Enhancing the status of teachers as professionals : a futures perspective

Teacher professionalism, as a national priority, promises smart, ethical, entrepreneurial teachers whose ‘futures perspectives’ nurture critical self-reflection and subscription to on-going professional development. In Queensland, a futures-perspective underpins educational policy and recent schooling initiatives designed to enhance the status of teachers as futures-oriented professionals in the service of the ‘Smart State’. But what is a ‘futures perspective’? How does it contribute to a more professional teaching workforce and competitive economy? This paper reports on a study of Queensland teachers’ understandings of futures and how it informs their work and roles as professional educators for a Smart State operating in a competitive global economy. The study shows that, despite the pervasion of futures discourses throughout Queensland schools, classroom teachers find it difficult to articulate futures and what it might mean for their classroom practices and professionalism in the current schooling context. Clearly, more work is required before futures becomes the agent for new millennial schooling that school policy expounds.