Embodying pre-tense conditions for research among teacher educators in the Australian university sector: a Bourdieusian analysis of ethico-emotive suffering

ABSTRACT

Interviews conducted as part of the Work of Teacher Education (WoTE) project in Australia highlight emotional and ethical suffering embodied by teacher educators who find their research aspirations thwarted in the context of high-stakes research assessment exercises. We argue that government-run assessments, such as Excellence in Research for Australia, and localised institutional strategies developed in response, provoke “pre-tense” conditions that unsettle institutions of the Australian university sector regarding future claims for research status. Drawing on interviews with an early- and a mid-career teacher educator, both of whom evidence significant research aspirations, we portray and analyse their ethico-emotive sufferings, linked to contemporary pre-tense conditions in which they work, which thwart their dispositions to do research. We conclude by reflecting on the need for systemic response within the field of teacher education to ensure its research future, including an ethico-emotive politics that mobilises across generations of academics, with particular responsibilities for senior researchers.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher educators
• research
• emotions
• Bourdieu

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Marie Brennan for her involvement in the data collection and for conversations around data analysis; to the two academics who contributed their time and intelligence in interviews that provide the data; and to the reviewers for helpful comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical statement

Ethical approval to conduct the research that provided data for this article was granted by the Human Research Ethics Committees in the universities that employed the authors. The two teacher educators whose interviews are drawn upon in this article gave informed consent to use their interview data in publications.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lew Zipin

Lew Zipin is Extra-ordinary Professor at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, and Honorary Fellow at Victoria University, Melbourne.

Joce Nuttall

Joce Nuttall is Director of the Teacher Education Research Concentration in the Learning Sciences Institute Australia at Australian Catholic University.