Managerial groups competing in the field of teacher professional development: a case study of Shanghai, China

Abstract

ABSTRACT In recent years, teacher professional development (TPD) has gradually shifted from a voluntary, personal initiative towards a mandate from higher echelons to hold schools and teachers accountable. The literature mainly investigates the influences of centralised control on teachers and their professional development from the perspective of new public managerialism (NPM). It emphasises conflicts between two groups of actors: teachers and managers. This study takes TPD in Shanghai, China, as an example to investigate the relationships among various professional groups on a field level. It argues that in the context of NPM, due to the proliferation of managerial tasks, a cluster of managerial groups has emerged and separated the field into isolated yet overlapping jurisdictions. TPD has become a field in which managerial groups interact and compete with each other to legitimise their own jurisdictional claims and regulative powers rather than a mechanism for improving teachers’ knowledge and skills.