Learning to Teach in a New Era

The ways in which students experience their education are shaped by the differences among them. Despite many years of equity-based reform in schools, the children most at risk of educational alienation, failure or withdrawal are, for the most part, the same children who were most at risk 50 and 100 years ago. Children from low socio-economic backgrounds, rural and isolated areas, non-dominant cultural, language or religious groups and students with disabilities have been shown to experience schools as places of alienation, not as places of growth and learning. Issues of sexual and gender identity, mental health, and stability of housing combine to make the situation more complex. And children from First Nations families are consistently named as the most at risk group of students in Australia’s educational landscapes.

This chapter focuses on helping preservice and beginning teachers to recognise and develop the skills they will need to respond appropriately to all learners in their classrooms and to pursue a commitment to social justice.