For students who may not have access to appropriate books at home, libraries can play a key role in providing this access. New analysis of Australian data from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) sheds light on year 4 students’ access to school libraries, revealing 7% attend schools where they’re not allowed to borrow books to take home.

Culturally responsive teaching (CRT) seeks to improve the experiences and academic achievements of marginalised and minoritised learners. In this edition of Researching education: 5 further readings, you can read research on CRT, including building cultural competence among teachers, how to further develop culturally responsive pedagogies, and more.

School absence has an impact on student outcomes, so being aware of attendance rates for your class, year group, or whole school, and understanding the reasons behind the absence is important. With this information to hand, what will make a difference? That’s the topic of Dr Kirsten Hancock’s research.

Welcome to the first edition of Researching education: 5 further readings for 2024. When we asked you for the topics you’d like us to cover on Teacher in the next 12 months, artificial intelligence (AI) was the most frequently requested. So, in this edition, we’re taking a look at AI.

Did the COVID-19 pandemic affect public perceptions of teachers and the teaching profession, and how were their views and beliefs influenced by media coverage? Researchers in the UK have been exploring these questions, and their findings offer some interesting insights into how society values the profession, and the impact this has on teacher mental health and wellbeing.

As a school leader, a key consideration when implementing a new approach, or evaluating existing practices, is the effective use of data. A new support resource outlines 7 steps to guide school leaders in using data for monitoring and evaluation. Find out more in today’s article.

School Assembly is the podcast that explores what it takes to build a new school from the ground up. With Bemin Secondary College due to open its doors for the first day of the 2024 school year, things are getting to the pointy end. In this episode, we talk to Principal Jo Camozzato about putting together the school mission, vision and values.

In this series, we take a look at some further readings available on a particular topic, including open access research papers from various online databases, and Teacher archive content you might not have come across yet. This month, we’re looking at learning progressions for literacy and numeracy.

In today’s article, we speak with the winner of the Teacher Awards’ Leadership Award for Driving School Improvement, Melissa Shepherd from Laura State School in far-north Queensland, about how she is committed to improving outcomes for all students.

In an earlier article for Teacher, Kristie Schulz from Parklands Christian College explained the pedagogical framework used by STEM Studies teachers at the Queensland school. Here, she details how the program has been implemented in 3 prep classes.