Adding Values

Abstract

This article reports on research into the work of LEA appraisal co-ordinators in the implementation of teacher appraisal based on the 1991 Regulations. Appraisal co-ordinators in 10 LEAs in the north of England were interviewed with a specific focus on how and why the 1991 Regulations were interpreted and translated into locally based schemes. It is argued that the agency ofthe appraisal coordinators in the form of their professional educational values and their location within a complex network of stakeholder interests enabled the creation of appraisal schemeswhich have an overtly developmental purpose. Appraisal could very easily have been technicist and minimalist, and teacher experience of developmental systems is directly related to the values added by those discharged with the responsibility of implementation. This values-added process is difficult to measure, and this article seeks to enable glimpses of it through an analysis of the words of LEA appraisal co-ordinators.Holding on to professional educational values is proving difficult as the drive towards the efficiently managed state closes down the opportunities for dialogue and the articulation of professionally committed beliefs.