Critical Politics of Teachers’ Work: An Australian Perspective

This book is about the damage that has been systematically inflicted upon teachers’ work globally over the past two or more decades. It chronicles and traces the major policy maneuvers in what can only be described as difficult times. The effects are not hard to see in the language of the new technologies of power: competencies, vocationalization of the curriculum, appraisal, testing, accountability, restructuring, enterprise culture, and self-management, as well as through the cooption of progressive categories like collegiality, teacher development, and other reflective approaches to teaching. While these discourses mark out the oppressive contours of teaching there still exists considerable space to imagine and live out alternative discourses and practices. The way out of the miasma, it is argued, is to robustly confront and vigorously supplant dominant managerialist discourses with agenda and practices that are more democratic, educative, and socially just.