Redefining public values: data use and value dilemmas in education

Abstract

In this article, we explore how values in education are negotiated and partly redefined by teachers, school leaders and local administrators with data use and accountability. Two dilemmas are prominent for the teachers: 1) Testing and data use are perceived as important to meet the needs of the students and to create transparency and initiating innovation in schools, yet they lead to performance pressure on the students and narrow the societal mandate in education, and 2) Although it is important to identify students at the lowest proficiency levels, the established accountability chains acknowledge the progress of these students and the teachers' efforts only to a limited extent. However, values such as meeting the needs of individual students, transparency and innovation/renewal are partly redefined and narrowed on other institutional levels. The dilemmas represent real normative conflicts in public services that are ultimately unsolvable yet not necessarily at odds with professional values.

Teacher autonomy in the age of performance-based accountability: A review based on teaching profession regulatory models (2017-2020)

“…In contrast to high-stakes contexts, where negative opinions and beliefs about PBA instruments and performance metrics are common, we find a predominance of mixed views and ambivalent feelings in the countries associated with the training model (Gunnulfsen & Roe, 2018;Kelly et al 2018). In Norway, for example, Mausethagen, Prøitz and Skedsmo (2020) note that the majority of interviewed teachers show favorable attitudes and opinions regarding the national standardized test. Thus, Norwegian teachers associate standardized tests with positive values "such as transparency, meeting the needs of the students and innovation".…”

“…In this sense, the teachers' opinions show that "it is not primarily the tests themselves that create value dilemmas, but the number of tests and how the test results are used" (p. 6). Teachers' concerns are related to the excessive performance orientation of PBA instruments and the lack of knowledge and support to use available data to help students (Mausethagen et al, 2020). Overall, the trajectory of PBA in Norway has been characterized by a tension between trust and mistrust, accountability and control.…”

Space as a lens for teacher agency: A case study of three beginning teachers in England, UK

“…We argue that policies that seek to constrain, or control, for example through centralised and rigid curricular, will likely result in reduced spaces for those at the beginning of their careers to achieve agency and may well exacerbate the teacher retention crisis. As similar accountability-focused policies have begun to be implemented (although perhaps to a lesser extent) beyond anglophone contexts including for example Norway (Mausethagen et al, 2021) and Brazil (Lennert da & Mølstad, 2020), the findings from this study of teacher agency may have relevance for teacher educators and researchers working within higher levels of regulatory control. And yet, given the messy and entangled nature of space, such policies may simultaneously provide a range of spaces, which have varied influences on teacher agency.…”

«A-skole» eller «B-skole»? Målstyring og lærerprofesjonalitet i Osloskolen

“…I Oslo er resultatene også fritt tilgjengelige for innsyn på skolenes hjemmesider, og elevtall påvirker rektors lønn og skolenes ressurstildeling. Det er også blitt vanligere for ledere å sette resultatmål for elevene (Mausethagen, Prøitz & Skedsmo, 2020). Men selv om dette er uttrykk for postbyråkratisk styring, er også profesjonsbyråkratiske idéer og praksiser bragt videre.…”