Towards precarity? The occupational situation of physical education teachers in Poland

Abstract

Many studies indicate that the teaching profession is influenced by social, cultural, economic, and political forces. In this article, we used Standing's theory of precarity to explore economic, social, and political challenges experienced by Polish physical education (PE) teachers. The purpose of this research was to explore the working conditions and perceptions of the profession among Polish upper-secondary school PE teachers. Data were collected using in-depth interviews with 37 participants and analyzed using a blended approach (i.e. inductive–deductive). The findings showed that PE teachers experienced difficulties associated with the marginalization of their work and manifestations of precarity typical for all teachers in Poland, namely poor working arrangements. PE teachers declared feelings of anomie and alienation as a result of uncertainty and, at times, anger, mainly due to the political factors affecting their work. Thus, this research also presented the direct entanglement of PE teachers in national-level politics. Participants expressed feeling powerless, out of control, and not prepared for the ongoing changes resulting from the political context in which they found themselves. The utilization of Standing's theory highlighted how neoliberal practices concerning the labour market reinforced the challenges faced by PE teachers, diminished the prestige of the teaching profession as a whole, and impacted the attitudes of PE teachers towards their work. Further, this research confirmed that the experience of precarity can be highly heterogeneous, underscoring the importance of examining local contexts to understand the complexity of the precarization process in education.