Aligning teacher preparation, professional development and evaluation : the orthodoxy of TAP teachers and teaching

Title: Aligning teacher preparation, professional development and evaluation : the orthodoxy of TAP teachers and teaching
Source document: Studia paedagogica. 2020, vol. 25, iss. 2, pp. [117]-137
Extent
[117]-137
  • ISSN
    1803-7437 (print)
    2336-4521 (online)
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
 

Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.

Abstract(s)
This paper looks at one of the most popular teacher accountability systems in the USA, TAP: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement, which is a comprehensive program that meets the requirements of multiple large federal grants schemes. The paper shows that, after consortia in Arizona and Texas won multimillion-dollar grant awards, thousands of teachers in these states have become engrossed within a TAP circuit that shapes multiple domains of their professional identity and growth. TAP's ubiquitous presence helps build system alignment, but it also means that teachers are increasingly limited in their exposure to alternative philosophies, practices, or measurements of teaching. Therefore, I challenge the assumptions of alignment and illustrate how such alignment flattens and overly-simplifies the plurality and complexity of teaching, even though present times require adaptability within schools. What I ultimately argue is that the precise and comprehensive alignment of this system enforces and reinforces TAP as the orthodox reality of what it means to be and become a teacher.
Note
This work was supported by the Australian Research Council [grant number DE190101140].
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