Relationships of surveillance, assurance and recognition: early career primary teachers’ engagement with discourses of accountability and performance

Abstract

Anecdotal evidence suggests that Irish primary teachers, and particularly those working in disadvantaged schools, are coming under increasing pressure to orient their practices towards satisfying the exigencies of accountability and performativity (Conway, P. F., and R. Murphy. 2013. "A Rising Tide Meets a Perfect Storm: ). Focusing specifically on early career teachers (ECTs) in Irish designated disadvantaged primary schools, this paper investigates ECTs' engagement with discourses of accountability and performance and its influence on their daily practices. Semi-structured, life-history interviews were conducted with 18 participants drawn from three urban designated disadvantaged schools. Local conditions (level of disadvantage, the intensity and concentration of students' needs, and school culture), as well as participants' career stage, impacted upon the way ECTs engaged with, and/or mediated the influence of the strong, neoliberal performativity discourse. Participants' engagement with the literacy and numeracy standardised testing process was characterised by relationships of surveillance which were held in tension with contradictory and conflicting relationships of assurance and recognition that the DEIS literacy and numeracy programmes and positive standardised test scores fostered. The findings indicate that the nature of these relationships, coupled with the demanding social context in which they begin their careers, is orienting ECTs towards the use of more structured and control oriented pedagogies.

Discourse and teacher identity in business-like education

“…Furthermore, despite these emergent discourses gaining prominence, there is a paucity of research available on how these reforms will impact Irish teachers. It has been noted that like in other jurisdictions where neoliberal policies have been adopted, the work practices of Irish teachers have intensified in recent years (Houtsonen et al., 2010; Mooney Simmie and Edling, 2016), and recent research on early-career teachers in Ireland by Burns (2016) suggests that the investment of school leadership in market ideology has potentially damaging effects on teachers’ professional identities. This paper therefore discusses Irish teacher identity in business-like education, underpinned by a neoliberal agenda supplemented with managerialism and performativity.…”

The subjectivity offalse hopeand the possibility forcritical hopeamong novice teachers

“…This finding has implications for how school leaders can support novice teachers to develop critical hope so that they continue to feel efficacious when their ideology or values are challenged. Teachers are not the only educators subjected to policy; as participants in Ball and Olmedo’s (2013: 88) study stated, “the neoliberal or marketized environment has certainly created a new sort of principal.” As a result, novice teachers are likely to adopt identities and practices that “the professional culture (and public discourse) so strongly promotes” (Burns, 2016: 398). Furthermore, the “performative discourses and expectations” (Anderson, Young, Blanch, and Smith, 2015: 41) that rigid leadership in high-poverty settings (Daly, 2009) tends to emphasize, is “at odds with enjoyment, engagement and learning” (Anderson, Young, Blanch, and Smith, 2015: 41), which severely limits teachers’ capacity to adopt the pedagogical elements of critical hope .…”

“…Novice teachers are particularly susceptible to embodying identities supported by their neoliberal environment and adopting normative schooling practices (Anderson, Young, Blanch, and Smith, 2015; Burns, 2016; Wilkins, 2011). Unfortunately, lack of administrative support and quality professional development (Fantilli and McDougall, 2009; Worthy, 2015) do not give novice teachers the chance to reflect on these identities and “reprioritize the ‘who’ and ‘what’ they want to be effective for” (Goodley, 2018: 172).…”

‘I think Irish schools need to keep doing what they’re doing’: Irish teachers’ views on school autonomy after working in English academies

“…They are obliged to set clear targets and to monitor progress through systematic evaluation (McNamara & O'Hara, 2012) and the intensity of focus on test scores and measurable outcomes adds to what is an already rigorous testing regime that the DEIS programme obliges participating schools to implement (Burns, 2016a). Some teachers in DEIS schools can therefore feel like they are under surveillance (Burns, 2016b) -a common theme in English academies.…”