My presentation at Staffs Uni, Jan 2013. The hyperlinks link to several useful sources - worth checking out. More similar material at www.howardstevenson.org

1. TEACHER PROFESSIONALISM IN A
PRIVATISED WORLD:
TIME TO RECLAIM TEACHING?
UNIVERSITY OF STAFFORDSHIRE
10TH JANUARY 2013.
Howard Stevenson
University of Lincoln
hstevenson@lincoln.ac.uk
#reclaimteaching

2. When a professional student of social affairs writes a political
book, his first duty is to plainly say so. This is a political book. I
do not wish to disguise this by describing it, as I might perhaps
have done, by the more elegant and ambitious name of an
essay in social philosophy. But, whatever the name, the
essential point remains that all I have to say is derived from
certain ultimate values. I hope I have adequately discharged in
the book itself a second and no less important duty: to make it
clear beyond doubt what these ultimate values are on which
the whole argument depends.
I have come to regard the writing of this book as a duty I must
not evade.
But who said it . . . ?
F A Hayek, (1944) Preface to The Road to Serfdom

3. It’s a revolution . . .
And it is happening right now, right beneath
our feet.
Local Authority Officer, Interview, July 2012

4. Traditional
Professionalism
New
Professionalism
Anti-
Professionalism
Progressive
Professionalism

5. The war on welfare . . .
. . . and the battle of ideas
In contrast to the economic process, it is a
fundamental principle of the welfare state that the
market value of an individual cannot be the
measure of his [sic] right to welfare. The central
function of welfare, in fact, is to supersede the
market by taking goods and services out of it, or in
some way to control and modify its operations so
as to produce a result that it would not have
produced itself.
(Marshall 1981: 107, original 1950)

6. Local
Government
Teachers &
Teacher Unions
Central
State
‘a national system . . .locally administered.’
Post-war partnership and the
social democratic settlement

7. I have heard it said that the existence in this
country of 146 strong vigorous LEAs safeguards
democracy and lessens the risk of dictatorship. No
doubt this is true but an even greater safeguard is
the existence of a quarter of a million teachers
who are free to decide what should be taught and
how it should be taught.
(Ron Gould, NUT General Secretary, 1954)
This quote and from The Schoolmaster in Gerald Grace, ‘Teachers and the
State in Britain: A Changing Relation’, in Teachers: The Culture and Politics
of Work, ed. M. Lawn and G. Grace (Lewes, UK: Falmer Press, 1987)

8. Post-war Partnership
- the basis of the settlement
• Professional Issues
– Curriculum
– Pedagogy
‘the golden age of teacher (non)-control
of the curriculum’ – Lawton (1980:22)
• Industrial Issues
– Pay
– Conditions of service
Professional
Autonomy
Collective
Bargaining

9. The freedom of teachers in their classrooms is a
strongly held professional value in England and Wales.
It has always been a source of pride to the profession
and a very proper one, that in this country the teacher
has the inalienable right to decide what to
teach and how to teach it.
The Schoolmaster (1960)
Professionalism and professional autonomy

10. • Professional autonomy
• Professional knowledge and expertise
• Commitment to professional learning
• Education of the profession by the profession
• Self-regulating
• ‘Trust’
• Commitment to public service
Traditional professionalism . . .
Many useful sources – see Johnson (1972), Larson (1977).

11. Teachers, administrators and union officials are no
different from the rest of us. They may be parents, too,
sincerely desiring a fine school system. However, their
interests as teachers, as administrators, and union
officials are different from their interests as parents
whose children they teach. Their interests may be served
by greater centralization and bureaucratization even if
the interests of the parents are not – indeed, one way in
which those interests are served is precisely by reducing
the power of parents.
Friedman and Friedman (1980: 147)
Anti-professionalism . . . ?

12. Education has proved easier for the producers (teacher
and administrators) to capture than other industries,
partly because its shortcomings can be disguised by
jargon. The school with poor examination results can
claim that knowledgeable educationalists nowadays
hold ‘school spirit’ or ‘awareness’ more important.
Although the consumers (parents and children) demand
examination passes and other measureable
achievements from their schools, education producers
are able to argue that they, as ‘professionals’, know
better . . . .
Adam Smith Institute Omega Report (1980) (see also Black Papers)
New Right critique and the attack on
‘producer capture’

13. …a subtle set of linked measures are to be relied on to
have the desired effect – that is to push the whole
system towards a degree at least, of privatisation,
establishing a base which could be further exploited
later.
Simon (1987:13)
1988 – Education Reform Act
National Curriculum, standardised testing, Local
Management of Schools, opting-out, league tables
New Right critique, ‘producer capture’ and and
the creation of the educational marketplace
See also Stevenson (2011) and
Guardian (2012)

14. 1. Identification of the ‘one best way’ through scientific
analysis and design of work
• Work as ‘laws, rules, and even . . .mathematical formulae.’ (Taylor 1947:
90)
2. Identification features of the ideal worker – based on
approach as per (1) above
3. Locate ideal worker (1) and match to scientifically
designed task (2) - recruitment and division of labour
4. Link pay to productivity – reward and control
New Right critique, ‘producer capture’ and
the new (scientific) managerialism

15. • Focus on ‘the core task of teaching and learning’
• New accountability regimes
– Professional Standards
– Performance Management
– Performance Pay
• Focus on CPD
• Social Partnership Stevenson et al. 2007
New Labour and new professionalism . . .
. . . more markets and managerialism

16. One teacher’s story . . .
The story of an outstanding/very
good/good/satisfactory [delete as appropriate]
teacher . . . in her own words
Source: research interview 2007 (reported in Carter et al. (2010)

17. If I talk about how my job has got easier in the various
ways. Yes, I have more non-contacts. This year I have
more non-contacts than I did last year. I had 8 non-
contacts - I have more this year. But how do you use
them? If I take my role as a subject leader, what am I
supposed to do in those non-contacts? In those non-
contacts I’m supposed to be doing the scrutiny of work,
I’m supposed to be doing lesson observation, also
there’s my own work to do. So although it looks like I
have more, each one is quite full.
On workforce reform . . .

18. Leading and managing are two totally different things and
also the nature of my job is, I mean I’m much better on
statistics now and data than I ever was, that’s another
thing that I had to teach myself to do. It particularly comes
into Performance Management, you know, value added.
So prior to it, I work it all out for them [staff] and talk
about where their value added is and the positive and the
negative and you have to be confident when you’re talking
to them, but also make them feel at ease with what
they’re doing - you just manage it in an hour.
On leading and managing . . .

19. Now that’s because they [staff] know that they’re being measured
by it . . .
it’s that data that might be whether they go through [pay
progression] or not. They’re not easy conversations or hours to
have with people. . .
Their careers, their livelihood, but most importantly the money
that they earn, could be down to you and I didn’t go into it with
that. I’m not personnel trained as far as that is concerned.
it’s up to you whether they [staff] go on to the next [pay] threshold
. . . it’s a pay thing and . . . you have these conversations with
people which are about their targets and the first objective is
‘what target you’re going to set’. People are obviously upset
because their statistics are affected by the students who are there.

20. And you’re looking at the whole child and it’s all about
building that relationship which has been the ethos of
[this] school. Which is very hard to do when I’m also
expected to be as a core Head of English to be able to
be looking at data, moving the department forward,
the school is measured on the English and Maths
scores. So I would actually say no, I’m a satisfactory
tutor. I think I’ve gone from being a good tutor to a
satisfactory one.
On the students . . .

21. Now there are demands put on you about teaching your
subject. But my personal feeling is to be a good teacher you
have to have a relationship with these children and, and
they want it. They need it. I mean they don’t have to like you
but you have to have the respect, you have to have the time
to build the relationships with them.
. . . but maybe we don’t have the time to build those
relationships because statistics say, data says, target says,
the child becomes a number that you have to teach.
it’s all about the statistics, their data, their targets as opposed to
building the relationship with the child.’
. . . You need to be a good teacher, then it is not just the
number, it’s the whole child. But you have to juggle it.

22. You have relationships with people in your tutor group
and then you may teach them and there’s nothing
better than a tutor group and then you teach that
person in your tutor group. That’s a double whammy,
that’s great.
My role every week is to make contact, apart from that
just calling their name, about something, knowing
what’s going on because that’s how you move students
on, to make every single one of them feel that someone
notices them.

23. I had an issue - this is an example of an issue. I had some
Year 10 and 11 girls, make up, clothes, all of this, so I dealt
with it and I took them to one side to speak to them in
tutor time on the Thursday. And they reacted very, very
badly to what I said and all sorts of things. And I was quite
hurt by it. So what came out? I saw the parents - their
response was ‘They don’t feel you care about them any
more. You’re not there for them any more’. And so
relationships that I had built up, I’m not able to build them
up in the same way. And I’m not saying that they dislike
the person who takes them for tutor time but they actually
don’t feel comfortable because the nature of it is you build
a long relationship with these students and I, I know that’s
gone.

24. I know if you had to grade me, as we do grade
each other now, I think I’m a, a good subject
leader and that has to be rated on the fact of
the percentages. The school might say I’m very
good - the Ofsted report said it’s ‘outstanding’,
the leadership, but to do that how can I be a
tutor? How can I give all that my tutor group
requires?
On herself . . .

25. This White Paper signals a radical reform
of our schools. We have no choice but to
be this radical if our ambition is to be
world-class. The most successful
countries already combine a high status
teaching profession; high levels of
autonomy for schools; a comprehensive
and effective accountability system and a
strong sense of aspiration for all children,
whatever their background. Tweaking
things at the margins is not an option.
Reforms on this scale are absolutely
essential if our children are to get the
education they deserve.
Foreword pp4-5
Download it here
The Coalition narrative . . .
the ‘enemies of promise’.

26. You can't have room for innovation and the pressure
for excellence without having some real discipline
and some fear on the part of the providers that things
may go wrong if they don't live up to the aims that
society as a whole is demanding of them.
Oliver Letwin
Speaking at KPMG headquarters, 2011

27. One school federation’s story . . .
Read the full
story here

28. We know we are making progress when we hear the
opposition from vested interests - from those in trade unions
who put adults interests before children’s, from those in local
government who put protecting their power before fulfilling
children's potential, from those who have acquiesced in a
culture of low expectations who resist any form of
accountability for failure.
Michael Gove, 10th May 2012, Brighton College.
Michael Gove goes to war . . .

29. • DfE dismissal of ‘dialogue arrangements’
• Abolition of national pay scales (achieved through
STRB) and announcement of ‘war footing’ at DfE.
• Encouraging headteachers to confront teachers
engaged in ‘work to contract’ industrial action
• Continual denigration of teacher unions and
active encouragement of anti-union alternatives
The war on teachers and their unions . . .

30. Educational futures - there are alternatives . . .
MORE:
• Personalisation
• Trust-based
accountability
• Collaboration
• Pedagogy
• Professionalism
LESS:
• Standardisation
• Test-based
accountability
• Competition
• Technology
• Bureaucracy
Sahlberg (2012) . . . or watch

31. Good teaching is . . .
Business Capital Model:
• Emotionally demanding but
technically simple
• Requires only moderate
intellectual ability
• Hard at first, but easily
mastered
• Driven by data about ‘what
works’
• Due to enthusiasm, raw talent,
hard work
• Often replaceable by online
instruction
Professional Capital Model:
• Technically sophisticated and
difficult
• Requires high levels of
education and long periods of
training
• Perfected through continuous
improvement
• Based on wise judgement,
informed by evidence and
experience
• Reflects collective effort and
achievement
• Maximises, mediates and
moderates online instruction
Adapted from Hargreaves and Fullan (2012:14)

32. • Values-led – moral purpose and social justice
• Research informed and research engaged
• Collaborative and collective
• Democratic and public
• Independent and activist
• Within, and beyond, the classroom
Progressive professionalism
– a professionalism worth fighting for . . .
Reclaiming teaching . . .

33. Presented and discussed previously at:
• University of Glasgow, Scotland, Teacher Education Teachers’ Work
Conference, 8th June 2012.
• University of Leicester, England, 30th June 2012.
• Mayo Education Centre, Republic of Ireland, 9th July 2012.
• University of Lincoln, England, 23rd July 2012.
This presentation available at:
• http://www.slideshare.net/howardstevenson
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