Anderson, S. and Conroy, J. (2024) The Role of Professional Judgement in Teacher Evaluation in an Era of De-Professionalization. Comparative and International Education Society Conference (CIES 2024), Miami, Florida, USA, 10-14 Mar 2024.
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Abstract
This paper will explore the role of teaching standards and professional judgement in the UK to assess new teaching effectiveness in an era of high accountability and increased scrutiny. Performativity and quality assurance have become dominate discussion points in teacher education as well as schools where an inspection approach has taken shape, particularly in England (Menter, 2016). And yet, there is dissent evident amongst teachers and teacher educators alike concerning the de-professionalizing of teaching and perceived disproportionate levels of accountability in the form of high-stakes inspection and performative measures. There is conflict of professionalization related to scripted curricula, fast track teacher preparation, and value-added teacher evaluations as well as perceived surveillance through data tracking, lesson observation, use of teacher evaluation and intensive appraisal. The extent of perceived surveillance and the judgements made about teachers constitutes an important question to the profession and national priorities due to its influence on educational practices (for instance, Charteris, 2022; Courtney, 2016; Colman, 2022; Hope, 2009; Page, 2017a; Perryman et al., 2018; Skerritt, 2022). In such a context, the role of professional judgement of classroom-based mentor teachers, teacher educators in universities, university-based school experience tutors in observing and judging teaching effectiveness are explored across three home nations of the UK, England, Scotland, and Wales. Social judgment theory (SJT) supports and informed the enquiry in this paper (Cooksey, 1998 and 1996; Hammond et al.,1977; Hovland & Sherif, 1980). SJT emphasises careful identification and analysis of the context of judgment and the cues and policies used. This makes SJT a fitting framework from which to investigate the judgments teacher educators make in multifaceted, dynamic, and highly scrutinized learning situations. The project was also informed by theories on panopticism (Foucault, 1977) and resistance (Certeau, 1984). There are specific concepts within each which guided informed the project (e.g., panoptic performativity, glass panopticism, resistance subjectivity, fabrication, and sousveillance). Together, the components of these theories a means of understanding different aspects of observing and judging teaching effectiveness. This enquiry used a comparative, embedded, and descriptive multiple-case study design. A mixed methods approach guided data collection and analysis, and a cross-case synthesis occurred (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016; Yin, 2018). Participants were selected through purposeful sampling as they offered a perspective within a defined context and with enough information for in-depth exploration (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Participants included full-time university staff, associate tutors, and school-based mentor teachers from three initial teacher education programmes, located in England, Scotland, and Wales (approximate n = 100). Data collection occurred through three methods: document review of teaching standards, a video observation task in the format of a digital questionnaire, and focus groups. Teaching standards and associated evaluation tools were reviewed and aligned with the ten standards of the UNESCO Global Framework (2021). Data collection also occurred through a Qualtrics questionnaire in which participants were asked to watch a 15-minute teaching video and then complete a series of questions about the effectiveness of the teaching observed in the video. They were asked to explain their thought process in making judgements about teaching as well as their agreement or disagreement with impacting factors on making judgments identified in prior research (e.g., clear criteria, training, bias, years of experience). Participants who completed the survey were invited to focus groups at each location. Focus groups occurred digitally through a secure Microsoft Teams account and were transcribed. Quantitative data from scaled observation ratings of teaching effectiveness were analysed using descriptive statistics (e.g., frequency, response agreement percentages, means, and standard deviations). Inter-rater reliability was also calculated including percent agreement and a trend analysis. Comparative analyses explored patterns of consensus and dissensus in judgement. Within each case from the three respective locations, qualitative data was analysed using the constant comparative method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) to construct codes, categories, subcategories or themes. Guidelines of thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006) were used to ensure reliability. Cross-case data analysis utilized the four-stage framework of Morse (1994): comprehending, synthesizing, theorizing and recontextualizing integrated with the analysis strategies of Miles and Huberman (1994): broad coding, pattern coding, memoing, distilling and ordering, testing executive summary statements, and developing proposition (Houghton et al., 2015, p. 10). In our paper, we will present how participants made judgements about teaching effectiveness and what factors influenced them. We will discuss the similarities and differences across expectations for effective teaching and frame these within the UNESCO Global Framework (2019) the Model Core Teaching Standards of the Council of Chief State School Officers (2011) in the USA. We will also reflect on the opportunities, challenges, and limitations of this work as to what professional judgement offers in order to improve the accuracy of assessing teaching capabilities in teacher education in Scotland, England, Wales and beyond by examining how judgements of teaching effectiveness are made. This paper highlights the distinctness of each of the home nations of the UK through exploring standards and how they are used. This research has brought forward a better understanding of contestation in educational work that can occur across devolved educational policies and issues with surveillance style evaluation. The findings are situated to directly influence the practices of assessing and enhancing novice teachers’ skills in school-experiences and speak to a common language of teaching practice as critical to making the complex work of teaching visible. The findings also inform the continuous improvement practices of the institutions involved and their networks as well as stimulate review and renew assessment practices with school partners.
| Item Type: | Conference or Workshop Item |
|---|---|
| Status: | Published |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: | Conroy, Professor James and Anderson, Dr Sarah |
| Authors: | Anderson, S., and Conroy, J. |
| Subjects: | L Education > L Education (General) |
| College/School: | College of Social Sciences > School of Education > Educational Leadership & Policy College of Social Sciences > School of Education > Professional Learning and Leadership |
| Copyright Holders: | Copyright © 2024 The Author(s) |
| Publisher Policy: | Reproduced with the permission of the authors |
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