The (mis)identification of ineffective classroom teaching practice: critical interrogations of classroom teacher effectiveness research

Abstract

This paper critiques specific forms of classroom teacher effectiveness research. In doing so, the paper suggests that education policy-making deems and employs teacher effectiveness research as a promising and capable contrivance for the identification of ineffective classroom teaching practice. The paper engages with this policy debate by using a specific policy example from the Australian state of Victoria, the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) Blueprint for Government Schools (2003/2008). Moreover, the attention given to “teacher effectiveness” as the means by which school systems aim to reverse student under-achievement positions classroom teachers as the controlling authority over educational outcomes. Indeed, teacher effectiveness is the defining quality of a policy-making debate that at its core dispenses with broader considerations of possible influence thought to substantially affect the learning outcomes of public school students.

• critical theory
• education policy
• student achievement
• teacher effectiveness

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the comments of two anonymous reviewers that gave constructive comments to an earlier draft of this paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andrew Skourdoumbis

Andrew Skourdoumbis is a senior lecturer in curriculum and pedagogy at Deakin University. His research interests include teacher effectiveness, policy analysis, research methodology and the philosophy and theory of education.