Contested territories: English teachers in Australia and England remaining resilient and creative in constraining times

ABSTRACT

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’.

KEYWORDS:

• Secondary English teachers
• adaptive agency
• professional identity
• policy
• resilience

Acknowledgments

Our sincere appreciation is given to all 33 English teachers who participated in the study for their warm generosity, time and expertise.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kerry-Ann O’Sullivan

Dr Kerry-Ann O’Sullivan is a Senior Lecturer in the Macquarie School of Education, Macquarie University, NSW, with a PhD in English curriculum. She has received awards at national, state, and university level for both her teaching and research and is an experienced advisor in curriculum and assessment. Her research interests include English and literacies education in times of contestation, pedagogical decision making and text selection, and professional identity construction.

Professor Andy Goodwyn is Head of The School of Education and English Language and Director of the Institute for Research in Education at The University of Bedfordshire [UK] and is Emeritus Professor at The University of Reading. [email protected] http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7522-1436

A former high school English teacher, he was a PGCE English and MA in English programme leader for 20 years and Head of the Institute Education at the University of Reading from 2005 to 2015. He is formerly the Chair of The National Association for the Teaching of English and currently its Research Officer; currently he is President of The International Federation for the Teaching of English. He has published extensively in the field of English in Education with numerous publications focusing on the professional identity of English teachers.