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The year 1966 was in retrospect a pivotal point in transforming the way schools were to be managed thereafter in Australia. In the early 1960s there was growing interest in the role of the principal of schools. The early landmark Australian text by Bassett, Crane, and Walker, Headmasters for Better Schools , first appeared in 1963; but in the second edition of that work, the authors were able to say that “in the four years since this book was first published there has been a marked intensification of interest in the problems of school administration in Australia” (Bassett et al., 1967, Preface). Much of that intensity was generated in New England, the northern tablelands of New South Wales, where Bill Bassett, a former school inspector, was at the time Professor of Education at the University of New England (UNE). Bill Walker was an Associate Professor in the same faculty, and Alan Crane was principal of the regional Teachers College in the same city. They were colleagues, working closely together and making public the huge theoretical advances occurring in the modes of school and system organization. Educational Administration was, indeed, a new scholarly specialization with enormous consequences for practice.

In his book Teacher Man , internationally acclaimed writer Frank McCourt calculates that during his 30-year stint as an English teacher, he conducted at least 33,000 classes involving 12,000 students. This highly readable narrative of his life as a practising teacher – mainly in vocational and academic high schools in New York City – records some of the challenges he faced and the strategies he employed. McCourt’s reflection on the reciprocity of teaching is likely to strike a chord with many professional educators.

Although Phil Hughes’ main areas of interest have not been directly related to international education per se, he is indisputably an internationalist with wide experience of education systems in many countries. Moreover, his involvement with the UNESCO implementation of the Delors (1998) report (which I had the pleasure of discussing with him on more than one occasion in Paris in the late 1990s) drew him even closer to the field – the four pillars of the Delors Report encourage national systems to recognise the interdependence of the world and its cultures as they shape their curricula. In some ways this report was an up-to-date and freshly cast reaffirmation of the UNESCO 1974 aims of international education for member states. National and international education agendas are merging. Hughes has made many statements about teaching, learning, curriculum development, and student assessment which have very close affinities with international education and the major premises on which it is based. A number of such references therefore appear in this chapter as a tribute to Hughes’ contribution (perhaps even unwittingly) to this emerging field, and as reassurance for those of us embedded in it, that international education is on the right track.

The school curriculum has been an abiding interest for Phillip Hughes and he has explored its diversity in many different contexts. It was of central concern when he presided over a new education system in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) as Chair of the ACT Schools Authority (1973–1977). It was equally salient when he reported to the Queensland government in 1991 on the kind of changes that were needed to reform the management and delivery of the school curriculum in that state (Hughes, 1991). Further afield, his interests extended to the Gulf States early in the new century as new curriculum issues emerged in that part of the world (Hughes, 2001). By that time he had already made his views known about the challenges that this new century posed for societies faced with change and uncertainty (Hughes, 1994).

This essay is a tribute to the lifelong commitment Phillip Hughes has made to the advancement of the teaching profession. It takes the form of a reflection on the life world and conditions of teachers in Australian schools, drawing principally on evidence from several studies that Helen Connell and I have conducted over the past few years.1 Beyond that, it draws upon a wider personal and shared experience of education and the teaching profession in several countries and through international organisations, UNESCO included, and often in association with Hughes. I am grateful for the advice and assistance that Helen Connell and Brigit Skilbeck have given me in preparing the text.

For over 40 years, I have had the privilege of being a colleague and friend of one of Australia’s best loved and greatest teachers, Phillip Hughes. In the 1960s, the Education Departments in each Australian State had a small group of professionals responsible for research, planning, and curriculum reform. From 1961 to 1963 Phil was Superintendent of Curriculum and Research in Tasmania and from 1965 to 1969 served as Deputy Director-General of the Department. In 1964, I was appointed to the Research and Curriculum Branch of the Queensland Department of Education. Immediately, our paths crossed as Phil was a leading figure in efforts being made by State Education departments to reform their education systems and to undertake research relevant to the key educational issues of the day, the most pressing being the curriculum and pedagogical challenges associated with the rapid expansion of secondary education. And so throughout the last 40 years, I have been fortunate enough to work with him as we have struggled to help teachers and education systems to realise our dream of quality education for all, one that liberates minds and contributes to peace, sustainable development and equity.

The preparation of teachers has traditionally focused on understanding curriculum subjects and acquiring methods for presenting direct instruction. In this scheme, educators are regarded as experts who convey information students need to know. A corresponding set of expectations for students obligates them to pay attention to teachers, take notes, read textbooks, complete assignments, and memorize pertinent material for testing. This portrayal of schooling is no longer sufficient because technology tools enable students to acquire additional learning beyond their experience in the classroom (Hughes, 2004). Another motivation to enlarge the scope of instruction is the employer expectation that graduates will possess teamwork skills and creative abilities necessary to cope with continuous change (Florida and Goodnight, 2005; Fosnot, 2005).

Large-scale education reform is being pursued with greater ambitions in all of the developed countries. The attempt now is to go beyond initial success which has plateaued in many countries to new breakthroughs. Fortunately we have several examples of deliberate strategic reforms from which to learn new insight. Based on case examples that I am involved in, several lessons are worth noting.

Phillip Hughes is without peer in his capacity to integrate research, policy, and practice. This chapter celebrates this pre-eminence by reflecting on issues in three domains in which he has been engaged over the decades, taking up some findings on research and drawing implications for policy and practice. While there are illustrations from his homeland, a broad international perspective is adopted, in keeping with the size of the arena on which Hughes has played.

As more and more countries are getting close to achieving universal primary education and are enrolling greater and greater proportions of their school-age population, pressure is being felt at secondary level to increase learning opportunities for primary school leavers. Much pressure is put on ministries of education in South Asia and Africa in particular to open more secondary schools and to create more places in existing secondary schools. This constitutes a real challenge as governments do not necessarily have the resources to provide free primary education for all, improve learning achievements, and still open up access to secondary schools. Temptation may be high for governments and politicians to open a large number of secondary schools where the pressure is felt the most, i.e. in urban areas, and to give priority to access (quantity) over quality and equity.