Race to the Top and the Transformation of Teacher’s Work

• In Event: Roundtable Session 21
  In Roundtable Session: Teacher Identity and the Transformation of Teacher’s Work

Abstract

This paper explores the potential for Race to the Top (RTTP) to transform the structure and requirements of teacher’s work. While numerous studies look at the impacts RTTT on students, few examine its impacts on the workers. Accordingly, in this paper I employ a discursive analysis of the 2009 RTTT application and related documents to examine the explicit intentions of RTTT and its larger unstated goals for teachers. I pay close attention to the gendered organizational logic of these documents to show that by striving to intensify and extend the school day, circumscribe evaluation and measurement to test scores, and promote charter schools, RTTT has the potential to lead to disparate impacts on those with caring responsibilities, namely women.

Author

• Johanna S Quinn, University of Wisconsin - Madison