'Teacher Professionalism Quality Assurance and Evaluation.' University of Edinburgh, Workshop 5, GTC Scotland National Education Conference, 28 May 2009. Over the past two decades Scottish education has increasingly been subject to systems of QAE, with particular emphasis on self evaluation and inspection using Quality Indicators. This workshop explores the terms by which teachers define "quality" in education, and the impact of QAE on teachers' works and their professional autonomy. It discusses the findings of a recent survey of teachers in England and Scotland, and compares the nature of QAE systems in the two systems, with some reference to comparative data from the Nordic countries. The study is part of a research project Fabricating Quality in European Education funded by the ESRC and European Science Foundation.

4. Quality improves, respect declines? 47% of survey respondents believe that the quality of education is improving by comparison with the 1980s Is this surprising- given the level of investment by national systems in promoting QAE? 74% of respondents across the different systems believe there is less respect for teaching now than twenty years ago So teachers are raising quality but losing respect

5. What is Quality in Education? Teachers’ choices of what defines quality are clustered around the following definitions: (i) Pupils reaching their full potential (ii) Confident and independent individuals (iii) Good literacy communication and numeracy skills Teachers and principals give very low priority (between 1 and 2% of respondents) to high attainment, or critical thinking as defining quality

7. How does National Testing influence quality in education?

9. Teachers' creativity & spontaneity have been eroded by QAE?

10. Policy technologies: marketisation, managerialism and performativity (a) target-setting (b) evaluation (c) performance related pay (a) devolution of decision- making (b) school-based management (a) parental choice (b) variety of school types (c) league tables 3. Performativity 2. Managerialism 1. Marketisation

11. Policy technologies: QAE and teacher attitudes (a) choice/ marketisation (b) local accountability (c) regulation/ deregulation (a) school self evaluation (b) teacher assessment (c) school benchmarking (d) parental consultation (a) inspection (b) national testing (c) league tables (d) performance management (e) benchmarking (f) national targets 3. System characteristics 2. Soft QAE forms 1. Hard QAE forms

12. The survey was part of the ESF/ESRC project Fabricating Quality in European Education/Governing by Numbers Further details at: http://www.ces.ed.ac.uk/research/FabQ/index.htm http://www.ces.ed.ac.uk/index.htm