Teacher workload in Australia: National reports of intensification and its threats to democracy

The recent reforms of education, driven by neoliberal logics of choice, competition and autonomy, have fundamentally challenged the importance of education and schooling as core to the healthy functioning of socio-democratic societies. Little attention has been paid, however, to how the de-democrati...

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Main Authors: Gavin, Mihajla, McGrath-Champ, Susan, Wilson, Rachel, Fitzgerald, Scott, Stacey, Meghan
Other Authors: Riddle, Stewart
Format: Book Chapter
Language:English
Published: Routledge 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.routledge.com/New-Perspectives-on-Education-for-Democracy-Creative-Responses-to-Local/Riddle-Heffernan-Bright/p/book/9780367703448
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/84266
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author Gavin, Mihajla
McGrath-Champ, Susan
Wilson, Rachel
Fitzgerald, Scott
Stacey, Meghan
author2 Riddle, Stewart
author_facet Riddle, Stewart
Gavin, Mihajla
McGrath-Champ, Susan
Wilson, Rachel
Fitzgerald, Scott
Stacey, Meghan
author_sort Gavin, Mihajla
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The recent reforms of education, driven by neoliberal logics of choice, competition and autonomy, have fundamentally challenged the importance of education and schooling as core to the healthy functioning of socio-democratic societies. Little attention has been paid, however, to how the de-democratisation of education is affecting the work of teachers as educators. Drawing on data from a series of systematic and comparable large-scale surveys (N=48,000), we draw attention to the stark reality of teachers’ work today in the context of Australia. The most prominent finding is the documentation of the universal intensification of teachers’ work and explosion of teachers’ working hours driven by instruments of compliance, datafication and diminution of time to get on with the core job of teaching. We reflect upon how intensification of teachers’ work threatens the democratic purposes of schooling, and argue for system-level monitoring and evaluation to inform policy-making to challenge de-democratising practices.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-842662023-06-07T02:58:58Z Teacher workload in Australia: National reports of intensification and its threats to democracy Gavin, Mihajla McGrath-Champ, Susan Wilson, Rachel Fitzgerald, Scott Stacey, Meghan Riddle, Stewart Heffernan, Amanda Bright, David workload work intensification Australia neoliberal democracy 1503 - Business and Management 1301 - Education Systems 1608 - Sociology The recent reforms of education, driven by neoliberal logics of choice, competition and autonomy, have fundamentally challenged the importance of education and schooling as core to the healthy functioning of socio-democratic societies. Little attention has been paid, however, to how the de-democratisation of education is affecting the work of teachers as educators. Drawing on data from a series of systematic and comparable large-scale surveys (N=48,000), we draw attention to the stark reality of teachers’ work today in the context of Australia. The most prominent finding is the documentation of the universal intensification of teachers’ work and explosion of teachers’ working hours driven by instruments of compliance, datafication and diminution of time to get on with the core job of teaching. We reflect upon how intensification of teachers’ work threatens the democratic purposes of schooling, and argue for system-level monitoring and evaluation to inform policy-making to challenge de-democratising practices. 2021 Book Chapter http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/84266 English https://www.routledge.com/New-Perspectives-on-Education-for-Democracy-Creative-Responses-to-Local/Riddle-Heffernan-Bright/p/book/9780367703448 Routledge fulltext
spellingShingle workload
work intensification
Australia
neoliberal
democracy
1503 - Business and Management
1301 - Education Systems
1608 - Sociology
Gavin, Mihajla
McGrath-Champ, Susan
Wilson, Rachel
Fitzgerald, Scott
Stacey, Meghan
Teacher workload in Australia: National reports of intensification and its threats to democracy
title Teacher workload in Australia: National reports of intensification and its threats to democracy
title_full Teacher workload in Australia: National reports of intensification and its threats to democracy
title_fullStr Teacher workload in Australia: National reports of intensification and its threats to democracy
title_full_unstemmed Teacher workload in Australia: National reports of intensification and its threats to democracy
title_short Teacher workload in Australia: National reports of intensification and its threats to democracy
title_sort teacher workload in australia: national reports of intensification and its threats to democracy
topic workload
work intensification
Australia
neoliberal
democracy
1503 - Business and Management
1301 - Education Systems
1608 - Sociology
url https://www.routledge.com/New-Perspectives-on-Education-for-Democracy-Creative-Responses-to-Local/Riddle-Heffernan-Bright/p/book/9780367703448
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/84266