Australian Support for the American National Board Standards of Exemplary Teaching

Abstract

This paper canvasses four possible reasons why some Australian early childhood teachers seem more supportive than some Australian English teachers of the professional standards for exemplary teaching developed by the National Board in the US. It explores whether the difference is due to the nature of the teachers, the needs of the learning area, the standards themselves, or the research processes. A key contention emerging from an analysis of the early childhood teachers’ response is that the US National Board standards should not be regarded as belonging to the Americans just because they were the first to document them. Certainly, we need to construct our own standards in order to develop a sense of commitment and ownership. But this does not mean having to start from scratch. Along with educators across the world, we already ‘own’ the values, skills, and knowledge documented in the USNational Board standards. What we can profitably do is take the US standards and build on them.