Amy Mcpherson
Biographic Data
| ID | 3701418 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Amy Mcpherson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Amy |
| FAMILY NAME | Mcpherson |
| SIGNATURE | MCPHERSON A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Australian Catholic University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3685-1547 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 11 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Not the job I imagined: Teachers’ expectations of their work in the context of teaching shortages
In the context of extreme teaching shortages in Australia, this paper examines the concept of a ‘teaching imaginary’. It explores the discrepancy between teachers’ expectations of their work, primarily focused on classroom teaching, professional judgement and relationships with students, and the realities of their often administrative and managerial roles. In this paper we draw on narratives from teachers collected as part of a larger ethnographi…
For the foreseeable future: The tenuous and precarious nature of teacher retention 1
Beyond the nine-to-five: Gendered experiences of work–life conflict in Australia's hardest-to-staff schools
Work-life conflict causes issues for many women in the Australian labour market. Historically, teaching has been positioned as one of the few careers that allow women to balance their professional and personal lives. These associations have contributed to teaching being one of the most gender-segregated labour sectors, despite being marked by intense workload, long hours and demanding physical, cognitive, and emotional labour. This article examin…
The Hidden Work of Incidental Mentoring in the Hardest-to-Staff Schools
In a climate of pervasive teacher shortages, initiatives have focused on attracting new teachers to the profession, with hardest-to-staff schools more likely to fill vacancies with early-career teachers, including those with conditional status. In Australia, workforce policy prioritises induction and mentoring to support transition to the profession and improve retention. This paper aims to understand mentor teacher experiences in hardest-to-staf…
Teachers who stay in hard-to-staff schools: School responses to the teacher shortage crisis
In this paper, we report on some early findings from a project that explores the experiences of teacher shortages in hard-to-staff schools in Australia. We provide an in-depth account of the experiences of teachers who remain at schools characterised by unfilled vacancies, high staff turnover and a limited casual relief workforce. These experiences are often overlooked because most studies concerning teacher shortages typically analyse such issue…
Maybe I’m just not strong enough’: On the care exploitation of teachers in hard-to-staff schools
An analysis of Australian teacher workforce policy: Challenges and opportunities for teacher recruitment and retention
The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the shortage of teachers worldwide. Shortages have been reported globally including in countries such as the UK, Netherlands, France, Japan, New Zealand and the United States. In Australia, persistent challenges in teacher recruitment, and retention, especially in disadvantaged schools have worsened, with rural and remote schools struggling to attract teachers, as well as urban schools in disadvantaged areas nec…
Resilience in the face of crisis: An analysis of the Australian government's natural disaster resilience education program
Resilience as a concept continues to be mobilised as children and young people navigate the climate crisis and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, social isolation, and school closures. In this paper, we explore Rose and Lentzos (2017) position on ‘the polyvalence of resilient strategies’ (p. 44) to analyse the complex concerns that resilience in education is mobilised to address. We examine the emergent discourse of …
A summary of initiatives to address teacher shortages in hard-to-staff schools in the Anglosphere
This article brings together a number of key issues that emerge in research around the problem of teacher shortages in hard-to-staff schools. It offers a broad overview of the hard-to-staff schooling sector as discussed in recent academic literature and provides a context-specific overview of the literature around workforce shortages in hard-to-staff schools with relevancy for high poverty contexts. In line with Williams et al. ( The paper begins…
Still standing: An ecological perspective on teachers remaining in hard-to-staff schools
In this paper, we investigate the working lives of three Australian teachers in the hardest-to-staff schools as they tell their stories of how teacher attrition has impacted them and others.Drawing on Zavelevsky & Shapira-Lishchinsky's ecological framework (2020) we analyse their work-stories to better understand issues impacting the teaching workforce in a time of extreme teaching shortages.Part of a larger study on teachers who remain in hard-t…
Controversial issues in the Australian educational context: Dimension of politics, policy and practice
In recent years, a number of controversies related to climate change, racism and Black Lives Matter, and gender and sexual diversity have characterised public debate in Australia about politically charged content in schools. This paper explores one jurisdiction’s “Controversial Issues in Schools” policy through three broad areas of discussion. We begin by analysing the current social and political context in Australia at both a state and national…
Reconsidering assent for randomised control trials in education: Ethical and procedural concerns
Despite ongoing disagreement about what kinds of evidence are most valuable to education, there continues to be an increasing push to make a narrow group of scientific methodologies the basis of educational policy and practice. This has created a growth in the use of randomised control trials (RCTs), which are considered an exemplary example of scientifically rigorous research design. Yet despite the increase in both the prevalence and status of …
Situated cases of ethical tensions when working with children and young people in educational contexts
[Extract] This introductory commentary on the special issue ‘Contemporary ethical tensions: Situated cases of ethical tensions when working with children and young people in educational contexts’ focuses on elaborating educational ethics as an emerging disciplinary area within the field of education and teacher education. In this context, we are using the term ‘educational ethics’ as a term to refer to a specialist area of applied ethics encompas…
Interview with Professor Meira Levinson: Democracy, dilemmas and educational ethics
In the following interview, Meira Levinson (Harvard Graduate School) discusses the field of educational ethics and how it can enhance justifiable youth activism to enact citizenship education and recover democracy. She introduces readers to her philosophical approach for developing normative case studies that aim to be inclusive of divergent views on knowledge and value in schooling. Professor Levinson visited the School of Education at the Unive…
Un/satisfactory encounters: Communication, conflict and parent-school engagement
The policy and educational ideal of parent-school engagement rests on assumptions about effective communication with parents about children’s educational progress and well-being. Yet communication between school and home varies, and can be a source of parental satisfaction and frustration. Here we consider perspectives of Australian parents whose encounters with schools – both satisfactory and unsatisfactory – are shaped by the everyday communica…
The anatomy of ability
“Ability” is one of the most common concepts underpinning education. Generally, “ability” is central to notions of a meritocratic society. More specifically, schools are allocated the right to define, categorise and label students according to their ability. While there has been ample discussion of the role of ability in the creation of curricula, teachers’ concepts of “ability” have remained relatively unstudied. Using semi-structured interviews…
Bodies and affect in non-traditional learning spaces
This paper considers the ‘knowledge economy’ as it is used in education rhetoric to establish social and educational consent for significant changes both to the spatial organisation of classrooms and their affective economies. We draw on ethnographic data from a study of ‘non-traditional classroom spaces’, where the spatial organisation of schooling emerged as a potential fulcrum through which the imaginary of the conventional primary classroom w…
Un/satisfactory encounters: Communication, conflict and parent-school engagement
The policy and educational ideal of parent-school engagement rests on assumptions about effective communication with parents about children’s educational progress and well-being. Yet communication between school and home varies, and can be a source of parental satisfaction and frustration. Here we consider perspectives of Australian parents whose encounters with schools – both satisfactory and unsatisfactory – are shaped by the everyday communica…
The anatomy of ability
“Ability” is one of the most common concepts underpinning education. Generally, “ability” is central to notions of a meritocratic society. More specifically, schools are allocated the right to define, categorise and label students according to their ability. While there has been ample discussion of the role of ability in the creation of curricula, teachers’ concepts of “ability” have remained relatively unstudied. Using semi-structured interviews…
An analysis of Australian teacher workforce policy: Challenges and opportunities for teacher recruitment and retention
The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the shortage of teachers worldwide. Shortages have been reported globally including in countries such as the UK, Netherlands, France, Japan, New Zealand and the United States. In Australia, persistent challenges in teacher recruitment, and retention, especially in disadvantaged schools have worsened, with rural and remote schools struggling to attract teachers, as well as urban schools in disadvantaged areas nec…
Resilience in the face of crisis: An analysis of the Australian government's natural disaster resilience education program
Resilience as a concept continues to be mobilised as children and young people navigate the climate crisis and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, social isolation, and school closures. In this paper, we explore Rose and Lentzos (2017) position on ‘the polyvalence of resilient strategies’ (p. 44) to analyse the complex concerns that resilience in education is mobilised to address. We examine the emergent discourse of …
Reconsidering assent for randomised control trials in education: Ethical and procedural concerns
Despite ongoing disagreement about what kinds of evidence are most valuable to education, there continues to be an increasing push to make a narrow group of scientific methodologies the basis of educational policy and practice. This has created a growth in the use of randomised control trials (RCTs), which are considered an exemplary example of scientifically rigorous research design. Yet despite the increase in both the prevalence and status of …
Bodies and affect in non-traditional learning spaces
This paper considers the ‘knowledge economy’ as it is used in education rhetoric to establish social and educational consent for significant changes both to the spatial organisation of classrooms and their affective economies. We draw on ethnographic data from a study of ‘non-traditional classroom spaces’, where the spatial organisation of schooling emerged as a potential fulcrum through which the imaginary of the conventional primary classroom w…
Bodies and affect in non-traditional learning spaces
This paper considers the ‘knowledge economy’ as it is used in education rhetoric to establish social and educational consent for significant changes both to the spatial organisation of classrooms and their affective economies. We draw on ethnographic data from a study of ‘non-traditional classroom spaces’, where the spatial organisation of schooling emerged as a potential fulcrum through which the imaginary of the conventional primary classroom w…
The anatomy of ability
“Ability” is one of the most common concepts underpinning education. Generally, “ability” is central to notions of a meritocratic society. More specifically, schools are allocated the right to define, categorise and label students according to their ability. While there has been ample discussion of the role of ability in the creation of curricula, teachers’ concepts of “ability” have remained relatively unstudied. Using semi-structured interviews…
Situated cases of ethical tensions when working with children and young people in educational contexts
[Extract] This introductory commentary on the special issue ‘Contemporary ethical tensions: Situated cases of ethical tensions when working with children and young people in educational contexts’ focuses on elaborating educational ethics as an emerging disciplinary area within the field of education and teacher education. In this context, we are using the term ‘educational ethics’ as a term to refer to a specialist area of applied ethics encompas…
Interview with Professor Meira Levinson: Democracy, dilemmas and educational ethics
In the following interview, Meira Levinson (Harvard Graduate School) discusses the field of educational ethics and how it can enhance justifiable youth activism to enact citizenship education and recover democracy. She introduces readers to her philosophical approach for developing normative case studies that aim to be inclusive of divergent views on knowledge and value in schooling. Professor Levinson visited the School of Education at the Unive…
Un/satisfactory encounters: Communication, conflict and parent-school engagement
The policy and educational ideal of parent-school engagement rests on assumptions about effective communication with parents about children’s educational progress and well-being. Yet communication between school and home varies, and can be a source of parental satisfaction and frustration. Here we consider perspectives of Australian parents whose encounters with schools – both satisfactory and unsatisfactory – are shaped by the everyday communica…
Reconsidering assent for randomised control trials in education: Ethical and procedural concerns
Despite ongoing disagreement about what kinds of evidence are most valuable to education, there continues to be an increasing push to make a narrow group of scientific methodologies the basis of educational policy and practice. This has created a growth in the use of randomised control trials (RCTs), which are considered an exemplary example of scientifically rigorous research design. Yet despite the increase in both the prevalence and status of …
Controversial issues in the Australian educational context: Dimension of politics, policy and practice
In recent years, a number of controversies related to climate change, racism and Black Lives Matter, and gender and sexual diversity have characterised public debate in Australia about politically charged content in schools. This paper explores one jurisdiction’s “Controversial Issues in Schools” policy through three broad areas of discussion. We begin by analysing the current social and political context in Australia at both a state and national…
A summary of initiatives to address teacher shortages in hard-to-staff schools in the Anglosphere
This article brings together a number of key issues that emerge in research around the problem of teacher shortages in hard-to-staff schools. It offers a broad overview of the hard-to-staff schooling sector as discussed in recent academic literature and provides a context-specific overview of the literature around workforce shortages in hard-to-staff schools with relevancy for high poverty contexts. In line with Williams et al. ( The paper begins…
Still standing: An ecological perspective on teachers remaining in hard-to-staff schools
In this paper, we investigate the working lives of three Australian teachers in the hardest-to-staff schools as they tell their stories of how teacher attrition has impacted them and others.Drawing on Zavelevsky & Shapira-Lishchinsky's ecological framework (2020) we analyse their work-stories to better understand issues impacting the teaching workforce in a time of extreme teaching shortages.Part of a larger study on teachers who remain in hard-t…
The Hidden Work of Incidental Mentoring in the Hardest-to-Staff Schools
In a climate of pervasive teacher shortages, initiatives have focused on attracting new teachers to the profession, with hardest-to-staff schools more likely to fill vacancies with early-career teachers, including those with conditional status. In Australia, workforce policy prioritises induction and mentoring to support transition to the profession and improve retention. This paper aims to understand mentor teacher experiences in hardest-to-staf…
Teachers who stay in hard-to-staff schools: School responses to the teacher shortage crisis
In this paper, we report on some early findings from a project that explores the experiences of teacher shortages in hard-to-staff schools in Australia. We provide an in-depth account of the experiences of teachers who remain at schools characterised by unfilled vacancies, high staff turnover and a limited casual relief workforce. These experiences are often overlooked because most studies concerning teacher shortages typically analyse such issue…
Maybe I’m just not strong enough’: On the care exploitation of teachers in hard-to-staff schools
An analysis of Australian teacher workforce policy: Challenges and opportunities for teacher recruitment and retention
The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the shortage of teachers worldwide. Shortages have been reported globally including in countries such as the UK, Netherlands, France, Japan, New Zealand and the United States. In Australia, persistent challenges in teacher recruitment, and retention, especially in disadvantaged schools have worsened, with rural and remote schools struggling to attract teachers, as well as urban schools in disadvantaged areas nec…
Resilience in the face of crisis: An analysis of the Australian government's natural disaster resilience education program
Resilience as a concept continues to be mobilised as children and young people navigate the climate crisis and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, social isolation, and school closures. In this paper, we explore Rose and Lentzos (2017) position on ‘the polyvalence of resilient strategies’ (p. 44) to analyse the complex concerns that resilience in education is mobilised to address. We examine the emergent discourse of …
Not the job I imagined: Teachers’ expectations of their work in the context of teaching shortages
In the context of extreme teaching shortages in Australia, this paper examines the concept of a ‘teaching imaginary’. It explores the discrepancy between teachers’ expectations of their work, primarily focused on classroom teaching, professional judgement and relationships with students, and the realities of their often administrative and managerial roles. In this paper we draw on narratives from teachers collected as part of a larger ethnographi…
For the foreseeable future: The tenuous and precarious nature of teacher retention 1
Beyond the nine-to-five: Gendered experiences of work–life conflict in Australia's hardest-to-staff schools
Work-life conflict causes issues for many women in the Australian labour market. Historically, teaching has been positioned as one of the few careers that allow women to balance their professional and personal lives. These associations have contributed to teaching being one of the most gender-segregated labour sectors, despite being marked by intense workload, long hours and demanding physical, cognitive, and emotional labour. This article examin…
Sociology (13 works) · Pedagogy (11 works) · Psychology (10 works) · Political science (9 works) · Mathematics education (7 works) · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies (6 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (5 works) · Education Systems and Policy (5 works) · Medical education (4 works) · Medicine (4 works)