The professionalization of management

This chapter addresses changes in teacher professionalism following contemporary education policy developments. A number of countries have introduced a relatively new set of public management approaches in education that emphasize the combined power of performance measurement, quality indicators, goal setting, incentives, accountability, and marketization to mobilize teachers’ work effort and raise student achievement. The chapter explores empirical studies that address changes in teacher work and teacher education, suggesting that this body of research can supply important insight into the dynamics of contemporary educational policy expectations towards teacher professionalism. It argues that issues surrounding teachers’ knowledge base and the different educational programmes leading into teaching should be seen in relation to that of increased external control of professional work. The ways in which teachers are educated to work in more knowledge-intensive societies could also be more closely investigated to enhance knowledge about what characterizes teachers’ work, education, and professionalism in new work contexts.