As the Head Goes, So Goes the Body: Teacher Labor under New Governance

• In Event: 413 - Section on Organizations, Occupations and Work Refereed Roundtable Session. Table 01. Culture and Organizations
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 03. Governance

Abstract

National and state leaders have shifted the public education system away from a bureaucratically controlled “career system” of “public service” to one of neo-liberally underpinned “new governance.” Under the new governance education paradigm, individual teachers are deemed the most important and influential aspect of each student’s learning experience. How is the school system controlling teacher labor without the traditional career system protections and public service rewards they have traditionally earned? Using a mixed-methods approach to study schools in one county in North Carolina between 2012 and 2015, I find that teaching labor in public schools has undergone neo-taylorization. Education labor is highly segmented, selecting the “right” worker for the organization is stressed over credentials, “self-discipline” is highly valued, and the work is increasingly insecure. School level administrators feel this shift in work organization most directly, as they are held responsible for teacher labor. Although principals prefer managing teachers through cultural control, but often must resort to more direct control methods when resources run short. This combination of control methods has significant implications for schools as workplaces and learning environments.

Author

• Lindsay Hamm, North Carolina State University