Common $ense? Media Representations of Public Teachers and the Distortion of Common Perception

• In Event: Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Teachers, Unions, and School Reform in the News

Abstract

For the last twenty years the problem of high quality teachers has been of concern and debate for those examining education (Cochran-Smith, 2001; Sykes, Bird, & Kennedy, 2010). Reports citing the fact that US high school graduates are prepared neither for life nor for college have spurred a series of studies and policy reports regarding the impact of a highly qualified teacher in the classroom (Wiseman, 2012). What it means and how to achieve such goals is hotly contested, especially in news reports (Levin, 2004; Ungerleider, 2006).
This presentation will report on research that examined representations of public school teachers in network and cable television news reports (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and FOX) to highlight the political tensions surrounding the question of teacher quality and effectiveness. The researcher employed content analysis (Krippendorf, 2004) and critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2010) to identify the predominant discourses concerning teacher effectiveness and school reform within a randomized sample of television news stories. Analysis revealed an overarching framework of a common sense portrayal of public school teachers as being in need of reform, through changing tenure guidelines, teacher evaluation, and reformed teacher preparation programs. These discourses were further supported news story reports that sensationalized elements of teachers and teaching, by employing crisis, fear, and spectacle (Altheide, 2002; Anderson, 2007; Edelman, 1988). Those same news reports allocated the blame of failing schools on substandard teachers unable to help students reach maximum potential by passing high-stake tests, and further promoted parental choice and weakening the teachers’ union role in protecting teachers. This common sense frame of “bad teachers” was reflected throughout news reports and reflects school reform discourses supported by political and corporate ideologies (Herman & Chomsky, 2002; Kumashiro, 2012). Results from this study are important because they reflect competing public and private sector discourses regarding how to reform education in the United States, particularly in regard to how the news media shapes and constrains those discourses (Cook, 2005).

Author

• Carmen Scalfaro, Miami University - Oxford