Work? Oh right, there's that...

I thought I'd give just a little update on my academic work, ostensibly the reason I am on sabbatical in Australia. :-)

During the last term (July-October) I did some guest lectures, visited a variety of schools, attended some meetings and presentations, and spent one or two days a week out at campus "networking." Bernadette and I worked hard at recruiting authors for our book, submitted our book proposal, and signed the contract a few weeks ago. Self-study in Rural Teacher Education is due December 2014! We're also working on some type of student exchange options.

This week and next, while most of my US friends and colleagues are on Thanksgiving break, I'm involved in the most heavily structured work time since I've been here. This week my Deakin colleagues have generously invited me to be a part of a week long writing retreat here in Warrnambool. About 22 faculty members and doctoral students from all of the Deakin campuses (including Geelong and Melbourne) have come here for the week to focus on productive writing. We spend the mornings working independently with no chatting and no email! It is very serious work time and these are dedicated academics. The afternoons are a combination of independent work and presentations by participants related to research and publishing. I'm looking forward to Wednesday afternoon when I will be a discussant for a small panel presenting on various educational theories.

On Sunday we are off to Adelaide for the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) conference (similar to our AERA). Andy was invited to ride along for five days in a new Australian city. I understand it will be about a 7-hour drive. I won't be presenting, but will enjoy seeing my colleagues present and will be learning more about teacher education from other Australian researchers.

It appears to me that all of the universities in Australia are similar to what we would call "Research 1" institutions. This means many things, but the most obvious to me is that their job assignment is typically 40% research, 40% teaching, and 20% service and there is very high pressure to publish research because this is ultimately what drives most of their funding. This is similar, for example, to the load and expectation at a University of California institution. This is different from the California State University system, where our load is more like 80% teaching and 20% service, with an expectation (albeit lesser) to publish but the only assigned time to research and write being the optional sabbatical after seven years. (Don't get me started on that issue...!) Let me be clear, though, most of my teacher education colleagues here and in the states work far more than their "100%" allocation. 

There is some variation among the Australian universities. They often have specialty disciplines and are formally and informally ranked among one another. The "sandstone universities" are Australia's oldest tertiary education institutions and would be similar to our "ivy league" schools. They also have TAFE schools (Technical and Further Education) which would be somewhat similar to our community colleges.

I am really grateful to have some dedicated and focused time to work on my book chapter and reflect on what I've learned about teacher education and rural schools so far. The only annoying thing is that it has been cold and rainy for the last couple weeks and these are the first few warm and sunny days. Oh well, I will just have to work independently in the sun. (PS Yes, I'm wearing sunscreen!)