Session Information
32 SES 12, Values in Educational Organisations and Leadership
Symposium
Contribution
Danish politicians have become increasingly interested in making sure that everyone “contribute” to the national productivity, and the public sector has in no way escaped scrutiny, when it comes to political attempts to get more for less. In the school system this means that politicians ask for “measurably more learning” in a shorter time, and this is attempted achieved through reorganization often in the form of reforms (Bjerg & Vaaben, 2015; Drejer, 2015; Vaaben, 2016). In 2013-14 there was a major school reform in Denmark, and it reorganized time in public schools in order to increase learning. The “ownership” of time shifted from the teachers to the principals, who now had the power to decide how the teachers’ time should be spent. But the seemingly minor technical changes around time, turned out to affect people deeply. The reform has been marked by struggles – starting with lockout of teachers, causing public schools to close down for almost a month in 2013. In the years following, major protests have been expressed, and the reform is still debated in the media. Teachers have through demonstrations and (social) media published their critique or have quit their jobs or reported in sick with stress (Bjerg & Vaaben, 2014, 2015), pupils have walked the streets and occupied schools waving banners saying “we want our time back!” or “you take our time, we take your schools!”, and parents have moved their children to private schools in dissatisfaction. Inspired by these issues, we have initiated a project investigating the ideological struggles taking place when organizing time. What (values) do different actors believe that teachers should adjust their priorities of time according to, and why? The aim is to tease out the logics, fantasies and values informing certain views about how to organize and prioritize time, especially I will be interested in finding out how organization of and struggles about time hold references to ideas about social structures and “the good society” (Graeber, 2013, p. 227). As such the project explores how practical organization of time and work in schools is linked to ideological struggles about which values to prioritize. The analysis will draw on empirical material from fieldwork in schools during spring 2016, and will be analyzed by using theories of “fantasmatic logics”, drawing on psychoanalyticaly inspired ideas (Bjerg & Vaaben, 2015; Glynos & Howarth, 2007; Žižek, 1989, 1997).
References
Bjerg, H., & Vaaben, N. (2014). A Declaration of Love as counter-strategy: A fantasmatic analysis of the management of work, time and teachers. In EGOS, subtheme 26, "Emotions and the (limits of) institutional control. Bjerg, H., & Vaaben, N. (2015). Striden om Tiden. In At lede efter læring: Ledelse og organiseringer i den reformerede skole. København: Samfundslitteratur. Drejer, C. M. (2015). Hvordan skolelæreren blev en risiko i den globale konkurrence. In H. Bjerg & N. Vaaben (Eds.), At Lede Efter Læring: Ledelse og organiseringer i den reformerede skole (p. ??). København: Samfundslitteratur. Glynos, J., & Howarth, D. (2007). Logics of Critical Explanation in Social and Political Theory. Abingdon, New York: Routledge. Graeber, D. (2013). It is value that brings universes into being. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 3(2), 219–43. Vaaben, N. (2016). Styr på Læringen - jagten på tegn på produktivitet. In Borgernær Ledelse. København: Akademisk Forlag. Žižek, S. (1989). The Sublime Object of Ideology. London and New York: Verso. Žižek, S. (1997). The Plague of Fantasies. London, New York: Verso.
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