Official Policy and Truncated Practice: a need to reconceptualise the evaluation of teachers

Abstract

In recent years Ministries of Education in Canada have developed provincially mandated teacher evaluation policies to ensure the provision of effective classroom instruction to students and the professional growth and development of teachers through the assessment of their performance in the classroom and the quality of their teaching practice. Based on an in‐depth study of teacher evaluation practices in a school jurisdiction in the province of Alberta, the researcher concludes that the policy falls short in meeting these intended objectives for essentially three reasons: (1) teacher evaluation is an externally imposed bureaucratic mandate rather than a requirement that emerges from the professional culture of the school that requires an ongoing review of practice by administrators and teachers; (2) the teacher evaluation process is conducted as a distinct and separate process by school administrators, with little connection to other school and district policies or professional development activities; and (3) despite the intended purpose of the teacher evaluation policy, how it is interpreted and implemented is greatly influenced by the attitudes, values and beliefs of the evaluator (administrator) with regard to what constitutes effective teaching, and the role and purpose of schooling in the community. The researcher discusses alternative approaches to teacher evaluation that focus more directly on instructional improvement and the professional development of teachers.