Structural marginalisation, othering and casual relief teacher subjectivities. Issue 1 (2nd January 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Charteris, Jennifer; Jenkins, Kathryn; Bannister-Tyrrell, Michelle; Jones, Marguerite
• Is Part Of: Critical studies in education. Volume 58:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 104
• Page End: 119
• Publication Date: 2017-01-02
• Subjects: casual relief teachers -- category boundary work -- discourse -- markets in education -- neoliberalism -- subjectivities; Education -- Periodicals; 370.5
• DOI: 10.1080/17508487.2015.1108208
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1750-8487

Abstract

Abstract : Produced through market relations of neoliberal managerialism, teacher subjectivities are becoming progressively commodified. With the increasing casualisation of the teaching workforce, the well-being and status of casual relief teachers (CRTs) can be seen as an area of concern, at risk of 'flexploitation'. More than just a convenient labour pool, CRTs operate on the margins of school communities, a space fraught with a range of issues. In many instances, CRTs experience less job satisfaction; less rapport with students and colleagues and less access to school information, professional development, resources and teaching materials. This article draws on a positioning theory to frame the discursive production of CRT selves within the neoliberal milieu. It offers a detailed analysis of collective biographies that explore narrative formations of casual teaching. Schooling discourse is replete with metaphorical language that frames teacher positioning, and a range of existing metaphors in CRT literature highlight their vulnerability in particular. Rather than offering an analysis that addresses casual teacher performance as a problem to be solved, this article proposes that the relationship between 'structural marginalisation and the 'othering' that CRTs can experience is associated with the politics of market-related performativity.