Documenting Spectacle of Teacher Education: Privatization, Corporatization, and Teacher Performance Assessment

• In Event: Roundtable Session 54
  In Roundtable Session: Methodological Knowledge and Issues in Documentary Research

Abstract

As curriculum studies scholars and teacher educators, we are challenged to respond—in both practice and rhetoric—to pervasive inequity, neoliberal rhetoric, and corporate influence. In this paper, we draw upon theories of public pedagogy, documentary research, and political spectacle to interrogate a critical policy issue in teacher education: the rise of high-stakes teacher performance assessments. Our analysis foregrounds the public and performative nature of TPA policy and practice, both as enacted in the public sphere and as responded to by critics within and outside our institution. Throughout, we seek to illustrate strategies for using documentary research as part of a participatory process that “engage[s] democratically with ‘publics’ in ways that raise awareness of social problems” (AERA 2016 Call).

Authors

• Brian D. Schultz, Northeastern Illinois University

• Alison G Dover, Northeastern Illinois University