The 2019 ATEA Conference will be held from 3-5 July on the Sunshine Coast at the Sippy Downs Campus of the University of the Sunshine Coast. The work of contemporary teachers and teacher educators has changed significantly and so too have the perceptions of what it means to be a professional. Unlike other professions, everyone has an experience of schooling that influences everyday understandings of what it means to be a teacher.
Hence, there is no single agreed definition of what it means to be a professional in the context of learning and teaching. One key response includes educators working towards improving the public and policy maker perceptions of teaching as a profession. Governments identify the key issue to be linked to the quality of teachers, as presented in multiple inquiries, shifts in public policy and increasing regulation. An important contribution teacher educators make is the engagement in ongoing scholarship and debate that examines research and practice. It is through this work that educators shape and re-shape understanding of what it means to be a professional.
The theme for the 2019 Conference “Professionalism and Teacher Education” aims to explore the breadth of teacher and teacher educator professional work across all sectors from early childhood through to higher education. The conference aims to explore how educators reclaim professionalism for teachers and teacher educators through examining learning and teaching. Research and practice presentations and workshops will examine contemporary teacher education and the ways that professionalism can and is reclaimed to achieve the multitude of purposes of education.
