Confirmation of Candidature - Candidate : Hannah Orchard

Every Australian child has a right to a school education, but the ultimate goal of the education they receive is affected by a multitude of external influencing drivers. While policy actors at a national level attempt to address `wicked social problems', it is nearly impossible for them to account for the complexities faced by the schools ultimately responsible for engaging with national direction. This study seeks to form a picture of how national policy affects classroom practice. By drawing on the constellation of policies under the Australian National School Reform Agreement, the study will explore the engagement of individual teachers within Queensland school contexts with national education policy to determine its effects on professional practice. The study will utilise a critical discursive approach to analyse policy texts, combined with a series of interviews with participating teachers, to generate insights into the ways in which policy is taken up in multiple ways by teachers. The contribution of the study will be to help inform policymakers, systems, school leaders and teachers about how policy logics flow from the macro levels of national and state systems down to the micro level of the individual teacher in a classroom. In doing so, the study will hope to provide some understanding of how policy translation, articulation and enactment can be better aligned in support of quality learning outcomes for young Australians.

For more information, please email the Graduate Research School (GRS) or for the zoom link, please phone the GRS 07 46 31 1088.