Professional Experience Hub (PEx Hub) case study findings: A strengths approach

This paper explores the implementation and final research findings of a New South Wales, teacher education Professional Experience Hub (PEx Hub) four-year project conducted in partnership with Charles Sturt University’s School of Education Albury campus, NSW Department of Education and an Australian regional secondary school. The project employed an innovative, collaborative and strengths-based model of professional experience and the PEx Hub provided a place and context as a critical juncture for educational research. The PEx Hub project allowed a longitudinal collaborative research project to be conducted to chart and reflect on the new model of professional experience developed with the three main stakeholder voices involved: teacher education students, university-based teacher educators and school-based teacher educators. Teacher education students were embedded into the school well in advance of more traditional placement models. Additional opportunities for student support, peer coaching, enhanced collaborative strategies and time for planning and self-reflection were provided by the Hub school and university partner as part of the model. The initiatives of the school and university partners allowed teacher education students multiple opportunities to be immersed in the school community and this assisted them in developing a strong sense of the profession of teaching, particularly in relation to professional identity, professional respect and professional confidence. This paper explores the findings from the project through the three different stakeholder voices and perspectives. A strengths-based framework to qualitative research design was used through an embedded, multiple case study method which enabled rich descriptions while researching the complexity of the school-based context and place. Qualitative methods, including strengths-based informal face-to-face interviews and focus groups (OpenViews), a school-based Research Assistant and electronic semi-structured interviews (EViews), were used to gather data to produce this case study. Thematic, and Strengths Approach Column iterative analysis was used to reveal project findings and present recommendations for future research. The paper will outline the strategies implemented and recommendations that arose from each of the three separate case studies and overall to enhance the significant milestone event of professional experience for all stakeholders: school-based coordinators and supervising teachers, university educators and teacher education students. The research identified three key elements to enhance professional experience for all stakeholders:
• Professional Teacher Identity
• Professional Respect
• Professional Confidence
A new finding is that these elements do not work in only one direction or in isolation, but rather in a three-way interactive professional partnership.