Teacher responsibility: shifting care from student to (professional) self?

Abstract

The professionalisation of teaching in Australia is a policy shift that transpires within broader policy dynamics which are increasingly influenced by neoliberal logics. In this article we examine teacher responsibility through analysis of a new measure introduced in Victoria. This requires teachers to prove professional development hours in the area of teaching students with special needs in order to maintain their professional registration. Through our analysis of this policy move we draw out some tensions that emerge in relation to teacher responsibility, accountability and autonomy to reveal that (often hidden) neoliberal governing logics can operate to shift teachers’ focus from care of the student towards care of the (professional) self. With the theoretical support of Nel Noddings’ ‘ethic of care’, we argue that teacher responsibility to care can be torn between market-based regulations and the care of the student, paradoxically de-professionalising teachers’ work in the act of attempting to professionalise.

Keywords:

• Critical policy analysis
• teacher standards
• responsibility
• care
• Noddings

Notes

1. While the student can still ostensibly be the object of concern within a deontological ethics, key to our argument is that the principle itself actually becomes the primary object of concern. We will demonstrate later that this kind of logic is also at work with regard to regulatory standards (principles). The primary importance of these standards is concealed by both policy-makers’ and teachers’ expressed and genuine concern for the student.

2. The then Labor opposition was voted into government on 29 November 2014. Its pre-election platform can be viewed online: https://www.viclabor.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Victorian-Labor-Platform-2014.pdf (Accessed 11 April 2016, see pages 26–32 for the relevant sections regarding schools and the commitment to improving education for students with special needs).

3. See the relevant part of the Department of Education and Training website: http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/educationstate/Pages/default.aspx (Accessed 12 April 2016). For more details, see ‘The Education State: Schools Consultation Paper’ (DET 2015).

4. For an example of the productivity agenda, one need only look at the policy of the current federal Labor party (who, at the time of writing, are in Opposition) which declares: ‘Improving education is the key to opportunity, to innovation and to the future economic and social prosperity of our nation’. See the policy online: http://www.alp.org.au/education (Accessed 11 April 2016).

5. The Special Needs Plan involves the following actions:

(1) Program for Students with Disabilities Review.

(2) A new Outstanding Inclusive Education Award.

(3) New partnership with the Senior Practitioner (Disability).

(4) Inclusive Schools Fund.

(5) Abilities Based Learning and Education Support (ABLES).

(6) Building teacher capability for inclusive education.

(7) Planning and building inclusive new schools.

(8) Early years screening to give every child the best start.

6. This analysis is based on the information available from both the VIT website and the DET website. There are no page numbers available to be cited. We have distinguished between the sources by labelling them (VITPol) and (DETPol) respectively. The policies can be viewed online (VITPol 2016; DETPol 2016).