In the 21st century, educators’ work is arguably more complex and more needed than ever before. The last six decades have witnessed significant changes involving global economic forces, increased competitive production modes, climate change and its ramifications on human and non-human beings. We have felt the impact in education of a pandemic, which seemed to ‘slow us down’, amid a fast-moving and ever-developing technological landscape which had, and continues to have, significant impacts on people’s ways of life. There has been a merging of finance, trade and communication knowledges; societal instability; and a global resurgence in right-wing politics and social movements which are exercised around assumed threats of immigration, ‘race’ and ethnicity and other forms of diversity.

This chapter is based on mix-method research, funded by the Australian Research Council, that was undertaken by Associate Professors Tania Ferfolja and Jacqueline Ullman, called ’Gender and Sexuality Diversity in Schools: Parental Experiences and Schooling Responses’. The study sought answers to two key questions. The first was what do Australian parents with a school-aged child who attends a public school want in relation to gender and sexuality diversity-related content in the curriculum? The second question sought to understand the experiences of parents of gender and sexuality diverse (GSD) young people in navigating the public school system with and for their child. Understanding these experiences can help to create safer and more inclusive learning environments, for not only GSD students but all students.

In this final chapter, we would like to extend the metaphor of the ‘unseen half’ by exploring how sociological theory itself is ‘unseen’ in early childhood, primary and secondary educational contexts, at least outside of pre-service teacher education and academia itself. When stories about education settings, educational-related issues or educational research findings enter the public milieu via the media, there is rarely any explicit acknowledgement of the theoretical perspectives that might have informed the analysis of the story, issue, or ‘problem’. We propose that ignoring these theoretical influences is due less to a lack of theoretical presence and more to theory’s unfortunate relegation to the background as bland, unintelligible, irrelevant or even elitist.

AUSTRALIAN PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS FOR TEACHERS

Standard 7: Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community

Through an enhanced understanding of theory and reflexivity and their relationship to teaching as a profession, this chapter enables readers to more meaningfully engage with school professionals and communities through a critically aware and socially cognisant lens.

Introduction

In today's world, teachers’ work is more complex than ever before. This is due to: changes within the last 50 years in global economic forces and highly competitive production modes; the merging of finance, trade and communication knowledges; rapidly advancing technologies; political instability; and environmental concerns. There has been an intensification of migration and labour markets, bringing into contact diverse languages, cultures and identities in ways never before experienced (Romain, 2011). Those living in the Antipodes have not been untouched by changing global forces. These both result in and coincide with a local range of social, cultural and political complexities. These include, but are not limited to: economic disparities in and between postcodes; continued social disadvantage of Indigenous Australians; intolerance towards religious and other forms of diversity; changing mores in relation to gender and sexuality–diverse people; the rise of single-parent and same-sex-headed families as well as changing family constellations; and a political imperative that reduces access to social services, which have been increasingly privatised.

The increase in privatisation is one element of neoliberalism. Neoliberalism, an economic theory that gained popularity in the late 1970s, has considerable influence on schooling. Claiming to offer individuals greater choice and freedoms, neoliberal educational policies have significantly impacted on the functioning and intent of education, requiring schools to produce particular kinds of work-ready subjects.