Counteracting performativity in schools: the case for laughter as a qualitative and redemptive indicator

Abstract

The auditing culture and its concomitant, ‘performativity’, have been at the core of the on‐going public sector reforms of the last twenty‐five years or so. The advantages and limitations of performance indicators as a managerial technique of control have long been known. Considered from an organisational, social and political perspective, it is now possible to evaluate the predictions made in the 1980s and 1990s. These focused on the consequences for the cultures of educational institutions and the emotional resilience of individuals – especially the children – within them, if techniques of this kind are inappropriately managed and emphasise the impersonal and quantitative. The article offers a compromise solution that balances effectiveness with humanity and spirituality, in the form of a radical performance indicator, namely, laughter.

Keywords:

• Indicators
• Laughter
• Performativity
• Redemption
• Resilience

Notes

* Professional Education Research Centre, Roehampton University of Surrey, Southlands College, 80 Roehampton Lane, London SW15 5SL, UK. Email: [email protected]

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Helen Johnson *

* Professional Education Research Centre, Roehampton University of Surrey, Southlands College, 80 Roehampton Lane, London SW15 5SL, UK. Email: [email protected]