The Work of the Teacher-educator in Australia: Reconstructing the “Superhero” Performer/Academic in an Audit Culture
Source: Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, Volume 44, Issue 4, 2016, Pages 333-347
This article draws on interview data with Deans/Heads of Schools of Education in the Australian context to explore the question: How is the teacher-educator produced as a category of academic worker?
Using critical approaches to discourse analysis, it presents two interlocked storylines woven with varying emphasis through the interviews.
First, the teacher-educator is produced as a superhero researcher and teacher, elevated by the expectations of the Excellence in Research for Australia audit/surveillance tools.
Second, there is a concomitant struggle to reconcile pressure to research with commitment to meeting the needs of schooling systems, and to addressing the work of the teacher-educator in ethical terms.
It is suggested that teacher-educators’ work reflects a desire to legitimate various performances of teacher education within current dynamics of audit culture pressures, set against the less visible ethical project of education more broadly conceived.