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Aspire Program: Deakin University
As discussed earlier, research has highlighted that preservice teacher placements in
low socio-economic schools have a more profound effect for disrupting stereotypes,
helping preservice teachers learn about students’ cultural backgrounds and connect-
ing student behaviour and learning with what teachers do (Sleeter, 2008 ). Sleeter
also found that when preservice teachers are mentored and supported appropriately
when working with diverse students who are culturally different from themselves
(and/or experiencing poverty), they are often more likely to go on to teach these
students. The Deakin University Aspire program partners with low socio-economic
schools to facilitate preservice teacher placement in these schools with the aim of
supporting local school communities’ efforts to raise higher education aspirations.
The Aspire program is now in its fifth year of operation and is funded through the
Higher Education Participation Program (HEPP). The program provides additional
emphasis on understanding how the school-university partnerships can be used to
better prepare primary and secondary teachers. Preservice teachers learn to support
this greater diversity in higher education access by using more equitable (applied
and experiential) pedagogies that are also sustainable throughout their future careers
as primary and secondary teachers. Early research on the Aspire program indicates
the applied learning pedagogy of preservice teachers provides authentic learning
opportunities for primary and secondary school students, raising student learning
outcomes and access and equity in education. Most of the school students who par-
ticipate in the Aspire program do not have parents/carers who have attended a uni-
versity and have never previously experienced the sociocultural environment of a
university. Aspire enables opportunities for community and parent/carer engage-
ment in the program through immersive on-campus experiences.
Over the first 5 years, the Aspire program has immersed 550 local school stu-
dents each week on campus at the university, enabling school students from years 6
to 10 to experience ‘life’ as a university student. Led by preservice teachers, the
Aspire program offers hands-on learning experiences for school students across the
Deakin University faculties. Preservice teachers work closely with cohorts of school
students exploring higher education pathways. The co-developed learning modules
are aligned with the Victorian and National Curriculum and support local school
improvement agendas with particular focus on literacy and numeracy development.
Each Aspire module has an academic expert to support and mentor both the preser-
vice teachers and the local school students.
Through their teaching in the Aspire program, preservice teachers are able to
align their developing teaching practice and pedagogy to the Australian Professional
Standards for Teachers at the graduate level. Preservice teachers from the Masters
of Applied Learning and Teaching, the Bachelor of Education and the Bachelor of
Health and Physical Education work with Aspire school student cohorts. For many
B. Eckersley et al.