Dealing with the demands of the Deakin University-Teach For Australia program: Four perspectives

This paper sets out to explain the Deakin University-Teach For Australia (DU-TFA) program for preparing teachers Australia-wide, with a focus on Western Australia (WA), and to offer insight into how the DU-TFA beginning teachers, known as Associates, ‘dealt with’ the demands of the program. It is not an evaluation of the DU-TFA program; rather, through qualitative research methods, it offers the perspectives of four Associates on how they ‘dealt with’ the demands of the program, and the suggestions they make for modifications to the program to alleviate some of these demands. The suggestions may prove useful to TFA and its new partner university, as well as to other initial teacher education (ITE) programs. The paper provides the background to the TFA program, inclusive of its purpose, its operations, and the mentoring approach it employs with its partner university to support the Associates. The qualitative research methodology used to gather the data, and the limitations of the study, are also explained.