Crafting the inspirational teacher: governing through affect as policy response to teacher recruitment in Australia

As policymakers address a teacher attrition crisis, this paper examines how the Australian policy response mobilises affect to address and manage teacher recruitment. Drawing on affect theory and governmentality, we analyse a case study – the Australian Government’s Be That Teacher campaign – as a policy instrument that seeks to cultivate among would-be-teachers desirable feelings and aspirations aligned with state priorities. Our analysis shows how a sentimental and idealised figure of the ‘inspirational’ teacher is mobilised as a form of affective governmentality through two interconnected dynamics: (1) the construction of teaching as emotionally fulfilling and morally meaningful work through narratives of inspiration, care, and personal transformation; and (2) the individualisation of responsibility for recruitment, retention, and teacher wellbeing through affective appeals that articulate positive public sentiment while obscuring the structural causes of teacher attrition. Together, these dynamics demonstrate how affective governmentality aligns personal attachment, public feeling, and policy priorities, and how such strategies risk reproducing the very conditions that they seek to address.