This book looks at the narrowing effects of contemporary modes of teacher and teaching policy and governance. It draws on political theory to provide new ways of conceptualising the effects of teacher and teaching policies and practices. It adds a new dimension to the robust body of literature related to teacher policy by looking at three interrelated domains: (1) teacher preparation and development, (2) teacher evaluation and (3) teacher leadership.
Drawing from case studies from the USA, UK and Australia, it illustrates how a coalescence around metrics, standards and compliance is producing increasingly restricted notions of teachers and teaching. It shows how the rationalities and techniques associated with accountability and standardisation are limiting the possibilities for multiple conceptualisations of teaching and teachers to exist or emerge. Using pluralism as the main framework, it challenges the dangers associated with rigid compliance and alignment and argues that pluralism can help secure schools as socially and culturally responsive to the needs of the community.
"This book is a significant undertaking to evaluate and (re)address teacher accountability and educational policy. ... A real strength of this book lies in the call to action that reimagining schooling needs to begin with a greater, anti-racist vision that transcends the traditional notions of our discursive plains. ... Holloway's interconnected consideration of teacher accountability and educational policy adds a new dimension to our understanding of the preparation and development ... leadership of K-12 teachers in Australia and the USA." (Ameena L. Payne, Sarah Langman and Rafaan Daliri-Ngametua, Journal of Education Policy, June 10, 2022)
Preface
Chapter 1: Teaching in Times of Turbulence
Chapter 2: The Economic Discourse of Education: A Poststructural Perspective
Chapter 3: Performativity, Datafication and the Techniques of Teacher Evaluation
Chapter 4: Teacher Evaluation and the Control of Risky Teachers
Chapter 5: Aligning Teacher Preparation, Professional Development and Evaluation: The Case of the TAP System
Chapter 6: The Stories of TAP-y Teachers
Chapter 7: The Onto-Epistemic Regime of Metrics, Data and Standards
Chapter 8: Prepping for Accountability: Metrics and Standards in Teacher Education
Chapter 9: Distributing Leadership: Sharing Responsibility and Maintaining Accountability
Chapter 10: New Possibilities for Imagining Pluralism in Teacher Policy: A Contrast-Model
Chapter 11: Democracy and Education: Why Pluralism Matters
Dr. Jessica Holloway is an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow within the Research for Educational Impact (REDI) Centre at Deakin University (Melbourne, Australia). Her DECRA project, entitled ‘The Role of Teacher Expertise, Authority and Professionalism in Education’ investigates the role of education in modern democratic societies, with a particular focus on teachers and teacher expertise. Prior to earning her PhD in Educational Policy and Evaluation at Arizona State University in 2014, Jessica was a middle grades and high-school English teacher for six years in the USA. She has spent the past eight years studying and writing extensively about teacher accountability and evaluation in the USA and Australia. Her work has appeared in journals such as the Journal of Educational Policy, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, and Critical Studies in Education.
This book looks at the narrowing effects of contemporary modes of teacher and teaching policy and governance. It draws on political theory to provide new ways of conceptualising the effects of teacher and teaching policies and practices. It adds a new dimension to the robust body of literature related to teacher policy by looking at three interrelated domains: (1) teacher preparation and development, (2) teacher evaluation and (3) teacher leadership.
Drawing from case studies from the USA, UK and Australia, it illustrates how a coalescence around metrics, standards and compliance is producing increasingly restricted notions of teachers and teaching. It shows how the rationalities and techniques associated with accountability and standardisation are limiting the possibilities for multiple conceptualisations of teaching and teachers to exist or emerge. Using pluralism as the main framework, it challenges the dangers associated with rigid compliance and alignment and argues that pluralism can help secure schools as socially and culturally responsive to the needs of the community.