It could be testing, funding policies, some aspect of
behaviour management, selective schooling or issues around school choice. What lens do you bring to
reading the issue as a result of your own education journey?
Useful http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/A-Guide-to-Four-Cs.pdf The Preparing 21st Century Students for a

online Global Society: An educator’s guide to the “Four Cs”, by the National Education Association (2013),
teaching envisions that every learner attains, alongside strong content mastery, the ‘Four Cs’: critical thinking,
resources communication, collaboration and creativity.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/collective-responsibility Turning to this website provides a further
extension of the concept of collective responsibility.
http://transformativelearningtheory.com/corePrinciples.html A great deal has been written regarding
transformative education. This website clearly sets out the basic principles of transformative education
and their origins.
http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/downloads/p_10/ey_lt_reflect_teaching_prac.pdf This website has been
developed by the Queensland Studies Authority (QSA) for the Government of Queensland and
provides clear guidance in undertaking reflection when teaching.
http://www.pz.harvard.edu/ This site will link you to a range of resources that have been developed in
relation to Harvard’s Project Zero concept of making learning visible based upon Reggio Emilia
principles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjIHB8WzJek Australian Story: Meet Eddie Woo the maths teacher
you wish you’d had in high school.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
Pea Ridge is in the extreme north-west part of Arkansas, situated
in Benton, the corner county of the State. A range of hills—a spur of
the Ozark Mountains—sweeps from Missouri into this corner of the
State, and from thence branches into the Indian Territory, where the
section known as the Boston Mountains is found. Sugar Creek, where
the battle commenced, is situated close to Bentonville, the capital of
the county on the north. Pea Ridge is also adjacent to the same town,
and forms a part of the mountain range just described.
At this time it became evident to the several commanders that a
general contest was inevitable. A decisive combat was, in fact,
desired by both of the opposing forces. General McIntosh, confident
of success with his large army, under the leadership of Price,
McCulloch, Pike and Van Dorn, believed that he could strike a fatal
blow at the Union cause west of the Mississippi, by the annihilation
of the Federal army. General Curtis, on the other hand, was not less
anxious for a contest, even at the fearful disadvantage offered him.
With his keen discrimination, he saw the glorious results of a defeat
of the four rebel chieftains united against him. Should he prove
successful in the almost desperate encounter, it would prove the
destruction of the rebel forces in the two States, and leave a clear
field for future operation. Should he fail—but no true general even
thinks of that after he has made up his mind to fight.
At this time his force was divided into three divisions, as follows:
General Sigel’s Division.—First Brigade, Colonel Gruesel.—36th
Illinois, Col. Gruesel; 25th Illinois, Col. Coler; 44th Illinois, Col.
Knoblesdorf. Second Brigade, Col. Osterhaus.—12th Missouri, Col.
Osterhaus; 17th Missouri, Col. Hassendeufel; 2d Missouri, Col.
Schaeffer. Third Brigade, Col. Asboth.—3d Missouri, Col. Friala;
Illinois Cavalry, (one battalion,) Capt’s. Jenks and Smith; 3d Iowa
Cavalry.
General Davis’s Division.—First Brigade, Col. Benton.—8th
Indiana, Col. Benton; 18th Indiana, Col. Patterson; 22d Indiana, Col.
Hendricks. Second Brigade, Col. Julius White.—59th Illinois, Col.
Fredericks; 37th Illinois, Col. Burnes; Missouri Cavalry, (battalion,)
Maj. Broen; 2d Ohio, battery, Col. Catin; 1st Missouri Light Artillery,
one battery.
General Carr’s Division.—First Brigade, Col. Dodge.—4th Iowa,
Lieut.-Col. Galighan; 35th Illinois, Col. G. A. Smith; 24th Missouri,
(battalion,) Maj. Weston. Second Brigade, Col. Vandenier.—9th
Iowa, Lieut.-Col. Herron; 25th Missouri, Col. Phelps; 9th Iowa,
battery, Capt. Hayden; 1st Iowa, battery, Lieut. David. Third
Brigade, Col. Ellis.—1st Missouri Cavalry, Col. Ellis; 3d Illinois, ——;
6th Missouri, battalion, Maj. Wright.
Opposed to the forces of General Curtis, just enumerated, the rebel
army had fully ten thousand Missouri State troops under Major-
General Price; six to eight regiments of Arkansas troops under
General McCulloch; six regiments of Texans under General Earl Van
Dorn; three thousand Cherokee, Choctaw and Seminole Indians
under Colonel Albert Pike, all under command of Major-General
McIntosh. Besides those mentioned, there were two or three
regiments of Louisiana troops and companies of Mississippi and
Alabama regiments under the command of their respective colonels,
majors and captains.
Upon this occasion the Union troops were well armed and
equipped, while the weapons of the rebels varied in character and
effectiveness. Many of them were excellent, embracing Minie rifles,
Enfield muskets, and good United States muskets. The larger
portion, however, were hunting rifles and shot-guns. The rebels had
eighty-two field pieces, twenty of which were rifled, while General
Curtis’ forces had but forty-nine; nearly all, however, were of
superior manufacture and destructive power.
On the evening of the 5th of March, the scouts of General Sigel
brought in word, that large forces of the rebel cavalry were on the
Pineville road at Osage Spring. Sigel was evidently in a bad position,
and on the following day he commenced moving back, his pickets
being driven in before he could get his wagon train in motion. His
route lay a few miles to the north, when he struck the bed of Sugar
creek, along which he travelled six miles. It was there the battle first
began. General Sigel with two battalions of Missouri infantry and a
squadron of cavalry formed the rear guard of his division, and were
delayed by the train which moved slowly along the rough roads. He
determined not to desert a single wagon to the rebels, although by so
doing, he could have easily reached the main body of the Union
forces.
The enemy made his appearance with 4,000 cavalry, at about 10
o’clock in the morning, a few miles out of Bentonville, and
immediately commenced the attack by a desperate charge. Sigel had
with him nearly 1,000 men. He sent forward two hundred infantry to
prevent the enemy cutting him off, and with the remainder he
received the whole of the vast army. He ordered his men to stand
firm and take good aim. The teams were put upon good pace, and the
enemy came rushing on in several lines. The horsemen on the flanks
and infantry in the rear awaited their approach until within about
200 yards, when they delivered a terrible volley of Minie balls into
the rebel ranks, which had the effect of throwing them into
temporary confusion. In a few minutes the leaders succeeded in
getting them into something like order. This time they came up to
close quarters. The same volley, succeeded by a second and a third,
greeted them. The enemy came on in crowds, and their cavalry
closed all around the little band, notwithstanding horses and riders
were falling thick and fast before its steady fire. General Sigel rode
undismayed along the whole line, inspiring his men. Some of the
cavalry on the flank had succeeded in getting across the road so
cutting the train in two. Here the enemy set up a shout of triumph.
It was short lived. In a minute more the bayonets of the Union
men had done their work, leaving hundreds of dead and wounded in
their tracks. The enemy was driven off, broken and dismayed. Galled
and maddened at the repulse, his scattered ranks could be seen
reforming to renew the attack.
The column was yet seven miles from the encampment. A dispatch
had been sent forward to General Curtis, explaining the position and
asking for assistance. It was hardly possible that the messenger could
have been captured. The enemy was advancing on the road and along
the ridges enclosing the stream. At about two o’clock a second attack
was made and desperately carried forward. The rebel cavalry spurred
their horses right on to the irresistible bayonets, delivering their load
of buckshot from their miscellaneous guns, and then brandishing
huge knives, which every one of them carried in place of sabres.
They surrounded the rear guard a second time, and for a few
minutes friend could hardly be distinguished from foe. The dense
smoke enveloped the whole of the combatants, and for some time it
was doubtful whether any of the Union band survived. The faithful
Germans never faltered for a moment. Their gallant leader struck
down a dozen who clamored for his life, and hewed his way through
a line of enemies to rejoin his command. The bayonets proved the
invincibility of the Union infantry against horsemen. The foe retired
a second time, and for an hour could not be induced to return. By
this time the advance, which had been constantly skirmishing with
the rebel cavalry, announced reinforcements in sight, and a faint
cheer went up, which was re-echoed by the troops from the camp. A
third and last attempt was made to capture the train. It failed, and
the enemy withdrew about 3½ o’clock.
General Sigel reached camp at 4½ o’clock, to receive the
congratulations of the whole army. His loss in the entire march was
estimated at 60 killed and 200 wounded, many of whom fell into the
hands of the rebels, it being impossible to bring them off.
The night of the 6th of March was passed in a state of suspense.
The houses in the valley had been appropriated as hospitals, and a
strong force posted on the hill on the south bank of the creek under
Colonel Carr, with General Sigel occupying the ridge on the north
side, while Colonel Davis occupied the centre, near the crossing. The
enemy, it was supposed, would naturally make the attack from the
Fayetteville road, and the baggage trains and hospitals had been
placed to the rear of the lines. During the night the manifestations
showed conclusively that he was approaching in great strength by the
road leading from Bentonville to Keatsville, thus getting to the flank
and rear. This road lies, after crossing Sugar creek, over a high table
land, called Pea Ridge. It extends from the stage road westwardly
some eight miles along the right bank of Sugar creek.
The ridge is covered with a growth of stunted oaks, and a
sprinkling of larger growth, called post-oaks. Three or four farms
were located upon the ridge two miles west of the road, to which the
name of Leetown has been given. It was near these farms that the
principal part of the fighting took place.
Thursday night, March 6th, was clear and cold; the reflection of
the enemy’s camp-fires could be seen stretching along for miles to
the right. On the Fayetteville road the Union pickets reported
nothing unusual. Several Union field pieces had been placed in
position, sweeping that road. The men slept on their arms, that is
each man lay on the ground in fine of battle with his musket by him,
ready for action at a moment’s notice. A strong picket guard was
extended for a quarter of a mile beyond the lines, and the Federal
soldiers awaited the break of day with premonitions that the
morrow’s sun would be the last which would rise for many of them.
ATTACK OF COLONEL OSTERHAUS’ MISSOURI CAVALRY ON

THE TEXAS RANGERS.
The evidences were very clear on the morning, that a strong force
had been posted on the Fayetteville road, thus standing directly
between the Union forces and their next line at Cassville, completely
cutting off communication with the outer world. The line of battle
was changed. Colonel Carr was sent back along the Fayetteville road,
two miles, with his right resting on Cross Timber Hollows at the head
of Beaver Creek, a tributary of Big Sugar Creek, immediately facing
the rebel batteries on the side of Elkhorn tavern. General Davis, with
the central division, was posted on the top of Pea Ridge, leaving Sigel
to cover the camp with his left wing resting on Sugar Creek. In this
position things stood when the rebels opened the fight with artillery
on the extreme right, from a very advantageous position at the
distance of a mile. The Federal batteries soon replied. The fight raged
in front of Colonel Carr’s division from 10 to 11 o’clock, when another
battery was ordered up to his support, for he was hotly pressed. The
left, as yet, had not been menaced. General Sigel felt confident that
the enemy might be expected to make a descent from the south side,
and it was deemed indispensable to keep the men ready for action in
that direction. Colonel Osterhaus was sent with his brigade in the
morning along the high land in the direction of Leestown, where he
intercepted the reinforcements of the enemy. This was one of the
most spirited and successful attacks of the battle, and resulted in a
complete diversion of the enemy from the overpowered forces of
Colonel Carr, on the Fayetteville road.
The Union cavalry penetrated along the main ridge beyond the
road by which the enemy had advanced, and were on the point of
seizing some of his wagons when a brigade of rebel cavalry and
infantry attacked them. Then followed one of the most sanguinary
contests that ever has been recorded between cavalry. Most of the
fighting was done at close quarters. Pistols and carbines having been
exhausted, sabres were brought into requisition. The rattle of steel
against steel, sabres against muskets and cutlasses, was terrific. The
rebels were Texas Rangers, and fought like demons. The slaughter
was awful. The Missouri cavalry cleaving right and left, left winrows
of dead and wounded in front of their horses. The enemy fell back in
dismay, the valorous Federals pursued them along the road for a
mile, when they opened a battery upon the mass of friends and foes,
plowing through them with solid shot and shell. Colonel Osterhaus
had succeeded in his attempt, and retired, bringing off his dead and
wounded in safety.
Meantime the contest was raging furiously on the extreme right on
both sides of the Fayetteville road. The First and Second Iowa
batteries, planted at an eminence overlooking the declivity in the
road, were plying shrapnel and canister into the ranks of the enemy,
who appeared in immense numbers on all sides, as if to surround the
right of the Union line, and thus completely environ them. In order
to defeat this object, a severe struggle took place for the occupancy of
a rising knoll on the east side of the road. The enemy gained upon
the Federals, and it was not until the men were half stricken down
that they yielded the point. Word had been passed back to General
Curtis that the enemy was pressing severely on the right flank, and
the Union forces were sent back. The section of a battery had been
left on the hill, and the enemy was now turning it upon the Union
lines. Colonel Carr, fearing that no reinforcements would arrive,
collected his strength, and mustered his entire force for a last
desperate charge, resolved to retake the position or perish in the
attempt. A heavy firing on the centre, and a cheer from the advancing
division of General Davis favored the effort. The troops marched up
to the battery amid a storm of shot from their own guns, and, after a
desperate hand-to-hand struggle, finally drove the enemy down the
ravine, in hopeless confusion. Colonel Carr received a wound in the
arm, but remained on the field.
During the night a sharp fire of artillery had been kept up upon the
left, and from two Missouri batteries on the centre, under Colonels
Patterson and Fiala. The enemy had made frequent attempts to gain
a position nearer the Union lines, and succeeded in getting so near
that the balls from their guns would strike near the tents and
baggage wagons. Towards night the enemy made an attempt to break
the Federal centre, but the timely support of a brigade of General
Sigel and a section of artillery promptly repulsed them. The night
closed with skirmishing and sharpshooting.
Occasionally the report of a musket could be heard during the
night, then a second, and an interval of silence. But few of the
soldiers slept. The communication with Springfield was cut off, and
Union messengers were falling into the enemy’s hands. As yet the
Federals had gained little advantage, and with desperate fighting had
only succeeded in repelling equally desperate attacks. Nothing but
hard fighting could avail them. Filled with these thoughts, the
soldiers solemnly gave their wives and children into each others’
charge, no one being aware who the survivor would be. Young men
talked in low voices of the loved ones at home, fathers, mothers,
sisters, sweethearts—and messages full of tender pathos were left to
be given after death. It was indeed, an anxious, mournful night.
The fight on the morning of the 8th, commenced by a salute from
the Union batteries on the extreme right. General Asboth, with a
regiment of infantry and a battalion of cavalry, had been sent to the
support of Colonel Carr, while General Sigel was moving up to a
fresh position on the ridge near Leestown. The enemy was
unprepared for this sudden and vigorous assault, and fled after a
short and spiritless resistance. They ran, leaving four pieces of
artillery behind them, and a fifth was afterwards taken in the pursuit.
The enemy was being turned by the left flank, General Sigel pushing
boldly after him. An hour or more was spent in contesting the
possession of a spot on Cox’s farm, when the rebels fell back to the
hollow.
A pause ensued, when the right, under General Davis, moved
along, and after a sharp contest of half an hour, in which the rebel
General McIntosh, was killed, the enemy began to retreat to Cross
Timber Hollow. The whole line was then ordered forward. The rebels
attempted to make a stand on the next hill, but the Union artillery
played upon them with disastrous effect. The enemy on the road near
the tavern refused to be moved. General Asboth, with a large column
of cavalry, was sent round to outflank them, when another desperate
conflict ensued between the Union cavalry and the Texas and
Louisiana troops. The Indians also took part in it, but beyond shrieks
and yells their influence was not felt. The batteries of the enemy fired
chains, spikes, pieces of bar-iron, and solid shot. It was evident that
his canister and shell were exhausted. Now the Federal batteries on
the right were ordered to the front. Taking a position within five
hundred yards, they poured in an incessant shower of grape, canister
and shell for twenty minutes. A general bayonet charge was then
ordered, and the Union line rushed down the valley and ascended the
opposite hill. A cheer went up from them as they delivered volley
after volley into the enemy’s ranks. The rebels cheered also; and it
was evident that they doubled the Union forces, from the
overwhelming shout that rang up from their lines.
At this time General Sigel was carrying everything before him on
the extreme left. The foe was running, and the Union men catching
the inspiration of the moment rushed on in pursuit. Before one
o’clock the rout was complete.
To the westward of Pea Ridge there was a wide strip of timber
which had been blown down by a hurricane the previous summer.
Across this swarth of uprooted trees, which were larger and denser in
the low lands, the enemy’s cavalry and artillery attempted to retreat,
and were mercilessly pelted with shell. The panic was overwhelming,
and their defeat decided. Muskets, clothing, and shot-guns were
strewn along the woods. Horses roamed about in wild droves. The
cries of the cavalry men and the yells of the Indians, with the groans
of the wounded, surpassed all description. Caissons overturned,
wagons broken down, and horses dying and dead strewed the whole
road. Thirteen cannon, 6 and 12-pounders, were taken in all, besides
thousands of shot-guns and loads of provisions.
It was in this position of affairs that General Price with a
detachment of his army had, in his attempt to make a stand on the
Keatsville road, caught the contagion of his fleeing comrades, and
betook himself to the northward, Colonel Carr and General Asboth
keeping closely after him.
This was probably one of the most hotly contested battles of the
war, when every thing is taken into consideration, and it is worthy of
remark that few officers were wounded, although at all times
exposed even to recklessness. For three days the fighting continued,
the men only resting during the darkness, to renew the attack with
the first light, and even then were but partially allowed to slumber.
Pea Ridge will never be forgotten while we have a history.
The Federal loss in killed, wounded and missing, was 1,351. That of
the rebels about 2,000. Generals McIntosh and McCulloch were
killed.
BATTLE OF NEWBERN, N. C.
March 14, 1862.
Newbern, in Craven county, N. C., is situated at the confluence of

the Trent and Neuse rivers, which flow into Pamlico Sound, from
whence, through Ocrakoke Inlet, communication is had with the
Atlantic. It is eighty miles N. E. of Wilmington, and one hundred from
Raleigh; has a population of six thousand, and considerable
commerce.
BATTLE OF NEWBERN, N. C., MARCH 14, 1862.
The importance of Newbern was early appreciated by the rebels,

who adopted vigorous means for its defence. The approaches to the
city on the south bank of the Neuse, the only available route of an
assailant, were defended by formidable earthworks, and, as a
protection against gunboats, a line of vessels, backed by a chevaux-
de-frise, was placed in the channel, commanded by heavy batteries.
The expedition designed to operate against Newbern sailed from
Hatteras Inlet on the 12th of March, the land forces under General
Burnside, and the naval forces under Commander Rowan. The land
forces consisted of the brigades of Generals Foster, Reno and Parke,
much reduced, however, by regiments left behind at Roanoke Island
and Hatteras Inlet, and not exceeding eight thousand men. They
were supported by McCook’s battery of boat howitzers, three
companies of marines, and a detachment of the Union Coast Guard.
The distance from Hatteras Inlet to the entrance of Pamlico Sound is
twenty-three miles; thence, through the sound and up the river to
Newbern, about fifty miles.
Early on the morning of the 12th the entire force started for
Newbern, and that night anchored off the mouth of Slocum’s Creek,
some eighteen miles from Newbern, where General Burnside decided
to make a landing. The landing commenced by seven o’clock the next
morning, under cover of the naval fleet, and was effected with the
greatest enthusiasm by the troops. Many, too impatient for the boats,
leaped into the water, and waded waist deep to the shore; then, after
a toilsome march through the mud, the head of the column moved
within a mile and a half of the enemy’s stronghold, at eight P. M., a
distance of twelve miles from the point of landing, where they
bivouacked for the night, the rear of the column coming up with the
boat howitzers about three o’clock next morning. This detention was
caused by the shocking condition of the roads, consequent upon the
heavy rain that had fallen during the day and the whole of the night.
It required a whole regiment to drag the eight pieces which had been
landed from the navy and the vessels of General Burnside.
By signals agreed upon, the naval vessels, with the armed vessels
carrying the land forces, were informed of each others’ progress, and
were thereby enabled to assist the march by shelling the road in
advance.
At daylight on the morning of the 14th, an advance of the entire
division was ordered. General Foster’s brigade marched up the main
country road to attack the enemy’s left; General Reno up the
railroad, to attack their right, and General Parke was to follow
General Foster and attack the enemy in front, with instructions to
support either or both brigades.
On the morning of the 14th, at seven o’clock, the column of
General Reno, on the railroad, was the first to move, the Twenty-first
Massachusetts, as the right flank regiment, leading the advance. The
regiment had not proceeded far before it saw a train of cars standing
on the track. In front of the locomotive, on a platform car, a large
rifled gun was placed in position to rake the road. The men advanced
at the double-quick and poured in a volley with such accuracy of aim
that the enemy, who had already rolled the gun and caisson off the
car, did not stop to unload the carriage, but ran into the
intrenchments, and the train was backed towards Newbern, leaving
the platform car standing on the track. The Twenty-first had got
within short range of the enemy’s earthworks, but now fell back, and,
forming line of battle in the woods, opened fire. The Fifty-first New
York was moved to the left and ordered forward to engage a series of
redans, the Ninth New Jersey occupying the left of the line, and the
Fifty-first Pennsylvania held in reserve, in rear of the Ninth, a little to
the left.
Meanwhile General Foster’s brigade had advanced up the main
road to the clearing, when the Twenty-fourth Massachusetts was sent
into the woods to the right of the road, and opening a heavy fire on
the enemy commenced the action of the first brigade. The Twenty-
seventh was sent to their left to support them, and, news being
received that the enemy were trying to outflank the Federals on the
right, the Twenty-fifth was sent to resist the movement. The Twenty-
third being moved to the front next in line of battle, opened fire upon
the enemy, which was replied to by very heavy volleys, and a
cannonade from a park of field pieces behind the breastwork. The
very first cannon-shot killed Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Merritt of the
Twenty-third. General Foster’s line of battle was completed by
moving the Tenth Connecticut to the extreme left, a position which
they were compelled to maintain under the most discouraging
disadvantages. The ground was very wet, swampy, and cut up into
gulleys and ravines, which opened toward the enemy, offering no
protection from his fire.
General Parke’s brigade, which had followed the first brigade up
the main road, was placed in line between the Tenth Connecticut and
Twenty-first Massachusetts, the Fourth Rhode Island holding the
right of line, the Eighth Connecticut the next place, the Fifth Rhode
Island, next, and the Eleventh Connecticut on the left. The line of
battle was now complete, the Twenty-fourth Massachusetts on the
extreme right, and the Fifty-first Pennsylvania at the extreme left,
and extended more than a mile. The naval battery was in position at
the centre, with Captain Bennett’s and Captain Dayton’s rifles
alongside, and were all worked with the greatest gallantry
throughout the day.
The fire of the enemy was now telling so severely upon the Twenty-
first that Colonel Clark ordered the regiment forward on a double-
quick, and at the head of four companies entered the breastworks
from the railroad track in company with General Reno, and the
colors were taken into a frame house which stood near, and waved
from the roof. The men at the nearest guns seeing the movement,
abandoned their pieces and fled, and the four companies being
formed again in line of battle, charged down the line upon the
battery. Colonel Clark mounted the first gun, waved the colors, and
had nearly reached the second when two full regiments of the enemy
emerged from a grove of young pines and advanced upon his men,
who, seeing that they were likely to be captured or cut to pieces,
leaped over the parapet and retired to their position in the woods.
On being driven from the battery, Colonel Clark informed Colonel
Rodman of the Fourth Rhode Island of the state of affairs inside, and
that officer decided upon a charge with the bayonet. His regiment
had been firing, like the rest of the line, by companies and otherwise.
When the command was given to charge, they advanced at the
double-quick directly up to the battery, firing as they ran, and
entered at the right flank, between a brick-yard and the end of the
parapet. With a steady line of cold, sharp steel, the Rhode Islanders
bore down upon the enemy, and, routing them, captured the whole
battery, with its two flags, and planted the stars and stripes upon the
parapet. The Eighth Connecticut, Fifth Rhode Island and Eleventh
Connecticut, coming up to their support, the rebels fled with
precipitation, and left the Union troops in undisputed possession.
General Reno’s brigade were still attacking the redans and small
battery on the right of the railroad, and the firing was very heavy.
The Twenty-first was engaging the battery of five small pieces, the
Fifty-first New York the first of the redans, and the Ninth New Jersey
the next two. The Fifty-first Pennsylvania was still in reserve, drawn
up in a hollow or ravine, from which they would move up to the top
of the eminence, discharge their volleys, and retire to such cover as
the inequalities of ground might furnish. General Reno, becoming
impatient at the loss of life which his regiments, particularly that of
Colonel Ferrero, was suffering, urged that regiment to advance as
soon as possible; so Lieutenant-Colonel Potter took a color over the
brow of the hill into another hollow, and from thence charged up an
acclivity and over brushwood and abattis into the redan. The Fifty-
first Pennsylvania was ordered up to participate in the decisive
charge of the whole brigade upon the line of redans, and passing
through the Fifty-first New York, as it was lying on the ground after
having exhausted all its ammunition, came under the heaviest fire,
and without flinching or wavering moved to its place, and rushed,
with the other regiments, upon the defences of the enemy. The
movement of Colonel Hartranft’s regiment was executed splendidly,
and proved a complete success.
The movement of the Third brigade was supported by a charge of
the Fourth Rhode Island from the captured main battery upon the
works which were being assailed, and the enemy, already
demoralized by the breaking of their centre, fell back before the
grand charge upon the left and front of their position, and fled in
confusion. On the extreme right the brave Twenty-fourth and its
supporting regiments had been advancing inch by inch, standing up
against the enemy’s musketry and cannonade without faltering, and
almost at the time when the Fourth Rhode Island charged in at the
right flank, the colors of the Twenty-fourth were planted on the
parapet at the left, and the whole of the First brigade poured into the
fortification. The whole line of earthworks was now in Union hands,
and the cheers of the Federal men, from one end of it to the other,
broke out with fresh spirit as each new regimental color was unfurled
on the parapet.
The approaches to Newbern were defended by a line of water
batteries or forts communicating with extensive field fortifications.
The lower fort is about six miles from the city; the next
communicates with the unfinished batteries and breastworks; the
others were distributed about equal distances along the shore. The
line of fortifications attacked and stormed was some three miles in
extent. At the river bank a hexagonal fort, or water battery, with a
large bomb-proof and thirteen heavy guns, commanded in addition,
the river approach. By means of pivot carriages the cannon could be
turned upon an advancing land force, and even sweep the line of
breastworks itself in case the garrison should be driven out. From the
fort to the centre of the line a well-made breastwork extended, with a
deep moat in front. At the centre was a bastion and sallyport, after
which the breastwork was continued to the railroad embankment,
which was used as a means of defence. Beyond the railroad, but
completely protecting the right flank of the main battery, was a small
battery, of irregular shape, communicating with a system of thirteen
redans, or rifle-pits, each pair of which were constructed on a knoll
rising between ravines, the conformation of the ground furnishing in
itself a most admirable basis for field-works. The locality was chosen
with rare judgment, and all that engineering skill could accomplish
was done to make these fortifications an impassable barrier to hostile
troops. From the railroad westward, a swift, deep brook, with muddy
bottom, and a wide border of swamp on both sides, ran in front of
the redans; and on the side of approach, the timber was so very
heavy, that, when felled, it presented a barricade which would seem
enough of itself to stop any army of French Zouaves. On the brow of
each mound, brushwood had been piled with regularity to the height
of four feet in front of the redans, rendering it extremely difficult to
take them by assault from the front. The redans were constructed of
heavy timbers, covered with at least five feet thickness of earth, while
an interior ditch say three feet in depth gave complete protection to
the garrison from volleys of musketry, or discharges of grape and
canister shot.
Inside, the battery presented a most revolting appearance. Beneath
the parapet, in the ditch, on the open ground under the gun-
carriages, lay the dead and mangled bodies of rebels. On every side
lay heaped the bleeding carcasses of artillery horses, killed by musket
or rifle balls. Here and there a broken gun-carriage, or caisson, lay
tilted into the mud. Stores of all kinds were scattered over the ground
or trampled in the black mire. Muskets with broken stocks or bent
barrels were thrown about in every direction. It was a scene of wild
confusion on all sides.
It was not known with certainty that there was no other battery
erected formidable as this still further up the road; but thinking it
best to increase the panic which had seized upon the enemy, General
Burnside ordered an advance. General Foster immediately sent
forward the Twenty-fourth, Twenty-fifth, Twenty-seventh, and the
whole brigade by the straight road. In the charge on the rifle-pit
about one hundred rebels, among them the Colonel of the Thirty-
third North Carolina and a number of commissioned officers, were
captured. When these were secured in an old brick-kiln and placed
under guard, Generals Reno and Parke moved their brigades after
General Foster’s, the former going before up the railroad track and
the latter by the country road. The march to Newbern was
unobstructed, the enemy having apparently all he could do to get
away on any terms, and early in the afternoon the Union forces
reached the bank of the river immediately opposite the city. Long
before they came in sight of it, however, dense volumes of smoke
were seen rising in that direction, and the suspicion that the place
had been fired by the enemy was fully realized when its steeples and
houses came in view. Newbern had been fired in seven different
places, and if the wind had not mercifully subsided there would
hardly have been a house left standing by nightfall. The splendid
railroad bridge, seven hundred yards long, had been set on fire by a
scow load of turpentine which had drifted against it, and the great
structure was wrapped in one grand sheet of flame. Preparations
were made by General Foster to move his forces across the river. This
was accomplished by the assistance of a light draft stern-wheel
steamer which had been captured with four or five small side-wheel
boats by the naval gunboats, which by this time were quite up to the
city wharves.
To the eastward of the city a very large rebel camp, with barracks
and tents, was found deserted and taken possession of. Stragglers
from different regiments wandered through the city and committed
some acts of depredation; but were speedily checked by a strong
Provost-Guard appointed by the commanding General.
The forts taken were Fort Dixie, 4 guns; 1 100-pound rifle and 3
32-pounders. Fort Thompson, 12 guns; 2 100-pound rifle and 10 32-
pounders. Fort Ellis, 8 guns; 1 8-inch columbiad, 1 100-pounder,
under casemate, and 6 32-pounders. Fort Lane, 4 guns; 2 100-
pounders and 2 32-pounders. Two forts, at the foot of the city,
mounting 2 guns each. Three guns on a car and two lying on the
wharf.
The Federal loss was about 100 killed and 450 wounded. That of
the rebels, who were protected by their fortifications, about 220 in
killed and wounded. About 300 prisoners were taken by Lieutenant
Hammond of the gunboat Hetzel, who was serving one of the guns of
McCook’s battery.
NAVAL OPERATIONS.
The naval operations under Commander Rowan, were conducted
with great skill and success. The navigation was impeded in every
possible way by the rebels. Sunken vessels closed the main channels
at all accessible points, while torpedoes, chevaux-de-frise and fire-
rafts threatened destruction on every side. Captain Rowan hoisted
his pennant on Thursday morning on board the steamer Delaware.
At half-past eight A. M., the gunboats commenced shelling the woods
in the vicinity of the proposed place of landing, taking stations at
intervals along the shore to protect the advance of the troops. At
half-past nine A. M., the troops commenced landing, and at the same
time six naval boat howitzers with their crews, under the command
of Lieutenant R. S. McCook, of the Stars and Stripes, were put on
shore to assist the attacks. The army commenced to move up the
beach at half-past eleven A. M., the debarkation of troops still
continuing. In the mean time the vessels were slowly moving up,
throwing shell in the woods beyond. At a quarter-past four, P. M., the
first of the enemy’s batteries opened fire on the foremost of the
gunboats, which was promptly returned at long range. The troops
were now all disembarked, and steadily advancing without
resistance. At sundown the firing was discontinued, and the fleet
came to anchor in position to cover the troops on shore. At half-past
six, A. M., Friday, 14th instant, there was heard a continuous firing of
heavy guns and musketry inland, and immediately the fleet
commenced throwing shells in advance of the position supposed to
be held by the Union troops. The fleet steadily moved up, and
gradually closed in towards the batteries. The lower fortifications
were discovered to have been abandoned by the enemy.
A boat was dispatched to it and the stars and stripes planted on the
ramparts. As they advanced, the upper batteries opened fire. The fire
was returned with effect, the magazine of one exploding. Having
proceeded in an extended line as far as the obstructions in the river
would permit, the signal was made to follow the movements of the
flag-ship, and the whole fleet advanced in order, concentrating their
fire on Fort Thompson, mounting thirteen guns, on which rested the
enemy’s land defences. The army, having driven them out of these
defences, the forts were abandoned. Several of the vessels were
slightly injured in passing the barricades of piles and torpedoes
which had been placed in the river. The upper battery having been
evacuated on the appearance of the combined forces, it was
abandoned and subsequently blew up. They now steamed rapidly up
to the city. Upon the approach of the Federals, several points of the
city were fired by the enemy, where stores had been accumulated.
Two small batteries, constructed of cotton bales, and mounting two
guns each, were also fired by them. Two small steamers were
captured, another having been burned. A large raft, composed of
barrels of pitch and bales of cotton, which had been prepared to send
down upon the fleet, was fired, and floating against the railroad
bridge, set it on fire and destroyed it. In addition to the prizes, a
quantity of pitch, tar, and a gunboat, and another vessel on the
stocks, several vessels afloat, and an immense quantity of arms and
munitions of war, fell into their hands.
Washington, Morehead City and Beaufort were in turn occupied by
General Burnside’s forces without resistance, and the inhabitants
generally evinced a friendly spirit. The commandant of Fort Macon
having refused to surrender, preparations were immediately made to
invest and capture that place.
THE CAPTURE OF NEW MADRID, MO.
March 14, 1862.
Shortly before the evacuation of Columbus, General Pope, with a

large force, was dispatched by the commander of the Department to
besiege the town of New Madrid, on the Mississippi river, in the
extreme south-eastern section of Missouri. This place had been
strongly fortified by the rebels, and garrisoned by five regiments of
infantry and several companies of artillery. The town is about seven
miles below Island No. 10, but owing to a bend in the river, lies
nearly west. Its possession was deemed important, in order to
advance the Union forces down the Mississippi.

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Teaching: Dilemmas, Challenges &

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1 So, you want to be a teacher! Working in a changing context 2

PART 2 UNDERSTANDING LEARNING 41

3 Understanding learner diversity 42

PART 3 THE EFFECTIVE TEACHER 189

8 Teacher as co-learner 190

PART 1 CHALLENGES AND DILEMMAS OF TEACHING 1

Contributions of the social sciences and Legal issues 35

New teaching for new times 20 Professional conduct in education settings 37

PART 2 UNDERSTANDING LEARNING 41

CHAPTER 3 Using funds of knowledge 47

Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Multi-age classes 87

PART 3 THE EFFECTIVE TEACHER 189

CHAPTER 8 4 Cultivate collaborative work practices 208

How to maximise your learning in professional Following through 216

CHAPTER 9 Guidelines for managing the learning

Lesson planning 243 As a pre-service educator, what can I do? 287

Inquiring into professional practice through CHAPTER 

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Each learner brings a unique personality, together with a wealth of

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DR LISA KERVIN, PROFESSOR IN LANGUAGE AND LITERACY, FACULTY OF SOCIAL

DR CHRIS GLASS, HONORARY RESEARCH FELLOW, SCHOOL OF EDUCATION,

DR BRAD GOBBY, SENIOR LECTURER, SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, CURTIN UNIVERSITY

DR SUSAN GROUNDWATER-SMITH AM, HONORARY PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION,

DR ROSIE LE CORNU, ADJUNCT ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, SCHOOL OF EDUCATION,

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The diversity of the teaching profession

Wellbeing and learning

Case study Divers e p re - s e r v ice tea ch e r i d e n t i t i e s

Applying the Berlak dilemmas

Contributions of the social

New teaching for new times