Session Information
10 SES 07 A, Research on Professional Knowledge and Identity in Teacher Education
Paper Session
Contribution
The ways in which new teachers develop their professional identities have been widely studied, with a particular focus on the impact of the management and regulation of teachers’ work. Across Europe and globally, the teaching profession has been profoundly affected by the growth of performative models of ‘techno-bureaucratic managerialism’ (Apple 2000). In England this model has taken the form of central government prescription of curriculum content, pedagogical approaches, student assessment and the assessment of teachers (and teacher education). The impact of performativity can be seen across Europe and globally, as data is combined with market orthodoxies to extend governance into self-regulation (Ball 1998). In the case of the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), schools’ performance is employed for the purpose of policy legitimation, as a ‘governing resource for both the national agency and the transnational forces of EU and the OECD’ (Grek 2009).
It has been argued that this has resulted in the imposition of institutionalised ‘corporate’ professionalism on teachers, displacing traditional autonomous professional cultures (Beck 2008), and that the increasingly rigorous/punitive inspection regime has led to a Foucaldian self-policing of professional practice and values by teachers (Ball 2003; Wilkins & Wood 2009). However, others have argued that the teachers have the capacity to 'resist' these performative pressures, and that the potential remains for the development of an 'activist' professional culture (Sachs 2003; Avis 2005).
Studies of teacher identity across Europe (Kleette 2000; Beijaard et al. 2004) have highlighted the transformation in policy and practice around teachers' work. A key theme in many studies has been the importance of 'motivation' and 'resilience' in teachers constructing positive professional identities (Hargreaves 2005; Troman 2008; Day & Kington 2008) . Teachers' professional identity is constructed in particular contexts (Paechter 2007) including the constructions of power and the policy contexts that surround them (Riley et al. 2000). An important part of this context in schools are the nature of teachers' relationships and interactions of pupils (Fielding 2004; Wilson & Demetriou 2007). Relatively little attention has been given to the role of such relationships/interactions in constructing professional identity, although there is some evidence that institutional discourses prevail over the interpersonal (Kakos 2008). Teachers new to a school are particularly vulnerable to the impact of institutional contexts on their professional identities, and this provides the rationale for this study.
The study examines how new teachers perceive their interactions with pupils, their experiences of performative cultures and practices, and their understanding of the relationship between these experiences and their developing professional identity. This will use the conceptual framework the authors have developed (Busher et al. 2010) to investigate new teachers’ understandings of the formal and informal learning experiences as they move through the ‘liminal space’ of transition (Pierce 2007) from pre-service teacher education to their first year of teaching.
The theoretical framework for this study draws upon the concept of 'liminality', the experience of transition from the 'periphery' to the the 'core' of an institution. As such, theories of the operation of social power (including the dynamics of race, gender and social class) are relevant; a paper presenting an overview of theoretical perspectives was presented at ECER 2010 (Busher et al. 2010)
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Apple, M. 2000. Can Critical Pedagogies Interrupt Rightist Policies? Educational Theory 50, no. 2: 229-254. Avis, J. 2005. Beyond Performativity: Reflections on Activist Professionalism and the Labour Process in Further Education. Journal of Education Policy 2: 209-222. Ball, S. 2000. Performativities and Fabrications in the Education Economy: towards the Performative Society Australian Educational Researcher 17, no. 3: 1-24. Ball, S. 1998 Big Policies/Small World: An introduction to international perspectives in education policy, Comparative Education, 34(2): pp119-130 Beijaard, D et al. 2004 Reconsidering research on teachers’ professional identity, Teaching and Teacher Education, 20(2): pp107-128 Busher, H. et al. 2010 Crossing borders in performative times: new teachers, the performance of liminality and the co-construction of professional identity in schools (ECER 2010) Day, C. & A, Kington. 2008. Identity, well-being and effectiveness: the emotional contexts of teaching Pedagogy, Culture & Society 16, no 1: 1-23. Fielding, M. 2004. Transformative approaches to student voice: Theoretical underpinnings, recalcitrant realities BERJ 30, no 2: 295-310. Grek, S. 2009 Governing by numbers: the PISA 'effect' in Europe, Journal of Education Policy, 24(1): pp 23-37 Kakos, M. (2008) The Interaction between students and Teachers in Citizenship Education. (PhD Thesis): University of York Klette, K. 2000 Working-time blues. in: C. Day et al. (eds) The life and work of teachers, Falmer Press, London Pierce, K.A. 2007. Betwixt and Between: Liminality in Beginning Teaching The New Educator 3: 31–49. Sachs, J. 2003. The Activist Professional. Buckingham: Open University Press. Troman, G. et al. 2007. Creativity and Performativity Policies in Wilkins, C. & P, Wood. 2009. Initial Teacher Education in the Panopticon Journal of Education for Teaching 35, no 3: 283-297. Wilkins, C. 2010. Professionalism and the post-performative teacher: new teachers reflect on autonomy and accountability in the English school system Professional Development in Education, 19/0910 (iFirst).
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