Accountability-driven evaluation forces teachers into fabricated performances that erode their sense of self

Evidence

In The Teacher’s Soul and the Terrors of Performativity, Stephen Ball (2003) describes the reform and standards movement as a process of “re-regulation” (p. 217). This re-regulation of schooling means that not only have curricula and assessments been re-regulated into a system focused primarily on productivity and performance, but the teachers have as well (Ball, 2003). The constant judgment of a teacher’s outward performance, stemming primarily from evaluations that focus on accountability standards, creates a sense of instability and insecurity for the teacher (Ball, 2003). What often results are fabricated performances that exist to meet the standards but result in a loss of the teacher’s inner self (Ball, 2003). These performances do not represent a teacher’s true self, but rather a self that exists to be accountable to the system. As Ball (2003) states, “These technologies (of market, management, and performativity) have potentially profound consequences for the nature of teaching and learning and for the inner-life of the teacher” (p. 226). Thus, as a teacher attends to the outer demands on her performance, she loses a connection to her inner self and her inner energy—the energy behind her reason for becoming an educator. — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 675

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the ‘small acts of decorum’ reader interest in how institutional constraint hollows out inner life; connects to surveillance and performativity literature à la Goffman and Foucault. — connects to: Accountability standards push teachers into fabricated performances that erase their inner selves. — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 675; Accountability metrics operate as cultural conquest replacing teachers’ inner value systems. — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 676; Grade obsession springs from failure fear that also grips professors (+6 more)
• SEED: Angle: the teacher/worker who must perform a fabricated self to satisfy external evaluation — could generalize to all care and knowledge workers under metrics.

Broader Connections

• Accountability standards push teachers into fabricated performances that erase their inner selves. #corroborates (0.98) — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 675
• Accountability metrics operate as cultural conquest replacing teachers’ inner value systems. #corroborates (0.85) — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 676