Confirmation of Candidature - Candidate : Michelle McCarthy

Teacher workloads have increased in volume and complexity and are now at unsustainable levels (Fitzgerald et al., 2019; Gallop, 2021; Gavin and McGrath-Champ, 2022; Thompson and Cook, 2017). Politically motivated performance and compliance measures: increased data collection requirements, constant curriculum and policy changes and complex student needs (Ballet and Ketchterman, 2009; Gavin and McGrath-Champ, 2022) contribute to a teacher shortage in Australia with one in three teachers leaving the profession in the first five years (Fitzgerald et al., 2019). Those who stay must ride the waves of policy change as dual agents and reconcile compliance with what they believe to be good teaching. How do teachers in Queensland secondary schools negotiate relationships of power at the intersection where education policy meets classroom practice? This research uses Foucault's concept of subjectification to examine the forces that shape the contemporary teacher.

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