Session Information
23 SES 01 D, Media and Education Policy Making (Part 1)
Paper Session to be continued in 23 SES 02 D
Contribution
The 1990s and 2000s in Europe have brought a number of changes for nation-states and their educational policies. First, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 marks the end of totalitarian ideology based, completely standardized education systems in Eastern Europe. What followed was a trend towards Europeanization and globalization in a newly regained market economy which emphasized, in a situation of quickly decreasing economic resources and a deepening financial crisis, self-reliance and decentralization of public governance, including education. Economic crises of the 1990s left a deep impact on Finland, whose economy had been heavily dependent on trade with the Soviet Union, and on Germany which was burdened down with the financial consequences of reunification.
As the hands of central governments grew shorter, more was expected from local actors, including teachers. In some European countries such as Finland and Estonia teachers’ roles were redefined from merely implementers of externally defined curriculum to curriculum developers (Erss, 2015, p. 256). This leads to the important dilemma of teacher autonomy as increasing responsibilities could not be managed without increased autonomy and resources. However, these are not always in balance. The 2000s, on the contrary to the 1990s, have witnessed in Europe an increased impact of globalization and competition through international tests of student achievement (PISA, TIMSS) which has led to recentralization of education in differing degrees while posing threats to teacher autonomy. Nevertheless, teacher autonomy remains a central concern in designing and implementing curriculum policies as it is seen as a precondition of teacher professionalism (Nemeržitski, Loogma, Heinla, & Eisenschmidt, 2013, p. 402) and an important motivational factor for job-satisfaction (Vansteenkiste and Deci 2013).
Autonomy is in this paper defined both as the positive notion of liberty to do something and the negative notion of freedom from constraints (Carter, 2012). Therefore, one cannot investigate autonomy without its control counterpart. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the discourse of teacher autonomy in three European teachers’ newspapers, in order to comparatively study the impact of education policy on teacher autonomy and control and teachers’ reception of the policy. This research goal has two specific sub-questions:
1. How has neoliberalism as the hegemonic educational discourse shaped the role of teachers in Estonia, Finland and Bavaria (Germany)?
2. How has the public discourse of teacher autonomy and control developed in teachers’ newspapers in Estonia, Finland, and Bavaria (Germany) since 1991?
The theoretical framework is based on the theory of new institutionalism which sees education as an institution deeply embedded in both social and political environments. The institutional practices are therefore seen as a reflection of rules, beliefs and conventions characteristic to the wider environment. According to Scott (2001), institutional order is carried by three pillars: regulative, normative and cultural/cognitive. In terms of education the regulative pillar could be interpreted as rule setting and sanctioning through educational legislation. The normative pillar implies the morally obligatory dimension of the national (or state) curriculum, and cultural/cognitive dimension refers to shared conceptions through which meaning is understood such as the educational traditions (curriculum or Didaktik tradition), beliefs and understandings of teachers’ role, public discourse of education in the media or organizational habitus. Consequently, teacher autonomy is a phenomenon that is dependent on the wider cultural/cognitive, social and political environment and historical traditions of a country.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Berger, P. & Luckmann, T. (1981). The social construction of reality. London: Penguin Books.
Burr, V. (1995). An introduction to social constructionism. London, Routledge. Published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library in 2006.
Carter, I. (2012). Positive and Negative Liberty. In Edward N. Zalta (Ed.) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from: URL
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