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Teachers' Work and Pedagogy in an Era of Accountability

Authors :
Comber, Barbara
Nixon, Helen
Source :
Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. Sep 2009 30(3):333-345.
Publication Year :
2009

Abstract

A great deal of educational policy proceeds as though teachers are malleable and ever-responsive to change. Some argue they are positioned as technicians who simply implement policy. However, how teachers go about their work and respond to reform agendas may be contingent upon many factors that are both biographical in nature and workplace related. In this paper we discuss the work of middle school teachers in low-socioeconomic communities from their perspectives. Referring to reflective interviews, meeting transcripts and an electronic reporting template, we examine how teacher participants in a school reform project describe their work--what they emphasise and what they down-play or omit. Using Foucaultian approaches to critical discourse analysis and insights from Dorothy Smith's (2005) "Institutional Ethnography," we consider the "discursive economy" (Carlson, 2005) in teachers' reported experiences of their everyday practices in northern suburbs schools in South Australia in which a democratic progressive discourse exists alongside corporate and disciplinary discourses. (Contains 2 notes.)

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
0159-6306
Volume :
30
Issue :
3
Database :
ERIC
Journal :
Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
EJ855704
Document Type :
Journal Articles<br />Reports - Evaluative
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1080/01596300903037069