Seeking Academic Voice: An Autoethnographic Study of Casualisation in Teacher Education

Within the context of teacher education in Australian universities, understanding the barriers and challenges experienced by female teacher educators of colour is vital to developing social justice frameworks. This chapter presents an autoethnographic case study offering a more nuanced understanding of the inclusion of ethnic, migrant teacher educators within these spaces. It particularly extends scope for senior university management to meaningfully grasp the quotidian, ongoing challenges facing women of colour who are casual academics. Using personal narrative and an emotionally reflexive lens, I draw on my lived experiences as a casual woman academic of colour, constantly navigating uncertain terrains within academia. I argue for workplace equity for this minority group to further the creation of an inclusive teaching and learning space for all. Raising such disruptive queries enables our students to critically question entrenched exclusions within neoliberal university structures, including the dissonances between teaching inclusion while living racialised experiences as teacher educators. Ongoing exclusion through casualisation further marginalises this minority group, posing an obstacle to development as teacher-educators, adversely impacting their professional, socio-cultural, and emotional inclusion within tertiary institutional spaces.