Professionalism in the era of accountability
The roles and identities of professionals have undergone significanttransformation in an ever-globalising world shaped by neoliberal values.In the field of education, standardisation and outcome-based qualitymeasures have become the norm. Teachers are held accountablethrough their students' res...
| Autores: | , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2022 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
| Repositorio: | Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ddd.uab.cat:250623 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://ddd.uab.cat/record/250623 https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1111/1468-4446.12917 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Performance-based accountability Policy enactment Professionalism Role discrepancy Teachers |
| Sumario: | The roles and identities of professionals have undergone significanttransformation in an ever-globalising world shaped by neoliberal values.In the field of education, standardisation and outcome-based qualitymeasures have become the norm. Teachers are held accountablethrough their students' results, with their work subject to ongoingsurveillance (performance-based accountability). This has changed thenature of teachers' tasks, and what it means to be a "good teacher".Based on 20 teacher interviews across six primary schools in theNetherlands, this study examines teachers' practices and beliefs, asking:do they experience role discrepancy? What responses do we see as aresult? And, what does this reveal about teachers' sense ofprofessionalism today?Findings show that all teachers experience the pressure of highworkloads and the need to prioritise tasks. Whereas a small minority ofrespondents understand performative tasks as having a crucial functionof supporting student learning and achievement, others experienced adiscrepancy between these performative tasks and the tasks theybelieved to be at the heart of good teaching. Confronted with this,teachers responded in different ways; either incorporating all tasks intotheir schedule, or feeling forced to choose between them. Beyond this,findings indicate that teachers' understandings of key aspects of theprofession, such as autonomy, are changing in response to the policyenvironment. This supports conceptualisations of professions andprofessionalism as not only "being changed by" external reform, butchanging from within. |
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