Autonomy in Teaching: Going, going ... gone

Each year thousands of graduates in Australia take up their first position in schools, eager to teach students and determined to make a difference in their lives. They are overwhelmingly motivated by a desire to 'do good' and 'be good'. Often they have been imagining 'their' class and 'their' teaching for years. In this article I report on a study of beginning teachers in Australian primary schools, and describe the ways in which the current neo-liberalist agenda in education in Australia dictates the English teaching they do. I discuss the implications of this for teacher autonomy and teacher retention.