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

Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) providesplay, 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 improvementprocesses and increasingly likely to have qualifications. Despite its growing social importance, there is little research about the OSHC workforce. This article draws on aresearch project conducted with OSHC practitioners who participated in aprofessional development program that introduced aset of professional standards for practitioners. The research investigated how participants engaged with the standards after completion of the program and demonstratedthat uptake of the professional standards was complicated by workplace and sector hierarchies. Participants were less likely to use the standardsfor service leaders and short-term,casualised workers. These hierarchies formed in complex ways around dominant discourses that underestimate care and leisure work and positionOSHC as asecondary 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]