Kirsten Lambert (PhD)

For more than a decade, Australia has faced intense teacher shortages. To address this issue, the Australian Government has proposed a strategy of expanding the number of migrant teachers. In the light of growing xenophobia and anti-immigration discourses, this study seeks to understand how the international teacher recruitment is received in Australia. Of equal concern, little is known about the lived experiences of migrant teachers as they navigate an Australian education system characterised by multilayered bureaucracy, complex pedagogical demands, increasing student violence and abuse, and limited resources.

This presentation is based on a qualitative study that showcases the narratives of secondary school migrant teachers. Building on themes of identity, belonging, power, networking and resilience, emergent interview data from Western Australia will provide insight into the experiences of migrant teachers.

The 2024 Nationally Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD) statistics indicate that nearly one in five (24.7%) of school aged children have a disability and are needing additional supports (or differentiation) in the classroom. In our increasingly diverse classrooms, teachers are expected to provide a range of differentiation strategies in their learning and teaching to ensure all students are included in classrooms. This need for appropriate classroom differentiation is mandated to pre-service teachers (PSTs) via AITSL standards. Further changes are on the horizon as a result of the Disability Royal Commission (Sackville et al., 2023) which highlighted the need for further positive reform in schools to ensure all students with a disability receive a quality education. Focus is currently highlighting school students with disability, but what of their teachers and those studying to become teachers who live with disability? This paper explores the experiences of preservice teachers’ (PSTs) and teachers with disability undertaking a high-stakes teacher tests in Australia. Utilising Critical Disability Theory (CDT), in particular Goodley’s (2016) concept of neoliberal-ableism we explore some of the challenges and strengths relating to supporting PSTs with disability in Australia undertaking the high-stakes standardised test LANTITE. Data is presented as narrative vignettes (Clandinin, 2020) giving voice to those whose experiences are complex and layered. Our research findings shed light on how PSTs with disability have a passion for differentiation, with some students becoming passionate advocates for disability and difference in their classrooms. Yet ableist practices, including the costs of disclosure, and inadequate assessment accommodations marginalise and exclude or traumatise these valuable teachers. With increasing demands on the teacher workforce to be better prepared to differentiate their teaching and assessment for the one in five, there is opportunity to reform and consider how we train and retain our teachers with disability in classrooms. For the one in five students in the classroom, disability representation is important for their growth and learning journey. Having teachers with disability in the classroom is both a reality and a gift for all students. Ensuring equitable and inclusive education for all requires challenging our neoliberal-ableist policies and practices in Australian education.

Teacher attrition is a significant issue that has been the subject of much recent critical research and public debate. To address this crisis, the Australian Government has implemented a range of policy reforms and initiated a series of reports, including the Quality Initial Teacher Education (QITE, 2021) and the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan (NTWAP, 2022). Whilst these reforms and incentives aim to improve teacher education, supply, and retention, there is a gap in the research literature and the policies themselves, on the gendered nature of teaching and how this influences teacher attrition. Our research highlights the unique struggles female teachers face in the workforce, particularly in remote, regional, and rural (RRR) schools. As a historically female-dominated profession, women, particularly teacher-mothers face a distinctive set of barriers to career progression in schools. We apply a critical feminist lens to qualitative data generated from interviews with 21 teachers from six different schools in RRR locations in Western Australia. Data reveals a toxic intersection between teacher attrition, a lack of childcare, housing, career prospects and a culture of frontier masculinity. Our research has significant implications for education policy in the context of teacher attrition as it sheds light on why dedicated female teachers reluctantly leave the profession because of a lack of opportunity for themselves and their families.

The concept of hegemonic masculinity has influenced gender studies across many academic fields but has also attracted serious criticism. The authors trace the origin of the concept in a convergence of ideas in the early 1980s and map the ways it was applied when research on men and masculinities expanded. Evaluating the principal criticisms, the authors defend the underlying concept of masculinity, which in most research use is neither reified nor essentialist. However, the criticism of trait models of gender and rigid typologies is sound. The treatment of the subject in research on hegemonic masculinity can be improved with the aid of recent psychological models, although limits to discursive flexibility must be recognized. The concept of hegemonic masculinity does not equate to a model of social reproduction; we need to recognize social struggles in which subordinated masculinities influence dominant forms. Finally, the authors review what has been confirmed from early formulations (the idea of multiple masculinities, the concept of hegemony, and the emphasis on change) and what needs to be discarded (onedimensional treatment of hierarchy and trait conceptions of gender). The authors suggest reformulation of the concept in four areas: a more complex model of gender hierarchy, emphasizing the agency of women; explicit recognition of the geography of masculinities, emphasizing the interplay among local, regional, and global levels; a more specific treatment of embodiment in contexts of privilege and power; and a stronger emphasis on the dynamics of hegemonic masculinity, recognizing internal contradictions and the possibilities of movement toward gender democracy.

Nature links for students have gained increased attention, partially due to their mental health benefits. Connecting with nature in Perth, Western Australia, ranges from manicured lawns, native gardens, to remnant bushland. This project was co-designed with university students and analysed the reflections of members of a University Community Garden following Covid.

Interviews with 8 participants revealed that the University Community Garden had a large role in maintaining their mental health during tertiary study. The work and time investment of student participants in the Community Garden was voluntary (gained no financial or University credit). When considering the usual weekly activities, the Community Garden with nearby bushland was identified as a place of 'acceptance', 'no failure', 'regular activities' and 'no judgment'. Reflections on Covid-enforced time away were overwhelmingly negative including 'isolation', 'desperately unhappy' and 'I wanted to drop out'.

Students identified 'creatively generative' activities and community interactions as pivotal to their positive experiences in the garden. These facilitated support for student mental health and indirectly affected successful completion of enrolled units. The high value of space identified as different from normal classrooms and 'quiet', highlighted characteristics aligned with universal design for learning (UDL) principles and inclusive education.

This paper explores the impact of edu-businesses on literacy education in schools and the implications for initial teacher education. Decades of neoliberal education policies, the valorisation of high stakes testing and consequent dataphilia, has resulted in a plethora of commercial products flooding the education market. These products promise to improve literacy data and edu-businesses have positioned themselves in a commercially lucrative relationship with education authorities. Thus they work with governments to create education policy that addresses the ‘crisis,’ and profit through selling solutions. These private companies restrict the use of their products to schools who have purchased their packages. This commodification of education de-professionalises teachers, foregrounds teachers’ time and leaves little room for critical literacy work. Moreover, this deprofessionalisation impacts teachers’ perceptions of belonging and their identities as teachers. Our research highlights the impact that branded literacy tools are having on initial education students’ pedagogy, professional practice, and perceptions of teacher identity.