Ownership and Identity: Developing and Implementing teacher professional standards in Australia

'Professional standards' is currently a major agenda item for the teaching profession (Department of Education, Science and Training, 2003 a; 2003b; 2003c). State and National propositions and drafts for standards are appearing around Australia with plans for more to come (ASTA, 2002; Victorian Institute of Teaching, 2003; DEST, 2003 a). Apart from purporting to provide a better framework for conceptualizing teaching as a career, professional standards have been hailed as a way teaching can help promote a 'new professionalism' (DEST, 2003a). Part of this proposition is that teachers can have greater influence within their own profession through 'distributed leadership' and participate in refonns centered on 'new knowledge' and 'transformational practice' (DEST 2003 a, p 7). Professional standards are described as a 'cornerstone' of this new model. Whenever standards are discussed or presented there is inevitable mention of greater 'professional ownership'