Praxis and the language of improvement: inquiry-based approaches to authentic improvement in Australasian schools

Abstract

In this paper, we explore the notion of school improvement through the lens of praxis as it relates to equity, inclusion, and transformation, with a particular focus on inquiry-based school and teacher development. We argue that authentic improvement is a consequence of praxis, and highlight, through examples, key ways that authentic school improvement might be achieved through inquiry within a praxis framework. While many recent policy initiatives related to school education in Australia, and internationally, place emphasis on competitive and performance-based mechanisms to drive improvement, the argument in this paper runs counter to these emphases, not in its recognition of the need for school improvement but in its understanding of how that improvement can be defined, developed, and documented. The examples presented illustrate ways in which inquiry-based approaches to teacher professional learning, and teaching practices in classrooms, provide tools for framing authentic school improvement.

Keywords:

• school improvement
• praxis
• teacher development
• inquiry
• professional learning

Notes

1. Groundwater-Smith and Mockler have used this phrase a number of times (e.g., Groundwater-Smith & Mockler, 2009). They acknowledge that it was first employed by the then Queensland Board of Teacher Registration to connote the fact that students in schools bear the consequences of the decisions of others.

2. The Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) is a research fund aimed to improve educational outcomes by linking educational research to practice. NZCER has been contracted to manage the TLRI programme on behalf of the Ministry of Education. The initiative is sector wide and covers all sectors of education including early childhood, school, and tertiary. Information about the initiative and all the funded projects is available from the TLRI website: www.tlri.org.nz