The teacher ‘problem’: an analysis of the NSW education policy Great Teaching, Inspired Learning

ABSTRACT

This paper seeks to understand the construction of teachers within one New South Wales education policy, querying this construction in relation to both local and international processes and factors. As such, it also looks to contribute to a growing body of international literature which grapples with the role and nature of neoliberal policy development in education more broadly. To accomplish this, the paper analyses Great Teaching, Inspired Learning (GTIL), a policy with wide-ranging and potentially significant ramifications for teachers. Ultimately it is argued that although aspects of neoliberal thinking are evident in the policy, particularities of context have mediated this push. It is suggested that this has led to a particular neoliberalisation of policy that variously targets and supports individual teachers and the systems and structures surrounding them, while the place of GT IL within both local state politics and the global imaginary is questioned.

KEYWORDS:

• Neoliberalism
• politics
• discourse
• teachers
• education policy
• analysis

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the following people for their generous and valuable comments on earlier drafts of this article: Helen Proctor, Debra Talbot, Eve Mayes, Nicole Mockler, and the reviewers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Though Bacchi (2009) draws on Foucault, there are also points of contention between the two. For instance, Bacchi’s (2009, p. 31) definition of ‘problematisation’ disavows any ‘material existence’ preceding a ‘problem’, and Foucault’s (2000) use of the term is argued not to.

2 ‘Bands’ are used to demarcate achievement in the NSW Higher School Certificate (HSC), the highest high school credential offered. The Bands range from 1, the lowest, to 6, the highest.

3 The Teachers’ Federation is the union body covering public school teachers in NSW.