Fighting the system

As my interviews with teachers proceeded I began to see how much their disagreement with management and government policies influenced their discussions. I labelled this subcategory fighting the system because of the ‘us and them’ culture that was described between management/government and teachers. It was like there was a battle between the two, with teachers

attempting to maintain their philosophical views on how to teach against conflicting guidance and increasing accountability. Like with the response to efficacy doubts, there appears to be two ways that teachers responded to this dissonance: active and passive.

Active responses to this type of dissonance were characterised by teachers who showed their disagreement by making an official complaint or making their views clear to management. For example, Lottie disagrees with one of the performance management targets set by the school each year. Teachers in the school are expected to achieve at least a score of 0 for contextual value added (based on Fischer Family Trust data) for their year 11 GCSE classes. This means that on average, all the students in this class achieve their predicted grade. Lottie thinks this is unreasonable based on the classes she is teaching and has formally complained about this target more than once.

‘I’d have the pressure regardless as it’s on my performance management, which incidentally I disagree with and I’ve written on my performance management statement every year, I don’t know if anyone’s read it. I object to it……….. I hate having that failure on my performance management every year………..It’s really demotivating….’ (Lottie, lines 146-153)

What is striking here is the comment ‘I don’t know if anyone’s read it’, indicating Lottie’s apparent distrust of management and the powerlessness she felt. The performance management process was initially formalised by the government in

order to ensure teachers’ development was being reviewed annually and that teachers could set their own targets for professional development. However, the system has been actioned by the school in a way that has made some teachers feel constrained by data targets and as if their views and ideas are not important. Lottie has even offered alternative methods of teaching some classes which she feels would be more beneficial for them. Lottie uses the word ‘fighting’ here to indicate the difficulties she has had getting her opinions listened to, therefore the subcategory fighting the system originates in the words of participants.

‘………..I’m on threshold this year so I need to get my contextual value added

to 0. It’s not gonna happen. I get very little family support, they say all the right things but… I’m fighting and fighting to get some withdrawn, _______ should not be doing a language, he’s EAL, he’s SEN, he cannot cope..’ (Lottie,

lines 122-125)

Adrian (a career changer with previous industry experience, now a teacher with 4 years experience) also shows an inclination towards taking an active response to fighting the system. At times in the interview, it almost felt as if Adrian was empowered by the dissonance he was experiencing between the aims of school management and his own beliefs. It is possible this empowerment was driving his desire for teachers to take an active response rather than remain passive due to the powerlessness they felt.

‘We’ve got a lot to be very positive about …stuff that we’ve got control over the kids are great, the school should be outstanding and if we do all we can do there’s no reason why the results can’t get better. We’ve got to really focus on that. Making sure we’ve got the resources to do that rather than being battered around being told do this do that do the other. We’ve got to have confidence in ourselves to say this is what we need…..’ (Adrian, lines

154-160)

In contrast, some other teachers appeared to prefer taking a passive response to the dissonance and powerlessness they felt. Gary illustrated the passive

‘…I used to worry about it…I don’t worry now. If it get’s done it’s done if not…hey. I think that’s probably my age talking now. I’ve only got about another 8 years to go.’ (Gary, lines 28-30)

‘….I’m quite cynical about this profession. What I do now is keep my head down and do my own job…and I think that’s wrong. But there we are…..’

(Gary, lines 61-62)

Gary makes reference to the number of years left he has in teaching, suggesting that this could be an explanation for his decision to take a passive response to the dissonance he feels. He appears to believe that he should actually take an active response, but due to feeling ‘cynical’ about the profession he has decided to take a passive response. This could suggest that he feels that any action he did take would not be listened to. In comparison, Lottie and Adrian have

potentially a longer career in teaching ahead of them and may be more willing to take the risk of actively speaking out in order to uphold their philosophical ideas about the profession. However, Holly (a relatively new teacher) also showed a more passive response, indicating that she recognised some elements of

management’s lesson planning guidance was not suitable for her subject but was not sure what to do about this dissonance.

‘….we’d been told in spotlight from SLT (senior leadership team) you

musn’t be doing this much practical, you’ve gotta do this, gotta do that, yet actually I knew that Ofsted wouldn’t like that because when they come into music they expect to see music happening. So I was in a real turmoil of what do I do…..’ (Holly, lines 54-58)

Holly says she was in ‘turmoil’, a good indication of the dissonance she was experiencing. In the end, she chose to change her lesson to please whoever is observing, a less direct method of showing her disagreement with management.

‘….That’s kind of where I am as a head of department thinking I’m going to

tailor my lesson depending on who’s coming to watch.’ (Holly, lines 59-60)

This could suggest a feeling of powerlessness, as she feels bound by the

showed feelings of powerlessness when she talked about her perception that teaching methods had been imposed by management, although she chose to go against their advice (indicating an active response to dissonance).

‘……I didn’t, I couldn’t, I haven’t been able to follow quite the scheme that’s

been imposed on us……..’ (Jill, lines 16-17)

Perhaps in a school that has not been negatively critiqued by Ofsted, teachers may be very happy to follow the advice given by their management as this has always ‘produced the goods’ at the time of an inspection and so therefore follow guidance without questioning it. This situation may be less likely to activate feelings of powerlessness as the outcome is seen as positive for the individual teacher and the school. Thus, powerlessness may be a property of dissonance. Teachers that feel powerless may be more likely to feel dissonance between themselves and management, and their behavioural response to this dissonance differs: it can be active or passive.

What all these teachers have in common is that they have been teaching for at least 4 years and disagree with the aims and actions of management. The fact that they all discuss this dissonance could imply that they have fairly positive efficacy beliefs, as they are confident enough in their own views about what the teaching profession and school should be like to make comment on what they disagree with. Another possible explanation for the dissonance shown in the fighting the system subcategory is that disagreeing with management or government systems may serve to buffer the teacher from a potential reduction in their efficacy beliefs. For example, if management is expecting your classes to achieve a certain data target that you don’t anticipate to reach, disagreeing with this target in the first place allows you to buffer yourself from the feelings of inadequacy that could result.