Panopticism, teacher surveillance and the ‘unseen’

Abstract

This paper seeks to contribute to the understanding of the 'panopticon' in educational research, problematising its validity and offering a fresh conceptualisation of teacher surveillance. The school as a 'panopticon' is a well-established concept which helpfully enables a consideration of aspects of high-stakes accountability. The present paper explores the question of how contemporary teachers perceive themselves to be subject to scrutiny and the consequences of this surveillance. It is argued that whilst the panopticon (and its variants) remain very valid notions for understanding performativity in contemporary schools, that a complementary metaphor can be offered which enables a fuller consideration of the 'unseen' behaviours induced by a high accountability environment.

Exploring the impact of panoptic heteronormativity on UK primary teachers advocating for LGBTQ+ inclusive education

“…Perhaps having experienced conflict with parents around his non-normative representation of masculinity in school and being supported by parents and teachers, John feels more confident knowing it is a small minority who disapprove of him and his work which is otherwise widely supported by the quiet majority. Nicole demonstrates an active resistance to the tools of panopticism (Proudfoot, 2021) as she clearly grasps how language and terminology act as barriers to inhibit this work even beginning and instead implores teachers to move beyond their concerns about offending someone to reconceptualise school as a safe space to learn acceptance and respect for diversity before entering wider society as adults.…”

Bringing in the technological, ethical, educational and social-structural for a new education data governance

“…SLDS collects data from birth throughout the schooling of a child under the premise that more data lead to more accountability and therefore better educational institutions (Strauss 2018). This model has been gradually manifesting internationally (Day 2021;Gulson and Sellar 2019;Courtney 2016;Proudfoot 2021).…”