Development of Teacher Education Policy
Psychodynamics, Anxiety
and the
Development of Teacher Education Policy
Poster presented at the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, University of Warwick, 6-9 September 2006
Neil Herrington
School of Education
University of East London
Romford Road
Stratford
E15 4LZ
Abstract
It is becoming increasingly clear that free-market rhetoric within the neo-liberal project are impinging on teachers and teacher education. Whilst the literature conceptualises teacher development as a dynamic process, with professional knowledge having at its centre the individual teacher’s personal construct it can also be seen that narrow, technical approaches to management are in the ascendancy in England often manifesting themselves in performance management discourse.
It would seem that whilst neo-liberal policy, at the national and international level, impacts on teacher deprofessionalisation there is also a degree to which teachers are collusive in this enterprise.
This role of individual agency is somewhat clouded by the tendency to group together educational stake holders and talk about them as an homogenous whole. This paper endeavours to forefront the fact that each group is a collection of individuals. A focus at this level causes a consideration of how the perception of individual identity – the self - develops. Consideration also needs to be given to how the impingement of the policy environment can contribute to an individual’s existential well-being. This perspective has the advantage that it has explanatory power at a number of different levels – the local, the national and the international.
Introduction
Ideas from psychoanalysis and psychotherapy can be utilised to explain both individual and group behaviour, they might also be used to offer up courses of action for those wishing to facilitate change in others.
Whilst there is a tendency to group together educational stake holders and talk about each as an homogenous whole –parents, pupils, policymakers, teachers – there is a need to remember that each group is a collection of individuals. A focus at this level causes a consideration of how the perception of individual identity – the self - develops and how group level responses may have been caused by individual process.
Issues around identity can be a source of anxiety and of the consequent defence mechanisms that are likely to arise to protect the integrity of the self. Whilst the way an individual acts will be affected by their own developmental pathway these frameworks can translate into the group context, the current behaviour in the group will be influenced by its past history, and the past history of its individual members.
James (2003) sees emotions as the way in which the interplay of power relations is experienced, as such making the link between the individual, the micro- and macro political. From this perspective social defences are the institutional face of the classical defence mechanisms that are identified in the psychoanalytical literature.
Heron (1990) identifies three types of existential anxiety, anxiety that is felt in direct response to an immediate situation. These are:
- acceptance anxiety
- orientation anxiety
- performance anxiety.
If the anxiety is contained then an individual’s behaviour is likely to be positively engaged, however if the situation is felt as being particularly stressful then defensive mechanisms of archaic anxiety are likely to be activated.
[contained behaviour] requires recognition of where one’s role ends and another person’s begins, the scope and limits of one’s own authority and a readiness to sanction that of others (Obholzer 1994 p44).
Obholzer goes on to talk about how rivalry, jealousy and envy often interfere with the role definitions in professional settings. For example, the envious attack may take the form of a debate about ‘general principles’, or ‘technical issues’ or ‘technique’, and is presented as if it were in the pursuit of progress. This displacement activity means that the individuals concerned don’t confront their emotional world, but present as if they have the best interest of the organisation at heart. This may manifest itself in policy rhetoric which assuages personal anxiety through implying the action is in the best interests of another group.
Environmental impingement
The White Paper Our Competitive Future; building the knowledge-driven economy (DTI 1998) states that:
In the global marketplace, knowledge skills and creativity are needed above all to give the UK a competitive edge. These are the distinctive assets of a knowledge driven economy. They are essential to creating high-value products and services and to improving business processes. They are as vital in traditional engineering industries and in services as in high-technology businesses.
Huffington, Cole et al. (1997) state that:
[W]e are in the midst of a significant and sharp transformation, where worldview and values, political and social structures, arts and institutions are all altering in ways that are difficult to predict. (p2)
These challenges and opportunities will impact on educators in a number of ways. Firstly, as a workforce that will need to accommodate different ways of working; secondly, as people with a ‘professional’ interest in the business of knowledge transfer; and thirdly as, by and large, public sector workers.
A significant impact of the post-Fordist movement on professionals arises because one of its key concepts is the notion of the devolution of responsibility but not power. Bottery and Wright (1997) see that the ‘New Public Management’ which will necessarily arise ‘will effectively exclude professionals and professional bodies’ (p9) and that, whilst it would be naïve to assume a consistent level of high quality provision,
there are considerable dangers in either curtailing the functioning of professionals such that their survival depends upon satisfying the whims of particular groups of ‘customers’, or by legislation such that they simply become functionaries. (p10)
There are a good many parallels between technical rationalism and Fordism, especially in their belief in the essentially predictable nature of the world. This somewhat mechanistic metaphor delivers a particular position on control. This position denies the chaotic nature of reality and could be conceptualised as an anxiety response.
The perception of chaos arises because the process of globalisation is not just an economic one. It also has, according to (Bottery 2002), psychological and social aspects. The fragmentation of the nation state, with the removal of traditional core functions, means that the individuals who make up such entities are driven to develop and maintain a stronger hold on a number of policy portfolios in order to legitimate themselves. Government response has been to manage the development of a culture of audit based accountability and performance management.
Performativity and Self-interest
Self-disciplinary measures which are set in place, at the institutional level, to satisfy issues of public accountability leads to what Jeffrey (2002), amongst others, calls the performativity discourse.
A key consequence has been the development of mutual instrumentality – the need to ‘achieve’ satisfactory performance. It might even be said that the performativity discourse has shifted the focus from interpretation of curriculum policy to its straightforward delivery. This might be seen as being a positive in terms of the implementation gap. However, what exactly is to be implemented can be seen as an issue.
[t]he increased focus of teachers’ attention on pupil progress data carried a clear danger that other elements of what is educationally important will either become regarded as marginal or felt to be in conflict with teachers’ personal and professional values. (Mahoney, Menter et al. (2004)p453)
This is particularly so as there is a clear link between this performance and the marketisation of education. High ratings on particular indictors improve the likelihood of attracting pupils. This is a powerful tool as any dissension within teams can be cast as being harmful to successful performance of the team – be this department or whole school.
Impact on Teacher Education
Ambiguity about the purposes of teacher education has been used to construct arguments for centralising control of these programmes, These changes have an economic component associated with them, but whilst such structural factors might set part of the context, they only ‘offer a partial explanation for the relative standing of teachers…’ There is a need to look beyond this to consider how ‘teachers themselves structure their own realities.’ (Helsby 1995 p320)
Whilst the work of Bottery and Wright (1997) would support the assertion that government policy is impacting on teacher deprofessionalisation, they also point out that teachers are complicit in this, due to a failure on their part to look at wider issues of what being a professional means. However, they do not see this as an intentional ploy on the part of teachers, hypothesising that it is due to structural issues in the educational system – management hierarchies and the like. This seems to be something of a circular argument as these structures have been allowed to build up by those working within this field.
Individual Agency
For the purposes of analysis, systems and aggregated groups are often discussed. However, these are composed of individuals. Hall (2003) discusses the concept of metapower as a framework by which it is possible to show how ‘future and distant social conditions’ (p36) could be created by social actors. This work also validates the ‘necessary placement of emotions on the agenda’ (p39).
The interactionist perspective is clear: people as individuals and as groups of individuals are capable of causing their own acts and can cause others to act in particular ways. Hence, ‘while structures are consequential, acting humans cause social structures.’ (Maines 2003 p11). There is thus a real need to study process as well as to look at outcomes. There is also an imperative for those who operate systems to understand the working of a system wherein:
- people possess consciousness and can think
- communication is intrinsic
- the activity is situated
- human collectivities are forms of action. (Maines 2003 p6)
It would appear, however, that the current policy environment within which we operate has a tendency to isolate the individual, focusing on their output rather that their process.
However, Leigh's (1994) statement that the key to effective professional development is good insight into their own behaviour and thinking is somewhat diminished as long as the underlying geology of behaviour, the unconscious, and its impact on interactions, is left out of the equation. .
It is clear that reflection is not just an internal process, but one embedded in a dynamic equilibrium with politics and culture. It is also clear that the depth of the internal process will be constrained by associated anxieties. Thus descriptive self-reflection can be comfortable and is likely to maintain the status quo.
James (2003) states that:
leaders in educational institutions need to minimise social defences…and manage the high levels of anxiety that result from educational change (p8).
In order to do this they need to fulfil three major roles:
- boundary management between:
- internal and external experience
- roles
- containment – producing an environment where emotions and anxieties can be expressed and worked with
- acting as a transitional object – being the temporary recipient of difficult feelings that others in the institution cannot manage (ibid).
It is also important to realise that the leader that James describes is also a person and should be aware of their own boundaries and anxieties. It could also be asked why is it just leaders that have to maintain a Janus like view of the world, engaging with the internal and the external. Ideally, all should be engaged with this. The challenge is to construct a developmental system that allows underlying anxieties to be addressed, rather than adding to them.
Drawing on experience from a number of group relations conferences run by the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in conjunction with Leicester University Obholzer (1994) states that:
central to the learning process is the repeated discovery of the presence of irrational and unconscious processes that interfere with attempts to manage oneself, the group, task and roles in a conscious and rational way. (p46)
It has also been suggested by Hartley (2002) that recent work on socio-cultural psychology might be supportive of the global knowledge based economy that is the rhetoric of much public sector reform. However, the slightly uncomfortable corollary to this is that it will entail giving a greater autonomy to teachers and pupils. This is not just uncomfortable for government, but for all of those individuals who have become dependent on others to map out their future path.
There is a developing primacy being given to responsibility over entitlement, as these have filtered down into every teacher’s life through standards, threshold statements and performance management policies. These processes have been put in place as mechanisms to guard against self-interest, but have been responsible for the development of a professionalisation which has caused defensive self-interest to grow.
Self-interest needs to be replaced by interest in Self. What is needed within education is a wholehearted embracing of the:
philosophical critique of rationalist views of human nature in psychology and social studies – moving away from enlightenment and positivist models and towards a more tolerant and inclusive view of the role of primitive processes in our lives. (Young 1995 p39)
References
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