xvi
engagement of registered teachers in the Australian Professional Standards for
Teachers throughout their professional careers.
Bill Eckersley is associate professor of teacher education in the College of Arts
and Education at Victoria University in Melbourne. Bill has had extensive teaching
experience in Australia and the United States in schools and in undergraduate and
postgraduate programs in higher education. His research interests focus on post-
graduate student experience; educational partnerships; teaching and learning; and
organisational culture, social inclusion and educational leadership. He currently
supervises a number of postgraduate students who are completing their MEd, DEd
and PhD degrees. He has led, contributed to and evaluated a range of successful
internal and external research projects with industry links to organisations such as
the Victorian Institute of Teaching, Teaching Australia and the Victorian Department
of Education and Training.
Rachel Forgasz is a teacher educator and researcher in the Faculty of Education at
Monash University where she is also a fellow of the Monash Education Academy.
All of Rachel’s research centres on the pedagogy of teacher education. She pub-
lishes in the fields of mentor professional learning, professional experience learn-
ing, embodied pedagogies and self-study of teacher education practices. Rachel has
also designed, implemented and written about a range of innovative professional
experience models. These include the community/cohort model for early profes-
sional experiences, the mentee/mentor professional learning model and a profes-
sional association partnership model for performing arts teacher education.
Helen Grimmett is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Monash University.
She is an experienced generalist primary teacher and music specialist and taught in
a variety of suburban, rural, government and independent primary schools before
becoming a teacher educator in 2013. Helen’s 2014 book, The Practice of Teachers’
Professional Development: A Cultural-Historical Approach, is based on her doc-
toral research. Her current research interests include creating innovative approaches
to professional experience for preservice teachers, supporting future primary music
specialist teachers and understanding the use of children’s voice in informing the
planning of school transition programs.
Fay Hadley is a senior lecturer and director of initial teacher education programs
at Macquarie University. Fay’s expertise is in leadership, mentoring, professional
experience and working with diverse families. She has been researching in these
areas for the past 10 years. In 2008, she was awarded the Early Childhood Australia
Doctoral Thesis Award for her PhD which investigated the relationships between
families and early childhood staff in long day-care settings. Prior to her PhD, Fay
was a teacher and/or director in long day-care centres in NSW and the ACT. Since
2004, she has been a member of the editorial subcommittee of the Australian
Journal of Early Childhood and is also currently the chair of the publications com-
mittee for Early Childhood Australia.
About the Authors