In the context of global concerns about teacher workload and the relationship between workload an... more In the context of global concerns about teacher workload and the relationship between workload and attrition, understanding the nature, quantity and intensity of teachers’ work is an essential first step in formulating robust solutions to this significant problem. Understanding teachers’ work, however, is a complex undertaking, and prior attempts have largely been focused on the quantity rather than the intensity or quality of work required and undertaken. This article reports on a pilot study of the Teacher Time Use app, a bespoke tool developed by the research team to ‘get inside’ teachers’ subjective experience of time through a focus on both workload and intensity. Our analysis shows that the app provides a simple, non-demanding way for teachers to record their work in a timely and efficient way. It also highlights the capacity of this approach to understand both the range and quantum of tasks that comprise teachers’ work and consequently the nature and subjective experience of ...
... lives at present, and their past history - what has contributed to their development, their p... more ... lives at present, and their past history - what has contributed to their development, their personality and their symptoms. ... Voltaire's bastards - "As we enter the 21 st Century, the paradigm shift in administrative practice called "managerialism" and the marketisation of health ...
In education systems around the globe influenced by neoliberalism, teachers commonly experience r... more In education systems around the globe influenced by neoliberalism, teachers commonly experience reforms which emphasise local responsibility and accountability. Teachers additionally work within what has been described as an era of social acceleration and associated "fast policy", with a perceived increase in the pace of reform. In this article, we present data drawn from a large (N = 18,234) survey of Australian public-school teachers' work. Analysis of both quantitative and qualitative reports indicates a widespread teacher perception of workload increase from 2013 to 2017, and the attribution of such increase to the introduction of policy initiatives including, but not limited to, school autonomy reform. Our findings have implications for education policy in Australia and beyond, with an erosion of teacher trust suggesting the need for more sustainable and consultative forms of "slow democracy" in education policy.
It is widely accepted in education research that governments globally have pursued policies that ... more It is widely accepted in education research that governments globally have pursued policies that seek to render schooling systems more market-like in form and function. Australian schooling systems...
Parliament of Australia website. Together, over the last five years, through a series of research... more Parliament of Australia website. Together, over the last five years, through a series of research projects, the above colleagues at the University of Sydney, Curtin University, University of New South Wales (Australia) and the Lulea University of Technology (Sweden), have examined the issues of work, workload, and conditions of work of Australian school teachers and school leaders, drawing international comparison to Sweden and elsewhere. We have reported (in conjunction with the NSW Teachers Federation (NSWTF), and State School Teachers Union of Western Australia (SSTUWA)) on the largest, recent survey of teachers’ work and workplace conditions in the country through input and extensive responses from over 20,000 teachers and school leaders. We welcome this Parliamentary Inquiry as both timely and of great importance
The series of responses in this article were gathered as part of an online mini conference held i... more The series of responses in this article were gathered as part of an online mini conference held in September 2021 that sought to explore different ideas and articulations of school autonomy reform across the world (Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, the USA, Norway, Sweden and New Zealand). It centred upon an important question: what needs to happen for school autonomy to be mobilised to create more equitable public schools and systems of education? There was consensus across the group that school autonomy reform creates further inequities at school and system levels when driven by the logics of marketisation, competition, economic efficiency and public accountability. Against the backdrop of these themes, the conference generated discussion and debate where provocations and points of agreement and disagreement about issues of social justice and the mobilisation of school autonomy reform were raised. As an important output of this discussion, we asked participants to write a short...
Submission to Education and Health Standing Committee Inquiry into the Department of Education's Independent Public Schools Initiative, 2016
Over the last five years, with the above colleagues at Curtin University and the University of Sy... more Over the last five years, with the above colleagues at Curtin University and the University of Sydney, I have examined the changes associated with the Independent Public Schools policy initiative in Western Australia. This research has in part involved comparative policy analysis which has placed the IPS initiative within a broader history of attempts by governments to devolve responsibility and decision making through the establishment of local school ‘autonomy’ or ‘self-managing schools’. Despite a very mixed record of effects, school autonomy has been embraced widely by western nations, including British ‘Academy’ schools, USA ‘Charter’ schools, and a surge of ‘independent’ schools, such as in Sweden. In Australia, such government devolution policies have included Better Schools in Western Australia (1987) Schools Renewal in New South Wales (1989) and Schools of the Future in Victoria (1993). For all the initial discussion of the novelty of the IPS policy, and all its focus on community and school empowerment as opposed to choice, competition and efficiency, the IPS initiative is part of this broader reform agenda to transform public education. In reviewing this experience of the push towards self-managing schools within Australia and internationally we found that what occurs through such policies is a shift of risk to families and an abrogation of responsibility on behalf of government to operate and fund an inclusive and equitable public education system (Fitzgerald and Rainnie 2011; Fitzgerald and Rainnie 2012). As I note below, research has consistently shown, at best, a very tenuous link between school autonomy and improved student outcomes across public education systems
The requirement for all Initial Teacher Education programmes in Australia to include a capstone t... more The requirement for all Initial Teacher Education programmes in Australia to include a capstone teacher performance assessment (TPA) is relatively new. However, TPAs are common in other countries, particularly the United States. In this article, we report on a review of the literature instigated by the authors' involvement in the development of an Australian TPA. Through a systematic review of the international research literature, supplemented by a separate set of preliminary sources, we identify and explore a range of key considerations for the development of TPAs within the Australian context. We focus on common aspects of TPAs worldwide: planning and preparation, observations on and evidence of teaching practice, and student work samples. We then interrogate further issues related to TPAs including the role of schools, principals and teachers; relation to Initial Teacher Education coursework; fairness; validity and reliability; and rubric development. To conclude we present a series of guiding principles to support the development and implementation of such complex, high stakes, and increasingly mandated kinds of assessments.
Research within communities that have historically been failed by formalised schooling often desc... more Research within communities that have historically been failed by formalised schooling often describes teachers who have found it difficult to engage with the social and cultural differences of their students. In this article, I present the case of Richard, a teacher whose work entailed a particular set of demands generated by a complex range of intersecting factorsamount and nature of experience in teaching, and the context in which he worked, a school located within a remote Indigenous community in Australia. Richard's descriptions of his experiences reflect a range of conflicting deficit discourses directed variously at his students, their families and community, as well as the school, its teachers, and himself. In this article, I use Bourdieu to explore Richard's case, and suggest that the analysis of deficit discourses in teaching needs to move beyond their identification, and towards unravelling the complex structural and personal interrelations at play. Understanding how and why such discourses can arise and persist in teaching may afford new directions for research and practice, enabling more productive support of teachers and their work with diverse groups of students.
This article presents evidence from across the segregated secondary school system in NSW, Austral... more This article presents evidence from across the segregated secondary school system in NSW, Australia, through the close analysis of three cases of teachers' work in contrasting schooling contexts. Through this comparative approach, the relationship between school context and the work of the early career teacher is foregrounded, troubling views of teaching as reflecting a certain kind of life cycle in which early career teachers in particular are seen to be subject to pressures such as stress and burnout. In contrast, I argue that specificities of context, exacerbated by a market-based policy approach which has driven greater levels of differentiation between schools, have particular consequences for teachers, both in the nature and scale of the challenges with which they are faced. In demonstrating how teachers' work is affected by context, I also speak back against recent, often ill-defined discourses of 'classroom readiness' and 'teacher quality', which emphasise the roles of teachers and teacher educators rather the systems within which they work.
Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 2016
ABSTRACT This paper seeks to understand the construction of teachers within one New South Wales e... more ABSTRACT This paper seeks to understand the construction of teachers within one New South Wales education policy, querying this construction in relation to both local and international processes and factors. As such, it also looks to contribute to a growing body of international literature which grapples with the role and nature of neoliberal policy development in education more broadly. To accomplish this, the paper analyses Great Teaching, Inspired Learning (GTIL), a policy with wide-ranging and potentially significant ramifications for teachers. Ultimately it is argued that although aspects of neoliberal thinking are evident in the policy, particularities of context have mediated this push. It is suggested that this has led to a particular neoliberalisation of policy that variously targets and supports individual teachers and the systems and structures surrounding them, while the place of GT IL within both local state politics and the global imaginary is questioned.
This article reports the findings of a study on the nature of parent–school engagement at an acad... more This article reports the findings of a study on the nature of parent–school engagement at an academically selective public high school in New South Wales, Australia. Such research is pertinent given recent policies of ‘choice’ and decentralization, making a study of local stakeholders timely. The research comprised a set of interviews with parents and teachers (n = 15), through which parents – all members of the school’s Parents’ and Citizens’ group – theorized and explained their involvement with the school, and teachers spoke about their views on this involvement. Results are organized around three themes: ‘how parents worked to nurture their children’s schooling’, ‘reasons behind parents’ involvement with the school’, and ‘communication and use of parental resources by the school’. Overall it was found that while parents were making significant efforts to involve themselves in the education of their children and with the school more broadly, the reasons for their involvement were not always consistent, but instead revealed a range of motivations for and conceptions of parents’ roles within schools, which at times were at odds with the teachers’. Through this, the study contributes to our understanding of middle-class parent engagement at an unusual and particular type of school.
The Australian education system features considerable socioeconomic inequality and is a frequent ... more The Australian education system features considerable socioeconomic inequality and is a frequent source of controversy in Australian public life. Yet meaningful reform to this system has proven elusive. In this article, we examine the public’s fairness perceptions of educational inequality based on parental financial capacity, using an online survey of adults (N = 1,999) from New South Wales, Australia. We asked about the fairness of inequality in school resources and education quality, and used a scenario in which students from high-income and low-income families had achievement gaps due to differences in educational experiences. Respondents had diverse perceptions about the fairness of educational inequality, but most perceived the scenario as unfair or very unfair. The partial proportional odds models showed that self-interest and neoliberal orientations predicted people’s fairness perceptions of educational inequality. The findings of this study have implications for achieving m...
In the context of global concerns about teacher workload and the relationship between workload an... more In the context of global concerns about teacher workload and the relationship between workload and attrition, understanding the nature, quantity and intensity of teachers’ work is an essential first step in formulating robust solutions to this significant problem. Understanding teachers’ work, however, is a complex undertaking, and prior attempts have largely been focused on the quantity rather than the intensity or quality of work required and undertaken. This article reports on a pilot study of the Teacher Time Use app, a bespoke tool developed by the research team to ‘get inside’ teachers’ subjective experience of time through a focus on both workload and intensity. Our analysis shows that the app provides a simple, non-demanding way for teachers to record their work in a timely and efficient way. It also highlights the capacity of this approach to understand both the range and quantum of tasks that comprise teachers’ work and consequently the nature and subjective experience of ...
... lives at present, and their past history - what has contributed to their development, their p... more ... lives at present, and their past history - what has contributed to their development, their personality and their symptoms. ... Voltaire's bastards - "As we enter the 21 st Century, the paradigm shift in administrative practice called "managerialism" and the marketisation of health ...
In education systems around the globe influenced by neoliberalism, teachers commonly experience r... more In education systems around the globe influenced by neoliberalism, teachers commonly experience reforms which emphasise local responsibility and accountability. Teachers additionally work within what has been described as an era of social acceleration and associated "fast policy", with a perceived increase in the pace of reform. In this article, we present data drawn from a large (N = 18,234) survey of Australian public-school teachers' work. Analysis of both quantitative and qualitative reports indicates a widespread teacher perception of workload increase from 2013 to 2017, and the attribution of such increase to the introduction of policy initiatives including, but not limited to, school autonomy reform. Our findings have implications for education policy in Australia and beyond, with an erosion of teacher trust suggesting the need for more sustainable and consultative forms of "slow democracy" in education policy.
It is widely accepted in education research that governments globally have pursued policies that ... more It is widely accepted in education research that governments globally have pursued policies that seek to render schooling systems more market-like in form and function. Australian schooling systems...
Parliament of Australia website. Together, over the last five years, through a series of research... more Parliament of Australia website. Together, over the last five years, through a series of research projects, the above colleagues at the University of Sydney, Curtin University, University of New South Wales (Australia) and the Lulea University of Technology (Sweden), have examined the issues of work, workload, and conditions of work of Australian school teachers and school leaders, drawing international comparison to Sweden and elsewhere. We have reported (in conjunction with the NSW Teachers Federation (NSWTF), and State School Teachers Union of Western Australia (SSTUWA)) on the largest, recent survey of teachers’ work and workplace conditions in the country through input and extensive responses from over 20,000 teachers and school leaders. We welcome this Parliamentary Inquiry as both timely and of great importance
The series of responses in this article were gathered as part of an online mini conference held i... more The series of responses in this article were gathered as part of an online mini conference held in September 2021 that sought to explore different ideas and articulations of school autonomy reform across the world (Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, the USA, Norway, Sweden and New Zealand). It centred upon an important question: what needs to happen for school autonomy to be mobilised to create more equitable public schools and systems of education? There was consensus across the group that school autonomy reform creates further inequities at school and system levels when driven by the logics of marketisation, competition, economic efficiency and public accountability. Against the backdrop of these themes, the conference generated discussion and debate where provocations and points of agreement and disagreement about issues of social justice and the mobilisation of school autonomy reform were raised. As an important output of this discussion, we asked participants to write a short...
Submission to Education and Health Standing Committee Inquiry into the Department of Education's Independent Public Schools Initiative, 2016
Over the last five years, with the above colleagues at Curtin University and the University of Sy... more Over the last five years, with the above colleagues at Curtin University and the University of Sydney, I have examined the changes associated with the Independent Public Schools policy initiative in Western Australia. This research has in part involved comparative policy analysis which has placed the IPS initiative within a broader history of attempts by governments to devolve responsibility and decision making through the establishment of local school ‘autonomy’ or ‘self-managing schools’. Despite a very mixed record of effects, school autonomy has been embraced widely by western nations, including British ‘Academy’ schools, USA ‘Charter’ schools, and a surge of ‘independent’ schools, such as in Sweden. In Australia, such government devolution policies have included Better Schools in Western Australia (1987) Schools Renewal in New South Wales (1989) and Schools of the Future in Victoria (1993). For all the initial discussion of the novelty of the IPS policy, and all its focus on community and school empowerment as opposed to choice, competition and efficiency, the IPS initiative is part of this broader reform agenda to transform public education. In reviewing this experience of the push towards self-managing schools within Australia and internationally we found that what occurs through such policies is a shift of risk to families and an abrogation of responsibility on behalf of government to operate and fund an inclusive and equitable public education system (Fitzgerald and Rainnie 2011; Fitzgerald and Rainnie 2012). As I note below, research has consistently shown, at best, a very tenuous link between school autonomy and improved student outcomes across public education systems
The requirement for all Initial Teacher Education programmes in Australia to include a capstone t... more The requirement for all Initial Teacher Education programmes in Australia to include a capstone teacher performance assessment (TPA) is relatively new. However, TPAs are common in other countries, particularly the United States. In this article, we report on a review of the literature instigated by the authors' involvement in the development of an Australian TPA. Through a systematic review of the international research literature, supplemented by a separate set of preliminary sources, we identify and explore a range of key considerations for the development of TPAs within the Australian context. We focus on common aspects of TPAs worldwide: planning and preparation, observations on and evidence of teaching practice, and student work samples. We then interrogate further issues related to TPAs including the role of schools, principals and teachers; relation to Initial Teacher Education coursework; fairness; validity and reliability; and rubric development. To conclude we present a series of guiding principles to support the development and implementation of such complex, high stakes, and increasingly mandated kinds of assessments.
Research within communities that have historically been failed by formalised schooling often desc... more Research within communities that have historically been failed by formalised schooling often describes teachers who have found it difficult to engage with the social and cultural differences of their students. In this article, I present the case of Richard, a teacher whose work entailed a particular set of demands generated by a complex range of intersecting factorsamount and nature of experience in teaching, and the context in which he worked, a school located within a remote Indigenous community in Australia. Richard's descriptions of his experiences reflect a range of conflicting deficit discourses directed variously at his students, their families and community, as well as the school, its teachers, and himself. In this article, I use Bourdieu to explore Richard's case, and suggest that the analysis of deficit discourses in teaching needs to move beyond their identification, and towards unravelling the complex structural and personal interrelations at play. Understanding how and why such discourses can arise and persist in teaching may afford new directions for research and practice, enabling more productive support of teachers and their work with diverse groups of students.
This article presents evidence from across the segregated secondary school system in NSW, Austral... more This article presents evidence from across the segregated secondary school system in NSW, Australia, through the close analysis of three cases of teachers' work in contrasting schooling contexts. Through this comparative approach, the relationship between school context and the work of the early career teacher is foregrounded, troubling views of teaching as reflecting a certain kind of life cycle in which early career teachers in particular are seen to be subject to pressures such as stress and burnout. In contrast, I argue that specificities of context, exacerbated by a market-based policy approach which has driven greater levels of differentiation between schools, have particular consequences for teachers, both in the nature and scale of the challenges with which they are faced. In demonstrating how teachers' work is affected by context, I also speak back against recent, often ill-defined discourses of 'classroom readiness' and 'teacher quality', which emphasise the roles of teachers and teacher educators rather the systems within which they work.
Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 2016
ABSTRACT This paper seeks to understand the construction of teachers within one New South Wales e... more ABSTRACT This paper seeks to understand the construction of teachers within one New South Wales education policy, querying this construction in relation to both local and international processes and factors. As such, it also looks to contribute to a growing body of international literature which grapples with the role and nature of neoliberal policy development in education more broadly. To accomplish this, the paper analyses Great Teaching, Inspired Learning (GTIL), a policy with wide-ranging and potentially significant ramifications for teachers. Ultimately it is argued that although aspects of neoliberal thinking are evident in the policy, particularities of context have mediated this push. It is suggested that this has led to a particular neoliberalisation of policy that variously targets and supports individual teachers and the systems and structures surrounding them, while the place of GT IL within both local state politics and the global imaginary is questioned.
This article reports the findings of a study on the nature of parent–school engagement at an acad... more This article reports the findings of a study on the nature of parent–school engagement at an academically selective public high school in New South Wales, Australia. Such research is pertinent given recent policies of ‘choice’ and decentralization, making a study of local stakeholders timely. The research comprised a set of interviews with parents and teachers (n = 15), through which parents – all members of the school’s Parents’ and Citizens’ group – theorized and explained their involvement with the school, and teachers spoke about their views on this involvement. Results are organized around three themes: ‘how parents worked to nurture their children’s schooling’, ‘reasons behind parents’ involvement with the school’, and ‘communication and use of parental resources by the school’. Overall it was found that while parents were making significant efforts to involve themselves in the education of their children and with the school more broadly, the reasons for their involvement were not always consistent, but instead revealed a range of motivations for and conceptions of parents’ roles within schools, which at times were at odds with the teachers’. Through this, the study contributes to our understanding of middle-class parent engagement at an unusual and particular type of school.
The Australian education system features considerable socioeconomic inequality and is a frequent ... more The Australian education system features considerable socioeconomic inequality and is a frequent source of controversy in Australian public life. Yet meaningful reform to this system has proven elusive. In this article, we examine the public’s fairness perceptions of educational inequality based on parental financial capacity, using an online survey of adults (N = 1,999) from New South Wales, Australia. We asked about the fairness of inequality in school resources and education quality, and used a scenario in which students from high-income and low-income families had achievement gaps due to differences in educational experiences. Respondents had diverse perceptions about the fairness of educational inequality, but most perceived the scenario as unfair or very unfair. The partial proportional odds models showed that self-interest and neoliberal orientations predicted people’s fairness perceptions of educational inequality. The findings of this study have implications for achieving m...
This book presents a definitive introduction to key debates in contemporary education policy research and theory. It brings together leaders in the field of education policy research to provide rigorous commentary, evidence and analysis of some of the most pressing issues shaping education policy around the globe. The book is principally designed as a navigational and reference tool to make the field of contemporary education policy research and theory more accessible and exciting to a wider audience. The result is a book that provides the reader with a useful toolkit to engage and understand education policy and theory from a number of different vantage points and perspectives.
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Wilkins, A. (ed.) 2022. Policy foundations in education. Bloomsbury: London
Available to buy in paperback: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/policy-foundations-of-education-9781350171138/
This book presents a definitive introduction to key debates in contemporary education policy research and theory. It brings together leaders in the field of education policy research to provide rigorous commentary, evidence and analysis of some of the most pressing issues shaping education policy around the globe. The book is principally designed as a navigational and reference tool to make the field of contemporary education policy research and theory more accessible and exciting to a wider audience. The result is a book that provides the reader with a useful toolkit to engage and understand education policy and theory from a number of different vantage points and perspectives.