skills and capabilities beginning teachers need for the classroom’. It is therefore
relevant to examine the place of research in the Standards framework.
The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (available athttp://www.
aitsl.edu.au/australian-professional-standards-for-teachers/standards/list) are struc-
tured around the three domains of Professional Knowledge, Professional Practice,
and Professional Engagement, across four career stages, Graduate, Proficient,
Highly Accomplished and Lead teacher. At the Lead teacher stage there is occa-
sional reference to use of‘research-based’learning and teaching programmes and to
analysing current research to improve students’educational outcomes. Both of
these kinds of statement, found in the Professional Knowledge and Professional
Practice domains of the Standards framework, assume that teachers can engage with
and bediscerning consumers of researchin ways alluded to by the BERA-RSA
inquiry. Within the Professional Engagement domain, Lead teachers are expected to
engage in their own researchas a form of professional learning to improve practice,
which aligns with the fourth way in which research can make a contribution to
teacher education, identified by the BERA-RSA report.
Although the Lead teacher stage seems far removed from the aims and activities
of initial teacher education programmes, and thus might account for the lack of
reference to research in the TEMAG report, some elements of the Australian
Professional Standards for Teachers contribute to a developmental trajectory for
graduate teachers that could lead them towards the richer interpretations of
‘research’outlined in the BERA-RSA report (see Standards 6.2 and 6.3, for
examples). However, it remains to be seen whether AITSL takes up and strengthens
these existing threads within the professional standards framework in order to
highlight the need for research literacy amongst Graduate teachers.
43.5 TEMAG and the Assumed Role of Research in Initial
Teacher Education
One of the key proposals of the TEMAG report related to the need for national
leadership in research on teacher education, especially in relation to the effectiveness
of teacher preparation. Recommendation 34 called for the reconstitution of the
functions of AITSL to provide such a national focus. However, this move—with its
implied top-down approach to researching programme effectiveness—we would
argue, will not on its own support teacher educators or pre-service teachers to
conduct their own research that investigates the effects of their educational practices.
There are two other research-related strands within the TEMAG report recom-
mendations. Thefirst of these is seen in Recommendations 6 and 14, which require
higher education providers to ensure that programmes have evidence-based peda-
gogical approaches and deliver evidence-based content. Clearly, the assumed role
of research here is to informprogramme content and structure. The second strand is
seen in Recommendation 15, which calls for providers to equip pre-service teachers
646 M. Mills and M. Goos