Abstract:
Neoliberal reforms have proliferated education systems in Australia, Canada, and the United States (Anderson and Cohen, 2015; Connell, 2009; Leicht et al., 2009). In the 1970s, the competent teacher model rose to prominence in the US, which is based on market-oriented values, and occurred in tandem with the rise of marketisation in the 1970s and 1980s. Using the tenets of market logic, the discourse on teacher professionalism in the 1990s evolved into the neoliberal belief that teachers should take individual responsibility for fulfilling expectations put forth by policymakers (Datnow, 2012). As a result, neoliberal or market logic is creating a “new type of individual” including a “new type of teacher” (Ball & Olmedo, 2013, p. 88).
In this paper, I explore the ethical and political consequences of individualising the primary teaching profession. I think with Barad’s (2007) ethico-onto-epistemology which emphasises the inseparability of ethics, knowledge, and being, and concomitant response-abilities of human-nonhuman phenomena. I utilize the term ethico-political (Murris & Peers, 2022) to discuss implications for extant policies related to public school primary teachers, and scope for new possibilities. This paper draws from interview and photo-elicitation data that were generated with ten primary teachers in Australia, Canada, and the United States. The interviews were conducted during the COVID-19 lockdowns from March to July, 2021. I identify the teacher participants as case-entanglements, a term I derived from the notion that phenomena emerge through human-nonhuman intra-actions (Barad, 2007).
I share three key insights that emerged from my intra-action with the case-entanglements. First, the national, federal, and state governments of Australia, Canada, and the United States neglects relationality and instead currently focus on individualising teaching. Second, the case-entanglements demonstrate how emphasising individuality through neoliberal practices produce harmful effects and in-justices for teachers. As such, it is imperative to acknowledge and foster relationality, as opposed to individuality, when creating and enacting teacher policies and practice. This implication entails acknowledging that knowledge and being are becoming through relationships, and to continue fostering response-able relationships among human-nonhuman phenomena.
This paper significantly contributes to AARE’s call to interrogate specific forms of change, which in this case is the neoliberal pervasion of the teaching profession. Specifically, this paper provides possibilities to prevent material in-justices in the teaching profession, and emphasises how this is a relational, rather than individual, response-ability.
In this paper, I explore the ethical and political consequences of individualising the primary teaching profession. I think with Barad’s (2007) ethico-onto-epistemology which emphasises the inseparability of ethics, knowledge, and being, and concomitant response-abilities of human-nonhuman phenomena. I utilize the term ethico-political (Murris & Peers, 2022) to discuss implications for extant policies related to public school primary teachers, and scope for new possibilities. This paper draws from interview and photo-elicitation data that were generated with ten primary teachers in Australia, Canada, and the United States. The interviews were conducted during the COVID-19 lockdowns from March to July, 2021. I identify the teacher participants as case-entanglements, a term I derived from the notion that phenomena emerge through human-nonhuman intra-actions (Barad, 2007).
I share three key insights that emerged from my intra-action with the case-entanglements. First, the national, federal, and state governments of Australia, Canada, and the United States neglects relationality and instead currently focus on individualising teaching. Second, the case-entanglements demonstrate how emphasising individuality through neoliberal practices produce harmful effects and in-justices for teachers. As such, it is imperative to acknowledge and foster relationality, as opposed to individuality, when creating and enacting teacher policies and practice. This implication entails acknowledging that knowledge and being are becoming through relationships, and to continue fostering response-able relationships among human-nonhuman phenomena.
This paper significantly contributes to AARE’s call to interrogate specific forms of change, which in this case is the neoliberal pervasion of the teaching profession. Specifically, this paper provides possibilities to prevent material in-justices in the teaching profession, and emphasises how this is a relational, rather than individual, response-ability.