Educational Change as Political Change: Consequences for
Teachers and Administrators
Belief that schools could and should address the
challenges for nation states of globalisation and other
trends, real and imagined, have become the motivation for
radical changes to the management of education. The school
reform movement itself is part of a larger political trend
characterised by attempts to make nations, industries,
companies and even individuals more competitive. Strategies
adopted are well known but included various types of
deregulation, and the restructuring of industries, with down
sizing, rationalisation and cost cutting the order of the
day. The social consequences of these changes have been
profound and have included increases in unemployment and
underemployment, combined with a switch to "flexible" modes
of employment, such as short-term contracts or casual
work.
At the same time as these changes were being made, states
increasingly have withdrawn from a number of sectors in
which they traditionally had been involved and had
supported, including public housing, social security, and
education. The result has been to leave the newly under- or
unemployed without a safety net and consequently even more
unsupported and vulnerable. Social security has been
replaced by widespread individual insecurity and an increase
in social disruption and distress, and individual suffering
has been the result.
The Right and Left Hands of the State
Bourdieu (1998) has written on these large and
significant changes to the nature of the state. He refers
to the institutions that have largely shaped and driven the
reforms, that is cabinets, finance ministries and
treasuries, and banks, as the Right Hand of the state.
Those concerned with the public interest and welfare such as
education, social services, public broadcasting, he calls
the Left Hand.
The Left Hand, including “family counsellors, youth
workers, rank and file magistrates, and increasingly primary
and secondary school teachers “ (p.2), finds itself
confronted with the human consequences of economic
restructuring. Members of the caring professions
increasingly experience themselves as “sent into the
front line to perform so called social work to compensate
for the inadequacies of the market” (p. 3). Bourdieu
contends that the Right Hand does not know and does not want
to know what the Left Hand is doing, and certainly does not
want to pay for its activities. Social service agencies of
all sorts are thus faced with the demand to do more with
less.
The antipathy of the Right Hand to the Left is also
graphically illustrated in the decline of the status of
those professions that perform the work of the Left.
Included in this trend has been a decline in relative
salaries for the Left. Bourdieu argues that “the
salary granted is an unequivocal index of the value placed
on the work and the corresponding workers” (p. 3). This
decline has been paralleled by an increase in the prestige
and remuneration awarded the Right Hand professions, all
those who work with money rather than people.
The Contradictions of High Modernity: Deregulation and
Low Trust
Another important aspect of economic and social
restructuring also had its impact on teaching and teachers,
and indeed education may be seen as the most extreme case of
this trend, the trend to employ an auditing model of
"quality control."
Popkewitz (2000) noted that educational reform, as with
other contemporary efforts at restructuring, is
characterised by both centralising and decentralising
tendencies. Decentralising/deregulation leads inevitably to
potential loss of cetralised control and subsequent anxiety
about maintenance of authority relations andmaintenance of
quality. The phenomenon of the audit has emerged as one
attempt to deal with the contradictions and uncertainty
unleashed by these recent social and economic changes.
Power (1994) in his book on the audit explosion discusses
the expansion of this phenomenon. Originally a financial
activity, auditing now takes a somewhat different form as it
pervades other fields such as the environment, medical
practice, and education. Paranthetically one might add that
in a climate where the bottom line is the ultimate arbiter,
the choice of a financial model of quality assurance is not
surprising.
According to Power, audits are designed to provide assurance
and the abatement of risk, along with transparency of
action, quality, value for money, best practice, and freedom
from harm. He contends that the “fad” for
auditing arose out of the contradiction that “on the
one hand [there is] the need to extend a traditional
hierarchical command in order to maintain existing
structures of authority; on the other the need to cope with
the failure of this style of control, as it generates risks
which are increasingly hard to specify and control”.
(p. 6).
The currently favoured model of auditing, Style A –
Power maintains there are other available models –
applies across disparate arenas. Central features of the
model include long distance control, usually by external
agencies, quantitative measures, low trust, and ex
post control. These important features are linked. For
instance, the involvement of outside bodies of experts in
the oversight of activities has facilitated a shift in trust
from operatives, the performers of activities, to auditors,
those who police performance. Operatives are no longer to
be trusted to do their jobs correctly, efficiently,
effectively, and indeed ethically, but auditors are trusted
to ensure that this all occurs.
The audit as it is currently conceived comes to shape the
activities it is meant merely to oversee. If, for instance,
counting is in favour, quantity over quality will prevail.
If evidence of regulatory activity is required, regulation
will increase and with it the associated paper work which is
its evidence. Popkewitz (2000, p. 18) discussed how
auditing in education systems performs that shaping
function: "In this sense we can think of auditing as a way
to 'reason' that has practical consequences. It
shapes the conduct of professionals and organisations by
asking that the standards of performance function as a
technology to evaluate individuals. This is evident in
systems of teacher education that focus on performance
outcomes, as well as certain ways of thinking about
students' learning. Auditing, then, is a knowledge that
functions as an active intervention into organisational
life, reshaping activities according to the norms of a
fundamentally 'opaque expertise.'" (Popkewitz,
2000, p. 18)
In the field of education, the audit is epitomised by the
British Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) system of
school inspections, but each national or state educational
system has its own versions. One of OFSTED's main tasks has
been to set up a system of school inspections, which occur
every four years. Results of OFSTED inspections and
national tests of student achievement are used to construct
schools “leagues tables”. These tables are
published in the “interests” of keeping
“consumers' informed”. They also form the basis
of decisions to intervene in schools or change their status,
including the most radical intervention—closing the school
down.
Similarly, in the United States, the audit currently
takes the form of state-designed testing programs.
Currently most states mandate tests in some academic
subjects and 21 states have plans to rate schools based on
results of these tests. In addition, several districts are
looking at the possibility of linking teachers' promotion
and salaries to the performance of their students on these
tests. The National Reading Panel authorized by the Reading
Excellence Act of 1997, recently issued its findings and has
called for the adoption of one particular approach to
teaching beginning reading. (National Reading Panel
Report:
http://www.nationalreadingpanel.org/Documents/default.htm)
Consequences for Teachers of Social and Political
Change
The International Teacher 2000 Project was launched to
investigate the consequences for teachers and administrators
of the changes to education systems described above.
Increasingly, it has become obvious that the factors that
influence teachers' occupational satisfaction are no longer
confined to the microcosm of the school (Sergiovanni, 1967,
following Herzberg, et. al., 1959). Instead the “Third
Domain” (Dinham and Scott, 2000) has a major influence
in determining how teachers feel about their work.
Whereas older models of occupational satisfaction posited
two spheres for discussing satisfaction and dissatisfaction,
the actual work of teaching and the conditions under which
work must be performed, the new theory proposes a three-
factor model. The Third Domain, encompasses factors at the
system level, as well as wider social forces. As Bourdieu
would argue, these include the increase in social disruption
and suffering attendant upon economic rationalisation, and
the decrease in respect, recognition and reward given to
professions forming the Left Hand of the state (1998).
The researchers of the Teacher 2000 team sought to cast
their net wider than an investigation of “teacher
stress” and instead set out to investigate what
motivates teachers, and what satisfies and dissatisfies them
about their work. To date over, 3000 teachers in four
countries (Australia, England, New Zealand and the USA)
have been surveyed using parallel forms of a self-report
instrument. Results have been remarkably consistent and
have been reported in detail elsewhere (see Dinham and
Scott, 1996; Scott, 1999; Harker et al., 1998, for
completed reports of national phases of the research).
Teachers in all four countries were found to be motivated by
a desire to work with and for people, and to “make a
difference” (Dinham and Scott, 2000) by
assisting children and young people to reach their
potential, experience success, and grow into responsible
adults. Teachers everywhere found high satisfaction in this
aspect of their work. In all four countries satisfaction
remained high on a small focused set of “core
business” aspects of teaching. This satisfaction
occurred at the personal levels of working directly with
children: experiencing success with pupils/students,
working cooperatively with other members of the education
community, and professional competence/development (Dinham
and Scott, 1996; Scott, 1999; Harker et al., 1998).
However, they rated their overall occupational satisfaction
as low, and many find themselves more dissatisfied later in
their careers than when they began teaching. Levels of
dissatisfaction were not uniform across all aspects of the
work, however.
Aspects of teaching associated with school level
factors—school climate, leadership, resources,
and reputation—were
rated more ambivalently. Considerable variation was based,
not surprisingly, on the school in which the individual
teacher was currently employed. Aspects of the work that
caused teachers dissatisfaction were more numerous and
varied somewhat from country to country and according to
current local issues and problems. As an example, when the
Australian survey was in progress, a long-standing pay
dispute, and previous, unpopular changes to promotion
procedures, conflict over which was still occurring, led to
considerable discontent and industrial unrest, reflected in
both the numeric ratings on relevant questionnaire items and
the comments made by teachers (Dinham and Scott, 1996). For
English teachers, the National Curriculum and OFSTED
inspections were major issues, again registered in responses
to the survey (Scott, 1999).
Despite national variations, there was also a core of Third
Domain issues that concerned all teachers regardless of
residence. They included decrease in status and recognition
of the profession, outside interference in and de-
professionalisation of teaching, pace and nature of
educational change, and increase in workload. Mean ratings
on items concerned with these issues were universally low,
and observations about enforced change, increased
outside interference in education, increased
“non-core” workload, and low pay and status formed the
majority of comments on open-ended sections of the
questionnaire.
Previous publications have explored the quantitative
measures of discontent including the development of the
scales used to assess satisfaction and dissatisfaction with
facets of teaching and its context (Scott, Dinham and
Brooks, 1999). This paper will focus on the participants'
own words used to describe their experience of teaching in
an era of profound and enforced social and educational
change.
In Teachers' Own Words
In this section we use the teachers' own words to
illustrate and support the points we have made, above. We
have left the teachers' choice of words and modes of
expression in the forms we received them.
The satisfactions of teaching
The main satisfiers of teaching are well known and have
been documented by many researchers. As we note above these
are the satisfaction of working with children and seeing
them achieve, working collaboratively with other members of
the education community, and achieving personal professional
growth. Teachers in this study have continued to confirm
these areas as satisfiers.
Working with and assisting others.
A major and universal satisfier is the opportunity to work
with children and with other members of the educational
community. Teachers from all countries listed this aspect
as a main source of satisfaction.
I enjoy children and being with children. I find being
a team member satisfying, working towards achieving goals
together. NZ classroom teacher, 53.
I enjoy working with children I enjoy helping people. I
enjoy working with Teachers College students. NZ classroom
teacher, 48.
Joy of seeing children progress. Relationships with parents.
Teamwork as a result of collaborative planning. UK head
teacher, 46.
Contact with children. UK, head of dept, 39.
Team work of the staff. Working with other head teachers.
UK, head teacher, 51.
I have a dynamic coordinator of special ed (my dept). A
lot of good things are being done for our department and our
spec. ed students. She is definitely a child advocate. The
morale is high and we feel like a family (we were very close
and communicated a lot) everyone knows what is going on and
issues that come up can be discussed freely. USA,
specialist teacher. 25.
Professional efficacy and making a difference.
A supreme satisfaction of teaching was the opportunity to
“make a difference”, contribute to a young
person's development, and to see the results of that
contribution. This for many or most teachers IS teaching
and the externally imposed demands for assessment, record
keeping, and accountability are in comparison
“nonsense”. They interfere with teaching, or to
quote an NZ teacher, change it to “being an accountant
and not an educator”.
I enjoy making a difference to people's lives. UK, head
teacher, 46.
Teaching was a career path that I chose so that I would be
able to help people and hopefully enable them to achieve the
best that they can for themselves. Working in what is
considered a "disadvantaged" school, doesn't
bother me at all, in fact the challenge is more rewarding.
Aust classroom teacher, 22.
Evidence of learning and creativity. Pupils growing up and
turning out all right after all. UK, head of dept, 49.
Satisfaction comes...when you can sit down at a break and
say you've taught a lesson well (emphasis in
original). NZ classroom teacher, 37.
Knowing my class is happy to be at school. Giving a boost
of confidence or highlighting a child's achievement who does
not normally do well. NZ classroom teacher, 36.
I love to watch the growth in my students as they experience
success throughout their educational endeavours. It pleases
me to my very soul that I am able to help a child become an
independent learner. It's like being a parent a multitude
of times each year . . .I love it! USA classroom
teacher.
I teach because I love to work with students and experience
the 'high' that comes from watching them achieve success
with my help. It is the one driving force that keeps me in
the profession. USA, classroom teacher, 43.
I love feeling I have really helped and inspired someone. I
enjoy planning my lessons and seeing kids succeed. USA,
classroom teacher. 53
Professional challenge and growth.Teachers from
all countries commented on aspects of
teaching work that allowed for both the utilisation of
personal qualities such as flexibility, creativity and the
ability to respond well to challenge and the opportunity to
continue to grow and develop as an individual.
The scope for being creative, improvising and exploring
different ways to teach/meet students' needs. That every
day is different- bringing new surprises/challenges. The
classroom is a very vibrant place to be. NZ classroom
teacher, 30.
I like teaching because it allows me to continue to learn
and grow in many ways. USA classroom teacher, 58.
The adventure of learning—both pupils and teacher. UK,
specialist, 52.
Creativity of producing teaching materials. UK, classroom
teacher, 29.
The joy of overcoming difficulties. UK classroom teacher,
48.
I think to be a good and successful teacher you need to be
able to make your own decisions, devise your own philosophy
and keep yourself motivated and buoyant. Aust classroom
teacher, 50.
Dissatisfiers:
Dealing with the social consequences of change
To those on the inside, the teachers and adminstrators
themselves, the pressures to which teaching has been subject
as a profession may feel unique. An exploration of the
nature of current social change, however, makes it clear
that these demands are manifestations of tendencies in the
larger society. Teaching may thus be seen as a case study
of the effects of these tendencies on professions of the
Left Hand. The Teacher 2000 Project marks the first time
the pressures from the education system and societal levels
have been documented and fully recognized.
The effects of social disruption.
As discussed above, Bourdieu has noted that the many
consequences of the international waves of change and
restructuring are frequently characterised by an increase in
unemployment, material inequality, and a variety of ills
that flow from them. Professionals who form the Left Hand
of the state deal with the consequences of these ills for
individuals, families, and communities. There are at least
two major aspects of how this expansion of responsibilities
has negatively affected teachers' occupational satisfaction:
- Dealing with social disruption has widened the scope of
teachers' work to make teachers, in the words of one NZ
practitioner “counsellors, social workers,
nurses”, and in an Australian teacher's “bouncer,
child counsellor, animal trainer, army sergeant, school
nurse, megaphone (not the operator the actual
machine)“. The increase in work has both an indirect -
“kids are so needy these days”, to use one US
teacher's words- and a direct cause as schools have become
increasingly seen as the appropriate agencies to deal with a
large and proliferating array of social problems.
- Seeing the harm done to individuals is in itself an
affront to many members of a profession dedicated to
nurturing individuals and seeing them do well.
Teachers from all countries commented on both aspects, the
increase to their own responsibilities, and the pain and
frustration of seeing children's life chances compromised by
social circumstances.
I am interested and always have been in teaching my
subjects, but I find it almost always a struggle battling
with students' lack of real interest and maturation as well
as general and severe behaviour problems associated with the
above reasons or due to welfare problems. Teachers cannot
do all things: teach, counsel, and to perform administrative
duties (which are always on the increase) and counselling or
reprimanding. Severely influence teacher satisfaction.
Aust classroom teacher, 55.
Poor family backgrounds—lack of experiences, language,
attendance at school, physical/emotional abuse, all factors
which severely affects children's progress. NZ, specialist
reading teachers, 41.
We are now expected to deal with barriers to learning by
contacting health and social services, getting more involved
in what goes on in the child's life outside school. NZ
classroom teacher, 30.
What the survey does not bring up is the type of students we
must face (unlike the classrooms of yesteryear). Terms like
BD, LD, ADD, ADHD, IEP, etc, make me feel I deserve a
psychologist's salary instead. USA classroom teacher,
48.
Lack of sufficient number of counselors – kids are very
"needy" today. Social workers are scarce in the city, county
and usually ineffective. USA classroom teacher, 55.
Teachers are always addressing student and parent welfare.
Very little is ever done for teacher welfare. Teachers are
holding society together but if in-servicing money etc is
not forthcoming for teacher welfare, there will be a
breakdown in the education system. Aust classroom teacher,
30.
The tendency of the Right Hand of the state to cut back on
funding in areas of social need (while demanding more) has
resulted in growing teacher dissatisfaction due to the
compromises it forces in education, as well as the damage
wrought elsewhere in society which it expects schools and
teachers to rectify.
Lack of funds to help all children. NZ classroom
teacher, 44.
Lack of up-to-date resources, particularly for special needs
children. NZ, specialist, 44.
No money appears to be available for children who
desperately need help. UK classroom teacher, 42.
Student welfare is another big problem area. There is not
enough support for students with severe psychological and
behavioural difficulties. Before one can contemplate
special placement (as scarce as hens' eggs) the fellow
students and staff often are put under enormous stress.
Children should not have to put up with these students in
great need to the detriment of their health and education.
Conversely we must provide for the students who are reacting
to other impossible home situations. Aust classroom
teacher, 49.
Erosion of professionalism.
Erosion of professionalism also has at least two
aspects:
- Lowering of the status of and respect for the
profession, symbolised for many teachers by the relatively
low pay the work is awarded.
- Erosion of the scope for exercising professional
judgement, independence, and competence and of the time to
do “real teaching”.
The lack of trust in the professionalism of teachers and
anxiety about national educational standards have led to a
policing mentality among administrators, a tendency
noted across many domains in the widespread move towards the
adopting of Style-A auditing. The consequence has been an
anxiousness to standardise and document all aspects of the
work, lest quality be compromised by leaving too much to the
judgement of practitioners. The introduction of many more
reporting and documenting requirements, as well as the
standardisation of many aspects of teaching, contributes
both to the much noted increase in overall work load and to
the erosion of the sorts of pleasures of the job described
above, i.e., flexibility, challenge, creativity, working
with and for people. These two facets of the erosion of
professionalism, increased work and decreased respect, were
summed up by one NZ teacher as “constant demands and
negative comments”.
Status, criticism, recognition and salary.
Teachers need to be respected by other teachers,
parents, students and the whole wide world. Respect and
money! USA classroom teacher, 48
Teaching isn't like it used to be and the money isn't worth
the abuse we cop day in day out. Aust classroom teacher,
32.
The status of teachers must be raised in regard to their
place and respect in society. In order to effectively
educate and care for children we must be respected, have
status and held in HIGH esteem. Raise salaries – it's
a start. USA classroom teacher, 49.
Lack of recognition for experience and skills, constant
denigration of skilled staff. UK, classroom teacher,
40.
I also feel considerably underpaid. There are few perks to
the job, if any. When I compare myself and people in
industry I feel particularly cross, especially since I am
better qualified than many of them. I feel that unless
people are really committed then they should not enter the
teaching profession these days. UK classroom teacher,
39.
The press always seems to be hammering teachers. UK
classroom teacher, 49.
Total lack of respect for teachers. NZ, classroom teacher,
52.
Lack of pay parity, poor salary. NZ, specialist, 44.
Issue of teacher status/parent—community relations and
media perceptions seem to me to be key inter-related issues.
Balance of good community relations seems to be slipping
away - schools subsequently have been under a lot of parent
criticism. Aust classroom teacher, 49.
Over the last 6 years I have become less satisfied with my
chosen career due to the ever-increasing workload, never
ending changes huge responsibilities, and constant media
bashing.
I paid my way through 8 years of study, bought many
excellent resources, and have given up my health and quality
of life to receive very little recognition or thanks. Aust
classroom teacher, 28.
Erosion of professionalism/professional practice,
increased paperwork.
The flip side of the erosion of professionalism for many or
most teachers is the increasing intrusion and interference
by those education administrators, politicians, the press,
school governors who know “naff all” about
teaching, to quote an English head teacher.
Teachers gain little respect...I feel more like a slave
than an educator. Aust, classroom teacher, 27.
Erosion of professionalism—we are completely emasculated
by the national Curriculum/OFSTED/targets. UK head of
dept.
Schools become the "meat in the sandwich" during
elections. Politicians use Education as a political
football. Those in power beat their chests about
"reforms" they have achieved and those wanting
power assault us with what they will do to make teachers
work more efficiently and produce improved student outcomes.
To listen to their drivel on the TV and radio an ordinary
person would think that teachers totally lack intelligence
and the professional will to direct their own activities
towards improved outcomes for the students. Aust, classroom
teacher, 36.
Teachers feel disillusioned with teaching because the DSE
[Department of School Education, now the Department of
Education and Training] shows lack of leadership. They are
only interested in cost cutting measures. They bring in
changes without any consultation with the people that matter
- the teachers. They are out of touch with reality. Aust
classroom teacher, 42.
Rubrics must be made for every assignment, teacher judgement
not valid. [leaving teaching] I will really miss the
children and TEACHING (which I believe I am not being
allowed to do with all this NONSENSE– "show a rubric
for everything you display" … "show how this lesson
teaches a MAP skill" [state mandated test]. USA classroom
teacher, 50.
I found over the years the amount of preparation and
documentation and accountability and paper work has
increased until I find I must consciously say that is all
I'm going to do tonight/this weekend - as I must spend time
with my family and friends. Aust classroom teacher, 41.
Unrealistic expectations of top administration.
Increased load of meaningless paper work.
I feel that education in general and my district in
particular is responsive to "trends" in education. Whatever
is the latest issue becomes our focus.
I feel that our top-level administrators are very out of
touch with what goes on in the classroom on a daily basis.
I don't think my principal or superintendent could survive a
week in my job. But they are constantly pushing for what
they perceive as improvement, while only making my job
harder.
Classroom teachers are bombarded with paper work. We spend
so much time on useless paperwork that planning, evaluating,
and teaching time are seriously impacted. USA classroom
teacher, 49.
Spending time on things that have no benefit to the children
I teach and are not important to me apart from keeping my
job. NZ classroom teacher, 27
Shocking admin work, copious assessment etc details. NZ
classroom teacher, 50.
Paperwork—the endless evaluation/appraisal that no one else
is interested in reading but which must be filed. NZ,
classroom teacher.
A parent of a child I taught 9 years ago has just told me
that her child has just been accepted for King's College,
Cambridge to study medicine, and thanked me for my ability
to develop and encourage his interest in science and maths.
This was just pre National Curriculum, and pre all the 1001
"new" initiatives. A moral here, I think. I no longer have
the time to do the same. UK Dept Head, 50
I can't help but feeling as a person who is prepared to
give/care (and I generally think most teachers are like
this) that I am being “used" by the system
employing me, because each year I seem to be giving a little
more (at the expense of my family and personal hobbies,
etc). Aust, classroom teacher, 28.
I am convinced that the 60/70 hours per week required to do
"my job"- in the holidays too, has been a
significant factor in my illnesses.
Over the last few years I have also suffered 2 serious
episodes in which a key factor is the overbearing and never
easing demands of the Principal's role. Aust principal,
54.
Quotes from UK teachers summed up well the ways that these
various pressures are eroding some of the core satisfiers of
teaching (viz,. facilitating student achievement, helping others,
and one's professional growth) with professional autonomy
and judgement being replaced by machine-like routines:
I am very concerned at the increased stress levels being
experienced by teachers. I joined this profession 24 years
ago and felt I contributed more to children's education
because I had time to relate to the children I taught. Now
I am under so much pressure to reach standards I have little
time to really talk to the pupils. I feel more like a
machine as the years go by with little time for reflection.
UK classroom teacher, 46.
Teachers feel like puppets; other people pull our strings.
There is little vision left in the teaching profession -
it's been weeded out over the last 10 years (and is still
being weeded out). UK classroom teacher.
In addition to the emphasis on external assessment and
standardised testing compromising the opportunity for
professional practice, teachers also feared that it would
distort the entire educational enterprise
I greatly fear that the net effect of this standards
movement is an increase in the gap between the learned and
unlearned, and the subsequent "lowering of the
bar," which is the last thing we said we would ever
consider, and the first thing that my district thought about
(but, did NOT do), when they received back the latest round
of writing scores. USA classroom teacher,
There is too much teaching of programs rather than teaching
of children in our district. The goal of education should
not be to look good but to do whatever it takes to reach all
students. If we did that, looking good would take care of
itself. USA classroom teacher.
Erosion of Professional Relationships.
Attempts to change the way schools are managed has had
unfortunate consequences for collegial relations, and more
so in those countries, notably Britain, where these have
been the most far-reaching. Emphasis on a more managerial
style for head teachers (principals) and the devolving to
them of more discretion—and responsibility—over matters
such as pay and promotion has frequently disrupted
within-school relations. The requirement that principals implement
changes that neither they nor their staff support has also
had deleterious effects.
As a bit of idealistic "old timer" very
disappointed in new ethos of self-promotion, point-scoring,
impressing others. Not as much openness, collegiality,
sharing as when I began. Some new principals seem to see
themselves as CEOs managers, etc. Replaced at higher levels
of D.S.E., senior officers flit from position to position.
Where is the accumulated body of knowledge and
experience?
Dissipated in manageralism?? Aust, classroom teacher,
49.
Heads of schools playing one staff member off against the
other. NZ classroom teacher, 39.
Today's schools allow more room for personality
clashes—you only get on by the word of others and not your ability,
or potential. NZ, classroom teacher, 41.
Head Teachers have no incentive to listen to staff. Greater
Head Teacher powers make it impossible for teaching staff to
have a professional voice. UK classroom teacher, 30.
The philosophy and practices of teaching have changed
markedly from being collegiate and cooperative to be
divisive and competitive.
The principal has created a culture of distrust and rivalry
between teachers and faculties.
Many teachers are now perceiving undermining of their
colleagues, plagiarizing programs, stealing resources as a
means to get on with their careers. Aust classroom teacher,
35.
Being required to implement changes in which I don't believe
with a staff who also disagree with them is not motivating.
Knowing that the doubts I and many of my colleagues have
will be dismissed as cynical, progressive (which I am not)
or a pathetic justification of failure, undermines my
professionalism and educational experience. UK head teacher,
48.
Decision-making is limited to executive staff in the
school.
Opportunities are limited to executive staff. Aust classroom
teacher, 32.
Conclusions
A consideration of teaching and its discontents may be seen
as a case study of the effects of the current dominance of
the Right Hand on professions of the Left. That is, a study
of teachers' views of their occupation clearly shows the
consequences for professions that deal with persons and
their welfare in a climate where the bottom line has come to
dictate the shape and nature of institutions and the
relations of individuals to these and to each other.
Teachers everywhere enter the profession to serve children.
While they are, in general, pleased with their choice of
career as it relates to working directly with children who
are willing to participate and learn, outside forces have
intervened to prevent teachers from performing their jobs as
they perceive them. The result has been a major decline in
professional satisfaction. The increasing economic and
social problems that teachers confront, combined with the
efforts to have educational systems provide solutions for
those problems, has led to an increase in the everyday work
of teachers and its complexity.
Students who are extremely emotionally and socially needy
and who have serious self-discipline problems increase the
pastoral demands of teaching. In addition, the
expansion of external assessment requires the production of
more written documents in greater detail, causing the
increase in paperwork of which teachers complain. As
Bourdieu predicts would be the case, teaching has also
suffered a decline in respect and status, combined with
reduced salary and resources available with which to do its
work.
We would therefore contend that the profound dissatisfaction
expressed by teachers in all four countries is caused by the
concurrent juxtaposition of and antithetical nature of two
major factors:
- Motivation to enter teaching. Teachers are motivated
by altruism and activism in the sense of a desire to make a
difference by aiding individual children. Teaching is an
activity of the Left Hand, the welfare arm, of the
state, and as such deals with the consequences of social
change/disruption wrought by the Right Hand. It also
attracts the antipathy of the Right Hand as reflected in its
decline in pay, status, and recognition.
- The issue of control. Growing attempts to control the
process of teaching in order to control its output
supposedly to benefit the nation economically have
increasingly taken the form of attacks on teacher
professionalism. This has led to a decline in the
opportunity to experience satisfaction with one's own
professional activity and ensuing erosion of overall
satisfaction.
The melancholy conclusion to be drawn from this argument
is that teaching is not and cannot be quarantined from the
social context in which it is embedded. No amount of
positive thinking or number of ringing admonitions can alter
the effects on the profession of the general, profound
decline in respect for and trust of those do people work.
Similarly, working smarter or any number of other
fashionable solutions cannot ameliorate the
“intensification” (Hargreaves, 1994) of the work
of teaching attendant upon these changes. What is required
is a wider perspective on the nature and the enormity of the
social changes that manifest at the “chalk face”
in the patterns of discontent the voices of our participants
reveal.
Note
The research reported here was supported by
grants from UWS Nepean, The NSW Teachers' Federation, NSW
DET, Massey University, The Nottingham Trent University and
Rowan University. The support is gratefully
acknowledged.
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About the Authors
Dr. Catherine Scott, Coordinator of Research Development,
University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, Richmond NSW 2753
Phone: +61 2 4570 1574, Fax + 61 4570 1686, Email:
c.scott@uws.edu.au
Dr. Barbara Stone, Educational Consultant, The Imagination
Group, St Louis, MO.
Dr. Steve Dinham, Associate Professor, School Teaching and
Educational Studies, University of Western Sydney, Nepean.
PO Box 10, Kingswood NSW 2747, Phone: +61 2 4736 0294, Fax:
+61 2 4736 0400. Email: s.dinham@uws.edu.au
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