Teacher development in difficult times: lessons from a policy initiative in Australia

Abstract

The ‘Advanced Skills teacher'initiative across Australia proposes a number of criteria for the designation. This article reports extensive research among teachers and principals and delineates a variety of principled objections to the concept of teaching embedded in the policy experiment. It is suggested that the preferred teacher of the politicians and bureaucrats is one who subscribes not only to a view of teaching itself but also to wider social and educational policy.