Teacher Education Policy in the Golden State: Accountability Measures, Diversity, and Symbolic Compromise

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 50
  In Roundtable Session: Poststructuralism, Neoliberalism, and Education in the 21st Century

Abstract

This paper interrogates the discourses of California’s Performance Assessment of California Teachers (PACT) program. Creating a history of the present (Foucault, 1972), I outline how teacher education policies express contemporary dilemmas regarding diversity and “normalcy” that are, nonetheless, deeply rooted in the capitalist, racist histories and institutions of the United States. Drawing on the documents of Every Student Succeeds, PACT, and the CAEP standards, I identify doublets (Popkewitz, 1998)in order to offer a nuanced analysis of policy discourses. These doublets include rationality/diversity, progress/atavism, and professionalism/accountability.

Author

• Nikola Hobbel, Humboldt State University