Stratification of environmental education and education for sustainable development in Australia: an analysis of positions vacant advertisements

Abstract

Positions vacant advertisements discursively construct employment sectors, employers and employees. This paper uses content analysis, systemic functional linguistics and critical discourse analysis to investigate the discursive construction of environmental education and education for sustainable development through positions vacant advertisements placed with Australian online recruitment agencies. The results suggest a disturbing stratification between environmental education and education for sustainable development with respect to the terms and conditions, and the power dynamics operating in each sector.

Keywords:

• job advertisements
• content analysis
• systemic functional linguistics
• critical discourse analysis
• environmental education
• education for sustainable development
• post‐structuralism
• recruitment

Notes

1. More recent data on the national rate of casualised employment are not available. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data collection no longer differentiates between casual, part time and full time employment. The profile of full time, part time and casual employment in Australia now needs to be constructed from empirical research.

2. Slight variations exist between teachers’ salaries in different states in Australia.