Early career primary teachers’ discursive negotiations of academisation

Abstract

This article reports findings from a small-scale research project which explored the professional identities of early career teachers working in primary academies in England. During interviews and focus groups, these new teachers resisted identifying as ‘academy teachers,’ constructing academy status as an unimportant feature when deciding where to work. I theorise this phenomenon using Foucault, arguing that the willingness of new teachers to construct academy schools as ‘no different’ to their maintained counterparts is a key factor in the success of post-2010 academisation as a biopolitical project.