Britons and British subjects with family members deeply involved in the transatlantic economy were an important feature of University life. These students, who grew in number due the increasing profits of the slave economy and the underdeveloped state of tertiary education in the colonies, were accepted and nurtured by fellows and masters who, in many cases, owned plantations, held investments in the slave trade, or had family members serving as governors in the North American colonies. In following the experiences of these students, the chapter details the lives and struggles of undergraduates, particularly those who traveled abroad to Cambridge, and the emotional and personal bonds that fellows and their young charges developed. The chapter is a reminder that, when considering institutional connections to enslavement, political economy was but one side of the story – the emotional, social, and cultural bonds between the sons of enslavers and their fellow Britons were also integral.

This chapter discusses the nature of the Selbstzeugnisse left by the merchants in this study and locates the texts in the history of autobiography, ego-documents, and similar self-narratives. It also explains that no other regions in northern Europe produced texts like these during this period (1400–1600) and that the German-speaking regions from which they come was then emerging as a major center of early modern capitalism.

This chapter explores housing as a foundation for wealth accumulation, emphasizing its dual role as both a consumable resource and an investment. My theoretical contributions are twofold: First, I argue that property rights can transform in-kind transfers into flexible, reliable wealth transfers, enabling recipients to invest in themselves and their children, regardless of the housing’s location. Second, I demonstrate how housing transfers reduce uncertainty and encourage future-oriented investments, thereby driving long-term wealth accumulation. Using three housing programs as case studies, I show that beneficiaries invest in human or physical capital, improving their employment prospects and income. I also examine mechanisms such as relocation, borrowing capacity, and time horizons, finding strong evidence for the latter two. Overall, the large changes to beneficiaries' economic behavior and outcomes suggest the possibility for important psychological, social, and political effects, which I explore in Chapters 4 and 5.

In this chapter we extend that discussion by considering classroom management in relation to creating engaging and motivating learning environments. Engagement and motivation are essential to young people’s success in various educational contexts, including early years, primary and secondary settings, and they can only occur in positive teaching and learning environments. Establishing and fostering such environments through effective classroom management is a source of concern for many preservice teachers, and this will continue to be the case as teachers progress throughout their career. This chapter provides an overview of various proactive strategies that serve to promote positive teaching and learning environments along with strategies for responding to student disengagement or off-task behaviour. Positive student–teacher relationships will also be described as an essential component for engaging and motivating students’ learning.

This chapter will add a further layer of understanding from what you have read in Chapter 7 (diversity, inclusion, and social justice) and Chapters 8 and 9 (classroom management and creating positive learning environments). However, this chapter will focus on one particular group of learners: those who have lived through complex trauma. The reason why an entire chapter is dedicated to this one group is a growing understanding that we need a different way of thinking, believing, planning and acting if we are to be successful in improving the educational and life outcomes for these children and young people. We also know that a trauma-informed approach to educating and supporting these young learners can enhance the personal and professional well-being of the adults working hard to deliver education programs, which is vital.

In this book, we provide a positive, futures-oriented approach to assist you to build on your knowledge, skills, strengths and abilities so that you are prepared for teaching in the current era and able to embrace the many rewards associated with working in the educational sphere. Cognisant of the standardised and high-stakes accountability contexts within which teachers now work, the book will assist in preparing you to understand, and to begin to address, the mandatory accreditation requirements for teaching in Australia. From the outset, you will also be encouraged to develop and reflect on your own personal and professional philosophies of teaching. This chapter introduces some of the literature, research and practices that will help students learn about and reflect on teaching and the teaching profession. It also introduces relevant information about Australia’s school communities and school structures so students can best understand the complex and diverse nature of the work involved in teaching children across the full learning spectrum from early years to senior secondary.

Digital technologies influence every facet of our lives – education, health, leisure activities, finances and jobs. You may have heard terms for digital technologies, such as information technology and information and communication technology (ICT). In this chapter, we use digital technology and ICT interchangeably. In the first section, titled ‘Digital technologies and you’, we explore pre-service teachers’ personal and educational experiences with digital technologies and investigate attitudes towards digital technologies in education. A historical overview of technology and associated challenges is presented. The second section, ‘Digital technology in education’, explores the current situation in early childhood, primary and secondary school contexts. It offers some insights into theoretical frameworks, curriculum implications, pedagogical implications and practical considerations for contemporary classrooms. The third section, ‘Using digital technologies in class’, provides numerous suggestions and practical information on how digital technologies can be used for teaching and learning in the classroom.

The terms ‘curriculum’, ‘pedagogy’, ‘assessment’ and ‘reporting’ are often heard. Each of these terms has been interpreted in different ways and, throughout the history of formal education, one or another has been often at the forefront of educational thinking and practice. We consider that these four areas are inextricably interwoven and changes in policy or practice in one area influence each of the others. This chapter introduces some of the literature, research and practice to help develop an understanding of curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and reporting. We will discuss the interrelationship and alignment of these four areas, enabling reflection on how changes in each of these areas at a national, system or school level impact the day-to-day work of teachers.

Young people’s learning is at the heart of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education. Teachers and educators can create successful learning experiences for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students by responding to our diverse cultural, linguistic and knowledge backgrounds. All students benefit from learning about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives, and good teaching practices work for all students. This chapter explores Country and Peoples, and the impact of the past on the present, as well as looking at practical strategies to identify appropriate inclusions for teaching practice to demonstrate capability against the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers 1.4 and 2.4 (discussed later in the chapter).

Learning to Teach in a New Era is a foundational text with scope for use throughout an entire initial teacher education (ITE) degree program. The book equips preservice teachers with introductory understanding and skills in the areas of professional knowledge, professional practice and professional engagement. Aligned with the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) and the Australian Curriculum, it contributes to the preparation of those in early childhood, primary and secondary preservice education to meet the Graduate Standards.

The importance of effective communication between the adults in the lives of children and young people has gained prominence in theory, policy and practice, and throughout the different contexts in which students participate. In educational contexts throughout the world, it has been well established that the best outcomes occur for children and youth when the adults in their lives come together to support them. Communication is at the core of interaction and provides the building blocks for positive relationships to emerge and develop. Such relationships enhance learning and support students, their families and teachers to recognise and reach their full potential. The field of communication offers some sound insight into effective communication between adults, including different models that aid in developing a better understanding about the complex nature of communication in education-based settings.

Teachers work across a diverse range of learning environments in an array of different contexts, sectors and settings. Therefore, teachers need to organise and manage particular learning environments according to a number of factors, including the age range, learning needs and number of students they are teaching, the nature of the learning context, and the aims and purpose of the teaching and learning being undertaken. The first section of this chapter explores this theme, and provides insight into how classroom management practices are historically, socially and culturally contextualised. In the second section, we introduce some of the theoretical principles and practical issues associated with establishing and maintaining positive, supportive, safe and inclusive learning environments that encourage all students to participate fully in educational opportunities. Theories are of little use in classroom management if they exist only at the level of abstract thought, so we explore ways in which theory can be enacted in practice across learning contexts.

The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST), as introduced in Chapter 1, require that teachers not only know the content and how to teach it, but also know their students and how they learn. This chapter introduces the concept of pedagogy and examines the centrality of relationships between teacher, student and content, as a defining feature of pedagogy. Pedagogy is the most outward expression of how a teacher considers that teaching and learning best take place. Teachers should always base their decisions on ‘how’ to teach on their understanding of how the students in their class learn best. This involves a number of considerations, such as their stage of development (physical, cognitive and social), individual interests and preferred ways of learning. A number of different pedagogical frameworks are explored in the chapter, which concludes with a discussion of some of the key elements of exemplary teaching and how these elements are embedded in pedagogy.

Planning for learning is essential for creating environments conducive to deep learning and to developing student understandings. Standard 3 of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) specifies the need for all graduate teachers to be able to ‘plan for and implement effective teaching and learning’. Quality planning involves the systematic use of feedback data to design activities that encourage the assimilation and synthesis of information, leading to the creation of new understandings. Student learning should always be the goal.

Education changes lives. It opens doors and provides us with the skills and dispositions to achieve what we believe in. But not all students flourish in their educational settings. The ways students experience their education are shaped by the differences among them. Despite many years of equity-based reform in schools, the children most at risk of educational alienation, failure or withdrawal in the third decade of the twenty-first century are, for the most part, the same children who were most at risk 50 and 100 years ago. Children from low socioeconomic backgrounds, rural and isolated areas, non-dominant cultural, language, or religious groups, students with disabilities, and many who don’t fit the stereotypes associated with a particular subject area, gender or culture have been shown to experience schools as places of alienation, not as places of growth, opportunity and learning. Issues of sexual and gender identity, mental health, and instability of citizenship, housing, and employment combine to make the situation even more complex.

As a novice teacher, it is important for students to be aware that they are entering a profession with a set of guiding policy frameworks to inform their knowledge, practice and engagement. Chapter 1 introduced a range of data snapshots that provide insight into current Australian and global education systems in the twenty-first century. Data are increasingly used to inform policy, but policy is also shaped by many other complex and multifaceted factors operating across both local and global contexts. This chapter further examines the education landscape and looks at how policy is shaped by, and in turn shapes, our educational thinking, work, teaching practices and future research.