A multitude of interacting fields: Bridging teachers, researchers, and policymakers

• In Event: Education Policy, Democracy and Reform (I)

Proposal

Situating the research and analytical approach

The concept of teachers’ voice is rapidly changing in the ever more digital world we live in. Historically teachers concerns, views, and protests have been heard through their unions, professional associations, and other representative bodies that engage in some form of social dialogue. This constitutes a form of representative democracy. They have also been transmitted through academia and research on education. However, such voices have been systematically muted in some contexts where teachers and other educationalists now find themselves shouting at a wall (Helgetun & Dumay 2021, Dumay & Burn 2023). Now however, new digital forms of direct democracy where individual teacher express themselves directly on social media or through messaging systems, the impact of which is still not fully explored. Meanwhile, social dialogue, political discourse, and attempts to disrupt current practices are all increasingly dominated by calls for ”evidence” to the detriment of engaging with purpose or professional experience (Helgetun & Menter 2022), whilst said evidence contributes to the datafication of education (Williamson et al. 2023).

In this paper we analyze through a Neo-Institutionalist (NI) and Science and Technology Studies (STS) analytical framework the smart-phone application TeacherTapp a survey tool that collects data from teachers through 3-5 questions every day and disseminates yesterday results once today questions are answered. Specifically, we use the STS concepts of multiple enactment (Mol 2005) and infrastructure (Slota & Bowker 2018), combined with NI field theory (Scott 2014, Zietsma & Groenewegen 2016). We approached TeacherTapp as a bridging device between the teachers’ professional field, nested research fields, and the education policymaking fields (Zietsma & Groenewegen 2016, Helgetun 2021), in England and Flanders. The goal of the research was two-fold, on the one hand we looked at how field conditions, and the interaction between fields, shape the enactment of TeacherTapp in the two contexts. On the other hand, such an analysis inherently provides insight into the practices and taken for granted beliefs existent within the relevant fields.

In addition, we emphasize the multiple discursive practices of TeacherTapp as a socio-material device enacted within and across these fields to legitimize or contest existing education practices and policy. TeacherTapp is ideal for this kind of analysis as it is a new method of data collection and dissemination that operates cross-nationally, is aimed at teachers and researchers, and has been referenced in policy debates and political texts (Helgetun & Decuypere 2023). Moreover, England and Flanders are interesting contrasts. England has a limited social dialogue where interest organizations are not really listened to, and a history of evidence (particularly quantitative data used for governing by numbers) use in education. Meanwhile, Flanders has historically had a strong social dialogue with a high presence of interest organizations such as unions, and has a lower historic emphasis on evidence use. I.e., they have different field constellations.


Methodology

The data analyzed in this paper consists of a mixed approach using an ethnographic app walk through, document analysis, interviews, and google scholar analysis. The data between these sources was triangulated continuously, and guided by our analytical framework.

The app walk-through method is a proven approach to understanding digital artifacts and consists of the researcher using the app through all its functions while documenting what they are. The purpose of which is to establish exactly what the artifact does ethnographically. While using the app (between October 2021 and April 2023 in intervals), the researcher screen-shotted and recorded every screen and function. This provided quick insights into the functions of the app, and provided some longitudinal data which indicated the interface of the app did not change, but the content did so daily.

The document analysis was multi-faceted as it included policy documents, transcripts of policy debates, and web-site analysis (of the websites of the companies running TeacherTapp, government websites, and the websites of key actors in the making of teacher policy such as unions and professional bodies). The purpose was to map how TeacherTapp was used and referenced in these documents (mapping the field), and to discern the infrastructure and enactment of TeacherTapps data streams.

The elite interviews (N=20) focused on uncovering the views of central actors in policymaking and research in relation to the place of TeacherTapp in their policymaking/influencing practices. The interviews were open-ended and conducted as a semi-structured conversation.

Lastly, we used google scholar searches for «Teacher Tapp» to document its use in research (N=129). We then coded that data to see if TeacherTapp was a central data source or just mentioned as a minor point, and what topics it was used for. This provided insight both into the practices and views on TeacherTapp within the research field, but also how said field addresses current policy issues through the use of research reports.

Preliminary Findings

We found that the data from TeacherTapp was used in England as one source amongst many. It fits with existing evidence practices and was used accordingly. In Flanders on the other hand, it uses and place in political discourse was debated, and the data did not appear to be used to support policy the same way it did in England. Moreover, we found that this multiple can be explained through the use of field theory, where existing fields structure how TeacherTapp is enacted. Importantly, what TeacherTapp brings, across contexts, is speed and reach (and ease of use) of quantitative data, which fits within an ever digitalizing world of education and politics that are both currently in an «evidence era». As such, the digital revolution may bring novelty and direct democracy, but it is still held prisoner to an extent by existing power structures, ingrained belief systems and taken for granted local logics of how the world works. As a voice for teachers, apps such as TeacherTapp provides a platform for any teacher to express a voice, but through its multiple enactments the voice is always twisted and adapted, never pure and owned by the speaker.

Authors

• Jo Bjørkli Helgetun, University of Louvain

• Virginie März, UC Louvain