This paper offers a glimpse into marginalised pre-service teachers’ (PST) experiences of teacher testing in Australia’s high-stakes Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education Students (LANTITE). Utilising Critical Disability Theory, we problematise teacher testing as a gatekeeping tool for students undertaking teacher education. The paper highlights how recent policies governing licensure teacher testing in Australia have disempowered and turned away talented and empathetic future teachers. Through illuminating their embodied experiences of stress and anxiety, we interrogate neoliberal discourses of power and show how teacher testing is used as a blunt instrument to solve complex problems. As part of a larger longitudinal research project, we highlight how vulnerable PSTs who have become unwitting victims of the high-stakes test juggernaut. This article focuses on five emergent themes from the research: (a) the embodied impact of stress and anxiety on test-takers, (b) withholding of information regarding testing processes and support, (c) the lack of differentiation available to PSTs (d) impacts of edu-businesses and the business of education on vulnerable participants and (e) a passion for differentiation.

Methodologically, this study is situated within posthumanist critical discourse theory (CDT) paradigm, based on the theoretical work of Goodley (2014). This, in turn, builds on the philosophical foundations of Braidotti (2019) and Deleuze and Guattari, (2009). The concept of neoliberal-ableism provides a useful lens for interrogating discursive and performative regimes of power within the field of teacher education. This paper utilises this theoretical lens to deconstruct neoliberal discourses regarding LANTITE and their practical limitations for students living with disability. We foregrounds the embodied experiences of PSTs through narrative portraits thus giving voice to their unique stories and highlighting how education can benefit from the skills, experiences and empathy of these marginalised teachers.

This qualitative research project used narrative portraiture because it highlights participant’s narrated and embodied experience, the person themselves; their circumstances, and their life story, much like an artist’s portrait. Focusing on PST’s stories is a way to honour the lived experiences of those involved. The participants we selected for this paper were drawn from our longitudinal research project. This project aimed to explore the perceptions of a large group of PSTs who had to sit the then new licensure teacher test. An unexpected result from this larger study was the specific difficulties and barriers that female teachers (most with caring responsibilities) who identified as having a disability faced when attempting to complete the LANTITE. As a result, we conducted further research into the experiences of these marginalised teachers. All participants in this subsequent study identified as women with disabilities including ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia and autoimmune disease.

The results of this research project highlight the need for policy makers to consider diversity and make equitable decisions that empower students and teachers with disability. The avoidance of differentiation and support for teachers with disability perpetuates ableist perspectives and continues to celebrate ‘able identities’ in teaching and in the classroom.

Keywords: Education, disability, high stakes testing, neoliberalism.