The continuing politics of mistrust: Performance management and the erosion of professional work

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Authors

Fitzgerald, Tanya

Author ORCID Profiles (clickable)

Degree

Grantor

Date

2008-08-01

Supervisors

Type

Journal Article

Ngā Upoko Tukutuku (Māori subject headings)

Keyword

performance management
audit culture
teacher’s work
de-professionalisation

Citation

Fitzgerald, T. (2008). The continuing politics of mistrust: Performance management and the erosion of professional work. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 40(2), 113-128. doi: 10.1080/00220620802210871

Abstract

For the past two decades schools and teachers in New Zealand and elsewhere have been the subject of and subjected to intense public scrutiny of their performance and professional activities. In effect, policy solutions have cast teacher and school performance as a ‘problem’ to be solved/resolved via the intervention of the State. Consequently, the policy remedy has been the introduction of audit mechanisms such as systems of performance management to define, regulate and control teaching and teachers. That is, the State has directly intervened in the professional work and activities of teachers based on the flawed assumption that teachers cannot be trusted and therefore require the intervention of the State and its agencies to ensure their performance is aligned with organisational objectives. And while one of the hallmarks of a profession and professional practice is adherence to a set of prescribed standards, performance management has rendered teachers accountable to the State, not professional peers. And, as this article outlines, this has served to de-professionalise teaching and teachers’ work.

Publisher

Routledge

Link to ePress publication

DOI

10.1080/00220620802210871

Copyright holder

Taylor & Francis Group

Copyright notice

This is an electronic version of an article published in the Journal of Educational Administration and History, 40(2), 113-128. doi: 10.1080/00220620802210871. The Journal of Educational Administration and History is available online at http://www.tandfonline.com/openurl?genre=article&issn=0022-0620&volume=40&issue=2&spage=113

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