Teachers and educational policy: Markets, populism, and im/possibilities for resistance

Abstract

This double special issue, “Teachers and educational policy: markets, populism, and im/possibilities for resistance” explores the figurative politics of the teacher in current education systems around the world. In this introduction to the issue, we discuss how and why teachers have emerged as a key focus of contemporary policy reform. We argue that teachers are seen as a logical site of public commentary in the global knowledge economy, yet teacher expertise is feared as both known and unknowable, thereby becoming a target of heightened surveillance and control. The papers in the issue are divided into two instalments. First, those which address how external actors are seen to be (re)shaping teachers and teaching, as well as notions of professionalism, knowledge and ‘truth’ in education. Second, those which explore experiences of, and possibilities for resistance to, such shifts. We close with a discussion of the range of international contexts from which the contributors to this issue write, arguing for a need to reimagine teachers and schooling in ways that are less limited by the systems and structures that have formed common international reference points in policy development thus far.

The Race for ‘World Class’ Education: Improvement or Folly?

“…Accountability policy moves intend teachers to be 'held to account' (Lingard, Sellar, and Lewis 2017, 1), but in reality, they separate accountability for education from informed judgement of teachers as professionals (Henig 2013;Lewis and Holloway 2019). The combination of wholehearted engagement with datafied accountability and policy as numbers can be seen in the Australian context, as unproblematised use of NAPLAN outcomes and commensurate growth in deficit educational discourses about teachers and schools (Stacey et al 2022). For more than two decades, public debates about teacher quality have been prominent in international media.…”

Reflexões (quase) antropofágicas sobre remunerações desiguais de docentes no Brasil e nos Estados Unidos da América (do Norte)

“…São muitos os estudos (CANBOLAT, 2021;PARCERISA et al, 2022;SPRINGER et al, 2012;STACEY et al, 2022) que evidenciam as polêmicas e buscam compreender os efeitos dessas políticas de responsabilização baseadas no desempenho e o uso dos bônus. Em 2013, Ravitch analisou os resultados de diferentes estudos que buscaram a relação entre o incremento salarial de professores e a melhora do desempenho dos estudantes, enfatizando análises de experiências em diferentes estados estadunidenses que foram descontinuadas por razões como: ausência de evidências de efetividade dessa política; percentual pequeno que os bônus representam na remuneração; ausência de adesão dos professores para sustentação de práticas de competição por longo tempo, fazendo com que, apesar de melhoras momentâneas em resultados, estas não têm longevidade.…”