The Work Lives of Teachers in England and Tasmania, Australia: A Cross-cultural Study of Early Years and Primary Level Teachers

Abstract

Teachers' work lives, including their roles, responsibilities, workloads and impact on their lives outside the school, is a topic of increasing interest and research internationally. In England, Galton and MacBeath (2008), reported that irrespective of country, governance (central vs federal), [or] schooling (primary vs secondary) teacher stress and workload appear to share a number of features (p.93). In Tasmania, the island state of Australia, Gardner and Williamson (2004) investigated the work lives of primary teachers, and more recently Yost (2010) examined early childhood teachers' perceptions of teaching in contemporary Tasmanian (Australia) classrooms. The data sets from each study (i.e., Galton, MacBeath, Page, & Steward, 2002; Gardner & Williamson, 2004; Yost, 2010) reveal similarities, common trends and themes. This paper, first, will briefly describe the English and Tasmanian study contexts and the research methodology; second, present key findings identifiable within England and Tasmania's data sets and, finally, point to possible changes that may assist to alleviate some of the teachers' reported concerns. © Common Ground, Helen Yost, John Williamson.