Navigating the market

Teachers work in upper secondary schooling in Queensland, Australia has undergone considerable transformation. Hill s doctoral study investigates how recent policy developments combine to impact on teachers work. Using a labour process and socio-cultural perspective, data collection at a school site included a range of primary documents, descriptive statistics and interviews with teachers. The retreat from a Keynesian welfare state coupled with the unresolved role of the state in education enables four key marketisation strategies; choice, devolution, corporatisation and the evaluative state. The impact of these strategies in upper secondary schooling is compounded by the emergence of vocational education and training. With a growing policy emphasis on the completion of a minimum twelve years of schooling as a means to assure successful participation in the knowledge economy, successive policy initiatives in upper secondary education expose four unresolved crises; increasing participation rates, debates about the location and structure, confusion around forms of governance, and an unresolved curriculum for upper secondary schooling. Each significantly impact on teachers work