enabling teachers and teacher educators to undertake their own research and
evaluate and respond to thefindings of that research. The report goes on to argue
that what is needed to ensure that all students, but especially those from margin-
alised backgrounds, have high quality educational experiences and that their aca-
demic and social outcomes from schooling are maximised, are schools (and other
education institutions) that are research-rich environments, teachers who are
research literate and collaborative partnerships between universities and education
institutions. Further, the report argues that when a research-rich environment exists
in schools and within teacher education provision then a‘self-improving education
system’will exist. We take this as our starting point in considering TEMAG’s
Action now: Classroom ready teachers.
43.3 TEMAG: Background and Findings
TEMAG was commissioned to make recommendations on improving the prepa-
ration of new teachers, especially with regard to the mix of academic and practical
skills needed for the classroom. According to the Minister, the inquiry was not
politically motivated, but instead was intended to address the decline in the per-
formance of Australian students in international assessments such as PISA and
TIMSS. Ministerial advisors also pointed out that this‘problem’of declining stu-
dent performance had not been solved by the 100% increase in Commonwealth
funding for schools over a period of time when school enrolments had only risen by
17%. Inquiries into teacher education in Australia are not a new phenomenon—
indeed it has been widely reported that in the preceding decade there had been more
than 40 inquiries into different aspects of teacher education, which had done little to
bring about significant change (see for example, Rowan et al. 2015 ). What is new
has been the unrelenting critiques of (perhaps more appropriately referred to as
‘attacks’on) teacher education and blaming teacher preparation programmes for
Australia’s supposed declining ranking on international tests and for putting
Australia at risk of not being able to compete on the international economic stage.
Despite the Minister’s claims about TEMAG not being politically motivated, these
arguments behind its creation have been driven by a concern, somewhat media
driven by, for example, focussing on low entry standards, and hence, supposedly
poor quality pre-service programmes, and has served to construct the notion of an
underperforming teacher education sector as a‘truth’, requiring political interven-
tion. This political intervention has been enthusiastically embraced.
TEMAG was chaired by Professor Greg Craven, Vice-Chancellor of the
Australian Catholic University, and included seven additional members: two
Professors of Education, a university Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education), a school
principal and a deputy principal, the Chief Executive Officer of an educational
consultancyfirm, and the Chief Executive Officer of a state-based association of
independent schools. It could be argued that this membership over-represented
some stakeholder groups and under-represented university academics who were
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