The ETRF, Robust Hope and Teacher Education: Making practical reforms to the senior phase of learning

Source: Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, Volume 35, Issue 3 August 2007, pages 273 – 289

Robust hope aims to contribute to educational praxis. In Australia, what counts as teacher education is currently determined at the individual State and Territory level. Yet the demand side of teacher education is determined by responses to the effects of global marketplace forces that impact on changes to local communities.

This article investigates the utility of robust hope as a means of analysing one Australian State Government's reforms to the senior phase of education and training; and as a way of conceptualising future teacher education possibilities. Recent research into Queensland's "education and training reforms" (ETRF) for the senior phase of learning (Years 10-12) identifies the positioning of schools as brokers of socio-economically aligned learning and earning for young people. These changes to young people's senior phase of learning present significant implications for capacity building of the teaching workforce.