Teaching evaluation as a contested practice: Teacher resistance to teaching evaluation schemes in Norway

Abstract

Norwegian education authorities pursue the objective that students in upper secondary schools should evaluate teaching. This kind of evaluation scheme has, however, elicited resistance from teachers. The aims of this article are to explain the advent of teaching evaluation policies in Norway and to explore which factors explain teacher resistance to teaching evaluation schemes. Structural equation modelling of teacher survey data shows which factors are statistically associated with the concept of teacher resistance to teaching evaluation. Teacher stress and resistance are positively associated with the perceived controlling purpose of teaching evaluation rather than the evaluation itself. Teacher resistance is clearly negatively associated with their acknowledgement of students’ feedback and their perception of the communication with leadership. Further, the model shows moderately strong negative pathways between the perceived control purposes of teaching evaluation and acknowledgement of students’ feedback on the one hand and the perceived control purposes of teaching evaluation and perception of clear communication of goals on the other hand. Teachers’ acknowledgement of the students’ feedback is weakly negatively associated with teacher stress. The implications for practice and further research are discussed.