The Agency of Teachers

Abstract

In a previous chapter, we quoted Gramsci’s observations on the difficulties of transformative change: it is not enough to design a programme; one must also attend to the capacities of those who will carry it out. This is a principle with which current policy orthodoxy is well acquainted. Most ministries of education accept the maxim of American policy analyst Erik Hanushek that ‘the most productive reforms are almost certainly ones that improve the quality of the teaching force;¹ and devising models of regulation, management and practice through which the work of a new generation of teachers can be linked to policy priorities is central to what they do. However, attempting such a remaking of the teaching force encounters immediate problems. The force that currently exists is ageing and often reluctant to adopt new practices. Newer generations may be more biddable but they are difficult to recruit and — so the experience of the last decade suggests — have high rates of resignation. In an attempt to deal with such difficulties, the OECD launched in 2003 a project entitled ‘Attracting, Developing and Retaining Teachers’. Part of the project involved reviews of the condition of teaching and teachers in member countries, in which perceptive analysis of local situations — in Germany and Italy, for instance — was linked to a common, transnational model of the remade teacher.