Professional responsibility, accountability and performativity among teachers: the leavening influence of CPD?

Abstract

In a climate of accountability and performativity, do teachers experience CPD provision as an externally imposed demand for conformity, compliance, to be accountable, or as a personal and professional rejuvenation that enhances their sense of professional responsibility? Through a qualitative study of secondary schools in England, this paper critically scrutinises the experiences of teachers in five case study schools to create a composite picture of the realities of their lives as they are buffeted and shaped by performativity while also examining the extent to which their CPD experiences may be perceived as enhancing their sense of professional responsibility. Critical analysis of the evidence suggests that the language of accountability is pervasive, and its logic gains currency by being imposed throughout schools where there is limited space to craft an alternative, thus performativity and conformity are more likely than dissent while enhancement of a sense of professional responsibility is rendered more difficult, marginalised if not entirely silenced. The concluding discussion raises critical questions regarding the health of the profession from a policy and practice perspective if the language of professional responsibility continues to be weakened or diluted by being filtered through the closely woven weave of externally prescribed accountability criteria. It concludes that the language and logic of professional responsibility is vitally necessary in provoking alternative discourses on the future of the profession and the quality of teaching, learning and leading in schools within and beyond the confines of the study.

Keywords:

• Accountability
• performativity
• professional responsibility
• CPD
• leadership
• language and logic

Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge that funding for this project was provided through a process of internal competitive bidding (consistent with ESRC standards) provided by the Faculty of Education, Cambridge University. Both of us were members of the research team, along with three other colleagues. We are most grateful also to the reviewers who provided invaluable feedback on an earlier version of the manuscript.

Notes on contributors

Ciaran Sugrue is a full professor of Education and head of subject at the school of education, University College Dublin. His research interests include: leadership in schools and higher education, educational change and professional renewal, as well as qualitative research methods, particualrly Life History.

Sefika Mertkan is an associate professor of educational leadership and management at the Eastern Mediterranean University. Her research interests include: eductional leadership, school improvement, educational change and academic publishing.

Notes

1. RAISEonline, the Fischer Family Trust, the DES and Ofsted are inextricably linked. On its website, it states: ‘RAISEonline provides interactive analysis of school and pupil performance data.’ (https://www.raiseonline.org/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2f). Similarly, the Fischer Family Trust website indicates: ‘FFT provides data and analyses to all schools and LAs in England and Wales’ (http://www.fft.org.uk/). It goes on to say that it is a ‘non-profit company established in 2001’ while it is ‘solely focussed on providing accurate and insightful information to schools which enables pupils to achieve their full potential and schools to improve.’ Additionally, it continues: ‘We have been processing the National Pupil Database for the DFE since 2004’ (http://www.fft.org.uk/).

2. General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is typically taken at age 15–16, and in as many as 10 subjects, sometimes more.

3. The ‘A’ in A Level stands for advanced; that is an advance on GCSE, whereby 16–18 year olds study 3 or 4 subjects in greater depth and their performance determines access to higher education and the programmes they may access.

4. It is worth noting that among the participants in the study, Senior Leadership Team (SLT) is preferred to Senior Management Team (SMT), and with the benefit of hindsight, such distinctions would have benefited from additional exploration. Nevertheless, from a professional perspective, it may indicate a preference to be a member of a ‘leadership’ team rather than being a member of management, without necessarily being explicit about the distinctions involved or indeed the responsibilities that might attach to the former.

5. It is most likely that, in the intervening years since fieldwork for this study was completed, and the exponential growth that has occurred in the number of independent schools and academies, the influence of local authorities has declined considerably, while this has not necessarily reduced external pressures.

6. This phrase – ‘there is no alternative’ is frequently attributed to Margaret Thatcher, while its nineteenth Century roots are most frequently attributed to the Philosopher Herbert Spencer; a by-product of another of his phrases that has become embedded in vernacular language – ‘the survival of the fittest’.