Lee Soong

I am a doctorate student in the School of Education. I am also teaching part-time in Middle Years teacher education. In 2007, I won a Full Spectrum Academic Scholarship from the University of South Australia. This scholarship gave me a chance to undertake a Graducate Certificate in University Teaching during the course of my PhD study.

As an ex-teacher and a learning support coordinator, I specialise in supporting young children with low levels of literacy and learning disabilities. Previously, I have also worked as a pastoral-care coordinator and staff welfare chairperson on overseeeing the needs of staff, parents and students in a primary school.

My educational philosophy is drawn from my personal community service experience and engagement in community development. During my community service in India, I began to understand what Dewey maintains as the 'nature of teaching' (Dewey, 1933) which is also in line with Gransci's (1971) objective of education and Freire's (1974) 'pedagogy of the oppressed', Dewey (1933) maintains that education is about transforming society itself to meet the collective needs of individuals and it is the 'elements of independent responsibility' that becomes part of teachers' calling. Thus, I seek to explore whether others who are engaged in community service work have had simialr experiences; and in what ways such experiences have served to generate strong transformative learning.

Ttile: 'Exploring the meaning and value of community service learning and its impact on international pre-service teachers: An Australian case-study.'

The focus of my research is to explore how experiences in community service learning impact international pre-service teachers who are undertaking postgraduate teacher education in Australia. I am interested in looking at how experiential learning can be part of a transformative teacher education. Teacher development in this study maintains that the theory and practice of community service learning can shape and give direction to a conception of teacher education as transformative.

My research will address the issue of preparing international pre-service teachers to teach in Australian schools through community service learning experience. My study will examine the complexities, perceptions, meanings and values of participation in community service learning that may influence international pre-service teachers, and impact their preparation to teach in Australia.

To me, 'history is never the history of isolated individuals, but is lived socially in and through communication and social interaction' (Sharp, 1998:247). Thus, in my study I intend to explore the 'livedness' of human lives through hermeneutic phenomenology that is centered on interpretation. I seek to do this trhough examining stories that are told in the journals, interviews and focus group discussions.

Abd-El-Fattah,S. M.& Soong,L. H. (2007) Teachers' Moral Imagination - A Multi-Faceted Concept. Refereed conference paper for 6th International Imaginative Education Conference on Imagination and Education 2008, Canberra, Australia.

Soong,L. H. (2006), Justificatory reasoning in LBPM students. This paper is supported by the University of South Australia. Vacation Research Scholarship: University of South Australia

Member, Australian Association for Research in Education

Member, Centre for Education, Equity and Work

Member, Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societies