Outstanding Teachers: Voices From Low-Income Schools in Argentina

• In Event: 43.047 - Leveraging Research to Advance Educational Justice in Latin America

Abstract

Objectives or Purposes

Teachers have a key role in the success or failure of any educational reform (Cochran-Smith, 2012). Thus, it is essential that educational policies consider teachers and their teaching ability (Darling-Hammond, 2012). This presentation articulates a “bottom-up” definition of outstanding teachers grounded in the understandings and experiences of students, parents, teachers and principals from 5 schools in Argentina.

In Latin America and particularly in Argentina, there is not much research that collects empirical data on the strengths of schools and teachers. Much is said about what is missing and what fails, but not about what actually works. According to Daniel Tröhler, social research policy has been assigned to a new caste of so-called experts that work within the logic of biomedical research. (2015, p. 750)

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework

The study offers an alternative to this “expertocratic” approach, usually linked to a technocratic discourse prevalent in international organizations. Instead, this research is inspired in traditional subaltern studies (Apple and Buras, 2006) that target the power struggles between dominant and subaltern groups to define which speech is valid.

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry

Research was conducted in five urban high schools (4 public schools, and 1 private-subsidized school managed by the Catholic church). All 5 schools serve underprivileged students of marginal urban communities in the Province of Buenos Aires.

Questionnaires were administered to principals, parents, and students to select the “outstanding teachers” of each school through a community nomination approach (Foster, 1991). Focus groups were conducted to identify those features that define a good teacher, in the view of those directly implicated in their teaching. In other words, what makes an “outstanding teacher”.

Results and/or substantiated conclusions

The most significant finding from the study was that relational attributes carried substantial weight in the description of outstanding teachers, compared to other attributes traditionally associated with the teaching profession. In addition, students had accurate perceptions on quality teaching. The contribution of the study lies in offering voice to students, parents, principals, and teachers in schools located in marginal urban communities in order to take their views regarding the debate about teacher identity in consideration. These subaltern groups have been historically relegated from the stakeholders’ table.

Scientific or scholarly significance

Besides the findings about special attributes regarding outstanding teachers, it became clear that schools and student voice should definitely have a much deeper relevance in debates about school reform, teacher identity, and educational justice. Bringing to the fore compelling school narratives of outstanding teachers is critical to reimagine the notion of evidence in a “Post-Truth” era.

Author

• Ezequiel Gomez Caride, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Argentina