Education Reform in England and the Transformation of School Teachers’ Working Lives: A Labour Process Perspective

Abstract

The academy school programme, OFSTED’s use of school performance data, and performance management and performance related pay reforms are dramatically transforming the work and employment landscape in teaching. Yet there is limited knowledge of teachers’ experiences of work in relation to this context. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the impact of these education reforms on school teachers’ working lives through a labour process perspective. A critical realist ethnography of an inner-city secondary academy school was conducted over four months. This comprised a six-week shadowing phase, document collection and 26 semi-structured interviews with Teachers, Managers, HR and Trade Union Representatives. Findings reveal that the removal of a contextual value added measure from school performance metrics leads to an increase in teachers’ workloads and an extension of their working hours. This is compounded by an unofficial erosion of teachers’ directed working time that infiltrates through the academy trust. Pressures on workload also stem from management-led initiatives generated by appraisals in leadership programmes. Furthermore, teachers’ work becomes standardised and re-organised through the heterarchical multi-academy trust model in an effort to improve the school’s OFSTED rating. Performance related pay reforms act as a parallel instigator to the standardisation of work, polarising the creative and mundane aspects of teaching across the workforce, whilst oppositional orientations to work form as the majority of teachers align with a shared sense of commitment to work. This thesis amalgamates labour process theory with the hollowing out thesis, making key theoretical, conceptual, empirical and methodological contributions, alongside practical recommendations.