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When Did Workload Become the Policy Problem? Analysing Australian Teacher Workforce Surveys (1963-2023)

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Title: When Did Workload Become the Policy Problem? Analysing Australian Teacher Workforce Surveys (1963-2023)
Language: English
Authors: Anna Hogan, Greg Thompson
Source: Journal of Educational Administration and History. 2026 58(1):3-21.
Availability: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 19
Publication Date: 2026
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Evaluative
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Teacher Surveys, Teacher Attitudes, Faculty Workload, Questioning Techniques, Educational Research, Educational History, Educational Trends, Teaching (Occupation), Educational Policy
Geographic Terms: Australia
DOI: 10.1080/00220620.2025.2572596
ISSN: 0022-0620
1478-7431
Abstract: This paper traces the emergence of workload as a central policy problem by analysing workforce survey data from the Australian College of Educators (ACE) and the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). Using Bacchi's What's the Problem Represented to Be? (WPR) approach, it examines how shifts in survey design, question framing and policy responses over time have transformed workload into a measurable and governable issue. Drawing on Foucault's assertion that discourse constructs the objects of which it speaks, we argue that the codification of workload as a problem has been shaped by changing workforce surveillance. Through an analysis of survey instruments from the 1960s to the present, we demonstrate how workload became an object of policy concern via a discursive shift in how policy and the profession came to represent teachers' and school leaders' work. This discursive shift evident in the surveys, we argue, shows that teachers' and school leaders' experience of work has changed but also has created a workload concept that fails to adequately characterise those changes.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2026
Accession Number: EJ1504798
Database: ERIC
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  Data: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
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  Data: This paper traces the emergence of workload as a central policy problem by analysing workforce survey data from the Australian College of Educators (ACE) and the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). Using Bacchi's What's the Problem Represented to Be? (WPR) approach, it examines how shifts in survey design, question framing and policy responses over time have transformed workload into a measurable and governable issue. Drawing on Foucault's assertion that discourse constructs the objects of which it speaks, we argue that the codification of workload as a problem has been shaped by changing workforce surveillance. Through an analysis of survey instruments from the 1960s to the present, we demonstrate how workload became an object of policy concern via a discursive shift in how policy and the profession came to represent teachers' and school leaders' work. This discursive shift evident in the surveys, we argue, shows that teachers' and school leaders' experience of work has changed but also has created a workload concept that fails to adequately characterise those changes.
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      – SubjectFull: Teacher Attitudes
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      – SubjectFull: Faculty Workload
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      – SubjectFull: Questioning Techniques
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      – SubjectFull: Australia
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