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Globalisation, gender and teachers' employment

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Abstract: Globalisation, Gender and Teachers’ Employment This thesis examines the nexus between globalisation and patterns of gendered employment in the education industry in New South Wales, Australia. Globalisation has had an impact on employment and gender relations in Australia through economic restructuring, through the transformation of the labour market and through public sector reform. A number of theories of globalisation recognise its impact on employment practices, but many fail to examine its impact on gender relations. This study brings the gendered aspects of globalisation into focus. The changing nature of employment in the education industry is located within the broader context of globalisation and economic restructuring in Australia. Using statistical information from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and other sources, this thesis traces the impact of globalisation on the Australian economy, labour market and, in particular, the public sector. The thesis also traces historically the institutional changes in Australia that have contributed to the globalisation process. A field study was undertaken to examine casual teachers’ experiences of globalisation, economic and labour market restructuring and public sector reform in New South Wales. Interviews were conducted with 20 casual school teachers working in the New South Wales public education system. Men and women teachers, working in rural and urban locations, were asked about their experiences of globalisation and its impact on gender relations in the workplace and in the home. Although household and workplace structures in Australia are changing as a result of globalisation, these structures remain gendered. Gender relations in the household continue to structure access to the workplace. There are elements of systematic discrimination in the treatment of casual teachers in public education in New South Wales, and teachers are penalised for adopting non-standard forms of work. Globalisation has individualising and peripheralising impacts on casual teachers; however, they have developed mechanisms for resisting these aspects of globalisation. Although individuals are formed by and respond to the structural conditions created by globalisation they are able to make choices about employment patterns and gender divisions between home and paid work.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/283401
Date January 2005
CreatorsBamberry, Larissa Joy
Source SetsAustraliasian Digital Theses Program
Detected LanguageEnglish
RightsThe author retains copyright of this thesis., http://www.library.usyd.edu.au/copyright.html

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