Understanding OECD representations of teachers and teaching: a visual discourse analysis of covers in OECD documents

OECD dominance in the international educational policy discourse in the developed regions of the world, particularly in promoting teaching policy, has been long acknowledged. While many works have explored the organisation’s verbal discourse, no study has considered exploring its visual discourse. To close that gap, we employed a visual discourse analysis on the covers of OECD documents pertaining to teachers and teaching (i.e., TALIS and ISTP). The analysis found that OECD’s covers drew on two discourses, a conservative discourse and a liberal diversity discourse. However, the latter was entangled with constructions which serve to maintain a conservative order.     

Organisational perspectives on globalisation in education

ABSTRACT

This special issue showcases the Gordian knot between organisations and globalisation in education and exposes the organisational infrastructure of globalisation in education. Overarching themes include education serving the globalisation of organisational models, globalisation as re-organising educational organisations, the organising of international bodies operating in education, and global-oriented organisations and organising in education. The paper concludes with a call for utilising organisational perspectives in the exploration of globalisation in education.     

A developmental analysis of early time concepts: the equivalence and additivity of the effect of interfering cues on duration comparisons of young children

Young children compare durations correctly and explain their conclusions logically only when no interfering cues such as distance and speed are introduced. We investigated whether type of cue and additivity of interfering cues affect children's duration comparisons. 4- and 5-year-old children were asked to compare the burning times of pairs of partially synchronous lights differing in intensity, bulb size, or both. Those who erred tended to attribute longer duration to the brighter or larger bulb, brightness having a stronger interfering effect than size. Since brightness might qualify as "work" more than bulb size might, the finding that the former interferes more than the latter supports Piaget's basic claim of children's confusion of time with "work." The fact that bulb size interferes at all, which does not fit into Piaget's framework, may be explained in terms of children's inability to distinguish clearly between time-related and time-unrelated cues and their assumption of direct relations between dimensions. Additivity of interference did not emerge, indicating that the previous finding which suggested its existence--distance plus speed interfering with duration comparisons more than speed alone--should be reassessed in terms of type of interfering cues, that is, distance interferes more than speed with time.     

Process implementation perspective on neoliberal regulation: a comparative analysis of national curricula and standards-based reforms in the USA and Australia

ABSTRACT

This comparative case study adopts a process implementation perspective on neoliberal regulation to explore developments in national curricula and standard-based reforms in the USA and Australia. Date sources include research reports, books, OECD data, and local survey data. The comparison of the dynamic of two countries reveals that whereas policymakers in the USA adopted a transforming regulatory strategy (targeting the ambiguity and conflict levels in local policy) to implement, Australian policymakers adopted a congruence regulatory strategy (ratifying ambiguity and conflict levels). As a result of this dynamic, the education system in the USA displays a relatively tighter structure, which is related to the tighter professional teaching culture. The analysis suggests that the effect of global ideas and policies adopted locally depends on policymakers’ regulatory strategy, and that local system change drastically only when policymakers adopt the neoliberal default preference for active transformative implementation. Hence, a specific implementation dynamic is a key factor in the global neoliberal agenda, and its presence or absence indicates convergence or divergence between countries adopting similar policies.     

Framing the role of the school leader in OECD documents: A critical analysis

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the OECD framing of the role of the school leader in a series of its publications, drawing on role theory, using critical analysis of how school leaders’ roles are represented in a body of OECD texts. The research findings provide insight into the multi-faceted portrayal of the ‘ideal’ role of school leadership as framed by the OECD. The findings also show the dominance of classic scientific management ideas in the framing of the role of school leadership by the OECD. The study demonstrates how adopting role theory can provide a deeper understanding of how OECD discursive actions redraw new roles for those working in education.     

Perception of teacher education and professional identity among novice teachers

This study examines student teachers’ perceptions of teacher education and its contribution to their professional life, when they become novice teachers during their internship period. The sample comprised 97 student teachers in their fourth year of studies for a BEd degree. Data were collected through questionnaires which included both a structured and an open‐ended part, with regard to five aspects of the teaching profession and teacher education: motivation for teaching, conceptions of teaching–learning, roles of teachers, components of teacher education, and agents of training. Prominent among the findings regarding the motivational aspects of teaching, is a perception of the profession as granting intrinsic rewards. Teaching is perceived as according self‐realisation, providing a sense of purpose and mission, and enabling lifelong development. The component perceived as most important to the teacher’s role is delivering universal values. Findings regarding perception of learning–teaching processes reveal a preference for a constructivist approach.     

The educational aims of the OECD in its TALIS insight and lesson reports: exploring societal orientations

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to explore the societal orientations (individualist vs. collectivist) of educational aims, in constructions of teacher professionalism framed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) insight and lesson reports. The critical discourse analysis of OECD TALIS documents suggests that the OECD discourse on teacher professionalism attested to a dual orientation: individualist and anti-collectivist. Our results contribute to the theoretical understanding of the educational aims of the OECD, which lead the global discourse in education, and of the cultural orientation that is part of its conceptualization of new professional teaching. The article discusses the implications of its findings.     

Typology of trust relationships: profiles of teachers’ trust in principal and their implications

This exploratory study is based on a multidimensional perspective of trust relationships proposed in the literature to classify the profiles of teachers’ trust in the principal. The main purpose of the present study was to examine the type and frequency of profiles of teachers’ trust in principal, and the implications of these profiles for teachers’ relational wellbeing and their organisational citizenship behaviours (OCB). Cluster analysis of a field survey data of 654 public primary school teachers in Israel was used to identify the profiles of teachers’ trust in the principal and the prevalence of various profiles. Analyses of variance show differences in teachers’ wellbeing and OCB as a function of trust profile. The findings and their implications are discussed.     

Mainstreamed or Self‐Contained Classes for Students with a Mild Learning Disability: The Case of Israel

Two studies compared students with a mild learning disability who were enrolled in the Israeli version of self‐contained classes, with comparable peers who were assigned to mainstreamed classes. The first sample comprised 33 pupils in self‐contained and 34 children in mainstreamed elementary school classes. The second sample consisted of 20 high school students in self‐contained and 21 students in regular classes. The data did not support the contention that student growth was fostered more readily in the self‐contained classes. Students of these classes tended to have somewhat higher academic self‐concept, whereas their academic attainment was generally similar to the academic performance of mainstreamed students. Results were discussed in terms of learning opportunities extended to students in the self‐contained classroom.     

Marketing teacher quality: critical discourse analysis of OECD documents on effective teaching and TALIS

ABSTRACT

This study uses critical discourse analysis (CDA) to examine Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) texts on teacher quality and the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) framework. Specifically, it explores the forewords of documents written by OECD leaders, which we believe are charged with meanings related to the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM) discourse. We suggest that CDA of the texts sheds light on the manner in which OECD leaders attempt to gain normative control in the teacher quality discourse. Based on Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework for studying discourse, our analysis shows that the OECD (a) uses a discourse of fear to market teacher quality in light of global changes, implicitly framing teachers as ‘bad teachers’; (b) advocates reliance on the organization as a protector and (c) promises a remedy by regulating teachers in the name of effectiveness and the knowledge economy. The study offers a nuanced insight into OECD efforts to promote normative control in the teacher quality discourse, using three dimensions of discourse (i.e. the textual micro linguistic dimension, the meso-interdiscursive dimension, and the macro sociocultural dimension) that help gain ideational powers.