Using Foucault to interrogate teacher wellbeing as discourse

Teachers’ work is increasingly complex and demanding. Across the globe, teachers are experiencing unmanageable workloads, high levels of stress, and demoralisation that is leading to unprecedented attrition. In this context, teacher wellbeing has emerged as a focus of political discourse and government policies and programs, whilst teachers in many jurisdictions express their dissatisfaction and grievances with work conditions, including through teacher protests. In this chapter we demonstrate the value and application of Foucault’s historical-philosophical method to interrogating teacher wellbeing as discourse with a focus on education policies and teacher strikes. Through deploying various Foucauldian concepts, including ‘discourse’ and ‘power/knowledge’, among others, we illustrate how teacher wellbeing as a normative discourse works to position teachers and their work. We argue that deploying these concepts help us to better understand the powers that shape the creation and circulation of discourses through which teachers’ work is understood, problematised and acted upon. This is especially important in socio-political environments that aim to diminish counter discourses and sideline teachers from policy debates and public discussions of their work.