Mihajla Gavin
Biographic Data
| ID | 4607842 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mihajla Gavin |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mihajla |
| FAMILY NAME | Gavin |
| SIGNATURE | GAVIN M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Technology Sydney |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6796-5198 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 10 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Researching for societal impact
Tackling teacher workload
When Home is the Workplace
Domestic violence (DV) is a global problem affecting individuals, communities and societies, and increasingly a workplace problem. During the COVID-19 pandemic, home became both the workplace under government-directed lockdowns and a site for increased DV in a ‘shadow pandemic’ of violence. This article examines how workplaces supported DV victim–survivors when working-from-home during lockdowns. Drawing primary data from interviews with DV first…
Teacher unions, democracy and participation
Teacher unions are working in challenging times. Building power is important for teacher unions to resist neoliberal reforms that have aimed to restructure school education and weaken collective organisation. Yet we have few understandings of the democratisation project that teacher unions have engaged in to build and renew internal power in this environment. Drawing upon insights from a successful case study of teacher union democracy in Austral…
The hidden garden
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…
Teachers and educational policy
This double special issue, “Teachers and educational policy: markets, populism, and im/possibilities for resistance” explores the figurative politics of the teacher in current education systems around the world. In this introduction to the issue, we discuss how and why teachers have emerged as a key focus of contemporary policy reform. We argue that teachers are seen as a logical site of public commentary in the global knowledge economy, yet teac…
Unions and collective bargaining in Australia in 2021
This article reviews the year across collective bargaining, union policy and strategy, as well as industrial responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the industrial environment rebounded slightly from the initial impact of the pandemic in 2020, similar themes persisted throughout 2021, including declining coverage of employees under collective agreements, a difficult bargaining environment in ‘essential’ industries, limited cooperation of the in…
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…
Safeguarding women at work? Lessons from Aotearoa New Zealand on effectively implementing domestic violence policies
Although domestic violence is increasingly acknowledged as a workplace issue and a gender equality issue, a gap remains in the effective implementation of domestic violence policies in workplaces. The Domestic Violence – Victims Protection Act passed in 2018 in Aotearoa New Zealand was a global landmark for holding workplaces accountable for safeguarding victims through a codification of employer responsibility. While the legislation is a milesto…
Reframing the narrative
Neoliberal logics have put teacher unions on the defensive, requiring evaluation of the resources and capabilities necessary to improve teachers’ industrial and professional conditions and broader public education issues. This article examines the case of a teachers' union in Australia – the NSW Teachers’ Federation – and their renewal of resources and capabilities in recent public education campaigns. In applying a power resources and capabiliti…
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…
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…
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…
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…
The hidden garden
Safeguarding women at work? Lessons from Aotearoa New Zealand on effectively implementing domestic violence policies
Although domestic violence is increasingly acknowledged as a workplace issue and a gender equality issue, a gap remains in the effective implementation of domestic violence policies in workplaces. The Domestic Violence – Victims Protection Act passed in 2018 in Aotearoa New Zealand was a global landmark for holding workplaces accountable for safeguarding victims through a codification of employer responsibility. While the legislation is a milesto…
Reframing the narrative
Neoliberal logics have put teacher unions on the defensive, requiring evaluation of the resources and capabilities necessary to improve teachers’ industrial and professional conditions and broader public education issues. This article examines the case of a teachers' union in Australia – the NSW Teachers’ Federation – and their renewal of resources and capabilities in recent public education campaigns. In applying a power resources and capabiliti…
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…
Teachers and educational policy
This double special issue, “Teachers and educational policy: markets, populism, and im/possibilities for resistance” explores the figurative politics of the teacher in current education systems around the world. In this introduction to the issue, we discuss how and why teachers have emerged as a key focus of contemporary policy reform. We argue that teachers are seen as a logical site of public commentary in the global knowledge economy, yet teac…
Unions and collective bargaining in Australia in 2021
This article reviews the year across collective bargaining, union policy and strategy, as well as industrial responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the industrial environment rebounded slightly from the initial impact of the pandemic in 2020, similar themes persisted throughout 2021, including declining coverage of employees under collective agreements, a difficult bargaining environment in ‘essential’ industries, limited cooperation of the in…
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…
The hidden garden
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…
Teacher unions, democracy and participation
Teacher unions are working in challenging times. Building power is important for teacher unions to resist neoliberal reforms that have aimed to restructure school education and weaken collective organisation. Yet we have few understandings of the democratisation project that teacher unions have engaged in to build and renew internal power in this environment. Drawing upon insights from a successful case study of teacher union democracy in Austral…
Researching for societal impact
Tackling teacher workload
When Home is the Workplace
Domestic violence (DV) is a global problem affecting individuals, communities and societies, and increasingly a workplace problem. During the COVID-19 pandemic, home became both the workplace under government-directed lockdowns and a site for increased DV in a ‘shadow pandemic’ of violence. This article examines how workplaces supported DV victim–survivors when working-from-home during lockdowns. Drawing primary data from interviews with DV first…
Sociology (9 works) · Political science (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Labor Movements and Unions (6 works) · Economics (5 works) · Public Administration (5 works) · Public relations (5 works) · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies (4 works) · Pedagogy (3 works) · Politics (3 works)