Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemCitizenship and inequality: the Teach for Australia program and the people who enter it( 2014)This study examines the aims, philosophy and assumptions on which an Australian Commonwealth Government initiative - Teach for Australia (TfA) are based, and considers the values, perceptions and experiences of a number of teachers who entered Victorian Secondary Schools at the beginning of the 2011 school year as part of the TfA program. Modelled on the American version Teach for America and the British version Teach First, the Teach for Australia Organization claims its purpose and mission is to supply “outstanding… inspiring and passionate young Australians to teach in disadvantaged communities…to drive the systemic change needed to eliminate educational disadvantage in Australia”. This research asked two core questions. First, what are the assumptions the TfA organisation presents in its mission and vision statements and promotional material, in relation to its program addressing educational disadvantage in school settings? Second, how are the recruited teachers’ perceptions of their capacity to fulfil Teach for Australia’s mission of changing lives in classrooms and leading systemic change, affirmed, challenged or modified during their classroom experiences? Theoretically this thesis draws on a range of theories and concepts from educational sociology. In particular Bourdieu’s thinking tools of habitus, cultural capital, and fields offer a language and starting point with which to analyse the collected data. Using qualitative data generated through interviews, email correspondence and document analysis the research sought to uncover the sociological and policy assumptions underpinning this model of teacher recruitment. The participants in this study were drawn from the second cohort of TfA and interviewed over a two year period. The thesis shows that the advertising and policy assumptions of the program appeal to recruits by emphasising both altruism and eliteness, as well as leadership as a way to disrupt the problem of disadvantaged schools. The key findings of the research indicate that the people who embark on the TfA pathway into teaching do so holding in tension the desire to be of service to disadvantaged communities, with the desire to progress their careers in both the corporate sphere and as leaders in the schools they enter. The stories the participants of this research tell warn of the dangers of expecting new teachers to have meaningful impact on systemic change that requires the setting up of a group of teachers that are considered elite and to stand in contrast to the existing teaching workforce.