Intensification and isolation: Alienated teaching and collaborative professional relationships in the accountability context

• Published in: Journal of educational change 2016-02, Vol.17 (1), p.29-49
• Main Author: Stone-Johnson, Corrie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accountability; Administration; Administrative Organization; Alienation; Career Readiness; Citizen Participation; Collaboration; Counselor Attitudes; Curriculum Development; Education; Education reform; Educational Change; Educational Policy and Politics; Elementary School Science; Evidence; High Stakes Tests; Interviews; Organization and Leadership; Personality Problems; Policy Analysis; Professional development; Professional Isolation; Public Education; Public Schools; School Counselors; School Culture; School Districts; School Restructuring; Science Education; Science Instruction; Standardized Tests; Suburban Schools; Teacher Attitudes; Teacher Behavior; Teacher Collaboration; Teachers; Teaching Conditions
• ISSN: 1389-2843; 1573-1812; 1573-1812
• DOI: 10.1007/s10833-015-9255-3

The global educational landscape continues to change in response to three forces: a new paradigm of curriculum approaches that has shifted from teaching to learning; public demand for evidence of this learning; and decentralization of public schools (Sahlberg in Journal of Educational Change, 12(2):173–185, 2011 ). These changes have had what many researchers identify as a negative effect on the work of teachers (Cochran-Smith and Lytle in Harvard Educational Review, 76(4):668–697, 2006 ; Griffin and Scharmann in Journal of Elementary Science Education, 20(3):35–48, 2008 ; Hargreaves and Shirley in Phi Delta Kappan, 90(2):135–143, 2008 ; Hill in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 29(2):95–114, 2007 ; Jennings and Rentner in Phi Delta Kappan, 88(2):110–113, 2006 ; McNeil in Contradictions of school reform: Educational costs of standardized testing. Routledge, New York, 2000 ). One effect is alienation, which may take many forms including disengagement from work, isolation and neglect (Brooks et al. in Educ Policy 22(1):45–62, 2008 ; Macdonald and Shirley in The mindful teacher. Teachers College Press, New York, 2009 ; Zielinski and Hoy in Educ Adm Q 19(2):27–45, 1983 ). In this article, I use data gathered from interviews with teachers and school counselors in a suburban district outside a Rust Belt city to demonstrate that the reach of alienated teaching in the accountability context extends beyond teachers’ own work to impact the entire school community. In particular, I show that alienated teaching further isolates school counselors and teachers, whose work has long been organizationally separate, from collaborative professional relationships and ultimately prevents students from receiving the types of support services they need for postsecondary success.