N Johnston-Anderson thesis 2016

332 Pages·2016·4.91 MB·English

Teacher career trajectories and aspirations in
context: A mixed methods study of second-stage
teachers in New South Wales

Natalie Johnston-Anderson

A thesis submitted in fulfilment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

Faculty of Education and Social Work
University of Sydney

2016

!
ii

Faculty
 of
 Education
 and
 Social
 Work

Office
 of
 Doctoral
 Studies

Author’s Declaration

This is to certify that:

I. this thesis comprises only my original work towards the Doctor of Philosophy Degree
II. due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used
III. the thesis does not exceed the word length for this degree.
IV. no part of this work has been used for the award of another degree.
V. this thesis meets the University of Sydney’s Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC)
requirements for the conduct of research.

Signature(s):

Name(s): Natalie Johnston-Anderson

Date: March 2016
iii

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to describe, interpret and explain the career trajectories and aspirations
of second-stage teachers in New South Wales and to identify the key contextual factors
influencing their careers. Successive government reforms targeting teacher quality and
professionalism have significantly shifted the work landscape for teachers. The concept of
‘career’ provides a useful conceptual lens through which to analyse teachers’ work patterns and
goals. Recent studies suggest that some teachers are redefining what it means to have a
teaching career and seeking alternative trajectories that may expand their job roles (Peske, Liu,
Johnson, Kauffman, & Kardos, 2001; Rinke, 2009, 2011; Rippon, 2005; Smethem, 2007).
Whilst levels of teacher attrition are described as having “reached epidemic proportions” in
Australia, the U.S and U.K (Gallant & Riley, 2014, p. 562), current research has given
insufficient attention to the within-career issues that shape teacher career decision-making
(Buchanan, 2009b; Clandinin et al., 2015; Lindqvist & Nordänger, 2016). Whereas beginning
teachers have had considerable research attention, this thesis examined ‘second-stage
teachers’ in their fourth to tenth year of teaching (Kirkpatrick & Johnson, 2014). Having
overcome their early survival concerns, second-stage teachers shift focus to the future and
contemplate how, if at all, they might develop a teaching career.

This study used a convergent parallel mixed methods design, wherein both qualitative and
quantitative data were collected in parallel, analysed separately and finally integrated. This
study had three data sets: policy documents, workforce statistics and semi-structured interviews
with twenty-four second-stage teachers representing a range of ages and school levels, sectors
and locations. This cohort of teachers is the first generation for whom compulsory Standards
and accreditation has applied under the New Scheme system.

This thesis offers two original contributions to the knowledge base. Firstly, this thesis identifies
six specific career trajectories that second-stage teachers aspire to, recognising these as
different roles that teachers may shift between rather than pre-determined pathways. The
model presented here offers a more nuanced understanding of teacher retention/attrition that
extends beyond classifying teachers as stayers/leavers. Secondly, this thesis brings to light
three key contextual factors that influence second-stage teachers’ careers: professional
cultures amongst teachers, the current status of teaching and the practical implementation and
enactment of policy agendas. The thesis concludes by highlighting points of convergence and
divergence within the data to show how the current policy context is not well aligned with
second-stage teachers’ lived career experiences.
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Acknowledgements

Whilst this thesis bears my name alone, there are of course many others whose
contributions helped to shape my doctoral adventure.

My thanks are first due to my wonderful supervisors, Dr Susan Colmar and Associate
Professor Dianne Bloomfield. Thank you both for the many hours of your time spent
listening as I slowly developed my ideas, for your astute guidance and for having faith
in my project from the beginning. Thank you also for your generous help with editing
and proofreading the final text. Your wisdom, ongoing support and encouragement
made the supervisory part of my doctoral apprenticeship an absolute pleasure.

The Faculty of Education and Social Work was vital in helping me to complete this
study. I am grateful for the provision of a quiet office space in which to work (something
I know many doctoral students do not have) and I cherish the hours spent alone there
analysing my data and pondering each sentence. In particular, the early guidance of
Professor Gabrielle Meagher in her writing workshops really helped me to see the ‘big
picture’ of research and take on the identity of being a writer and scholar. Through Dr
Rachel Wilson’s coursework subjects I developed my knowledge of research methods
and data analytic skills that were invaluable in translating my research proposal into
action. Thank you both for being generous with your time and helping me to shape the
early little ideas that grew into a big thesis. Thanks also to Associate Professor
Jennifer Way, Professor Janette Bobis and Ms Kate Smyth, who employed me as a
tutor and sessional lecturer during my doctoral candidacy.

Several institutional supporters also made this thesis possible. Firstly, I received an
Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) Scholarship from 2012-2015, funded by the
Commonwealth Government, and this was fundamental in enabling me to undertake
the study. Further, I would like to thank the former NSW Institute of Teachers (now part
of the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards) for providing access to
secondary data through the Government Information (Public Access) Act. I would like
to thank the NSW division of TeachMeet for graciously allowing me to recruit interview
participants through their teacher database. My deep thanks to the twenty-four
teachers who generously shared their career stories with me and generated invaluable
data for this thesis.
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Next, to the ‘doctors’ in my life who were my role models and encouragers. In
particular, Dr Phil Lambert and Dr Warren Marks were incredibly important in helping
me to see the doors that could open through having a PhD. Both trusted in my
research abilities long before I did, and this had a profound impact upon my
confidence. Dr Kate Pearcy and Dr Lisa Ford, both of whose children I had the
privilege to teach at Australia Street Infants School, were kind enough to share their
personal doctoral stories with me and encourage me to take the leap of faith into the
PhD program.

Early on in my candidature, I joined a PhD student support group, initiated by fellow
PhD colleagues Kate Bokan-Smith and Carrie Hayter. I can honestly say if I hadn’t
gone along to that group my doctoral experience would have been very different
indeed. In particular, the writing companionship of Pamela Joseph, Kristy O’Neill and
Janet Rangou was invaluable in the final year as we met for our weekly ‘shut up and
write’ sessions. I doubt this thesis would every have been completed without so many
Saturdays spent in study room 205 of Fisher Library, where we engaged in silent
parallel writing, punctuated with spirited discussions about all aspects of PhD life.
Every PhD student should be part of a writing group as caring (and productive!) as this.

In learning to become a scholarly writer, I am indebted to the following authors and
their texts: ‘Helping doctoral students write’ (Barbara Kamler and Pat Thomson),
‘Writing your dissertation in fifteen minutes a day’ (Joan Bolker), ‘How to write a lot’
(Paul Silvia) and ‘How to write a better thesis’ (David Evans, Paul Gruba and Justin
Zobel). These books were my constant writing companions and the source of
invaluable insights.

Finally, this thesis is tangible proof of the love of my family and friends. My thanks go
to my parents, who taught me the value of education and working hard, and that it was
ok to prefer to spend my weekends in the library rather than at the beach or cinema!
My wonderful friends Katrina Thomlinson, Jennifer Dunnet and Jacqueline Charles
listened to me babble on about my thesis and put up with my frequent absences.
Lastly, my ever-patient and long-suffering husband, Jara, who didn’t flinch when I said I
wanted to return to study (yet again!), with only a vague plan of how to make it work.
Your unwavering support, love and reassurance made all the difference at critical
points in my doctoral journey. I can’t wait to see what our next adventure together will
be in post-PhD life. I promise to try to bring fewer books (but not fewer shoes).
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Table of Contents

Author’s Declaration ................................................................................................. ii
Abstract ..................................................................................................................... iii
Table of Contents ..................................................................................................... vi
List of Tables ............................................................................................................. x
List of Figures ........................................................................................................... xi
Chapter One: Introduction ........................................................................................ 1
Context ....................................................................................................................... 1
Statement of the problem ......................................................................................... 2
Aim and objectives ................................................................................................... 4
Research questions .................................................................................................. 5
Defining key terms .................................................................................................... 5
Significance of the study ......................................................................................... 7
Scope and delimitations ........................................................................................... 7
Role of the researcher .............................................................................................. 8
Thesis overview ........................................................................................................ 9
Chapter summary ................................................................................................... 10
Chapter Two: Literature Review ............................................................................ 11
Part One: Careers at the micro level – Teacher as individual career actor ....... 11
Career as a series of stages .................................................................................. 11
Career theory and definitions. ............................................................................... 12
Pre-service teachers. ............................................................................................ 17
Early career teachers. ........................................................................................... 18
Veteran teachers. .................................................................................................. 20
Mid-career teachers. ............................................................................................. 20
Second-stage teachers. ........................................................................................ 22
Career as a trajectory ............................................................................................. 24
Externally defined: Vertical and horizontal career trajectories. ............................. 25
Internally defined: Subjective views and life history studies. ................................ 27
New career trajectories: 21st century professional priorities. ............................... 29
Summary. .............................................................................................................. 32
Part Two: Careers at the meso level – School structures and policies
surrounding teachers ............................................................................................. 33
Sustaining Careers ................................................................................................. 33
Retention and attrition. .......................................................................................... 33
Teacher factors. .................................................................................................... 35
Student factors. ..................................................................................................... 36
School factors. ...................................................................................................... 37
Stayers, leavers, movers and shifters: understanding career decision-making. ... 39
Developing Careers ................................................................................................ 42
School reform and global movements. ................................................................. 42
Policy development. .............................................................................................. 44
Reforming teacher professionalism. ...................................................................... 46
Teacher quality and quality teaching. ................................................................... 48
Professional Standards for Teachers. ................................................................... 50
Teacher performance management. ..................................................................... 52
Continuing professional learning. .......................................................................... 54
Performativity and the changing nature of teaching as work. ............................... 55
Summary. .............................................................................................................. 57
vii

Part 3: Careers at the macro level – The historical, social and demographic
forces shaping teachers’ careers .......................................................................... 58
Contextualising Careers ......................................................................................... 58
Historical context: changing nature of work and career. ....................................... 58
Social context: gender. .......................................................................................... 61
Social context: class. ............................................................................................. 63
Social context: age/generation. ............................................................................. 65
Demographic context: workforce supply and demand. ......................................... 68
Summary. .............................................................................................................. 71
Part 4: An initial, emergent conceptual framework ............................................. 72
Chapter summary ................................................................................................... 74
Chapter Three: Research Methodology ................................................................ 75
Research questions, concepts and hypotheses .................................................. 75
Philosophical foundations: paradigms and the logic of inquiry ........................ 78
Methodological approach: mixed methods design ............................................. 81
Methods and procedures: Strand A ...................................................................... 85
Method selection. .................................................................................................. 85
Sampling procedures. ........................................................................................... 86
Obtaining permission and ethical considerations. ................................................. 86
Data collection. ...................................................................................................... 87
Data recording. ...................................................................................................... 87
Data analysis. ........................................................................................................ 88
Methods and procedures: Strand B ...................................................................... 90
Method selection. .................................................................................................. 90
Sampling procedures. ........................................................................................... 91
Obtaining permission and ethical considerations. ................................................. 91
Data collection. ...................................................................................................... 92
Data recording. ...................................................................................................... 94
Data analysis. ........................................................................................................ 94
Methods and procedures: Strand C ...................................................................... 96
Method selection. .................................................................................................. 96
Sampling procedures. ........................................................................................... 97
Obtaining permission and ethical considerations. ................................................. 99
Data generation. .................................................................................................. 100
Data recording. .................................................................................................... 101
Data analysis. ...................................................................................................... 101
Generating inferences and connecting the data sets ....................................... 104
Quality and validation of the research ................................................................ 106
Chapter summary ................................................................................................. 112
Chapter Four: Career organisational context ..................................................... 113
Part One: Policy document findings ................................................................... 113
Document sample. .............................................................................................. 114
Word frequency. .................................................................................................. 116
Key words in context. .......................................................................................... 117
Cluster analysis. .................................................................................................. 119
Theme: teachers’ careers are being standardised. ............................................. 122
Theme: teachers’ careers are being professionalised. ....................................... 124
Theme: teachers’ careers are being monitored. ................................................. 126
Theme: teachers’ careers are being reformed. ................................................... 128
Theme: teachers’ careers are being developed. ................................................. 130
Theme: teachers’ careers are being performed. ................................................. 132
Section summary. ............................................................................................... 134
Part Two: Secondary data findings ..................................................................... 135
Comparison data. ................................................................................................ 135
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Population. .......................................................................................................... 137
Gender. ............................................................................................................... 138
Age. ..................................................................................................................... 139
School location. ................................................................................................... 141
School sector. ..................................................................................................... 142
Teaching role. ..................................................................................................... 143
Leave of absence. ............................................................................................... 144
Employment status. ............................................................................................. 145
Achieving accreditation. ...................................................................................... 148
Section summary. ............................................................................................... 150
Part Three: Discussion A – Second-stage teachers’ career organisational
context ................................................................................................................... 151
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 160
Chapter Five: Career trajectories ......................................................................... 161
Part One: Interview finding one – Entry pathway into a teaching career ........ 161
Teaching as a career destiny. ............................................................................. 164
Teaching as a direction into a career. ................................................................. 165
Teaching as an accidental career. ...................................................................... 167
Teaching as a family career. ............................................................................... 168
Section summary. ............................................................................................... 170
Part Two: Interview finding two – The evolving journey of a teaching career 170
The horizontal trajectory: lifelong classroom teaching. ....................................... 175
Diagonal trajectory A: differentiated / expanded role. ......................................... 178
Diagonal trajectory B: teacher / leader hybrid. .................................................... 180
Diagonal trajectory C: teacher developer. ........................................................... 183
Vertical trajectory: the principalship. ................................................................... 186
Exit trajectory: planning to leave teaching. ......................................................... 188
Section summary. ............................................................................................... 190
Part three: Discussion B – Second-stage teachers’ career trajectories .......... 190
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 201
Chapter Six: Career cultures ................................................................................ 202
Part One: Interview finding three – Career as membership of a professional
group ...................................................................................................................... 202
What is a professional teacher? .......................................................................... 205
Teaching as membership of a profession. .......................................................... 206
Teaching in transition: becoming a profession. ................................................... 208
Teaching as a job or occupation. ........................................................................ 210
How is teaching different to other professions? .................................................. 213
Section summary. ............................................................................................... 214
Part two: Interview finding four – Career as engagement with policy and
structure ................................................................................................................ 214
Professional Standards for Teachers. ................................................................. 215
Undergoing the accreditation process. ............................................................... 216
Maintaining accredited status. ............................................................................. 218
Navigating the new organisations (NSWIT and AITSL). ..................................... 219
Stratification of the profession (New Scheme and Old Scheme). ....................... 220
Raising the status of teaching. ............................................................................ 222
Section summary. ............................................................................................... 223
Part Three: Discussion C – Second-stage teachers’ career cultures .............. 224
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 235
Chapter 7: Synthesis of findings ......................................................................... 237
Joint Display .......................................................................................................... 239
Entry pathway into a teaching career. ................................................................. 241
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The evolving journey of a teaching career. ......................................................... 242
Career as membership of a professional group. ................................................. 244
Career as engagement with policy and structure. ............................................... 246
Revised conceptual framework ........................................................................... 247
Inferences to the main research question .......................................................... 251
Chapter summary ................................................................................................. 256
Chapter Eight: Conclusions ................................................................................. 257
Restatement of the aim and objectives .............................................................. 257
Re-statement of inferences to the research question ....................................... 258
Limitations of the study ....................................................................................... 259
Contributions to the literature ............................................................................. 259
Implications for future research .......................................................................... 260
Implications for policy and practice .................................................................... 261
Concluding remarks ............................................................................................. 261
References ............................................................................................................. 262
Appendices ............................................................................................................ 300
Appendix A ............................................................................................................ 300
The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) web page addresses for the document
sample, as accessed during data collection in 2013 ......................................... 300
Appendix B ............................................................................................................ 301
Ethics Approval (Project No. 2013/340; Approval date: 17/5/2013) .................. 301
Appendix C ............................................................................................................ 303
Recruitment notice on NSWIT website ............................................................... 303
Appendix D ............................................................................................................ 304
Recruitment email to TeachMeet participants for interviews ........................... 304
Appendix E ............................................................................................................ 305
Participant Information Statement ...................................................................... 305
Appendix F ............................................................................................................ 307
Participant consent form ...................................................................................... 307
Appendix G ........................................................................................................... 308
Safety protocol ...................................................................................................... 309
Appendix H ............................................................................................................ 311
Interview guide ...................................................................................................... 311
Appendix I .............................................................................................................. 314
Spreadsheet of interview participant details ...................................................... 314
Appendix J ............................................................................................................. 315
The 200 most frequently appearing words in the policy document corpus .... 315
x

List of Tables

Table 2.1. Summary of the four main teacher career phase models………………......... 15
Table 3.1. Description of the data requested from the NSWIT………………………....... 93
Table 3.2. Teacher variables analysed in strand B………………………………………... 95
Table 3.3. Quota parameters of the interview sample of twenty-four teachers……........ 97
Table 3.4. Summary demographic information on the final interview sample of 24
teachers……………………………………………………………………………………....... 99
Table 3.5. Teddlie and Tashakkori’s (2009) ‘Integrative Framework for Inference
Quality’ (pp. 301-302)…………………………………………………………………………. 108
Table 3.6. Structure of thesis chapters four, five and six…………………………………. 110
Table 4.1. The final sample of policy documents included in the content analysis…….. 115
Table 4.2. Counts of intertextuality within the document sample……………………....... 116
Table 4.3. Sample of 46 keywords chosen for analysis within the policy documents…. 118
Table 4.4. Word frequencies for the codes within the theme ‘standardised’……………. 122
Table 4.5. Word frequencies for the codes within the theme ‘professionalised’……….. 124
Table 4.6. Word frequencies for the codes within the theme ‘monitored’……………….. 126
Table 4.7. Word frequencies for the codes within the theme ‘reformed’………………… 129
Table 4.8. Word frequencies for the codes within the theme ‘developed’………………. 131
Table 4.9. Word frequencies for the codes in the theme ‘performed’……………………. 133
Table 4.10. Gender comparison of New Scheme teachers and all Australian
teachers………………………………………………………………………………………… 138
Table 4.11. Age distribution of New Scheme teachers……………………………………. 139
Table 4.12. Age distribution of Australian teachers………………………………………... 139
Table 4.13. Employment status of New Scheme teachers in 2013…………………....... 145
Table 4.14. Employment status of New Scheme teachers in 2013 by gender…………. 146
Table 4.15. Number of teachers achieving Professional Competence / Proficient
Teacher status from 2004 to July 2013…………………………………………………….. 148
Table 4.16. Number of years taken to achieve accreditation at Professional
Competence / Proficient Teacher status…………………………………………………… 149
Table 5.1. Summary of teachers’ beliefs about their career pathway compared with
their future career intentions…………………………………………………………………. 163
Table 5.2. Summary of teachers’ beliefs about their career pathways into
teaching……………………………………………………………………………………....... 163
Table 5.3. Summary of teachers’ future trajectories compared with future career
intentions……………………………………………………………………………………….. 171
Table 5.4. Summary of second-stage teachers’ future career aspirations…………....... 172
Table 6.1. Summary of teachers’ beliefs about teaching as a profession compared
with their future career intentions……………………………………………………………. 203
Table 6.2. Summary of teachers’ beliefs about teaching as a profession………………. 204
Table 7.1. Summary of the findings from the research sub-questions…………………... 238