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Why these quick fixes won’t work for teaching today or tomorrow
If you belong to a social media group for teachers, you’ve inevitably seen a post that goes like this: Jane, a twenty-something early career teacher writes…
“I’ve been teaching for three years but am burnt out and ready to quit. I’m thinking I could get a job writing classroom resources for teachers. Where can I apply?”
These 30 words capture the impact of a flawed ideology that has been shaping education in Australia for several decades. A new job market for teachers has been created as a result of governments regarding schools as production lines with standard inputs and outputs.
We need to talk about the n word (neoliberalism) on teaching
Neoliberalism is a market-driven approach to education policy. It sees economic rationalism and general business principles applied to the way the schooling is managed. The story goes that education can be streamlined, neatly packaged and marketed like any other commodity. Standardising the way schools operate – making the curriculum and the delivery of teaching, learning and assessment more similar than different across locations – will ensure equality of access and produce better outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged students. Think tanks describe this as ending the lesson lottery. With ‘commonsense’ messaging that appeals to policymakers and voters alike, neoliberalism exercises power by framing teachers and students as human capital. It sets out to measure and monitor their productivity and performance. In some parts of the world, teachers might be understood to be tailors of distinction. In Australia they are more likely to be cast as sweatshop machinists under quality control.
One flow-on effect is that teachers’ work has been expanded to include new administrative, accountability and reporting activities. At the same time the core business of educating and caring for young people has also become more complex and relationally demanding. Another flow-on effect is that when experienced teachers lament the loss of professional trust and creative agency over the course of their careers and the competing demands on their time, policymakers defer to the market for scalable responses that tell teachers what to do and how to do it.
Framing and reforming education in this way has led some scholars to describe the sector as at risk of being privatised by stealth.
Enter stage right, edupreneurism! (education entrepreneurism)
From edu-tech platforms that deliver content and assess learning ‘wholly online’ to large consulting firms generating templated lessons, the market is now flooded with quick fixes at teachers’ fingertips. The quality of commercial solutions offered is variable and the burden of proof is very low.
The term ‘evidence-based’ is widely used. But it serves as little more than faddish advertising language that has been recruited for commercial gain. In fact, some of the biggest brands in education have achieved market dominance despite defying educational research and never being properly evaluated.
While teachers want time to design innovative learning experiences, this aspect of their work has been identified as outsourceable. Lesson creation is a growth industry.
At what cost to teaching?
The cost is more than financial: consultants are cashing in on standardising projects. The quality of instruction is being compromised. And young teachers like Jane are exiting the profession to take up alternative employment writing lesson content from home.
Academic critiques of neoliberalism argue its key messages and mechanisms strip teachers and students of the material, social and cultural qualities that we know are determinants of educational outcomes in settler colonial countries like Australia. Schools remain inequitably funded and under-resourced and disparities in Australian 15-year-olds’ OECD PISA performance based on student background persist. Equally important, research shows that neoliberal policy moves are reducing teachers’ job enjoyment, negatively impacting their health and wellbeing, and contributing to attrition. Teachers are stressed, burnt out and leaving the profession in droves.
Ultimately, education has turned on itself and real economic and educational progress is being undermined.
Questions
It’s time to ask tough questions. Questions about the purpose and direction of education policy in Australia. Questions about the impact on teachers and students.
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- Who is in the driver’s seat and can they be trusted to deliver the sort of equitable and excellent education we want for young people?
Right now, it seems that for every issue that neoliberalism might solve, it sustains and creates several more.
Carly Sawatzki is a teacher educator and educational researcher at Deakin University and a member of REDI. She supports teachers of mathematics to teach differently, by helping them to connect students’ classroom learning with the real world. Carly is internationally recognised for her thought leadership on young people’s financial education.
This article was originally published on EduResearch Matters. Read the original article.
