Popular in Professional

Human Rights Law

Human Rights and Corruption: Problems and Potential of Individualising a Systemic Problem

Max Planck Institute Anne Peters

Law

A statistical approach to law school citation rankings

University of Virginia Joshua Fischman

Education

High school change

Boston College Andrew Hargreaves

Constitutional Law

What is constitutional ideology?

University of Oxford Nick Barber

Civil Procedure Law

Politics, Identity, and Class Certification on the U.S. Courts of Appeals

University of Pennsylvania Sean Farhang

Culture and Society

The City as a Growth Machine: Toward a Political Economy of Place

New York University Harvey Moltoch

Education

The Role of Education in Reducing Racial Inequality

University of Southern California Pedro A. Noguera

Hyper-performativity and early career teachers

View more insights in Professional - Education - Policy and Politics in Education

View more figures from Murdoch University

View the page of Kirsten Lambert

Read the Study

Next in Education

Still going… sometimes in the dark”: Reflections of a woman of color educator

Yolanda Abel | Johns Hopkins University

High school change

Andrew Hargreaves | Boston College

Kirsten Lambert discusses the hyper-performative expectations of early career teachers (ECTs) in the context of neoliberal education assemblages.

Image courtesy of interviewee. April 3, 2024

Log-in or Sign-up to Faculti
Currently viewing this subject insight as a guest. You have insight(s) remaining for this month. Login to view 8000+ figures on the platform.

Generating Workspace...

Export as PDF

This video video discusses a research study examining how early career performing arts teachers in Western Australia construct their professional identities amidst pressures of “hyper-performativity” within education. Conducted with 27 teachers in their first two years of teaching, the study utilized semi-structured interviews to explore their experiences, identity development, and the reality versus their expectations upon entering the profession.

Key findings reveal that 35% of the teachers left the profession following the study, reflecting a broader crisis of teacher attrition in Australia linked to job insecurity, lack of support, high workloads, and dissatisfaction. The study identifies significant challenges for performing arts teachers, including:

1. **Insecure Employment**: Many teachers were on temporary contracts and often unsure of their future employment, leading them to overwork and perform to secure their positions.

2. **School Culture**: A competitive culture valuing extensive obligations and data-driven outcomes was normalized, leading teachers to feel compelled to work excessive hours and engage in unpaid extracurricular activities, often at the expense of their mental and physical health.

3. **Mental Health Issues**: The overwhelming workload and the pressure to uphold idealized notions of a "good teacher" resulted in deteriorating mental health among many participants, who reported neglecting their personal well-being and social relationships.

The paper emphasizes that the teaching environment, particularly for performing arts educators, needs to be made sustainable to retain passionate teachers. While attracting new educators is important, the focus should equally be on creating supportive working conditions that prioritize teachers' well-being. The study ultimately argues for systemic changes in educational institutions to alleviate the burdens placed on those entering the teaching profession, especially in the arts.

Language:

Export as PDF

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

00:00.185 --> 00:03.285
We looked at how early career teachers construct teacher

00:03.345 --> 00:06.365
subjectivities in an age of hyper performativity.

00:06.505 --> 00:10.925
So basically we had 27 performing arts

00:11.365 --> 00:13.725
teachers in Western Australia,

00:13.745 --> 00:15.045
who were early career teachers.

00:15.045 --> 00:17.085
So that's in their first two years of teaching.

00:17.505 --> 00:19.805
And they worked in secondary schools in either

00:19.815 --> 00:21.205
dance drama or music.

00:21.745 --> 00:23.845
So we did semi-structured interviews

00:23.915 --> 00:27.165
with the 27 students in either in groups or individually.

00:27.705 --> 00:30.445
And the interviews went for approximately one hour,

00:30.865 --> 00:32.005
and we're exploring

00:32.065 --> 00:35.085
how they experienced their beginning teaching

00:35.385 --> 00:39.085
and their understanding of their identity development

00:39.505 --> 00:40.965
and how that differed from their

00:40.965 --> 00:42.685
expectations when they were students.

00:43.385 --> 00:45.325
Uh, so these schools

00:45.435 --> 00:48.125
that they were teaching in were from a range

00:48.125 --> 00:50.325
of different independent and Catholic schools,

00:50.825 --> 00:53.445
and from a range of different socioeconomic backgrounds

00:53.785 --> 00:54.805
in Western Australia.

00:54.825 --> 00:57.765
The average age of the teachers was 23,

00:58.465 --> 01:01.805
and we conducted their first interviews in 2018.

01:01.945 --> 01:05.605
And this paper is based on those interviews.

01:06.185 --> 01:08.765
Uh, after this paper was published, we,

01:09.225 --> 01:11.605
did follow up research on those participants,

01:11.605 --> 01:14.325
and sadly, 35%

01:14.325 --> 01:17.085
of them have left the profession since we

01:17.085 --> 01:18.205
interviewed these students.

01:18.535 --> 01:21.245
There has been a lot of research on teacher attrition in

01:21.245 --> 01:24.485
Australia, and this reflects obviously what's happening on

01:24.485 --> 01:25.605
the international stage.

01:26.265 --> 01:30.205
Uh, you know, it's quite widely known as being in crisis,

01:30.585 --> 01:33.805
and we have a national teacher workforce plan here in

01:33.805 --> 01:36.125
Australia, to address this crisis.

01:36.265 --> 01:38.725
And it's particularly bad in secondary schools.

01:39.585 --> 01:42.325
And that research shows, you know, factors such

01:42.325 --> 01:46.245
as insecure employment, lack of support, heavy workloads

01:46.465 --> 01:50.245
and dissatisfaction with career opportunities, et cetera,

01:50.595 --> 01:52.485
influence attrition rates.

01:53.385 --> 01:56.925
And, you know, salary levels is also an aspect of it.

01:57.665 --> 02:02.005
And, but for performing arts teachers, prior research,

02:02.115 --> 02:06.045
including our own research, showed that the devaluing

02:06.045 --> 02:09.245
of the arts as a result of a focus on high stakes testing

02:10.065 --> 02:14.245
and the publishing of results on my school web pages,

02:14.825 --> 02:17.725
et cetera, you know, made the focus on literacy

02:17.725 --> 02:20.885
and numeracy, you know, a, you know, foregrounded,

02:20.885 --> 02:22.925
which meant that the arts receive less

02:22.925 --> 02:24.205
funding and less recognition.

02:24.205 --> 02:28.085
And so that has, you know, in that has also been researched

02:28.085 --> 02:30.725
as well with regard to teacher attrition.

02:31.605 --> 02:34.685
Research has been done on looking at becoming a teacher

02:34.715 --> 02:36.845
through looking at identity,

02:37.345 --> 02:40.205
but our research is really focusing on, in fleshed

02:40.205 --> 02:44.685
or embodied identity, that understanding of, you know,

02:44.685 --> 02:46.765
the interconnectivity of teaching.

02:47.345 --> 02:49.725
So, you know, we have multiple identities.

02:49.725 --> 02:51.365
We have a different identity when we're at home

02:51.425 --> 02:53.925
or with our friends or as teachers.

02:54.385 --> 02:56.565
And we were particularly interested in performing arts

02:56.845 --> 02:58.245
teachers because we are already,

02:59.145 --> 03:02.245
You know, in a very, we have spaces that don't have desks,

03:02.425 --> 03:03.765
et cetera, quite, you know, quite often.

03:04.185 --> 03:06.965
And it is a completely different type of teaching to,

03:07.465 --> 03:10.605
you know, teaching English or maths, et cetera.

03:11.195 --> 03:15.565
Okay. So we utilized a neo materialist paradigm,

03:15.575 --> 03:18.925
which focused on the work of Bray, Dotty, and Butler

03:18.925 --> 03:19.965
and Deur and Qatari,

03:20.705 --> 03:22.725
and basically a

03:23.285 --> 03:26.725
critical neo materialist paradigm focuses on, you know,

03:26.785 --> 03:29.165
the body and, you know, critiquing

03:29.725 --> 03:31.165
existing structures of power.

03:31.825 --> 03:36.245
So how, you know, normalized, normative,

03:36.245 --> 03:41.085
hegemonic power structures, intersect

03:41.515 --> 03:44.605
with our own desires and our own

03:44.665 --> 03:46.645
and fleshed, you know, beings

03:46.665 --> 03:51.165
or, you know, becomings to impact, you know,

03:51.165 --> 03:52.925
how we see ourselves in the world.

03:53.465 --> 03:55.805
So we looked at theoretically, we,

03:55.805 --> 03:57.885
theoretically we looked at Urs and Qatari

03:57.945 --> 03:59.485
and their concept of the rhizome,

03:59.495 --> 04:01.765
which is a subterranean plant,

04:02.185 --> 04:04.605
and it has, you know, all the roots and shoots.

04:04.605 --> 04:06.245
And it's, it's a fantastic

04:06.805 --> 04:08.885
metaphor when we're looking at teachers

04:08.885 --> 04:13.325
because, you know, teachers are connected with

04:14.295 --> 04:17.085
their own sense of self, their, their schools,

04:17.315 --> 04:19.685
this discourse of what it means to be a good teacher

04:20.315 --> 04:21.645
connected with their students.

04:22.385 --> 04:26.925
And so rather than just viewing, identity as something

04:26.925 --> 04:30.165
that is stable and in a box, so you might say, you know,

04:30.565 --> 04:33.645
a child, adolescent adult is a, you know,

04:34.005 --> 04:36.765
a really stable si, side of identity.

04:37.105 --> 04:38.725
We looked at identity as, you know,

04:38.725 --> 04:40.765
continuously in flow and in flux.

04:41.465 --> 04:44.405
And so our central node was the idea of a rhizome,

04:44.405 --> 04:46.005
and that was the becoming teacher.

04:46.025 --> 04:47.125
That's a central node.

04:47.385 --> 04:50.685
And then from this, we explored the in fleshed

04:50.705 --> 04:54.405
or embodied working environments of early career teachers,

04:54.525 --> 04:57.085
particularly insecure work contracts

04:57.505 --> 04:58.725
and the, the impact

04:58.865 --> 05:00.805
of their work contracts on their mental health.

05:01.465 --> 05:04.605
And then the second thing we looked at is the idea

05:04.625 --> 05:07.045
of a sense of belonging to a school culture.

05:08.285 --> 05:09.985
And we looked at that through the lens

05:09.985 --> 05:14.185
of subjective materiality, so embodied and in fleshed.

05:14.565 --> 05:16.625
And then thirdly, we looked at

05:16.645 --> 05:20.065
how early career teachers develop their identities in

05:20.505 --> 05:23.905
response to hyper performative school cultures.

05:24.205 --> 05:27.665
And hyper performativity is a, you know, a concept

05:27.815 --> 05:30.345
that has been developed by Stephen J. Ball.

05:30.845 --> 05:33.065
And that the idea that, you know,

05:33.065 --> 05:35.985
schools are always on show, you know, with whether it's data

05:36.285 --> 05:39.865
or, you know, reform and measures and targets

05:39.925 --> 05:44.345
and this business discourse, where schools

05:44.935 --> 05:48.865
have to be seen to be, you know, better than everyone else.

05:48.935 --> 05:52.145
It's a competitive market for students.

05:52.845 --> 05:56.665
So we looked at their own, sense

05:56.685 --> 05:58.045
of self in relation

05:58.045 --> 06:00.445
to those hyper performative school cultures.

06:01.345 --> 06:02.445
We interviewed the students

06:02.905 --> 06:06.565
and, we talked to them, you know, I think I mentioned

06:06.565 --> 06:10.165
that previously about having, qualitative interviews.

06:10.185 --> 06:11.605
So they're semi-structured interviews.

06:12.105 --> 06:14.725
We interviewed, interviewed most of them in small groups,

06:14.775 --> 06:15.885
which was fantastic.

06:16.025 --> 06:17.645
You know, they get to chat to one another

06:17.825 --> 06:20.085
and, you know, that sort of gets the ball rolling.

06:20.225 --> 06:23.685
We use sample, snowball sampling methodology

06:23.865 --> 06:25.325
to find out interviewees

06:25.325 --> 06:26.485
and, you know, they got their friends

06:26.505 --> 06:30.405
or Facebook, friends who were also teaching in the arts.

06:30.985 --> 06:34.245
And that was in 2018. So that's before the pandemic.

06:34.825 --> 06:37.045
We interviewed them about their experiences in schools.

06:37.505 --> 06:39.845
And of course, you know, a whole lot has happened

06:40.615 --> 06:42.485
since then, which has, you know,

06:42.685 --> 06:43.805
resulted in a lot of them leaving.

06:44.385 --> 06:45.445
But, so that's,

06:45.465 --> 06:49.045
and then of course, you know, we used in, in vivo to,

06:50.665 --> 06:52.405
to map the data and come up

06:52.405 --> 06:53.885
with the emerging themes, et cetera.

06:54.345 --> 06:57.645
The first, finding that we found was the, you know,

06:57.645 --> 07:00.805
in flesh Becomings, an insecure employment contracts, most

07:00.805 --> 07:01.885
of the students that we,

07:01.905 --> 07:05.125
or sorry, teachers that we interviewed were on temporary,

07:05.465 --> 07:07.965
contracts, which literally meant,

07:07.965 --> 07:09.765
there's four school terms in every year.

07:10.345 --> 07:13.565
And most of them did not know whether they'd be teaching in

07:13.565 --> 07:14.885
term two, in term one.

07:15.145 --> 07:18.685
And sometimes that went right till the end of the, you know,

07:18.895 --> 07:21.325
right down to the, the line, you know, the last day

07:21.325 --> 07:22.725
of school, they're finding out if they have a job.

07:23.025 --> 07:24.085
So that was the first thing.

07:24.105 --> 07:28.645
So that really, IM impacted how they acted as well,

07:28.745 --> 07:30.045
and how they saw themselves.

07:30.475 --> 07:34.805
They, it led to them, always, you know, performing.

07:34.805 --> 07:35.965
Everything's going really well.

07:36.185 --> 07:37.805
Uh, you know, yes, I will do this.

07:37.865 --> 07:39.245
Yes, I will do the school production.

07:39.245 --> 07:42.405
Yes, I will work, you know, 12 hours a day,

07:43.035 --> 07:45.365
five days a week, and weekend performances

07:45.365 --> 07:47.525
because I want that secure contract.

07:48.645 --> 07:52.245
And, they, they, a lot of them talked about,

07:52.675 --> 07:54.285
just saying yes to everything

07:54.865 --> 07:56.485
or, you know, sucking up to the boss,

07:56.705 --> 08:00.285
or it was a competition amongst staff for those contracts.

08:00.675 --> 08:02.925
They felt that they were being exploited

08:03.665 --> 08:07.205
and, that they had no say they had to.

08:07.305 --> 08:10.525
So, for example, in secondary schools,

08:10.905 --> 08:12.245
you have ATAR subjects.

08:12.245 --> 08:17.165
So your, final year of schooling

08:17.305 --> 08:18.645
or final two years of schooling

08:18.645 --> 08:20.405
before you go to university or work.

08:20.745 --> 08:23.285
So those subjects are very high stakes subjects,

08:23.745 --> 08:27.565
and they would be, you know, combining year 11 and year 12

08:27.865 --> 08:30.205
and two different, you know,

08:30.425 --> 08:33.525
at hard subjects in one class with 25

08:33.745 --> 08:37.605
or up to 30 students in, you know, in the one class just

08:38.185 --> 08:39.245
to please their bosses.

08:39.245 --> 08:40.925
Whereas that would never happen in maths.

08:41.225 --> 08:44.045
You, you'd never get that in a, you know,

08:44.045 --> 08:46.525
specialist maths class or whatever.

08:46.625 --> 08:50.525
So they were, they found themselves, you know, saying,

08:50.525 --> 08:51.605
you know, look how good I am,

08:51.785 --> 08:53.765
how wonderful my kids are, et cetera.

08:54.065 --> 08:57.405
And that was exhausting. Uh, so that was the first thing.

08:57.745 --> 09:02.325
The, as far as, the, you know, insecure contracts.

09:02.565 --> 09:04.605
Secondly, because they're performing arts teachers,

09:04.605 --> 09:08.405
they're expected to do extracurricular productions,

09:08.945 --> 09:11.045
so music productions, school productions,

09:11.145 --> 09:13.045
and these things are huge.

09:13.825 --> 09:16.125
You know, sometimes they can be up

09:16.125 --> 09:18.245
to 300 students in a school production.

09:18.325 --> 09:19.445
I mean, that is a massive,

09:19.825 --> 09:22.485
and that is on top of their workload already.

09:22.865 --> 09:26.085
And being an early career teacher, it takes a lot longer,

09:26.105 --> 09:27.605
you know, to get your lesson preparation,

09:27.605 --> 09:29.565
to mark your assignments, to contact with parents,

09:30.705 --> 09:34.405
et cetera, and then to do school productions on top of that.

09:35.185 --> 09:38.125
And they, a lot of those were,

09:38.825 --> 09:41.165
ex they were unwritten expectations that

09:41.165 --> 09:42.965
as a performing arts teacher, that is just

09:42.965 --> 09:45.085
what you did that you would do.

09:46.025 --> 09:47.605
And even if they weren't working full-time,

09:47.605 --> 09:51.365
they were still expected to run the music production

09:51.385 --> 09:53.445
or the, you know, drama production, et cetera.

09:54.225 --> 09:57.845
Uh, and what they also found was

09:57.845 --> 09:59.085
because the arts aren't valued,

09:59.485 --> 10:02.405
students were being counseled out of their classes.

10:02.745 --> 10:06.565
So they would, you know, they would lose a lot of the,

10:07.145 --> 10:10.605
you know, high level ATAR students

10:10.985 --> 10:12.925
and be given a whole lot of students who didn't even want

10:12.925 --> 10:16.365
to do in drama or dance or music in their classes

10:16.365 --> 10:17.605
because they weren't valued.

10:17.665 --> 10:19.965
So not, are they, not only are they not valued,

10:20.585 --> 10:23.125
the thing they are valued for is a big production, you know,

10:23.125 --> 10:25.445
a big show for our school is a part

10:25.445 --> 10:26.845
of the advertising thing.

10:27.465 --> 10:29.805
The second, offshoot

10:30.075 --> 10:32.805
that we looked at was the school culture

10:33.145 --> 10:36.325
and our early career teacher's sense of belonging.

10:36.345 --> 10:38.285
So fitting in with that school culture.

10:39.025 --> 10:42.685
And what we found is that that normalized culture

10:42.705 --> 10:44.685
of competitive performativity

10:45.545 --> 10:50.325
and that culture of working long hours, you know, this,

10:50.745 --> 10:54.125
fetishization of, data

10:54.585 --> 10:55.765
and, you know,

10:55.835 --> 10:58.925
your work never being finished was really accepted,

10:59.215 --> 11:00.525
sadly, by the teachers.

11:00.525 --> 11:03.925
That's just what they thought being a teacher was, you know,

11:03.925 --> 11:05.205
being performing arts teacher,

11:05.545 --> 11:06.845
you just have to put in those hours.

11:07.525 --> 11:09.645
Subsequently, when we interviewed them, you know,

11:09.685 --> 11:11.485
a few years down the track, a lot of them had left

11:11.485 --> 11:15.285
because they just couldn't live like that anymore.

11:15.505 --> 11:18.205
And especially if they wanted to have families,

11:18.505 --> 11:22.645
you know, or have a life that that fetishization of overwork

11:23.145 --> 11:24.565
and that governing

11:24.565 --> 11:28.525
or hyper surveillance through data, was just part of

11:28.525 --> 11:31.085
what being a good teacher was.

11:31.945 --> 11:35.085
And, what we found really alarming was that

11:35.105 --> 11:36.325
how they took it for granted.

11:36.945 --> 11:39.005
And they would even say things like, you know,

11:39.385 --> 11:41.005
if you're a performing arts teacher,

11:41.155 --> 11:44.325
it's a hundred percent committed a commitment in it.

11:44.425 --> 11:47.205
And that's just being the heart of a teacher is a

11:47.205 --> 11:50.085
and they would, you know, teachers who left

11:50.425 --> 11:52.965
or couldn't cope with not doing

11:53.045 --> 11:56.725
that were almost looked down upon, in a sense, you know,

11:56.725 --> 11:57.925
they couldn't hack it, you know,

11:57.925 --> 11:59.925
if you can't handle the heat, get outta the kitchen,

12:00.455 --> 12:02.525
which we thought, you know,

12:02.525 --> 12:04.405
and they talked about people leaving all the time.

12:04.505 --> 12:06.565
You know, last year I took over from the drama teacher

12:06.565 --> 12:08.485
and they left, and then someone, you know, they talked

12:08.485 --> 12:10.085
to about people always leaving,

12:10.665 --> 12:14.405
and they were seen as being, you know, the, the strong few

12:14.465 --> 12:17.845
who survived, you know, which is really sad that that

12:18.595 --> 12:23.325
overworking is so normalized that our teachers, you know,

12:23.325 --> 12:24.965
just thought it was part of being a teacher.

12:25.825 --> 12:30.445
The third thing that we found, was, you know, it kind

12:30.445 --> 12:33.765
of intersects with the previous two, is

12:33.765 --> 12:37.045
that these hyper performative teacher subjectivities

12:38.075 --> 12:42.645
that were embedded in, in their own, you know, sense

12:42.645 --> 12:44.765
of being and were,

12:44.765 --> 12:48.005
were fleshed in their bodies causing mental ill health.

12:48.585 --> 12:51.805
And so a lot of them talked about, you know,

12:51.805 --> 12:53.205
being sick all the time, but not

12:53.205 --> 12:54.325
being able to take time off.

12:54.665 --> 12:56.285
You know, when they used to look

12:56.285 --> 12:58.285
after themselves when they were students, you know,

12:58.285 --> 13:00.285
have a good diet and exercise,

13:00.715 --> 13:04.685
they would live off junk food, and they didn't look

13:04.685 --> 13:05.925
after themselves anymore.

13:06.185 --> 13:08.925
And, you know, they had to go

13:08.925 --> 13:10.885
and see psychiatrists, et cetera, et cetera.

13:11.265 --> 13:15.885
So this, 70 plus working hours a week was ruining their

13:16.545 --> 13:19.765
set, their mental health, their personal lives at home,

13:19.775 --> 13:21.165
their relationships, you know,

13:21.165 --> 13:23.165
their partners couldn't understand why they had

13:23.165 --> 13:24.525
to be at work such long hours

13:24.585 --> 13:26.245
and why they were there on the weekends.

13:27.185 --> 13:31.485
And, yeah, so their mental, I think I said

13:31.485 --> 13:33.525
that mental health sickness and diet

13:33.525 --> 13:34.885
and exercise went out the window.

13:35.745 --> 13:39.565
Uh, and I, there's, you know, a quote from one of them

13:39.985 --> 13:43.365
who said, I would make myself sick trying

13:43.365 --> 13:44.645
to do everything I had to do.

13:44.865 --> 13:47.885
You can't actually physically do everything you need to do

13:48.065 --> 13:50.365
and be a performing arts teacher at the same time.

13:51.345 --> 13:56.325
You know, it's a very, the, what we found was that the

13:57.215 --> 14:02.165
power of the normalizing apparatus of the school operates

14:02.545 --> 14:05.805
by constituting a field of intelligibility.

14:05.995 --> 14:07.765
This is what it means to be a teacher.

14:07.815 --> 14:09.405
There is no other way.

14:10.385 --> 14:12.925
And that was just taken for granted.

14:13.425 --> 14:17.285
You know, it's almost like an ontological, baseline,

14:17.745 --> 14:21.685
but the material effects on the body were,

14:23.585 --> 14:26.825
incompatible with health, with, with, with good health,

14:26.855 --> 14:29.905
with good mental or physical or relational health.

14:30.565 --> 14:34.105
We really found that our early career teacher, becomings,

14:34.125 --> 14:37.985
are mediated through this idea, this neoliberal discourse

14:38.005 --> 14:39.985
of quality and performance.

14:40.485 --> 14:42.225
And, you know, that idea

14:42.225 --> 14:44.025
of being the hyper performative teacher.

14:44.885 --> 14:48.905
And part of, you know, as this is in flesh, in the bodies

14:48.905 --> 14:50.665
of teachers, it's 70 hour working

14:50.665 --> 14:53.485
Weeks, extracurricular unpaid work,

14:54.205 --> 14:55.565
deteriorating mental health,

14:56.265 --> 15:01.245
and this acceptance of, you know, being competitive in order

15:01.545 --> 15:03.005
to get out there in the market.

15:03.865 --> 15:06.245
And, we found that teachers found

15:06.245 --> 15:08.965
that they were continually under threat of being unemployed

15:09.945 --> 15:13.205
and, the education culture that,

15:13.205 --> 15:17.045
that they were going into, you know, fetishizes over work.

15:18.105 --> 15:20.885
And, so the early career teachers are measuring

15:20.885 --> 15:23.765
themselves against this idea of the good teacher who,

15:24.225 --> 15:25.325
you know, works full time,

15:25.555 --> 15:27.205
even if they're not employed full time.

15:27.905 --> 15:29.845
And, you know, they work 70 hour weeks

15:30.585 --> 15:33.165
and that that is just being the heart of the teacher.

15:33.225 --> 15:35.365
That's just what it is to be a teacher.

15:35.715 --> 15:39.485
However, that is unsustainable on their bodies.

15:40.225 --> 15:44.365
Uh, and they, the, I mean, the sad things was they were so

15:45.415 --> 15:49.245
passionate and creative and really excited to be teachers.

15:49.245 --> 15:50.525
They wanted to be teachers.

15:50.525 --> 15:54.045
They loved doing their, big productions with the kids.

15:54.115 --> 15:56.965
They loved talk, you know, they loved working with kids,

15:56.965 --> 15:58.165
they loved performing arts.

15:58.245 --> 16:00.125
A lot of them are actors, et cetera, you know,

16:00.125 --> 16:01.885
before they get into the profession and

16:02.025 --> 16:04.485
or musicians or dancers.

16:04.705 --> 16:07.085
And so, you know, they're really, really passionate.

16:07.705 --> 16:11.285
But, you know, the implications is it's not about attracting

16:11.465 --> 16:14.085
top students into the profession,

16:14.435 --> 16:18.165
it's about making the profession livable so

16:18.165 --> 16:20.765
that the effects on the body of being a teacher

16:21.775 --> 16:25.325
don't end up being, you know, mental ill health,

16:25.345 --> 16:26.485
you know, being sick all the time,

16:26.625 --> 16:29.005
having poor relationships,

16:29.545 --> 16:31.445
and you know, and, and leaving.

16:31.825 --> 16:33.645
That's the sad thing. So they go out there,

16:33.645 --> 16:34.885
they're really enthusiastic,

16:34.905 --> 16:37.765
but it just is, it just burns them out.

16:38.185 --> 16:40.965
So, you know, that was the implications for, you know,

16:41.065 --> 16:44.085
in the teacher, national teacher workforce plan we have in

16:44.085 --> 16:47.005
Australia at the moment, you know, they've made a number

16:47.005 --> 16:48.245
of suggestions.

16:48.545 --> 16:53.485
So improving teacher supply and strengthening the ITE Pro

16:53.485 --> 16:56.925
or early, so university programs, I mean, that's great.

16:56.925 --> 16:59.125
You know, we can attract as many teachers as we want

16:59.185 --> 17:01.485
and, as we want and we can pump them out.

17:01.945 --> 17:04.965
But it's keeping the work, the teachers that we have.

17:05.785 --> 17:08.925
And, so, you know, making teaching doable.

Challenges Faced by Early Career Performing Arts Teachers

00:00:00 - We looked at how early career teachers construct teacher subjectivities in an age of hyper performativity. So basically we had 27 performing arts teachers in Western Australia, who were early career teachers. So that's in their first two years of teaching. And they worked in secondary schools in either dance drama or music. So we did semi-structured interviews with the 27 students in either in groups or individually. And the interviews went for approximately one hour,
00:00:32 - how they experienced their beginning teaching and their understanding of their identity development and how that differed from their expectations when they were students. so these schools that they were teaching in were from a range of different independent and Catholic schools, and from a range of different socioeconomic backgrounds in Western Australia. The average age of the teachers was 23, and we conducted their first interviews in 2018.
00:01:06 - after this paper was published, we, did follow up research on those participants, and sadly, 35% of them have left the profession since we interviewed these students. There has been a lot of research on teacher attrition in Australia, and this reflects obviously what's happening on the international stage. you know, it's quite widely known as being in crisis, and we have a national teacher workforce plan here in
00:01:36 - And it's particularly bad in secondary schools. And that research shows, you know, factors such as insecure employment, lack of support, heavy workloads and dissatisfaction with career opportunities, et cetera, influence attrition rates. And, you know, salary levels is also an aspect of it. And, but for performing arts teachers, prior research, including our own research, showed that the devaluing
00:02:10 - and the publishing of results on my school web pages, et cetera, you know, made the focus on literacy and numeracy, you know, a, you know, foregrounded, which meant that the arts receive less funding and less recognition. And so that has, you know, in that has also been researched as well with regard to teacher attrition. Research has been done on looking at becoming a teacher through looking at identity,
00:02:40 - or embodied identity, that understanding of, you know, the interconnectivity of teaching. So, you know, we have multiple identities. We have a different identity when we're at home or with our friends or as teachers. And we were particularly interested in performing arts teachers because we are already, You know, in a very, we have spaces that don't have desks, et cetera, quite, you know, quite often. And it is a completely different type of teaching to,

Exploring Teacher Identity through Neo-Materialism

00:03:11 - Okay. So we utilized a neo materialist paradigm, which focused on the work of Bray, Dotty, and Butler and Deur and Qatari, and basically a critical neo materialist paradigm focuses on, you know, the body and, you know, critiquing existing structures of power. So how, you know, normalized, normative, hegemonic power structures, intersect
00:03:44 - and fleshed, you know, beings or, you know, becomings to impact, you know, how we see ourselves in the world. So we looked at theoretically, we, theoretically we looked at Urs and Qatari and their concept of the rhizome, which is a subterranean plant, and it has, you know, all the roots and shoots. And it's, it's a fantastic metaphor when we're looking at teachers because, you know, teachers are connected with
00:04:17 - this discourse of what it means to be a good teacher connected with their students. And so rather than just viewing, identity as something that is stable and in a box, so you might say, you know, a child, adolescent adult is a, you know, a really stable si, side of identity. We looked at identity as, you know, continuously in flow and in flux. And so our central node was the idea of a rhizome,
00:04:46 - That's a central node. And then from this, we explored the in fleshed or embodied working environments of early career teachers, particularly insecure work contracts and the, the impact of their work contracts on their mental health. And then the second thing we looked at is the idea of a sense of belonging to a school culture. And we looked at that through the lens of subjective materiality, so embodied and in fleshed.
00:05:16 - how early career teachers develop their identities in response to hyper performative school cultures. And hyper performativity is a, you know, a concept that has been developed by Stephen J. Ball. And that the idea that, you know, schools are always on show, you know, with whether it's data or, you know, reform and measures and targets and this business discourse, where schools
00:05:48 - It's a competitive market for students. So we looked at their own, sense of self in relation to those hyper performative school cultures. We interviewed the students and, we talked to them, you know, I think I mentioned that previously about having, qualitative interviews. So they're semi-structured interviews. We interviewed, interviewed most of them in small groups, which was fantastic.

Challenges Faced by Early Career Performing Arts Teachers

00:06:17 - and, you know, that sort of gets the ball rolling. We use sample, snowball sampling methodology to find out interviewees and, you know, they got their friends or Facebook, friends who were also teaching in the arts. And that was in 2018. So that's before the pandemic. We interviewed them about their experiences in schools. And of course, you know, a whole lot has happened since then, which has, you know, resulted in a lot of them leaving. But, so that's, and then of course, you know, we used in, in vivo to,
00:06:52 - with the emerging themes, et cetera. The first, finding that we found was the, you know, in flesh Becomings, an insecure employment contracts, most of the students that we, or sorry, teachers that we interviewed were on temporary, contracts, which literally meant, there's four school terms in every year. And most of them did not know whether they'd be teaching in term two, in term one. And sometimes that went right till the end of the, you know, right down to the, the line, you know, the last day
00:07:23 - So that was the first thing. So that really, IM impacted how they acted as well, and how they saw themselves. They, it led to them, always, you know, performing. Everything's going really well. you know, yes, I will do this. Yes, I will do the school production. Yes, I will work, you know, 12 hours a day, five days a week, and weekend performances because I want that secure contract. And, they, they, a lot of them talked about,
00:07:54 - or, you know, sucking up to the boss, or it was a competition amongst staff for those contracts. They felt that they were being exploited and, that they had no say they had to. So, for example, in secondary schools, you have ATAR subjects. So your, final year of schooling or final two years of schooling before you go to university or work. So those subjects are very high stakes subjects,
00:08:27 - and two different, you know, at hard subjects in one class with 25 or up to 30 students in, you know, in the one class just to please their bosses. Whereas that would never happen in maths. You, you'd never get that in a, you know, specialist maths class or whatever. So they were, they found themselves, you know, saying, you know, look how good I am, how wonderful my kids are, et cetera.
00:08:57 - The, as far as, the, you know, insecure contracts. Secondly, because they're performing arts teachers, they're expected to do extracurricular productions, so music productions, school productions, and these things are huge. You know, sometimes they can be up to 300 students in a school production. I mean, that is a massive, and that is on top of their workload already. And being an early career teacher, it takes a lot longer,

Challenges Faced by Early Career Arts Teachers

00:09:27 - to mark your assignments, to contact with parents, et cetera, and then to do school productions on top of that. And they, a lot of those were, ex they were unwritten expectations that as a performing arts teacher, that is just what you did that you would do. And even if they weren't working full-time, they were still expected to run the music production or the, you know, drama production, et cetera. and what they also found was
00:09:59 - students were being counseled out of their classes. So they would, you know, they would lose a lot of the, you know, high level ATAR students and be given a whole lot of students who didn't even want to do in drama or dance or music in their classes because they weren't valued. So not, are they, not only are they not valued, the thing they are valued for is a big production, you know, a big show for our school is a part of the advertising thing. The second, offshoot
00:10:33 - and our early career teacher's sense of belonging. So fitting in with that school culture. And what we found is that that normalized culture of competitive performativity and that culture of working long hours, you know, this, fetishization of, data and, you know, your work never being finished was really accepted, sadly, by the teachers.
00:11:03 - being performing arts teacher, you just have to put in those hours. Subsequently, when we interviewed them, you know, a few years down the track, a lot of them had left because they just couldn't live like that anymore. And especially if they wanted to have families, you know, or have a life that that fetishization of overwork and that governing or hyper surveillance through data, was just part of what being a good teacher was.
00:11:35 - how they took it for granted. And they would even say things like, you know, if you're a performing arts teacher, it's a hundred percent committed a commitment in it. And that's just being the heart of a teacher is a and they would, you know, teachers who left or couldn't cope with not doing that were almost looked down upon, in a sense, you know, they couldn't hack it, you know, if you can't handle the heat, get outta the kitchen, which we thought, you know,
00:12:04 - You know, last year I took over from the drama teacher and they left, and then someone, you know, they talked to about people always leaving, and they were seen as being, you know, the, the strong few who survived, you know, which is really sad that that overworking is so normalized that our teachers, you know, just thought it was part of being a teacher. The third thing that we found, was, you know, it kind of intersects with the previous two, is

Performing Arts Teachers: The Cost of Overwork

00:12:38 - that were embedded in, in their own, you know, sense of being and were, were fleshed in their bodies causing mental ill health. And so a lot of them talked about, you know, being sick all the time, but not being able to take time off. You know, when they used to look after themselves when they were students, you know, have a good diet and exercise, they would live off junk food, and they didn't look
00:13:06 - And, you know, they had to go and see psychiatrists, et cetera, et cetera. So this, 70 plus working hours a week was ruining their set, their mental health, their personal lives at home, their relationships, you know, their partners couldn't understand why they had to be at work such long hours and why they were there on the weekends. And, yeah, so their mental, I think I said that mental health sickness and diet and exercise went out the window.
00:13:39 - who said, I would make myself sick trying to do everything I had to do. You can't actually physically do everything you need to do and be a performing arts teacher at the same time. You know, it's a very, the, what we found was that the power of the normalizing apparatus of the school operates by constituting a field of intelligibility.
00:14:07 - There is no other way. And that was just taken for granted. You know, it's almost like an ontological, baseline, but the material effects on the body were, incompatible with health, with, with, with good health, with good mental or physical or relational health. We really found that our early career teacher, becomings, are mediated through this idea, this neoliberal discourse
00:14:40 - And, you know, that idea of being the hyper performative teacher. And part of, you know, as this is in flesh, in the bodies of teachers, it's 70 hour working Weeks, extracurricular unpaid work, deteriorating mental health, and this acceptance of, you know, being competitive in order to get out there in the market. And, we found that teachers found that they were continually under threat of being unemployed
00:15:13 - that they were going into, you know, fetishizes over work. And, so the early career teachers are measuring themselves against this idea of the good teacher who, you know, works full time, even if they're not employed full time. And, you know, they work 70 hour weeks and that that is just being the heart of the teacher. That's just what it is to be a teacher. However, that is unsustainable on their bodies.

Challenges and Passion in Teaching Arts

00:15:45 - passionate and creative and really excited to be teachers. They wanted to be teachers. They loved doing their, big productions with the kids. They loved talk, you know, they loved working with kids, they loved performing arts. A lot of them are actors, et cetera, you know, before they get into the profession and or musicians or dancers. And so, you know, they're really, really passionate. But, you know, the implications is it's not about attracting
00:16:14 - it's about making the profession livable so that the effects on the body of being a teacher don't end up being, you know, mental ill health, you know, being sick all the time, having poor relationships, and you know, and, and leaving. That's the sad thing. So they go out there, they're really enthusiastic, but it just is, it just burns them out. So, you know, that was the implications for, you know, in the teacher, national teacher workforce plan we have in
00:17:05 - of suggestions. So improving teacher supply and strengthening the ITE Pro or early, so university programs, I mean, that's great. You know, we can attract as many teachers as we want and, as we want and we can pump them out. But it's keeping the work, the teachers that we have. And, so, you know, making teaching doable.

Faculti AI can make mistakes

Faculti

Popular in Professional

Human Rights and Corruption: Problems and Potential of Individualising a Systemic Problem

A statistical approach to law school citation rankings

High school change

What is constitutional ideology?

Politics, Identity, and Class Certification on the U.S. Courts of Appeals

The City as a Growth Machine: Toward a Political Economy of Place

The Role of Education in Reducing Racial Inequality

Hyper-performativity and early career teachers

Next in Education

Guide

Platform and Category Pages

Contact Us

FAQs

What is Faculti?

How do you select interviews?

Interview Process

Page Structure

Popular in Professional

Guide

Platform and Category Pages

Contact Us

FAQs

What is Faculti?

How do you select interviews?

Interview Process

Accessibility Options

Contrast Adjustment

Text Size Adjustment

Text Spacing Adjustment

Line Height Adjustment

Cursor Size Adjustment

Page Structure Options

Page Structure