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Performativity and the demise of the teaching profession: the need for rebalancing in Australia

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View the page of Margie Appel

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Margie Appel explores the relationships between the qualities of a professional teacher and the negative effects of performativity and proposes a rebalancing framework.

Image courtesy of interviewee. November 27, 2023

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This video video is a summary of a paper presented by an educator reflecting on their experiences in teaching and the effects of increasing performativity within the profession. The speaker discusses their journey from teaching to academia, highlighting the initial autonomy they felt in the classroom, which diminished over time due to heightened restrictions and standardization. This video video shift led to a feeling of compromised professionalism, as more focus was placed on administration over teaching creativity.

The speaker references a book by Gabby Stroud, which discusses similar frustrations among teachers regarding the erosion of their professional autonomy. They note concerning statistics about teacher retention in Australia, indicating a significant turnover rate among new teachers, and relate this to broader trends of negativity in media narratives about educators. The issue of teacher shortages is also raised, alongside the psychological impacts of performativity on educators.

The paper draws on concepts such as neoliberal reforms and performance management, detailing three significant contributors to the issues faced by teachers: the introduction of a national curriculum, strict professional standards, and high-stakes testing (NAPLAN) practices, which have fostered a culture of accountability and competition rather than collaboration. The findings reveal that these pressures have led to reduced autonomy, stifled creativity, and a general sense of distrust among teachers towards administrators.

To address these challenges, the speaker proposes a "rebalancing framework" with three main solutions:
1. Collaborative leadership that promotes shared decision-making.
2. Professional learning structured as collaborative endeavors rather than mere compliance, using professional learning communities.
3. A focus on evidence-based practice that emphasizes teacher responsibility and autonomy rather than strict accountability.

Ultimately, the paper calls for a transformation in how teachers are supported and empowered to foster innovation and passion within their profession, advocating for a collaborative and respectful approach to educational reform.

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X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

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The context of me writing this paper actually, is

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that I was a teacher, for many, many years.

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I came quite, quite late to academia,

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and I was so passionate and ambitious

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and really keen to make a change in children's lives.

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But then when I first started teaching, I actually felt

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that I had a, a, a strong level

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of autonomy in the classroom,

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and I was, I was really able to take the time to get

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to know the students and create a learning environment

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that suited, their strengths and needs

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and responded to their backgrounds and their life worlds.

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And I, I felt that I was, I was trusted as a professional.

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Um, so that's what I'm talking about in the paper,

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that I found as time went on,

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with increasing restrictions,

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and standardization, that my autonomy became more

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and more restricted.

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Um, and though, even though I was still an enthusiastic

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teacher and really, really loved teaching, I really felt

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that I was being restricted

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and that things were getting more

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and more out of my control.

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So more and more, more of my time was taken up

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with administration,

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and I felt that my professionalism was really compromised.

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And also read a book by Gabby Stroud called Teacher,

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and she talks about this, this phenomena of

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that she had been part

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of the teaching profession just like me.

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She was really passionate.

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She was, and then feel, felt like more

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and more that her professionalism was compromised.

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Um, and she, she attributes that

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to the pressures caused

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by changes in the teaching conditions, just

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as I was, was talking about.

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Um, so I really related to what she was saying, that,

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you know, her frustration

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because she was increasingly, increasingly unable to teach

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the students according to her own professional knowledge.

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I think, you know, we have data flying around

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that you see everywhere that says that up to 50%

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of new teachers in Australia actually leave the profession

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within five years.

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So I guess it's unclear whether it's the majority

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of the teachers that, are experiencing this,

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but I'm sure, that some teachers stay on

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and are feeling, also feeling the pressures

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and just going through the motions.

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And that's what, my research showed.

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And it was also really interesting that, a recent study

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by Nicole Moler looked at

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how the media has reported about teachers,

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and she looked at 65,000, I think, research,

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news articles about teachers.

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And she talked about the fact that the way,

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teachers are talked about in the media then in a negative

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light has a real flow on effect to

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how people feel about becoming a teacher or,

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or how current teachers feel about, you know,

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their place in, in,

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In the community.

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So yeah, I, I think we have a,

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a teacher shortage in Australia,

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and, I think, probably in the UK as well,

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but I do hear all over the world there is this feeling of,

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of a teacher shortage, which I'm sure doesn't,

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do any good to that feeling of stress that teachers have

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as well, when I moved into academia.

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So I had more time to actually look into this.

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And so I was really interested in looking,

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looking into this.

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Um, and I came to learn that this term performativity is

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what I was experiencing

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or this, this, this stress from this performativity.

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Um, and I read more

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and more about this, phenomena, I guess,

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which is happening all over the world of neoliberal

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and how as probably many of our listeners know

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that over the last three

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and four decades, that reforms, in Australia,

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but also also all over the world, have been dominated by a,

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a more of a business oriented model, with the aim

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to improve, teacher quality.

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Um, and the results is performance management.

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And, the core premise of that is that standards will be,

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increased due to competition created between schools

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and parental pressures.

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Um, and so the goals of that is sort

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of increased accountability, increased standards.

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And so there comes the, the culture of performativity.

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Um, and in Australia in particular,

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I know all over the world it's differently,

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but there's, there've been three different things

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that have contributed,

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or three different changes in teaching

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that have contributed to the performativity.

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And the first one is the Australian curriculum.

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So we have a now a, a national curriculum, whereas

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before all the states

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and territories actually worked on their own curriculum.

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So now it, it appeared in 2010, but now it's mandatory.

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Uh, there's been some problems with the rollout

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with the different states, finding it hard to,

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to implement.

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Um, but, you know,

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and people are feeling a bit of fatigue over the changes

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and the constant revisions.

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But there is hope that, having the national curriculum,

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will, will enable teachers to have a bit more autonomy.

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But, and, and I am, I'm a university lecturer

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for teacher education, initial teacher education,

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and I am finding that the, the,

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the pre-service teachers are really good at working

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with the curriculum and are not finding it, difficult

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or restrictive as I did.

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Um, and the second thing out

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of the three is the Australian professional standards.

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They were also, introduced standards

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for teachers in 2010.

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Um, and they're quite, stringent

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Descriptions of what is expected of teachers,

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in their knowledge practice and engagement.

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Um, again, this is seen by some as a positive move,

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but then also there's very negative attitudes about their

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inflexibility, but also that kind of idea that they

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can be used in a controlling manner.

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Uh, and then the third thing that perhaps the,

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the strongest, strongest influence

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to performativity is naplan, which is our

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national assessment program for literacy and numeracy.

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Basically, generates data about literacy and numeracy.

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It really focuses on literacy and numeracy

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and is a part of this real push to increase standards.

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Uh, it's wasn't meant to be in the start,

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but now it's real high stakes testing

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because all of the results of the schools are published in

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league tables called my my School League tables.

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So parents and teachers

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and everybody can just look at these league tables to see,

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where the school sits.

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And it, although it accounts for socioeconomic status,

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you know, these things can be taken out of the, the factor.

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So there's a lot of negative debate about nap plan.

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Um, teachers feel like, you know,

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it takes time from the curriculum

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because you're actually teaching to the test.

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Um, there's also evidence of, cheating in that,

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teachers are taking withdrawing students who aren't going

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to do very well perhaps.

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Uh, and then of course, inequality is, is maintained

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because some children just don't respond

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well to the testing.

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It's culturally in insensitive as well,

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and also has strong effects on children's wellbeing,

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negative effects on, on, on wellbeing.

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So that's how it stands in in Australia at the moment.

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This paper is a qualitative literature review using,

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mapping methodology.

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Uh, and I was, it was based on, the research questions,

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what is the effect of performativity on teacher

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professionalism, and also

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what are the implications for the future?

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So I searched all the databases.

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I was looking primary keywords

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of teacher professionalism, performativity.

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Um, then I also moved on from there.

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It led to further searches with the word autonomy,

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knowledge, and responsibility.

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Um, so the aim of this paper was just

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to look at the academic literature,

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that writes about this topic of professionalism

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and performativity, and to explore those relationships

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of the qualities of, a professional teacher

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and then the negative effects of performativity.

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And so, while I was working in this way and the themes were

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Emerging, I developed, a,

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a rebalancing framework.

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So with some ideas, and it's looking at how this control

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and collaboration, is working in the Australian

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teaching profession and solutions to,

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to shift the balance between control

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and collaboration that's going on in there,

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I looked at the effects on professionalism

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and found, there was three major themes

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that came out with that.

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Uh, and the first was a lack of autonomy, just

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as I was talking about before.

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Um, and so there's evidence to suggest

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that many schools have reacted to the performativity

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by increasing the bureaucracy of their schools, which then

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compromises teachers' professional autonomy,

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and an added complication, which is perhaps, a reason

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for this re reaction is the effect

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of performativity on school principals

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because they,

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they're feeling like they're constantly accessible,

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so they then increase bureaucracy of the schools.

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So then teacher autonomy is, is restricted, restricted.

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Uh, and the second thing,

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that I found was about the stifled creativity, which again,

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I also experienced the effects of performativity, is

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that this creativity

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and the ability to develop these 21st century skills are

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completely compromised.

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So,

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and then the last thing that I looked at as an effect

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of performativity is a lack of trust.

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Um, so many teachers are saying that the measures

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of accountability are actually,

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feel like they're not trusted,

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and they have strong feelings

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of distrust from their school leaders,

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and that the leaders are relying, on authority

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to face the challenges, right,

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of centralization and standardization.

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Um, and so the response to these tight restrictions

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that the leaders are tending to increase,

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actually are leading to alienation and disloyalty

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and even dishonesty, which was interesting to see that.

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Um, instead of fulfilling the obligations

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of the standardization, then teachers were continuing

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to do perhaps what they thought was correct in,

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in their professional, teaching of the students in the,

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what the students need.

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And then ticking boxes.

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Um, and this is called, in the acade, in,

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in the literature's called, fabrications or pretenses.

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Um, so again, these teachers complaining about the lack

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of time and energy to work,

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Um, work.

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And because of this lack, lack of trust, as I said,

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I had the three levels.

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So what the three things that, a professional teacher

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requires, and then the three things

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that are being compromised by performativity.

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So then I also looked at three, options

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for rebalancing that.

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So more towards collaboration than control.

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And I do, I do think this is a real, chance for us

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to work together, as teachers

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and educational policy makers to, to get back that passion

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and enthusiasm of, of teachers.

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So the three things in there are,

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the first thing is about

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leadership, collaborative leadership.

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And for this, I used, Megan, it might be Megan,

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Shannon Moran's model of professional bureaucracy.

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And she talks about how power

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and authority flow evenly between teachers

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and administrators, if it's, if it's constructed as,

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respecting the needs of professional teachers.

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Um, and she's saying how that, with performativity,

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there's been a shift to a more bureaucratic orientation

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with, centralized control

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as I've been talking about in standardization.

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Uh, and so she advocates a move towards

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what she calls a professional orientation with more,

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flexible rules and shared decision making.

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So that will then increase that autonomy

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and agency that teachers feel, is compromised.

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And, the second, rebalancing solution

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that is suggested is in the area of professional learning.

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So with our professional standards that I was talking about

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before, the enforcement of these

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and the enforcement about professional learning

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and hours of professional learning has those damaging

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effects on professional identity and autonomy.

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And, so to improve

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and to preserve that creativity

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and knowledge of our teachers,

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then I think the professional development,

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should be used to, to as a form

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of collaboration rather than this ticking off.

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Uh, and the best evidence around that is that,

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this should be org organized in formal

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professional learning communities.

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And I dunno about the uk,

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but in Australia this has been, there's been a real move

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to professional learning communities where teachers then own

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what they're te what they're studying

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and what they're researching,

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and then how they're working in the classroom all together

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in collaboratively.

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Uh, and I think in this model then there would be time

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in the timetable.

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Australian teachers actually work more hours face-to-face

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with students than many other countries in

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the world. And so there

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Needs to be time in the timetable for these professional

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and professional learning communities.

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Uh, and then the final solution

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or rebalancing idea that I have is to be

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focusing on evidence-based practice.

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Um, and again, this is the, the idea that,

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teachers are given responsibility,

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rather than being held accountable for something.

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So their accountability is, is in their own responsibility.

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Um, and so,

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I guess things like self-determination theory, which shows

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that, teachers when they're given autonomy

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and competence

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and relatedness, which are associated with that theory,

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then they'll be more intrinsically motivated

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to create the best learning environment.

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And so, a top-down approach to this is not, not

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what actually works.

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Uh, so as I said

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before, our NAPLAN results haven't even got e any better

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as this has gone on.

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So, thinking about that,

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the idea is to educate teachers to, towards an openness for,

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for constant transformation.

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So they don't get stuck in their practices,

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but, being educated with skills in research to validate

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and support their practices.

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And I think that, rather than, yeah,

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forcing things down upon them, that this kind of empowerment

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with doing things like action researchers as what,

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what will be really meaningful.

00:00 - The context of me writing this paper actually, is that I was a teacher, for many, many years. I came quite, quite late to academia, and I was so passionate and ambitious and really keen to make a change in children's lives. But then when I first started teaching, I actually felt

00:16 - that I had a, a, a strong level of autonomy in the classroom, and I was, I was really able to take the time to get to know the students and create a learning environment that suited, their strengths and needs and responded to their backgrounds and their life worlds. And I, I felt that I was, I was trusted as a professional. so that's what I'm talking about in the paper, that I found as time went on, with increasing restrictions,

00:46 - and standardization, that my autonomy became more and more restricted. and though, even though I was still an enthusiastic teacher and really, really loved teaching, I really felt that I was being restricted and that things were getting more and more out of my control. So more and more, more of my time was taken up with administration, and I felt that my professionalism was really compromised.

01:13 - And also read a book by Gabby Stroud called Teacher, and she talks about this, this phenomena of that she had been part of the teaching profession just like me. She was really passionate. She was, and then feel, felt like more and more that her professionalism was compromised. and she, she attributes that to the pressures caused by changes in the teaching conditions, just

01:40 - as I was, was talking about. so I really related to what she was saying, that, you know, her frustration because she was increasingly, increasingly unable to teach the students according to her own professional knowledge. I think, you know, we have data flying around that you see everywhere that says that up to 50% of new teachers in Australia actually leave the profession within five years. So I guess it's unclear whether it's the majority

02:10 - of the teachers that, are experiencing this, but I'm sure, that some teachers stay on and are feeling, also feeling the pressures and just going through the motions. And that's what, my research showed. And it was also really interesting that, a recent study by Nicole Moler looked at how the media has reported about teachers, and she looked at 65,000, I think, research, news articles about teachers.

02:41 - And she talked about the fact that the way, teachers are talked about in the media then in a negative light has a real flow on effect to how people feel about becoming a teacher or, or how current teachers feel about, you know, their place in, in, In the community. So yeah, I, I think we have a, a teacher shortage in Australia, and, I think, probably in the UK as well,

03:09 - but I do hear all over the world there is this feeling of, of a teacher shortage, which I'm sure doesn't, do any good to that feeling of stress that teachers have as well, when I moved into academia. So I had more time to actually look into this. And so I was really interested in looking, looking into this. and I came to learn that this term performativity is what I was experiencing or this, this, this stress from this performativity.

03:38 - and I read more and more about this, phenomena, I guess, which is happening all over the world of neoliberal and how as probably many of our listeners know that over the last three and four decades, that reforms, in Australia, but also also all over the world, have been dominated by a, a more of a business oriented model, with the aim to improve, teacher quality. and the results is performance management.

04:10 - And, the core premise of that is that standards will be, increased due to competition created between schools and parental pressures. and so the goals of that is sort of increased accountability, increased standards. And so there comes the, the culture of performativity. and in Australia in particular, I know all over the world it's differently, but there's, there've been three different things that have contributed,

04:42 - or three different changes in teaching that have contributed to the performativity. And the first one is the Australian curriculum. So we have a now a, a national curriculum, whereas before all the states and territories actually worked on their own curriculum. So now it, it appeared in 2010, but now it's mandatory. there's been some problems with the rollout with the different states, finding it hard to, to implement.

05:09 - but, you know, and people are feeling a bit of fatigue over the changes and the constant revisions. But there is hope that, having the national curriculum, will, will enable teachers to have a bit more autonomy. But, and, and I am, I'm a university lecturer for teacher education, initial teacher education, and I am finding that the, the, the pre-service teachers are really good at working with the curriculum and are not finding it, difficult

05:40 - or restrictive as I did. and the second thing out of the three is the Australian professional standards. They were also, introduced standards for teachers in 2010. and they're quite, stringent Descriptions of what is expected of teachers, in their knowledge practice and engagement. again, this is seen by some as a positive move, but then also there's very negative attitudes about their

06:12 - inflexibility, but also that kind of idea that they can be used in a controlling manner. and then the third thing that perhaps the, the strongest, strongest influence to performativity is naplan, which is our national assessment program for literacy and numeracy. Basically, generates data about literacy and numeracy. It really focuses on literacy and numeracy and is a part of this real push to increase standards. it's wasn't meant to be in the start,

06:46 - but now it's real high stakes testing because all of the results of the schools are published in league tables called my my School League tables. So parents and teachers and everybody can just look at these league tables to see, where the school sits. And it, although it accounts for socioeconomic status, you know, these things can be taken out of the, the factor. So there's a lot of negative debate about nap plan. teachers feel like, you know,

07:16 - it takes time from the curriculum because you're actually teaching to the test. there's also evidence of, cheating in that, teachers are taking withdrawing students who aren't going to do very well perhaps. and then of course, inequality is, is maintained because some children just don't respond well to the testing. It's culturally in insensitive as well, and also has strong effects on children's wellbeing,

07:45 - negative effects on, on, on wellbeing. So that's how it stands in in Australia at the moment. This paper is a qualitative literature review using, mapping methodology. and I was, it was based on, the research questions, what is the effect of performativity on teacher professionalism, and also what are the implications for the future? So I searched all the databases. I was looking primary keywords

08:16 - of teacher professionalism, performativity. then I also moved on from there. It led to further searches with the word autonomy, knowledge, and responsibility. so the aim of this paper was just to look at the academic literature, that writes about this topic of professionalism and performativity, and to explore those relationships of the qualities of, a professional teacher and then the negative effects of performativity.

08:49 - And so, while I was working in this way and the themes were Emerging, I developed, a, a rebalancing framework. So with some ideas, and it's looking at how this control and collaboration, is working in the Australian teaching profession and solutions to, to shift the balance between control and collaboration that's going on in there, I looked at the effects on professionalism and found, there was three major themes

09:25 - that came out with that. and the first was a lack of autonomy, just as I was talking about before. and so there's evidence to suggest that many schools have reacted to the performativity by increasing the bureaucracy of their schools, which then compromises teachers' professional autonomy, and an added complication, which is perhaps, a reason for this re reaction is the effect of performativity on school principals

09:58 - because they, they're feeling like they're constantly accessible, so they then increase bureaucracy of the schools. So then teacher autonomy is, is restricted, restricted. and the second thing, that I found was about the stifled creativity, which again, I also experienced the effects of performativity, is that this creativity and the ability to develop these 21st century skills are completely compromised.

10:29 - So, and then the last thing that I looked at as an effect of performativity is a lack of trust. so many teachers are saying that the measures of accountability are actually, feel like they're not trusted, and they have strong feelings of distrust from their school leaders, and that the leaders are relying, on authority to face the challenges, right,

10:58 - of centralization and standardization. and so the response to these tight restrictions that the leaders are tending to increase, actually are leading to alienation and disloyalty and even dishonesty, which was interesting to see that. instead of fulfilling the obligations of the standardization, then teachers were continuing to do perhaps what they thought was correct in, in their professional, teaching of the students in the, what the students need.

11:35 - And then ticking boxes. and this is called, in the acade, in, in the literature's called, fabrications or pretenses. so again, these teachers complaining about the lack of time and energy to work, work. And because of this lack, lack of trust, as I said, I had the three levels. So what the three things that, a professional teacher requires, and then the three things

12:05 - that are being compromised by performativity. So then I also looked at three, options for rebalancing that. So more towards collaboration than control. And I do, I do think this is a real, chance for us to work together, as teachers and educational policy makers to, to get back that passion and enthusiasm of, of teachers. So the three things in there are, the first thing is about

12:35 - leadership, collaborative leadership. And for this, I used, Megan, it might be Megan, Shannon Moran's model of professional bureaucracy. And she talks about how power and authority flow evenly between teachers and administrators, if it's, if it's constructed as, respecting the needs of professional teachers. and she's saying how that, with performativity, there's been a shift to a more bureaucratic orientation with, centralized control

13:07 - as I've been talking about in standardization. and so she advocates a move towards what she calls a professional orientation with more, flexible rules and shared decision making. So that will then increase that autonomy and agency that teachers feel, is compromised. And, the second, rebalancing solution that is suggested is in the area of professional learning. So with our professional standards that I was talking about before, the enforcement of these

13:44 - and the enforcement about professional learning and hours of professional learning has those damaging effects on professional identity and autonomy. And, so to improve and to preserve that creativity and knowledge of our teachers, then I think the professional development, should be used to, to as a form of collaboration rather than this ticking off. and the best evidence around that is that,

14:16 - this should be org organized in formal professional learning communities. And I dunno about the uk, but in Australia this has been, there's been a real move to professional learning communities where teachers then own what they're te what they're studying and what they're researching, and then how they're working in the classroom all together in collaboratively. and I think in this model then there would be time

14:43 - in the timetable. Australian teachers actually work more hours face-to-face with students than many other countries in the world. And so there Needs to be time in the timetable for these professional and professional learning communities. and then the final solution or rebalancing idea that I have is to be focusing on evidence-based practice. and again, this is the, the idea that,

15:09 - teachers are given responsibility, rather than being held accountable for something. So their accountability is, is in their own responsibility. and so, I guess things like self-determination theory, which shows that, teachers when they're given autonomy and competence and relatedness, which are associated with that theory, then they'll be more intrinsically motivated to create the best learning environment.

15:40 - And so, a top-down approach to this is not, not what actually works. so as I said before, our NAPLAN results haven't even got e any better as this has gone on. So, thinking about that, the idea is to educate teachers to, towards an openness for, for constant transformation. So they don't get stuck in their practices, but, being educated with skills in research to validate

16:12 - and support their practices. And I think that, rather than, yeah, forcing things down upon them, that this kind of empowerment with doing things like action researchers as what, what will be really meaningful.

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