Taking Teachers Out of the Equation: Constructions of Teachers in Education Policy Documents Over a Ten-year Period

Education policy documents recently have placed great emphasis on teacher quality in the belief that ‘education of the highest quality requires teachers of the highest quality’ (Department of Employment Education Training and Youth Affairs 2000). This paper traces the discourses on teachers constructed in policy documents in order to establish what is meant by ‘teachers of the highest quality’. It employs Critical Discourse Analysis to investigate the discursive construction of teachers’ professional identities in three policy documents released over the last decade. This analysis finds that, despite recognition being given to the importance of teachers in all three documents, teachers’ professional autonomy is effectively curtailed as they are increasingly being ‘taken out of the equation’ in education policy decision-making. The paper concludes with suggestions for ways in which teachers may challenge these constructions and work to reconstruct teachers as active voices in the policy-making process.