Insurance and Assurance: Teachers' Strategies in the Regimes of Risk and Audit

Abstract

This article deals with how the increasing use of notions such as ‘risk awareness' and ‘blame’ in relation to school affects the daily work of Swedish teachers. With the help of empirical excerpts from documents and focus group interviews, the authors provide examples of how the introduction of the risk society and audit cultures encourages the creation of new strategies for coping. Two of these concern the mediation of ‘safe school’ images and preventions in order to avoid future blame. The authors depict them as strategies of assurance and insurance. The increasing handling of these strategies seems to draw attention away from relations to students and actual time spent on teaching. When considering an action, teachers seem to balance the risk of attracting blame against the didactic potential. Finally, the possibility of practices which reflect more positive risk logic is discussed.

The responsible parent and networks of support: A case study of school engagement in a challenging environment

“…Teachers condemn the practices of parents, through an assessment of pupil behaviour and attitude, but on occasion this critique of parents is a direct consequence of encounters with parents in school. Contracts and overt levels of control are occasionally invoked; this is unavoidable given the emphasis on safeguarding and risk assessment (Lindqvist et al, 2009). At the same time, this deficit is normally articulated in terms of encouraging or persuading parents to do better (Devine & Cockburn, 2018).…”

“…The development of working relationships with parents is vital: 'kindness' is a central value and ongoing dialogue across a network of engagement is crucial. Contracts and overt levels of control are occasionally invoked; this is unavoidable given the emphasis on safeguarding and risk assessment (Lindqvist et al, 2009). There were occasions when this was felt by teachers and parents to be intruding on family as a 'private' realm (Wyness, 2014).…”

“…Neo-liberal conceptions of accountability, risk and measurable outcomes shape a more performance-oriented operation within schools, tightening up lines of management and regulation (Fielding, 2006;Lindqvist et al, 2009). Neo-liberal conceptions of accountability, risk and measurable outcomes shape a more performance-oriented operation within schools, tightening up lines of management and regulation (Fielding, 2006;Lindqvist et al, 2009).…”

“…School structures have become more hierarchical in recent years. Neo-liberal conceptions of accountability, risk and measurable outcomes shape a more performance-oriented operation within schools, tightening up lines of management and regulation (Fielding, 2006;Lindqvist et al, 2009). In most schools within England this is accentuated by issues of parental involvement.…”

The social and emotional dimensions of schooling: A case study in challenging the ‘barriers to learning’

“…Research has focused on the way that schools are adjusting to systemic changes that reconstruct education as a bounded outcomes‐oriented project where external judgements of schools are made on the basis of these outcomes (Ball, ). This dominant educational project of ‘performativity’ is reinforced by a broader culture of blame, where problems tend to be located within clearly defined institutional spaces or attributed to ‘culpable’ individuals (Lindqvist et al ., ; Wood & Warin, ). The school is now expected to provide a recognised product or outcome from which its worth is judged.…”