Susan Mcgrath-Champ
Biographic Data
| ID | 297200 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Susan Mcgrath-Champ |
| GIVEN NAMES | Susan |
| FAMILY NAME | Mcgrath-Champ |
| SIGNATURE | MCGRATH-CHAMP S |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Sydney |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2209-5683 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 115 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1993 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Tackling teacher workload
Workload demands, unpaid hours, and concerns about time with children
Given the importance of quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) and growing demand for ECEC, the widely reported, but less frequently researched workforce issues across international ECEC services are a substantial social, political, and economic problem. In an effort to build our understanding of educators’ experiences of work in ECEC, this online questionnaire study (N = 570) gathered basic foundational data on Australian educators’ w…
Reducing teachers’ workload or deskilling ‘core’ work? Analysis of a policy response to teacher workload demands
Teacher workload is a growing problem internationally. In this article, we analyse an attempt by the state education bureaucracy of New South Wales (NSW), Australia, to address this through the ‘Quality Time Program’. Drawing on labour process theory and Carol Bacchi’s framework of ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’, we analyse how the Quality Time policy documents conceptualise and aim to address a particular kind of teacher ‘workload probl…
What needs to happen for school autonomy to be mobilised to create more equitable public schools and systems of education
The series of responses in this article were gathered as part of an online mini conference held in September 2021 that sought to explore different ideas and articulations of school autonomy reform across the world (Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, the USA, Norway, Sweden and New Zealand). It centred upon an important question: what needs to happen for school autonomy to be mobilised to create more equitable public schools and systems of educa…
Triage in teaching
The work of teachers is often understood primarily in relation to student learning rather than as a form of labour for the worker in question. While such a focus is understandable, it can fail to recognize the relationship between conditions of work and the character or nature of that work. In this article, we engage with the issue of teachers’ work and workload, presenting interview data from 31 teachers across the state of NSW, Australia. Locat…
Collaborating for policy impact
Knowledge co-production between academics and practitioners is increasingly a focus for university workplace contexts. While there is emerging interest in how social science academics can engage with industry to generate impact, little attention has been paid to how one form of practitioner organisation, trade unions, engages with academics to influence policy and member outcomes. In this article, we examine a case of research collaboration with …
Labour Commodification in the Employment Heartland
This article analyses the commodification of professional labour and union responses to these processes within the employment heartland. It explores the category of fixed-contract or ‘temporary’ employment using Australian public school teaching as the empirical lens. Established to address intensifying conditions of labour market insecurity, the union-led creation of the temporary category was intended to partly decommodify labour by providing i…
Teachers, fixed-term contracts and school leadership
Fixed-term contracts are a relatively recent, yet growing category of employment for teachers in the public school system in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. In this article, we draw on quantitative and qualitative data from a large state-wide survey (N = 18,234) of members of the public-school teacher union, the NSW Teachers’ Federation, in order to explore the workload reports of teachers in temporary employment. We find that overall, these te…
Governance reform in context
This article addresses the relationship between profession, organisation and spatial (geographical) setting, more specifically the relationship between welfare sector professionals' conditions for work amidst governance change. In previous research, the conditions for welfare sector professionals' work have largely been studied without taking the employing organisations or the local and regional situation into consideration. In this article, the …
Devolution, market dynamics and the Independent Public School initiative in Western Australia
The devolution of public sector schooling systems has been a feature of education reform since the 1980s. In Western Australia, the Independent Public School (IPS) initiative has recently been installed, announced by the state government in 2009. Now over 80% of the state’s public school students attend IP schools. Drawing on interview data from a broader study of devolution and the conditions of teachers’ work, this article explores the cases of…
Differentiation as a Consequence of Choice and Decentralization Reforms—Conditions for Teachers’ Competence Development
This paper examines the conditions for teacher competence development as they relate to the current restructured governance of the education sector in Sweden. In reviewing the literature, contextual factors in the workplace are often pointed out as central to conditions for competence development. However, we argue that a sector-level approach is useful in examining and explaining competence development conditions, especially in times of governan…
Global destruction networks, labour and waste
Analysis of waste has largely focused on the physical transformation of commodities at the ends of their lives. This has led to a discourse of ongoingness in which the re-use of commodities’ parts is often seen to be almost endless. Such a focus on form, though, fails to adequately account for the movement of value—used here in the Marxist sense of ‘congealed labour’—or to recognize the centrality of the labour process in shaping how previously u…
Waste, commodity fetishism and the ongoingness of economic life
Waste in general, and e‐waste in particular, has become a topic of interest in recent years. One focus of attention has been on how commodities are broken up after the putative end of their lives, with such commodities' constituent elements then being used as inputs into other products. The fact that much waste is recycled in this manner has led several scholars to emphasise the ‘ongoingness’ of economic life. In this context, Lepawsky and Mather…
Global production networks, labour and small firms
The literature on global production networks (GPNs) and global commodity/value chains has generally conceptualised small firms as being at the bottom of the commodity chain hierarchy, and thus subordinate to larger firms. As a consequence, small firms and their employees are typically imagined to be fairly powerless to shape the structure of GPNs. By way of contrast, in this paper we argue that small firms and their employees are not lacking in t…
Labor geography and labor history
An enhanced dialogue between history and geography concerning the study of labor relations offers prospects for deeper insights and richer explanatory capacity in academic scholarship. Similar interdisciplinary activity linking labor geography and studies of labor relations has been underway for some time. In this paper, we identify problems that arise when geography remains implicit in the study of labor history. Building on work already conduct…
Working space
Theorists of work and employment (W&E) practices should more seriously engage with literatures concerning how space is constitutive of social praxis. Rather than simply serving as a stage upon which social life is played out or being merely a reflection of social relations, the construction of the economic landscape in particular ways is fundamental to how social systems function. Struggles over space are a central dynamic in W&E practices as dif…
Strategy and industrial restructuring
This article examines ‘strategy’ as a key aspect of industrial restructuring. The notion of strategy has been largely underdeveloped in much of the geographical literature on restructuring. This article discusses a range of dimensions that are useful in grasping the nature of strategy rationality, consciousness, level of analysis, power, contingency, individual versus collective action and interaction with structure. It is argued that a joint con…
Integrating Industrial Geography and Industrial Relations Research
The way in which employment is managed is a crucial dimension in the operation and restructuring of industry, but has been sorely neglected in studies of labour and industry. In concert with processes of economic restructuring, and in broadly similar manner to other Western economies, labour‐management (industrial) relations in Australia are undergoing extensive change. This article reviews key themes in industrial geography, industrial relations…
The working nation white paper
Labour Management Space, and Restructuring of the Australian Coal Industry
This paper contributes to our understanding of industrial change by developing a crucial area of interface-industrial restructuring and the management of labour. Until recently, labour management has been underrecognised in geographical studies of industrial development and change, yet management decisionmaking and strategic choice permeate all aspects of capital-labour relations. Similarly, spatial dimensions have rarely been acknowledged as an …
Working space
Theorists of work and employment (W&E) practices should more seriously engage with literatures concerning how space is constitutive of social praxis. Rather than simply serving as a stage upon which social life is played out or being merely a reflection of social relations, the construction of the economic landscape in particular ways is fundamental to how social systems function. Struggles over space are a central dynamic in W&E practices as dif…
Global destruction networks, labour and waste
Analysis of waste has largely focused on the physical transformation of commodities at the ends of their lives. This has led to a discourse of ongoingness in which the re-use of commodities’ parts is often seen to be almost endless. Such a focus on form, though, fails to adequately account for the movement of value—used here in the Marxist sense of ‘congealed labour’—or to recognize the centrality of the labour process in shaping how previously u…
Devolution, market dynamics and the Independent Public School initiative in Western Australia
The devolution of public sector schooling systems has been a feature of education reform since the 1980s. In Western Australia, the Independent Public School (IPS) initiative has recently been installed, announced by the state government in 2009. Now over 80% of the state’s public school students attend IP schools. Drawing on interview data from a broader study of devolution and the conditions of teachers’ work, this article explores the cases of…
Waste, commodity fetishism and the ongoingness of economic life
Waste in general, and e‐waste in particular, has become a topic of interest in recent years. One focus of attention has been on how commodities are broken up after the putative end of their lives, with such commodities' constituent elements then being used as inputs into other products. The fact that much waste is recycled in this manner has led several scholars to emphasise the ‘ongoingness’ of economic life. In this context, Lepawsky and Mather…
Global production networks, labour and small firms
The literature on global production networks (GPNs) and global commodity/value chains has generally conceptualised small firms as being at the bottom of the commodity chain hierarchy, and thus subordinate to larger firms. As a consequence, small firms and their employees are typically imagined to be fairly powerless to shape the structure of GPNs. By way of contrast, in this paper we argue that small firms and their employees are not lacking in t…
Strategy and industrial restructuring
This article examines ‘strategy’ as a key aspect of industrial restructuring. The notion of strategy has been largely underdeveloped in much of the geographical literature on restructuring. This article discusses a range of dimensions that are useful in grasping the nature of strategy rationality, consciousness, level of analysis, power, contingency, individual versus collective action and interaction with structure. It is argued that a joint con…
Teachers, fixed-term contracts and school leadership
Fixed-term contracts are a relatively recent, yet growing category of employment for teachers in the public school system in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. In this article, we draw on quantitative and qualitative data from a large state-wide survey (N = 18,234) of members of the public-school teacher union, the NSW Teachers’ Federation, in order to explore the workload reports of teachers in temporary employment. We find that overall, these te…
Labor geography and labor history
An enhanced dialogue between history and geography concerning the study of labor relations offers prospects for deeper insights and richer explanatory capacity in academic scholarship. Similar interdisciplinary activity linking labor geography and studies of labor relations has been underway for some time. In this paper, we identify problems that arise when geography remains implicit in the study of labor history. Building on work already conduct…
Reducing teachers’ workload or deskilling ‘core’ work? Analysis of a policy response to teacher workload demands
Teacher workload is a growing problem internationally. In this article, we analyse an attempt by the state education bureaucracy of New South Wales (NSW), Australia, to address this through the ‘Quality Time Program’. Drawing on labour process theory and Carol Bacchi’s framework of ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’, we analyse how the Quality Time policy documents conceptualise and aim to address a particular kind of teacher ‘workload probl…
Integrating Industrial Geography and Industrial Relations Research
The way in which employment is managed is a crucial dimension in the operation and restructuring of industry, but has been sorely neglected in studies of labour and industry. In concert with processes of economic restructuring, and in broadly similar manner to other Western economies, labour‐management (industrial) relations in Australia are undergoing extensive change. This article reviews key themes in industrial geography, industrial relations…
Labour Commodification in the Employment Heartland
This article analyses the commodification of professional labour and union responses to these processes within the employment heartland. It explores the category of fixed-contract or ‘temporary’ employment using Australian public school teaching as the empirical lens. Established to address intensifying conditions of labour market insecurity, the union-led creation of the temporary category was intended to partly decommodify labour by providing i…
Governance reform in context
This article addresses the relationship between profession, organisation and spatial (geographical) setting, more specifically the relationship between welfare sector professionals' conditions for work amidst governance change. In previous research, the conditions for welfare sector professionals' work have largely been studied without taking the employing organisations or the local and regional situation into consideration. In this article, the …
Labour Management Space, and Restructuring of the Australian Coal Industry
This paper contributes to our understanding of industrial change by developing a crucial area of interface-industrial restructuring and the management of labour. Until recently, labour management has been underrecognised in geographical studies of industrial development and change, yet management decisionmaking and strategic choice permeate all aspects of capital-labour relations. Similarly, spatial dimensions have rarely been acknowledged as an …
Labour Management Space, and Restructuring of the Australian Coal Industry
This paper contributes to our understanding of industrial change by developing a crucial area of interface-industrial restructuring and the management of labour. Until recently, labour management has been underrecognised in geographical studies of industrial development and change, yet management decisionmaking and strategic choice permeate all aspects of capital-labour relations. Similarly, spatial dimensions have rarely been acknowledged as an …
Integrating Industrial Geography and Industrial Relations Research
The way in which employment is managed is a crucial dimension in the operation and restructuring of industry, but has been sorely neglected in studies of labour and industry. In concert with processes of economic restructuring, and in broadly similar manner to other Western economies, labour‐management (industrial) relations in Australia are undergoing extensive change. This article reviews key themes in industrial geography, industrial relations…
The working nation white paper
Strategy and industrial restructuring
This article examines ‘strategy’ as a key aspect of industrial restructuring. The notion of strategy has been largely underdeveloped in much of the geographical literature on restructuring. This article discusses a range of dimensions that are useful in grasping the nature of strategy rationality, consciousness, level of analysis, power, contingency, individual versus collective action and interaction with structure. It is argued that a joint con…
Working space
Theorists of work and employment (W&E) practices should more seriously engage with literatures concerning how space is constitutive of social praxis. Rather than simply serving as a stage upon which social life is played out or being merely a reflection of social relations, the construction of the economic landscape in particular ways is fundamental to how social systems function. Struggles over space are a central dynamic in W&E practices as dif…
Labor geography and labor history
An enhanced dialogue between history and geography concerning the study of labor relations offers prospects for deeper insights and richer explanatory capacity in academic scholarship. Similar interdisciplinary activity linking labor geography and studies of labor relations has been underway for some time. In this paper, we identify problems that arise when geography remains implicit in the study of labor history. Building on work already conduct…
Global destruction networks, labour and waste
Analysis of waste has largely focused on the physical transformation of commodities at the ends of their lives. This has led to a discourse of ongoingness in which the re-use of commodities’ parts is often seen to be almost endless. Such a focus on form, though, fails to adequately account for the movement of value—used here in the Marxist sense of ‘congealed labour’—or to recognize the centrality of the labour process in shaping how previously u…
Waste, commodity fetishism and the ongoingness of economic life
Waste in general, and e‐waste in particular, has become a topic of interest in recent years. One focus of attention has been on how commodities are broken up after the putative end of their lives, with such commodities' constituent elements then being used as inputs into other products. The fact that much waste is recycled in this manner has led several scholars to emphasise the ‘ongoingness’ of economic life. In this context, Lepawsky and Mather…
Global production networks, labour and small firms
The literature on global production networks (GPNs) and global commodity/value chains has generally conceptualised small firms as being at the bottom of the commodity chain hierarchy, and thus subordinate to larger firms. As a consequence, small firms and their employees are typically imagined to be fairly powerless to shape the structure of GPNs. By way of contrast, in this paper we argue that small firms and their employees are not lacking in t…
Differentiation as a Consequence of Choice and Decentralization Reforms—Conditions for Teachers’ Competence Development
This paper examines the conditions for teacher competence development as they relate to the current restructured governance of the education sector in Sweden. In reviewing the literature, contextual factors in the workplace are often pointed out as central to conditions for competence development. However, we argue that a sector-level approach is useful in examining and explaining competence development conditions, especially in times of governan…
Devolution, market dynamics and the Independent Public School initiative in Western Australia
The devolution of public sector schooling systems has been a feature of education reform since the 1980s. In Western Australia, the Independent Public School (IPS) initiative has recently been installed, announced by the state government in 2009. Now over 80% of the state’s public school students attend IP schools. Drawing on interview data from a broader study of devolution and the conditions of teachers’ work, this article explores the cases of…
Teachers, fixed-term contracts and school leadership
Fixed-term contracts are a relatively recent, yet growing category of employment for teachers in the public school system in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. In this article, we draw on quantitative and qualitative data from a large state-wide survey (N = 18,234) of members of the public-school teacher union, the NSW Teachers’ Federation, in order to explore the workload reports of teachers in temporary employment. We find that overall, these te…
Governance reform in context
This article addresses the relationship between profession, organisation and spatial (geographical) setting, more specifically the relationship between welfare sector professionals' conditions for work amidst governance change. In previous research, the conditions for welfare sector professionals' work have largely been studied without taking the employing organisations or the local and regional situation into consideration. In this article, the …
Triage in teaching
The work of teachers is often understood primarily in relation to student learning rather than as a form of labour for the worker in question. While such a focus is understandable, it can fail to recognize the relationship between conditions of work and the character or nature of that work. In this article, we engage with the issue of teachers’ work and workload, presenting interview data from 31 teachers across the state of NSW, Australia. Locat…
Collaborating for policy impact
Knowledge co-production between academics and practitioners is increasingly a focus for university workplace contexts. While there is emerging interest in how social science academics can engage with industry to generate impact, little attention has been paid to how one form of practitioner organisation, trade unions, engages with academics to influence policy and member outcomes. In this article, we examine a case of research collaboration with …
Labour Commodification in the Employment Heartland
This article analyses the commodification of professional labour and union responses to these processes within the employment heartland. It explores the category of fixed-contract or ‘temporary’ employment using Australian public school teaching as the empirical lens. Established to address intensifying conditions of labour market insecurity, the union-led creation of the temporary category was intended to partly decommodify labour by providing i…
What needs to happen for school autonomy to be mobilised to create more equitable public schools and systems of education
The series of responses in this article were gathered as part of an online mini conference held in September 2021 that sought to explore different ideas and articulations of school autonomy reform across the world (Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, the USA, Norway, Sweden and New Zealand). It centred upon an important question: what needs to happen for school autonomy to be mobilised to create more equitable public schools and systems of educa…
Reducing teachers’ workload or deskilling ‘core’ work? Analysis of a policy response to teacher workload demands
Teacher workload is a growing problem internationally. In this article, we analyse an attempt by the state education bureaucracy of New South Wales (NSW), Australia, to address this through the ‘Quality Time Program’. Drawing on labour process theory and Carol Bacchi’s framework of ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’, we analyse how the Quality Time policy documents conceptualise and aim to address a particular kind of teacher ‘workload probl…
Workload demands, unpaid hours, and concerns about time with children
Given the importance of quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) and growing demand for ECEC, the widely reported, but less frequently researched workforce issues across international ECEC services are a substantial social, political, and economic problem. In an effort to build our understanding of educators’ experiences of work in ECEC, this online questionnaire study (N = 570) gathered basic foundational data on Australian educators’ w…
Tackling teacher workload
Sociology (17 works) · Economics (15 works) · Political science (14 works) · Management (10 works) · Law (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Business (5 works) · Economic system (5 works) · Employment and Welfare Studies (5 works) · Labor Movements and Unions (5 works)