Six Bridges to Effective Teaching is written by Geoff Crawford and Anthony Nunan.

We met in 1993 as teachers at the same school in rural Victoria – spending two years traveling 130km a day between work and our home city. During this time, we had the opportunity to discuss hundreds of issues relating to education, and the way that students and classrooms should be managed. While we seldom agreed, we enjoyed the strength and spirit of the discussions and valued the alternative views. In 1995, the car pooling partnership dissolved when one of us left for what he thought would be greener pastures.

Though we have only taught in the same school at the same time for two years, our families have grown up together, and two sons actually share the same birthdate. We have continued our discussions about education over family BBQ's, holidays and sporting interests.

In 2002, we both left the security of permanent employment in Australia for the UK teaching experience with our respective families – one in the Midlands of England in Nottingham, the other 70 miles south in Northamptonshire. Within weeks, the proverbial shit had hit the proverbial fan. We discovered that 15 years experience as a teacher including several roles of responsibility is insufficient preparation for a new teaching experience – particularly in a foreign country. If 15 years experience doesn’t cut it – what does?

We began to dissect teaching as a profession, reverting to some of the most basic lessons we learned as university students. We redeveloped as teachers, identifying patterns of behaviour that brought about stability and renewed our interest as educators. With four years of development and refinement, Six Bridges is the result of considered research within existing education structures, designed to bring about a gradual, peaceful change to the way we manage our relationships with students, parents, fellow staff and the wider community. Most of the techniques will be familiar to teachers, and work independently of the type of school in which you are employed. We understand that the majority of schools reflect their authoritarian roots, and Six Bridges is designed to work in current conditions – not under some idealistic, redesigned school structure where ‘all persons are equal’.

We hope you enjoy Six Bridges, as we are confident it will assist any teacher in improving the relationships they build with the six core elements of the teaching profession.