The making of professional values in the age of accountability

Abstract

Changing conditions in the realm of teacher professionalism have consequences for teachers’ professional values and ethics. To a large degree, the literature concludes that increases in accountability policies seem to result in more restricted space for teachers’ professional values and ethical autonomy. Less attention has been given to which kinds and forms of ethics and value logics teachers negotiate and prefer in situations involving accountability policies. In this paper, we analyze how the Union of Education Norway negotiated teacher values in the process of developing their professional ethics code and the final code text. Previous research has shown clashes and struggles between two value systems, or as a change from traditional professional to neoliberal values. However, based on the analyses in this article, a third relation is suggested—one where increased accountability creates a paradoxical situation for teachers’ professional values and ethics—in which the professional ethics of opposition may analytically empty teacher practice of ethical aspects and where professional ethics of engagement may lead to decreased conditions for ethical engagement.