Historical View of Accountability and Teacher Labor. Wicked Problems Forum: Teacher Labor in PK-12 Education

Teachers and their unions are often vilified for the perception that they are working against the best interest of students (Berliner & Glass, 2014). The narrative, it seems, is that teachers' unions only seek to protect bad teachers, and they fight for an unearned increase in pay for teach...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Communication education 2020, Vol.69 (1), p.105
Main Author: Wright, Anna M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic Standards
Accountability
Communication Research
Educational History
Educational Policy
Educational Research
Elementary Secondary Education
Faculty Mobility
Job Satisfaction
Professional Autonomy
Teacher Shortage
Teaching Conditions
Teaching Skills
Unions
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Summary:Teachers and their unions are often vilified for the perception that they are working against the best interest of students (Berliner & Glass, 2014). The narrative, it seems, is that teachers' unions only seek to protect bad teachers, and they fight for an unearned increase in pay for teachers. The National Education Association launched the Go Red for Ed campaign, which is an awareness campaign designed to promote the need to provide students with school environments that enable learning, give teachers a voice in educational policy, and provide equitable opportunities for students of all backgrounds (National Education Association, 2019). In doing so, educators and allies in several states have successfully engaged in protests and strikes to advocate for education. In this essay, the author examines the history and politics of teacher labor, which they define as the broad working conditions of and work done by teachers, especially as they navigate the standardized system of government accountability present in K-12 education today. The author describes teacher labor as it is impacted by government accountability movements in education. Specifically, they discuss teacher working conditions, the de-skilling of teachers, teacher dissatisfaction, and teacher shortages. Further, the author explores the implications of the accountability movement including harms to student learning and teacher autonomy while suggesting pathways for communication education researchers to address these concerns.
ISSN:0363-4523
DOI:10.1080/03634523.2019.1679381