Primary specialisation in Australian education: Pre-service teachers' lived experiences

The positioning of teacher quality as a global problem in primary education has led to the introduction of primary specialisation in Australian teacher education programs. In this chapter, we adapt Ball, Maguire, and Braun’s (How schools do policy: Policy enactments in secondary schools. Routledge, Abingdon, OX, 2012) theorisations around policy enactment and Clandinin and Connelly’s (Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2000) narrative inquiry space as an innovative approach to make visible five Master of Teaching (Primary) pre-service teachers’ experiences as they complete a new science specialisation. In doing so, we give voice to these participants as ‘policy receivers’ who are rarely heard in the policy process. Findings reveal 14 themes around the material, interpretive, and discursive facets of primary specialisation policy enactment. A number of challenges are described that contest primary specialisation in its current form and recommendations are suggested for moving the policy agenda forward.