Contested territories: English teachers in Australia and England remaining resilient and creative in constraining times
Issue Date
2020-07-23Subjects
professional identityresilience
policy
secondary English teachers
adaptive agency
Subject Categories::X330 Academic studies in Secondary Education
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Globally teachers are experiencing reductions to their autonomy and constraints on their professional practice through legislative impositions of limiting standards, external testing and narrowing curricula. This study explores the ways English educators find a balance between these external expectations, contemporary pressures, professional aspirations, and personal values. It was a qualitative investigation into the perceptions shared by thirty-three English teachers from New South Wales, Australia and across England. A significant gap now exists between the ways English teachers conceive their subject, their purposes and the nature of their work, and that determined by regulation, formalised curriculum and accreditation requirements. The enduring resilience of these teachers is revealed but also the corrosive structural effects produced by narrowly focused, neoliberal policies especially in relation to high stakes testing. However, the research demonstrates how certain English teachers remain remarkably resilient–retaining autonomy where they can–and we define this attribute as ‘adaptive agency’.Citation
O’Sullivan KA, Goodwyn A (2020) 'Contested territories: English teachers in Australia and England remaining resilient and creative in constraining times', English in Education, 54 (3), pp.224-238.Publisher
Taylor and Francis Ltd.Journal
English in EducationAdditional Links
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/04250494.2020.1793667Type
ArticleLanguage
enISSN
0425-0494ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1080/04250494.2020.1793667