The academy school programme, OFSTED’s use of school performance data,
and performance management and performance related pay reforms are
dramatically transforming the work and employment landscape in teaching. Yet
there is limited knowledge of teachers’ experiences of work in relation to this
context. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the impact of these education
reforms on school teachers’ working lives through a labour process perspective.
A critical realist ethnography of an inner-city secondary academy school was
conducted over four months. This comprised a six-week shadowing phase,
document collection and 26 semi-structured interviews with Teachers, Managers,
HR and Trade Union Representatives. Findings reveal that the removal of a
contextual value added measure from school performance metrics leads to an
increase in teachers’ workloads and an extension of their working hours. This is
compounded by an unofficial erosion of teachers’ directed working time that
infiltrates through the academy trust. Pressures on workload also stem from
management-led initiatives generated by appraisals in leadership programmes.
Furthermore, teachers’ work becomes standardised and re-organised through
the heterarchical multi-academy trust model in an effort to improve the school’s
OFSTED rating. Performance related pay reforms act as a parallel instigator to
the standardisation of work, polarising the creative and mundane aspects of
teaching across the workforce, whilst oppositional orientations to work form as
the majority of teachers align with a shared sense of commitment to work. This
thesis amalgamates labour process theory with the hollowing out thesis, making
key theoretical, conceptual, empirical and methodological contributions,
alongside practical recommendations. / Faculty of Management, Law and Social Sciences at the University of Bradford Scholarship
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/18792 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Creators | Morrell, Sophie E. |
| Contributors | Ford, Jackie M., Smith, Andrew J. |
| Publisher | University of Bradford, Faculty of Management, Law and Social Sciences |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, doctoral, PhD |
| Rights | <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>. |
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