Session Information
26 SES 13 B, Teacher Leadership Development in the Educational Context (Part 2)
Paper Session continued from 26 SES 06 B
Contribution
The concept of the ‘expert teacher’ has is an increasingly global phenomenon with many advanced systems investing in a formal designation, this is partly explained by education systems profound need to recruit and retain the best teachers, providing them with a career structure, maintaining their classroom impact and, in some designations, developing other teachers in the system. This research closely examines the purposes and structures of these evolving models and their successes and challenges in each national context and it traces global influences and the challenges of governance and political control of such designations. It also analyses 3 relatively new models ‘The Extended Teacher’ from Norway, ‘The Chartered Teacher’ in England and the Korean ‘Master Teacher’.
The concept of the ‘expert teacher’ has become an increasingly global phenomenon with many advanced systems investing in a formal designation. This phenomenon is partly explained by the need systems have to recruit and retain the best teachers and to provide them with a meaningful and high status career structure that maintains their impact in the classroom and, in some designations, on the development of other teachers in the system. There are many examples of the phenomenon with the Advanced Skills Teacher [AST] in Australia [over 30 years] and The Highly Accomplished Teacher [HAT]in the USA [28 years] being the most established. However some models have already come and gone – the AST in England 1997-2013, the Chartered Teacher in Scotland only lasted 5 years. There are new developments, the Chartered teacher in England, launched by the Chartered College of teaching in 2017 and the Highly Accomplished Teacher in Australia, now 4 years in development, Singapore is evolving an elaborate structure of Leading and Master teachers with several career pathways. Each of these models has been designed for the local system with different models of governance and control for example the totally independent National Board for Professional Teaching Standards in the USA, or the completely politically managed system in Singapore.
This research examines the purposes and structures of these evolving models and their successes and challenges in each national context. It traces global influences, for example the adoption of the the HAT designation in Australia, being adapted from the USA, the Chartered model beginning in England just as it is abolished in Scotland. These changes are part of the challenge of governance and political control of such designations and their relative stability or fragility.
Ontologically, the research adopts a critical realist perspective examining the expert teacher concept as fundamentally concerned with structural, systemic improvement, a potentially emancipatory project for the agentive teaching profession in each system. Epistemologically it adopts a phenomenological stance to understanding ‘expert teaching’ as a designation. It also examines the structures and stratifications in the system and the context of each society that may enable teacher emancipation or obstruct and diminish it. The analysis of 3 relatively new models ‘The Extended Teacher’ from Norway, ‘The Chartered Teacher’ in England and the Korean ‘Master Teacher’, traces the extent to which they are influenced by previous models in other jurisdictions and reveals that there are both global trends and local adaptations. There is also evidence of what may be deemed ‘expert teacher cultures’, that is how the ideologies infused in education systems dominate the character of what it means to be an expert teacher. Much of this ‘character’ is revealed through analysing the descriptors and standards used to define the teacher role and behaviours.
Method
There is a close analysis of the features of each model, its evolution and development and its status in relation to several factors which include:- [1] status within the profession on a strong/weak continuum, [2] its governance and political status on a continuum of stability/fragility and [3] its effectiveness on a continuum of powerful to weak. The expert teacher phenomenon is well established in a number of systems and has sufficient evidence of value now to be influencing developments in other systems. This level of development allows for international comparisons that examine valuable similarities and important local differences, providing evidence of a range of successful models. An important element of difference is to do with structures of control and governance, is the model ‘owned’ by the profession, or by the government, or by an independent body.
Expected Outcomes
. The analysis suggests that social, cultural and political contexts inevitably define the local model and may well be part of the strength and stability of certain models. We may have reached a stage where less established systems with rapidly expanding school populations and therefore rapidly expanding teacher work forces may look to these models as adaptable to their local circumstances. It may be argued that such local developments of the expert teacher might be far more effective than relying on foreign aid and advisors or simply ‘copying’ external models. The establishment of a designation of expert teacher may well have real benefits for raising the status of the teaching profession in systems where teaching is not perceived as a good career, even when it is a respected career. Such teachers can act as advocates for a strong profession with its own voice and professional standards and where teacher autonomy can be a structural part of the designation.
References
Archer, M., Bhaskar, R., Collier, A., Lawson, T. & Norrie, A. (1998). (Eds.) Critical Realism: Essential Readings. London, Routledge. Cohen, L., Manion, L. & Morrison, K. (2011, 7th edition) Research Methods in Education, London, Routledge Author (September 2019) Adaptive agency: some surviving and some thriving in interesting times. Invited Paper to English Teaching Practice and Critique – special issue on teacher agency. Vol, 18. Issue 2. pp. 21-35. Author (2016). Expert Teachers: an International Perspective. London, Routledge. Author (2010). The Expert Teacher of English. London, Routledge. Author & Cordingley, P. (2016). The Potential of Chartered Teacher Status, Education Today. 66 (2), 21-44. Author. (2012). One size fits all: the increasing standardisation of English teachers’ work in England. English Teaching Practice and Critique, 11 (4), 36-53. O’Sullivan, K-A. & Author (2020). Contested territories: English teachers in Australia and England remaining resilient and creative in constraining times. English in Education. 54,3, 224- 238. Sayer, A. (1992) Method in Social Science: a Realist Approach. London, Routledge Sayer, A. (2000) Realism and Social Science. London, Sage.
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