The Conceptual and Methodological Construction of a ‘Global’ Teacher Identity through TALIS

Armend Tahirsylaj,William C Smith,Wieland Wermke,Gulab Khan

doi:10.26529/cepsj.1090

Abstract

The present article investigates the construction of a ‘global’ teacher identity by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) since the introduction of the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) in 2008. We critically examine TALIS-related conceptual frameworks, survey questionnaires and statistically driven scales of teachers’ professional attitudes internationally. A theoretical, education-based framing of didaktik and curriculum pedagogical traditions is used to discuss conceptual bias in TALIS conceptual frameworks as well as the sociologically based idea of TALIS as a pedagogic device used as a technology to gain symbolic power for making the teachers of tomorrow. Methodologically relying on document analysis, we examine TALIS 2008, 2013 and 2018 background documents to highlight the ideologically driven construction of a certain model of effective teachers, and refer to associated TALIS technical reports to examine validity issues in scales that are methodologically and statistically driven in order to increase the robustness of the results. The article identifies biases in the OECD’s construction of a ‘global’ teacher identity that are reflected in TALIS conceptual frameworks and survey questions and statistically justified through associated scales.

Highlights

The present article investigates how a ‘global’ teacher identity has been under construction by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) since the introduction of the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) in 2008
We present the findings in two subsections: first, we focus on definitions and conceptions of ‘the teacher’ and ‘the teacher’s role and responsibilities’ in TALIS conceptual frameworks and how these conceptualisations
The conceptual construction of global teachers in TALIS Our analyses of TALIS-related documentation show that the OECD’s (2005) Teachers Matter report provided the foundation for the TALIS survey regarding the target teacher population

Summary

Introduction

The present article investigates how a ‘global’ teacher identity has been under construction by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) since the introduction of the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) in 2008. The construction and promotion of a ‘global’ teacher identity through the OECD is no different from other OECD work in education, most notably through the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), in that PISA contributes to the shift towards a universally applicable curriculum based on key competences that has affected governance and policies of national education systems (Grek, 2009) In this way, TALIS serves as a pedagogic device that is applied and used as a technology to gain symbolic control over making the teachers of ‘tomorrow’ (Robertson & Sorensen, 2018). We turn to the education-based theoretical framing of didaktik and curriculum pedagogical traditions (Hopmann, 2007) to discuss conceptual bias in TALIS conceptual frameworks and survey questionnaires In this regard, the main goal of the present article is to examine the conceptual and methodological approaches that TALIS uses to construct the ‘global’ teacher identity it promotes. This is done by shedding light on the theoretical and empirical sources on which TALIS relies, as well as other views of teachers that it ignores

Objectives

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Results

Conclusion