The Production and Performance of Workplace Hierarchies in Australian Outside School Hours Care

Abstract

Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) provides play, leisure, care and education for significant numbers of Australian children. As government has become increasingly involved in the regulation of OSHC, the sector has become increasingly professionalised. OSHC practitioners are active participants in quality improvement processes and increasingly likely to have qualifications. Despite its growing social importance, there is little research about the OSHC workforce. This article draws on a research project conducted with OSHC practitioners who participated in a professional development program that introduced a set of professional standards for practitioners. The research investigated how participants engaged with the standards after completion of the program and demonstrated that uptake of the professional standards was complicated by workplace and sector hierarchies. Participants were less likely to use the standards for service leaders and short-term, casualised workers. These hierarchies formed in complex ways around dominant discourses that underestimate care and leisure work and position OSHC as a secondary consideration for school management. The findings in this research have important implications for the sustainability of the OSHC workforce, how it is perceived and how it engages with professional development programs.