Time-Use, Time Poverty and Teachers’ Work

Research outputs

The QTU is proud to partner with the Time Use, Time Poverty and Teachers’ Work, which is a recipient of an Australian Research Council Linkage Project grant.

Research publications include:

Creagh, S., Thompson, G., Mockler, N., Stacey, M., & Hogan, A. (2023). Workload, work intensification and time poverty for teachers and school leaders: a systematic research synthesis. Educational Review, 1–20.

This article was published by the research team in 2023, in Educational Review and is available to download for free.  The research team explain how workload and work intensification function together in teachers’ work, and advances the notion of “time poverty”.

Gavin, M., Stacey, M. (2024, February 3). Tackle teachers’ workloads but leave lesson planning to the experts. The Sydney Morning Herald.

This opinion piece, published in The Sydney Morning Herald, draws from the authors’ research that found teachers want more time to do the complex intellectual work involved in preparing for classes; not that they want to do less of this work. Stripping tasks like lesson planning from teachers risks chipping away at work that teachers have an expertise in and value, which could lead to deskilling.

Stacey, M., Gavin, M., Fitzgerald, S., McGrath-Champ, S., & Wilson, R. (2023). Reducing teachers’ workload or deskilling ‘core’ work? Analysis of a policy response to teacher workload demands. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 45(2), 187–199.

This journal article was published in Discourse and is available to download for free. The lead author, Dr Meghan Stacey is a member of the Time use, time poverty and teachers’ work research team. The authors contend that there is a risk of policy responses to teacher workload becoming vehicles for the (re)definition of teachers’ ‘core work’ and that could result in deskilling the teacher workforce.

Thompson, G. (2021, March 6). Explaining time poverty. [Keynote presentation]. QTU Union Representatives Conference. Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

In 2021, Professor Greg Thompson delivered the keynote presentation at the QTU’s Union Representatives Conference at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. The slides from the presentation are available on the Queensland University of Technology website, and can be downloaded here.

Thompson, G. (2022). Time use, time poverty and teachers’ work. Queensland Teachers' Journal 127(8), p17.

In this QTU journal article, Professor Greg Thompson reports on the importance of the project and updates members on phases of the research at the time