Abstract
Empowering Teachers and Democratising Schooling: Perspectives from Australia is a collection of both practicing teachers’ and academics’ voices which focuses on strategies for reclaiming and amplifying teacher voice. The collection also explores how teachers can become what Heggert calls ‘democracy workers’, a term which ‘recognises the work done by educators to build and sustain cultures of democracy within schools, but also more broadly within civil society’ (p. 129). The book has its roots in an online teacher-led professional learning network, itself a democratising space, and the diversity of this network is reflected in the authors’ professional roles. Despite this background, the hard cover price of over $200 (itself a result of the neoliberal influence on the publishing industry) may limit ‘democratic’ access to the text. As the editors and many of the authors in this collection note, teacher voice is rarely asked for or heard in the neoliberal educative landscape, and this book is an effort to redress this absence. In addition to the academic contributors, many of the authors are award-winning teacher-innovators who have established their own programs and networks within the profession, meaning the experience of the ‘average’ classroom teacher is perhaps underrepresented. The editors also acknowledge the absence of a First Nations perspective in the collection. Organised into five large sections, Empowering Teachers and Democratising Schooling offers both critique of and hope for schooling in the Australian context.
The first section explores the challenges and possibilities for teacher empowerment. The challenges are foregrounded in the descriptions of the dire state of teaching profession. Issues around unrealistic administrative expectations, reduced autonomy and media ‘teacher-bashing’ coupled with teachers who also sabotage the profession with in-fighting are all discussed. While the creation of this book shows the positive collaborative power of social media, West’s chapter highlights the role social media has played in creating ‘tribes’ who subscribe to a particular pedagogy or theory and attack those who offer alternative views. These edu-cults also have systemic followers (i.e. governing bodies who mandate pedagogy across their member schools), which, as Lilley argues, results in ‘a huge step towards a nationally standardised pedagogy, once again, decreasing the input from teachers and reducing their agency’ (p. 49). Lilley’s concerns are borne out in the 2023 Initial Teacher Education review (Department of Education, 2023), which proposes a very narrow range of pedagogies. The section closes with a focus on the impact of neoliberalism and the systemic challenges that stymie teacher empowerment.
The second section focuses on ‘empowered teachers enacting democratic processes’. While some of the suggestions in this section seem less viable (e.g. requiring international practicum experience as standard), others, such as the modelling of democratic norms by teachers through collaboration and coaching, critical thinking and constructive dialogue, provide a model for a more democratic practice. In the next section on teacher voice, Cotton points out that ‘after being denigrated for decades by politicians and the media in a closed loop dialogue that excludes any voice from actual professionals in the field, it is little wonder that teachers often choose to stay quiet’ (p. 144). Union membership and advocacy are a focus here, with some positive examples of how unions can work to foster teacher communities and voice, through activities like teach meets (teacher-led sharing of professional practise), young members groups, education debates and book clubs. The subsequent section of the book highlights the harms of neoliberal managerialism which has resulted in a decline in the trust and respect afforded to teachers. Salazar asserts that this makes it vital to support new teachers and the importance of meaningful professional learning and networks supported by ‘Democratic leadership…, with trust modelled by the leader and emanating through to an empowered team’ (p. 194).
The book closes with a harsh (and perhaps, at times, unfair) critique of ITE, while Barnes and English acknowledge that parents must be supported to ‘see the changes that you as that individual teacher bring to the profession’ (p. 246), an approach which may go some way to combating the ‘teacher-bashing’ so prevalent in the media and amongst some parent groups. Fittingly, Prun et al.’s final chapter argues for a questioning and transformative model of citizenship to be developed in schools, for both teachers and students, to counter the increasingly authoritarian citizenship being imposed around the globe, where compliance is more valued than critique (p. 269).
As the editors acknowledge, the book is a pastiche of academic research, teacher research and personal practice and reflection which at times results in a disjointed reading experience. Across all the chapters, the negative impacts of the neoliberal education system are highlighted, and it is clear that the shared view of the authors is that these forces can be combated through teacher action, agency and voice, both at an individual and collective level. Relatively few chapters look to democratising schooling for students, which seems to be the expected outcome of empowering teachers and is perhaps a gap that could be filled in a future volume focusing more on classroom practices that foster democracy.
