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Professionalism in the era of accountability

Role discrepancy and responses among teachers in the Netherlands

Bibliographic Data

ID7092540
AuthorsNatalie Browes (0000-0002-4451-9192, Department of Sociology Autonomous University of Barcelona Amsterdam Netherlands, corresponding author), H K Altinyelken (0000-0003-2178-0862, Department of Child Development and Education University of Amsterdam Amsterdam Netherlands)
Year2022
Volume73
Issue1
Pages188-205
Publication date2022-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBritish Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-1315 • E-ISSN: 1468-4446
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1468-4446.12917
PMID34978720
OpenAlexW4206341694
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited40

The roles and identities of professionals have undergone significant transformation in an ever‐globalising world shaped by neoliberal values. In the field of education, standardisation and outcome‐based quality measures have become the norm. Teachers are held accountable through their students’ results, with their work subject to ongoing surveillance (performance‐based accountability). This has changed the nature of teachers’ tasks, and what it means to be a "good teacher". Based on 20 teacher interviews across six primary schools in the Netherlands, this study examines teachers’ practices and beliefs, asking: do they experience role discrepancy? What responses do we see as a result? And, what does this reveal about teachers' sense of professionalism today? Findings show that all teachers experience the pressure of high workloads and the need to prioritise tasks. Whereas a small minority of respondents understand performative tasks as having a crucial function of supporting student learning and achievement, others experienced a discrepancy between these performative tasks and the tasks they believed to be at the heart of good teaching. Confronted with this, teachers responded in different ways; either incorporating all tasks into their schedule, or feeling forced to choose between them. Beyond this, findings indicate that teachers' understandings of key aspects of the profession, such as autonomy, are changing in response to the policy environment. This supports conceptualisations of professions and professionalism as not only "being changed by" external reform, but changing from within

Accountability · Autonomy · Feeling · Mathematics education · Norm (philosophy · Pedagogy · Performative utterance · Political science · Quality (philosophy · Educational Assessment and Improvement · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · Psychology · Social Psychology · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies

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Unique citing works6
Citations per year2
Citation span2023 - 2026 (4)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 6
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