Country report: Australia

Australian education operates under a federated system where the Federal government is predominately accountable for national educational policies, strategies and initiatives while state and territory educational jurisdictions are responsible for the governance of the K-12 sector. While this distinction enables federal influence at the level of policy, through the setting of national priorities, the curriculum and day-to-day running of schools remains for the most part a jurisdictional responsibility. Pre-service teacher education programs are influenced by both national and state governments with the Federal government accountable for funding universities that train pre-service teachers, while jurisdictions influence policy and teaching accreditation that impacts heavily on how teacher education programs are structured. Despite a wide array of pathways it is possible to largely categorise pre-service teacher education within either four-year undergraduate education degrees, four-year double degrees (where students graduate with an additional degree in another discipline) and post-graduate degrees/diplomas where students enrol having already completed an existing degree. This broad division can be further separated into the various sectors such as early-childhood, primary (or elementary) and the secondary (or high-school) sector. Tensions currently exist with on the one side the Federal and jurisdictional authorities identifying key priorities and increasingly moving towards national consistency, while on the other the Australian Council of Deans of Education defending their autonomy and the right to determine the content of their teacher education programs (see ACDE 1998, 2004 and 2005)