Teachers’ working conditions and employment in school education

The teaching profession is very complex.
We actually do have a crisis within the teaching profession.
We need to be taking this seriously because
teachers are fundamental for students' education
now and into the future as well.
My research focuses on teachers' work and working conditions.
Over a number of years, we have seen policies coming out
that have really focussed on
a market-driven education system;
that are focussed on privatisation;
based upon the idea that having a
market system within education produces
better educational outcomes.
What we've actually been seeing through the research, however,
is that teachers' work and working conditions
have been really significantly impacted.
Policies like school autonomy and devolution
have actually increased teachers' workload.
They've increased teachers' working hours.
There's been increased precarity, or a lack of job security.
the administrative burdens and the paperwork burdens
on teachers increase significantly as well
because of these policies.
I think it's brought some real fundamental awareness
to a range of problems that we're seeing
within the teaching profession.
There's also been a range of policy announcements
which have tried to think about,
"How can we actually do things differently?"
We've also seen some current policies as well,
trying to address the teacher workload problem.
I'm not too sure those policies are always getting the issue right,
but I think it's at least a starting point to
continue this conversation of how important
the teaching profession is, and how things
need to be done differently.