The Role of ‘Autonomy’ in Teaching Expertise

Abstract

The Role of 'Autonomy' in Teaching Expertise IRENE BUCELLI Debates around the effects of 'new public measures' emphasise changes to teachers' practices, role and expertise. While critics lament a 'deprofessionalisation' of teaching, in some countries, such as England, the current rhetoric stresses the government's trust in teachers and talk of 'professional autonomy' has come to the forefront. In light of this, a more rigorous understanding of the role of autonomy in teaching expertise seems necessary. This paper asks whether the notion of autonomy is significant to teachers' roles and activities, and explores how autonomy bears on our conception of teaching expertise. The first part of the paper clarifies the very conception of autonomy that is employed in much philosophical discussion. I will argue that the notion of autonomy is problematic: it conflates rather different psychological, phenomenological and normative elements. When we clarify these ideas we can see how some of these aspects are in fact extremely relevant to our conception of the role of teachers and to our understanding of teaching practice. In the second part of the paper, these concepts are employed to clarify public debates surrounding teachers' autonomy, comparing England and Scotland. I will claim that the kinds of knowledge and abilities constituting teaching expertise depend on our understanding of the role of teachers within an educational system and in relation to educational aims. This, in turn, has consequences for the way in which teaching expertise can be developed and/or hindered through policy.

Student teachers as creative writers: does an understanding of creative pedagogies matter?

“…Findings from the individual interviews echoed this tension between a controlling and autonomous creative writing environment and demonstrated the dichotomy between an environment where teachers and student teachers feel enslaved by curriculum constraints (Worth and Van Den Brande, 2020) and high‐stakes testing (Bucilli, 2017) and an environment where teachers feel empowered to create a writing environment (Parker, 2015) that fosters learner agency and creativity (Jeffery and Craft, 2004). Eve, who identified as not being creative, recollected having less freedom with a creative writing learning environment and stated, “what I do remember from school is that everything was very structured … it was very worksheet based” .…”

“…In addition, the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted, 2009) reported that when teachers lacked confidence in teaching writing, they were more likely to teach lessons where there was an emphasis on technical aspects of writing, rather than facilitating children's exploration of the creative writing process. Additionally, teachers who lack confidence in writing are more likely to rigidly follow a set literacy programme (Gardner, 2018) and teach to the test (Bucilli, 2017) rather than create a writing environment that fosters autonomy, creative approaches and where the teacher teaches as a writer (Cremin et al, 2020).…”

“…Children might feel they need to rush … because [children] have to do the test, you kind of feel like you have to teach them in that sort of way to help them towards the test” . A lack of understanding of creative pedagogies can lead student teachers to focus on skills and performance (Lambirth, 2016) and, although they may value creativity, curriculum constraints and pedagogies of performance hinder teacher autonomy (Bucelli, 2017). A real challenge for ITE is to consider how to prepare student teachers for a system that often fails to value creativity above performance (Moss, 2017) and how to ensure students are equipped to deal with the pressures of teaching to the test.…”

“…A recent National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) study reported that the average teacher has a lower level of professional autonomy compared to other professionals and whilst this is, in part, due to the unique nature of the teaching profession, it is also due to national and school-imposed curriculum requirements that constrain and control how teachers plan and complete assessments (Worth and Van den Brande, 2020). Even though many teachers favour creative approaches that foster autonomy, innovation and discovery, teachers adapt the way they teach as they feel obliged to teach to the test (Bucelli, 2017). Due to the accountability and high-stakes assessment that has dominated English schools since the 1980s, teachers focus on children producing writing that can be used for assessment purposes, rather than concentrating on developing writer autonomy and identity (Hempel-Jorgensen et al, 2018).…”