迈向拓展的专业?——基于英格兰教师专业标准改革的考察

A Step Towards Extended Professionalism?——Analysis of Teacher Standards Reforms in England

基于标准的教师队伍建设成为各国提高教育质量的主要手段。自20世纪80年代至今,以教师管理机构管理权限的变革为标志,英格兰的教师专业标准改革经历了专业认证的开端、进入标准化时期、重新界定专业自主三个阶段,教师专业标准在内容规定方面的繁简程度也随之变化。早期过于翔实的规定导致英格兰教师专业自主权逐步丧失,随着专业标准的改革,标准内容与层级经过归并与简化后,教师自主性得以逐步回归,保障了教师专业发展的自主性及教师评价的合理性;但在深入分析背后的价值变革,拓展性专业发展取向时却令人质疑。这一过程体现出英格兰教师专业标准改革的三个转向:教师发展的工具理性日甚,权责进一步下放至学校层面,强调教育质量的底线保障。工具理性逐渐增强,以致原标准中的"教师价值观"维度被取代;进一步放权至学校,并关注于教师的声音,可谓迈向拓展的专业性的有益探索;愈发强调底线保障,则呈现出过度问责教师所带来的教师权益受损。英格兰的教师专业标准改革,呈现出变革前后的政府所持有的价值与理念差异:教师是自治主体,抑或是达成政府政策目标的理性工具。英格兰的教师专业改革经验,为我国教师专业发展提供了三个可供借鉴的方向:为教师的能动性保留空间,界定清晰的权责关系,为教师权益提供制度保障。

Redefining teaching standards is a way to achieve excellence in teaching worldwide.England began reforming its teacher governing bodies in the 1980 s. It is generally considered that teacher standards reforms have undergone three phases: the initial identification of qualified teachers, the stanfardizaiton period, and the redefinition of teaching autonomy. Prior to the streamlined 2012 teacher standards, the over-specific requirements in 2007 teaching standards severely constrained the autonomy of teachers. As a result, the 2012 version guaranteed autonomy in professional development and performance evaluation of teachers, and empowered teachers to participate in evaluation together with school managers. However, does this simplified version of teacher standards embrace extended professionalism? Responding to this inquiry invloves a more detailed analysis of changes in teacher standards content. The research found three transitions in how the government understands the professionalism of teachers based on its analysis of teacher standards reforms. First, the replacement of ’teaching value’ by ’personal and professional conduct’ reveals the instrumental rationality increasingly applied to teacher development. Second, the extended professionalism can be seen in the evaluation power decentralized from the local authority to schools and attention paid to teachers’ ideas during policy design and negotiation processes. Third, the official policy discourse of protecting teachers from slander implies that overly strict customer-centered accountability exacerbates the daily workloads for teachers, as well as causing damages to their rights and reputations. Thus, the reforms reveal the contradicotry values of government regarding the teaching profession: teacher as an agent with autonomy, and teacher as the instrument to achieve specific governmental goals. Based on the above analysis, there are three pieces of advice for Chinese teacher development. First, in order to promote sustainable development among teachers, it is better to ensure autonomy with an emphasis on attitudinal development. Second, to further clarify and articulate the meaning of extended professionalism,decentralizing power with more explicit responsibilities might be useful. Third, the government needs to provide a support system to protect the rights of teacher to ensure a stable teacher supply.