Session Information
23 SES 03 C, Policy Reforms and Teachers’ Work (Part 2): 1030/460/2211
Paper Session continued from 23 SES 02 C
Contribution
Teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD) can be viewed not only as support for teachers to transform their practices in accordance with their own beliefs, but also as an instrument for the external control of teachers’ work (Kennedy, 2005). These two perspectives on teachers’ CPD are in this study conceptualised as the ways in which CPD contributes to the government of teachers.
Earlier research on teachers’ CPD has shown that teachers’ CPD has changed from short interventions outside schools for the sake of individual teachers to long-term in-school interventions for the benefit of pupils (Bolam & McMahon, 2004; Borko, Jacobs, & Koellner, 2010). It has been suggested that this change has reduced the emphasis on teachers’ needs.
The aforementioned tendencies in CPD coincide with changing conceptualisations of teacher professionalism. For example, in her review of research in the field, Mausethagen (2013) argues that conceptions of teacher professionalism in public discourses over the last two decades have often connoted the ability to comply with external standards.
The OECD regards teachers’ CPD as an important tool for improving school results (1998, 2005), as do the McKinsey reports on successful school systems (Barber & Mourshed, 2007; Mourshed, Chijioke, & Barber, 2010). Reports in this tradition therefore advise policymakers to ensure that CPD efforts are well grounded in research related to measures that have been shown to impact student outcomes. Many policymakers have also made efforts to organise CPD initiatives in accordance with evidence-based models, although these have also been criticised by various scholars for adopting technical approaches to professional development ‘which elicit generic practices which can then be disseminated regardless of context’ (Hardy & Rönnerman, 2011, p. 463). Kennedy (2014) describes some of the ‘“sophisticated” CPD systems’ resulting from evidence-based programmes as ‘managerial knots that squeeze out autonomy and instead seek and reward compliance and uniformity’ (p. 691).
CPD initiatives can thus be seen as efforts to govern teachers’ work towards certain ideals. The question asked in the study is not whether CPD initiatives have a change agenda, but rather which directions for change are prescribed and what these might mean for the teaching profession.
This study is undertaken by investigating formal CPD initiatives organised by the Swedish national educational agencies that involve the school subjects of mathematics and Swedish (standard language education), in the period 1991-2014.
The investigated CPD initiatives are analysed using the theoretical concept ‘programmes of government’ (Rose & Miller, 1992, p. 181). In Miller & Rose’s (1990) definition, such a programme is an assemblage of ideas and technologies with the purpose of administering a part of reality and can be described as an ‘intellectual machinery for government’ (Rose & Miller, 1992, p. 182). This means that programmes use theories, explanations and technologies to ‘make the objects of government thinkable in such a way that their ills appear susceptible to diagnosis, prescription and cure by calculating and normalizing intervention’ (Rose & Miller, 1992, p. 183). For example, teacher ideals are potential evaluative criteria against which teachers can be diagnosed and normalised. However, these ideal do not determine the actions of teachers, principals or other actors, but lay the foundations for the evaluation of actions. Texts relating to teaching, descriptions of CPD realisation and teaching material thereby ‘act as potent resources in the local composition of forces’ (Rose & Miller, 1992, p. 184).
The investigation is explored by the following empirical research questions:
- Which roles in the local educational change process do the initiatives offer teachers?
- How do the national agencies collect information about local initiative realisation?
- And thus, how do CPD initiatives contribute to governing the teaching profession?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Barber, M., & Mourshed, M. (2007). How the world’s best-performing schools systems come out on top. McKinsey & Company. Bolam, R., & McMahon, A. (2004). Literature, definitions and models: towards a conceptual map. In C. Day & J. Sachs (Eds.), International handbook on the continuing professional development of teachers (pp. 33–63). Maidenhead: Open University Press. Borko, H., Jacobs, J., & Koellner, K. (2010). Contemporary approaches to teacher professional development. In P. McGaw, E. Peterson, & B. Baker (Eds.), International encyclopedia of education (third edition) (pp. 548–556). Oxford: Elsevier. Fraser, C., Kennedy, A., Reid, L., & Mckinney, S. (2007). Teachers’ continuing professional development: contested concepts, understandings and models. Journal of In-Service Education, 33(2), 153–169. Hardy, I., & Rönnerman, K. (2011). The value and valuing of continuing professional development: current dilemmas, future directions and the case for action research. Cambridge Journal of Education, 41(4), 461–472. Kauko, J., & Salokangas, M. (2015). The evaluation and steering of English academy schools through inspection and examinations: national visions and local practices. British Educational Research Journal, 41(6), 1108–1124. Kennedy, A. (2005). Models of continuing professional development: a framework for analysis. Journal of In-Service Education, 31(2), 235–250. Kennedy, A. (2014). Understanding continuing professional development: the need for theory to impact on policy and practice. Professional Development in Education, 40(5), 688–697. Mausethagen, S. (2013). Reshaping teacher professionalism: An analysis of how teachers construct and negotiate professionalism under increasing accountability. Centre for the study of professions, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences. Miller, P., & Rose, N. (1990). Governing economic life. Economy and Society, 19(1), 1–31. Mourshed, M., Chijioke, C., & Barber, M. (2010). How the world’s most improved school systems keep getting better. New York: McKinsey & Company. OECD. (1998). Staying ahead. Paris: OECD. OECD. (2005). Teachers matter : attracting, developing and retaining effective teachers. Paris: OECD. Rose, N., & Miller, P. (1992). Political power beyond the state: problematics of government. British Journal of Sociology, 173–205.
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