Teachers, fixed-term contracts and school leadership: Toeing the line and jumping through hoops
Fixed-term contracts are a relatively recent, yet growing category of employment for teachers in the public school system in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. In this article, we draw on quantitative and qualitative data from a large state-wide survey (N = 18,234) of members of the public-school tea...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Published: |
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/83106 |
| _version_ | 1848764557503234048 |
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| author | Stacey, Meghan Fitzgerald, Scott Wilson, Rachel McGrath-Champ, Susan Gavin, Mihajla |
| author_facet | Stacey, Meghan Fitzgerald, Scott Wilson, Rachel McGrath-Champ, Susan Gavin, Mihajla |
| author_sort | Stacey, Meghan |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Fixed-term contracts are a relatively recent, yet growing category of employment for teachers in the public school system in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. In this article, we draw on quantitative and qualitative data from a large state-wide survey (N = 18,234) of members of the public-school teacher union, the NSW Teachers’ Federation, in order to explore the workload reports of teachers in temporary employment. We find that overall, these teachers report similar levels of workload to staff employed on a permanent basis. Experiences of work are, however, qualitatively different, with many in the temporary category feeling they must work harder than permanent teachers in order to ‘prove themselves’ to school executive. We argue that such experiences of precariousness may have particular ‘scarring’ effects for teachers in temporary employment, including gendered patterns of career progression, and discuss implications for leadership and policy. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:21:15Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-83106 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:21:15Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-831062022-10-07T00:50:29Z Teachers, fixed-term contracts and school leadership: Toeing the line and jumping through hoops Stacey, Meghan Fitzgerald, Scott Wilson, Rachel McGrath-Champ, Susan Gavin, Mihajla 1503 - Business and Management fixed-term contracts teachers temporary devolution casualisation Fixed-term contracts are a relatively recent, yet growing category of employment for teachers in the public school system in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. In this article, we draw on quantitative and qualitative data from a large state-wide survey (N = 18,234) of members of the public-school teacher union, the NSW Teachers’ Federation, in order to explore the workload reports of teachers in temporary employment. We find that overall, these teachers report similar levels of workload to staff employed on a permanent basis. Experiences of work are, however, qualitatively different, with many in the temporary category feeling they must work harder than permanent teachers in order to ‘prove themselves’ to school executive. We argue that such experiences of precariousness may have particular ‘scarring’ effects for teachers in temporary employment, including gendered patterns of career progression, and discuss implications for leadership and policy. 2021 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/83106 10.1080/00220620.2021.1906633 fulltext |
| spellingShingle | 1503 - Business and Management fixed-term contracts teachers temporary devolution casualisation Stacey, Meghan Fitzgerald, Scott Wilson, Rachel McGrath-Champ, Susan Gavin, Mihajla Teachers, fixed-term contracts and school leadership: Toeing the line and jumping through hoops |
| title | Teachers, fixed-term contracts and school leadership: Toeing the line and jumping through hoops |
| title_full | Teachers, fixed-term contracts and school leadership: Toeing the line and jumping through hoops |
| title_fullStr | Teachers, fixed-term contracts and school leadership: Toeing the line and jumping through hoops |
| title_full_unstemmed | Teachers, fixed-term contracts and school leadership: Toeing the line and jumping through hoops |
| title_short | Teachers, fixed-term contracts and school leadership: Toeing the line and jumping through hoops |
| title_sort | teachers, fixed-term contracts and school leadership: toeing the line and jumping through hoops |
| topic | 1503 - Business and Management fixed-term contracts teachers temporary devolution casualisation |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/83106 |