This article explores the impact of sexual harassment on one teacher--the paper's author and, in doing so, opens up conversations about the micro-realities of gendered harassment in educational institutions. By using autoethnography as a method of inquiry and writing from the unique perspective of the survivor-researcher, the author sheds light on…

Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) provides play, leisure, care and education for significant numbers of Australian children. As government has become increasingly involved in the regulation of OSHC, the sector has become increasingly professionalised. OSHC practitioners are active participants in quality improvement processes and increasingly…

In recent years there has been substantial growth of women playing in and competing at the top levels of traditionally male-dominated sports, including Australian Football. By comparison, the number of women officials have not increased at the same rate, raising multiple questions about retention, participation and sustainability. This paper…

In the context of teaching workforce shortages, this study examined teachers' perceptions of safety, role satisfaction, and their intent to remain in the profession, in Australia. Findings from two iterations of a survey of a total of 8293 teachers revealed that 20% to 25% of participants felt unsafe in their schools. The results also showed that…

The collection of papers presented in this issue of Critical Studies in Education adds to the expansive body of work on teachers and teaching. Collectively, the papers draw our attention to new ways the field is problematising the emerging and evolving conditions that shape the work, lives and identities of teachers. With this editorial…

Problematic policy constructions of the purpose of education implicate professional identities and working conditions of professionals working with the youngest children. This paper builds on our earlier writing, to contest teacher professional identities in Australia, Ireland, Denmark and the United States of America, to illustrate the crucial…

The higher education sector in Australia is operating in an ideological context in which the ideas of managerialism and neoliberalism combine to create a discourse shaping the lives of both workers and students. The practices that emerge inside higher education organisations as a result combine to form an organisational neoliberal managerial…

Lack of definitional consensus remains an important unresolved issue within bullying research. This study examined the ability of definitional variables to predict overall level of victimisation (distress, power inequity, and provocation as predictors) and bullying (intention to harm, power inequity, and provocation as predictors) in 246…

Globally, a range of new schooling accountabilities have created a complex and often contradictory context in which school leaders work. For principals of low socio-economic status (SES) and disadvantaged schools, they must balance the accountability, performance and reporting requirements against the other needs of their communities. These…

The metaphors of the ivory tower and ivory basement are used in this chapter to reflect how many women understand and experience the academy. The ivory tower signifies a place that is protected, a place of privilege and authority and a place removed from the outside world (and consequently the rigours of the market place). The ivory tower, by…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to estimate the prevalence of staff bullying in Australian schools, to identify bullies and targets and to examine some implications for school leaders in dealing with staff bullying. Design/methodology/approach: The quantitative research design survey instrument contained 11 demographic items, 44 questions of…

Educational researchers are accustomed to institutional review board (IRB) requirements (e.g., protecting participants) with students often identified as the only "vulnerable population" for IRB purposes. However, as practitioner research has gained more prominence, the vulnerability of teacher-researchers themselves has begun to…

The vice-chancellor of an Australian university examines the way his time is allocated for a variety of recurring activities and considers the role of vice-chancellor from a political science perspective. This administrator is seen as playing a role within the university community comparable to that of a prime minister or premier in larger…

Globalization has brought market and business practices into universities, but with serious negative ramifications. Interviews with 253 U.S. and Australian faculty, plus additional data drawn from New Zealand and Canadian studies, focused on the rise of performance-based accountability and corporate managerialism and their effects on faculty…