Supporting data for "Neoliberalism and Teacher Appraisal Policies and Practices in China"

Neoliberalism has gained powerful influence in political and economic field since the 1980s worldwide, and has promoted a marketization process in educational systems by means of privatization, commodification and quantification. In the context of China since the Economic Reform and Opening Up, marketization policy trend has also been widely identified in reforms of labor, welfare, health, and housing policies, as well as in the field of education: private schools proliferated due to deregulation and fiscal support; tutoring market grew into a threat to educational equality; non-formal teachers in public schools became dispatch laborers, etc. To explore more specific neoliberal impacts on teacher appraisal under this particular context, multiple-cases design was adopted to include one public and three private schools as units for comparative analysis, and Critical Discourse Analysis was adopted as the guiding theory for data analysis. Multiple forms of data including principal interviews, teacher interviews, parent interviews, school documents and field notes of participatory observation were collected at school level, and all policies concerning private school, tutoring market, teacher appraisal and school management were collected at national, provincial and municipal level. Findings of school analysis suggested that: 1) for-profit private schools embodied typical neoliberal impacts as holding teachers to market accountability, appraising teachers by economic values and oppressing teachers’ voice; 2) non-profit private school compromised to market accountability by holding teachers accountable to students’ performance, but also endeavored to include professional development activities; 3) public school was basically independent from market impacts in terms of the Professional Title Appraisal, students’ survey and teacher-parent relationship through the Parent’s Committee, but still embodied neoliberal quantification in the Performance Appraisal, and compromised to parental demands when they appealed to the media or the administrative superior. Meanwhile, the democratic organization of Teacher’s Congress in public schools and the retained intervention power in government functioned as counter-neoliberal forces to handle conflicts brought by neoliberal changes in the Performance Appraisal. Findings of teacher analysis told another half of the story that: 1) internalized professional ethics played an important role in raising teacher’s critical awareness of neoliberal teacher appraisal; 2) exemplary teachers dedicated to pedagogic values managed to contribute alternative discourse to compete with neoliberal teacher appraisal; and 3) professional learning communities provided indispensable supports for teacher’s agency against neoliberal teacher appraisal; yet, 4) teachers in for-profit private schools experienced more frustration and conflicts with their autonomy when their voice was silenced in schools’ disposal of teacher-parent disputes. These findings implied that: the more dependence on the market, the less autonomy for teachers; the more emphasis on economic values, the less importance to pedagogic values. Therefore, restoration of pedagogic values in teacher appraisal is called for with greater support for professional learning communities, and more efficient ways are needed to include private school teachers in professional-oriented teacher appraisal with more labor protection.

自20世纪80年代以来，新自由主义在全球政治和经济领域获得了强大的影响力，并通过私有化、商品化和量化等手段推动了教育系统的市场化进程。在中国经济改革和开放以来，市场化政策趋势也在劳动、福利、医疗和住房政策改革以及教育领域得到了广泛认同：由于去监管和财政支持，私立学校大量涌现；辅导市场成长为威胁教育平等的隐患；公立学校中的非正式教师变成了派遣劳工等。为了探索在新自由主义特定背景下对教师评价的具体影响，本研究采用了多案例设计，选取一所公立学校和三所私立学校作为比较分析的单元，并采用批判性话语分析作为数据分析的指导理论。收集了包括校长访谈、教师访谈、家长访谈、学校文件和参与观察的现场笔记等多种形式的数据，并在国家、省和市各级收集了涉及私立学校、辅导市场、教师评价和学校管理的所有政策。学校分析的结果表明：1）营利性私立学校体现了典型的新自由主义影响，即通过市场问责制对待教师，以经济价值评价教师并压制教师的发声；2）非营利性私立学校通过将教师问责制与学生的表现挂钩来妥协于市场问责制，但同时也努力包括职业发展活动；3）公立学校在专业职称评定、学生调查和教师家长关系（通过家长委员会）方面基本上独立于市场影响，但在绩效评价中仍体现了新自由主义的量化，并在家长向媒体或行政上级申诉时向家长需求妥协。同时，公立学校教师大会的民主组织和政府职能中保留的干预权力作为反新自由主义的势力，处理了绩效评价中由新自由主义变化带来的冲突。教师分析的结果揭示了故事的另一面：1）内化的职业道德在提高教师对新自由主义教师评价的批判意识方面发挥了重要作用；2）致力于教学价值观的典范教师设法贡献了替代性话语，以竞争新自由主义教师评价；3）专业学习社区为教师对抗新自由主义教师评价提供了不可或缺的支持；然而，4）营利性私立学校的教师在学校的教师家长纠纷处理中，他们的声音被压制时，经历了更多的挫折和与自主权的冲突。这些发现表明：市场依赖度越高，教师的自主权就越少；经济价值观的重视程度越高，教学价值观的重要性就越低。因此，需要通过更大程度地支持专业学习社区和更有效的方式将私立学校教师纳入以职业为导向的教师评价，并增加劳动保护，来恢复教师评价中的教学价值观。