In the 1990s restructuring appeared as sort of ‘policy borrowing’. Restructuring efforts such as different forms of governance, different forms of accountability and extended obligations affected the role of the teacher in different countries as well as teachers in the US, and California. Restructuring and other educational reform efforts have been directed at professionalization and teacher empowerment (Liebermann and Miller 1999), at the same time as the introduction of national and state standards tied to large scale testing (Ravitch 2010). When given extended autonomy and authority follows new ways to evaluate teachers. Some scholars see evaluation as responsibility or what is also defined as accountability and a way to place constraints on teachers (Apple 1996, Gewirtz 2002, Robertson 1996). Researchers in Norway see the system of evaluation as a way to evaluate work (Carlgren and Klette 2000, Eriksen 2001, Hopmann and Nesje 2002), and to grasp more of the ‘black box’ of teachers’ practice. Thus, teachers as professionals, have had autonomy to ‘close the classroom door’ (Jackson 1968) working without outside evaluation (Hoyle 1986). This study seeks understanding about how teachers in California perceive restructuring and recent educational reform efforts in 2001 and 2012.

Theoretical framework:

The project focuses on restructuring and reform as governing steering strategies, quality assurance measurements and professional roles. Three theoretical perspectives are pursued in this study directed at change in the school organization and the role of the teacher. One is school effectiveness research, with a focus on results, seeing the school as a static and stable organization (Townsend 2007). The role of the teacher is within this tradition seen as holding a technical role, with a limited scope of action characterized here as restricted professionalization (Robertson 1996). Another tradition is school improvement research, focusing on processes in schools looking at schools as dynamic organizations, problematizing school results. The role of the teacher is seen as one holding a professional role with extended scope of action, characterized here as extended professionalization (Elmore et.al. 1996). A third traditions combine these two approaches, being both result and process oriented as it looks upon schools as learning and dynamic directed organizations. The role of the teachers is here seen as one between restricted and extended professionalization. (Woods et.al. 1997). The study will also draw on the concept of accountability with accountability tied to the concept of managerialism and accountability tied to the concept of teacher professionalization.

Based on this outline my research questions are:

‘Educational restructuring and reform reconstructing the role of the teacher in California in 2001 and 2012?’

Key questions:

1. How teachers perceive own role in California in 2001 and 2012?
2. Policy analysis on restructuring and reform seeking understanding about how the role of the teacher is inscribed in the period the project focus on. 

This will be asked about via the main themes in the interview guide; task, demands, competence and change.

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