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.

Many pre-service teachers prolong studies or fail to complete teaching degrees due to financial hardship. This attrition exacerbates the teacher shortage in Australian schools. Our research uses critical theory to explore the challenges for pre-service teachers as they complete the compulsory professional experience component of initial teacher education. This phenomenological study, based on interviews with eight pre-service teachers at a university in Western Australia, gives voice to pre-service teachers experiencing placement poverty, revealing the difficulties faced in their quest to become teachers. The findings highlight the importance of addressing the financial barriers that hamper students' abilities to become quality teachers.

Royal commissions are powerful symbols of truth-telling, underpinned by restorative justice, aiming to address historic mishandling by giving voice to survivors of prejudice, abuse, and institutional injustice. The Australian Federal Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability (2019–2023) exposed routine violence, abuse, and exploitation of people with disability. The Commission made recommendations to federal and state governments in Australia that, if accepted and implemented, will bring about far-reaching changes. Previous royal commissions resulted in high acceptance rates: 79% for Aged Care and 85% for Child Sexual Abuse. However, the response to the Disability Royal Commission (DRC) has been disappointing, with only 8% of recommendations accepted. This paper focuses on government responses to DRC recommendations related to Volume 7: Part A: Inclusive Education, using critical discourse analysis to highlight how empty language promotes inclusivity whilst maintaining ableist cultural hegemony and normative policies.

This research paper explores the experiences of pre-service teachers (PST) with disability undertaking high-stakes teacher tests in Australia. In 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 PSTs who are undergoing their initial teacher education studies. However, our research highlights how high-stakes teacher tests that all Australian PSTs must pass in order to graduate, fail to differentiate for disability. Our research findings shed light on how PSTs with disability have a passion for differentiation and are developing disability identity and advocacy. Yet ableist practices, including the costs of disclosure and inadequate assessment accommodations, marginalise and exclude these valuable teachers.

Teacher attrition is a significant issue that has been the subject of much recent critical research and public debate. What is less often explored in the literature is the gendered nature of teaching and 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 these schools. We apply a critical feminist lens to qualitative data generated from interviews with 21 teachers from 6 different schools in RRR locations in Western Australia. Data reveals a toxic intersection between teacher attrition and 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.