Teaching standards have increasingly been used to identify and categorise the work of teachers across educational systems for the purpose of certification and licencing, as performance indicators and, in some cases, to map out professional development. Accordingly, in both England and Scotland, teaching standards have been a central tenet in attempts to regulate the work of teachers. Most recently in England this has resulted in the Teachers’ Standards (DfE, 2012b), and in Scotland the Professional Standards for Teachers comprising of The Standards for Registration (GTCS, 2012h), The Standard for Career-Long Professional Learning (GTCS, 2012f), and The Standards for Leadership and Management (GTCS, 2012g).
This research provides a comparative analysis of the recontextualising principle and pedagogic discourse (Bernstein, 2000), the rules and regulations, which led to the production of these most recent sets of standards in England and Scotland. A mixed qualitative approach was taken to the research questions composing documentary analysis and interviews with those involved with the reviews. The analysis of text drew on Basil Bernstein’s Pedagogic Device (Bernstein, 2000) combined with Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) (Fairclough, 2003) to provide a single theoretical lens. CDA was ‘put to work’ (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999, p.2) within the Pedagogic Device to tease out the discursive practices of the reviews of teaching standards through the examinations of the documentary and interview data.
The Professional Standards for Teachers in Scotland look to Hoyle’s (1974) ‘extended professionality’ and Sachs’ ‘activism’ (2003a) as the model for teacher professionalism, whereas the Teachers’ Standards in England, developed in the controlled environment of the Department of Education (DfE), represent a more passive teacher at the restricted end of Hoyle’s continuum. In regards to the development of teaching standards, the DfE approaches the review process as a ‘classic bureaucracy’ (Dimmock, 2007) in tightly regulating the drafting of the Teachers’ Standards. The General Teaching Council for Scotland adopts two identities to the development of the Professional Standards for Teachers. First, it integrates, through an interlocking committee structure, with the Scottish Government and their associated institutions. Second, it adopts an ‘informal’ organisational approach to writing the standards.
The development of the Teachers’ Standards in England and Professional Standards for Teachers in Scotland: determining the pedagogic discourse and recontextualising principle
Coughlin, D. J. (Author). 2016
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Philosophy