‘Try walking in my shoes’: teachers’ interpretation of student perception surveys and the role of self-efficacy beliefs, perspective taking and inclusivity in teacher evaluation

ABSTRACT

For decades, policymakers deliberated whether student perception surveys (SPS) should be a component of teacher evaluation programmes in schools. However, much research has focused on SPS’ reliability and validity, and little is known about teachers’ interpretation of SPS or what preparation should be instituted before administering such surveys. Guided by a qualitative descriptive/interpretive approach, this paper draws upon 20 teacher interviews from different public schools in 14 US states. Teachers’ understanding of SPS appeared to provide insight into their self-efficacy beliefs in accountability-driven systems. Taking the perspective of principals illustrated teachers’ valuing SPS mostly as formative assessment. SPS also stood as isolated voice-based forms of evaluation, offering limited understanding of the educational processes when disconnected from an inclusive 360-degree feedback culture, grounded in principles of reciprocity and even-handedness. The paper holds promise for policymakers, implementers and educators seeking to buttress support for the use of voice initiatives in schools.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher evaluation
• student perception surveys
• student voice
• perspective taking
• 360-degree feedback
• teacher self-efficacy

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Hunter Gehlbach and Katherine Bassett, Bob Williams and their team at the National Network of State Teachers of the Year for their tremendous support in conducting this study. I also thank Shiri Lavy, Lotem Perry-Hazan, Melissa Barnes, Jane Milloy and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions and thoughtful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Dissecting the Tripod Student Survey – which is, to the best of my knowledge, the most widely used student survey instrument in the United States (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2012).

2. United States signed the CRC in 1995 but never ratified it. To date, it is the only United Nations member that has not ratified the CRC. See Convention on the Rights of the Child, United Nations Treaty Collection, https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=IND&mtdsg_no=IV-11&chapter=4&clang=_en (retrieved on July 22, 2019).

3. According to Woodhouse, adolescents have been key figures in American social justice movements, including the movement for gender equality, the movement for inclusion of people with disabilities, the labour movement, the civil rights movement and in the struggle to secure equal access to education. As she stated, children have ‘the sort of innocence that allows the boy in the fable to see and to say that the emperor has no clothes … to view old injustices with new eyes’ (pp. 1568–1569).