Policy to practice: TAFE teachers’ unofficial code of professional conduct – Insights from Western Australia

The business of teaching: Vocational educators’ experiences of marketization reforms

“…This type of research generates insightful concepts, even if they are more context specific than those enabled by utilising a broader sociological theory. Martin (2012) study of Technical and Further Education (TAFE) teachers in Western Australia exemplifies this. 4 Her research involved semi-structured interviews with 55 TAFE teachers from three colleges in Western Australia and aimed at investigating the concerns of these teachers in carrying out their role in a changing VET environment.…”

“…The importance of incorporating teachers in such research project is reinforced by their increased feelings of disempowerment in the field. In a number of different projects, teachers have suggested that as a group their opinions are often disregarded, not voiced or only given tokenistic input in the policy-making decision process (such feelings are expressed in Coffield et al, 2007;Martin, 2012;Nair & Kigotho, 2017;O'Brien & Down, 2002). A similar critique is made of academic literature, in which there is a lack of 'space' in academic discourse where teachers' voices have legitimacy (O'Brien & Down, 2002).…”

“…While policies in the sector appear to have been increasingly directed by economic rationalist concerns, the educationalist perspective does still have substantial influence within the field. A number of studies have demonstrated that a wide range of teachers, and managers, within the field embrace these values and use them to inform their practice (Black & Bee, 2018;Coffield et al, 2007;Foley, 2011;Martin, 2012).…”

“…The thesis also spoke specifically to one of the ideas raised within this literature in terms of Australian VET teachers' resistance to managerialist reform. Martin (2012) described TAFE teachers as adopting an unofficial policy of simply not implementing reforms that went against their ethos. Their ability to do so was attributed to the traditionally high levels of autonomy of TAFE teachers had over their classroom practice.…”