This article scrutinizes the political demand for a strengthening of the culture of evaluation in public schools in Denmark. Using a combination of governmentality literature and the concept of paradox provided by systems theory, a number of recent political initiatives to promote evaluation and assessment in Danish primary schools are investigated. This sheds light on how the Danish Ministry of Education has come to recognize that local teacher resistance undermines means of power and has developed new strategies of self-evaluation and self-governance. Drawing on Mitchell Dean's concept of culture governance the article examines how political governing can function as power, not by means of control and regulation, but by affecting the teachers' wills and desires to change the way they think and act in their professional lives. The article suggests that political governing is not only exercised by detailed regulation that disempowers teachers or diminishes their freedom in the classroom but that strategies of self-governing are highly complex and ambiguous in their ways of operating through the cultivation of teachers' identities.
References
1.
AndersenN.ÅThygesenN.T. (2004) Styringsteknologier i den selvudsatte organisation [Steering technologies in the self-exposed organization], GRUS, 73.
2.
AngusL. (1994) Educational Policy Research: Discovering problems and solutions, in SmythJ. (Ed.) Qualitative Approaches in Educational Research, 15–26. Adelaide: Flinders Institute for the Study of Teaching.
3.
BallS.J. (1990) Politics and Policy Making in Education. London: Routledge.
4.
BallS.J. (2003) Professionalism, Managerialism and Performativity, in MoosL.KrejslerJ. (Eds) Professional Development and Educational Change – what does it mean to be a professional in education?Copenhagen: Danish University of Education Press.
5.
BlackmoreJ. (1998) Self-Managing Schools, the New Educational Accountability and the Evaluative State, South Australian Educational Leader, 9(5), 1–19.
6.
BloomH. (2003) An Essay by BloomHarold, in ShakespeareW., The Tragedy of Hamlet. New Haven: Yale University Press.
7.
Boag-MunroeG. (2005) The Naming of Cats is a Difficult Matter: How far are government and teachers using the same words to talk about educational concepts? In SatterthwaiteJ.AtkinsonE. (Eds) Discourses of Education in the Age of New Imperialism. Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books.
8.
CaldwellB.J. (2001) School Management, in NeilJ. SmelserPaulB. Baltes (Eds) International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. Oxford: Elsevier.
9.
ClarkeJ.NewmanJ. (1997) The Managerial State. London: Sage.
10.
ClatterR. (2002) Governance, Autonomy and Accountability in Education, in BushT.BellL. (Eds) The Principles and Practice of Educational Management. London: Paul Chapman.
11.
CoddJ.SullivanK., (Eds) (2005) Education Policy Directions in Aotearoa New Zealand. Southbank, Victoria: Thomson Dunmore Press.
12.
CruikshankB. (1999) The Will to Empower. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
13.
Danish Evaluation Institute (2004) Løbende evaluering af elevernes udbytte af undervisningen i folkeskolen [Continuous evaluation of pupils' benefit of teaching in the public school]. Copenhagen: Danish Evaluation Institute.
14.
Danish Ministry of Education (2006) Obligatoriske test i folkeskolen [Compulsory tests in primary and secondary schools]. http://www.uvm.dk.
15.
Danish Ministry of Education (2007a) Udvikling af skolens evalueringskapacitet [Development of the capacity of schools to evaluate]. Report on development of evaluation in schools produced by the Danish Ministry of Education. http://www.evaluering.uvm.dk.
16.
Danish Ministry of Education (2007b) Evalueringskultur i skolen [A culture of evaluation in the school]. Report on development of evaluation in schools produced by the Danish Ministry of Education. http://www.evaluering.uvm.dk.
17.
Danish Ministry of Education (2007c) LÆrerlogbog [Teacher logbook]. An evaluation tool for teachers produced by the Danish Ministry of Education. http://www.evaluering.uvm.dk.
18.
Danish Ministry of Education (2007d) Evaluering I undervisningen er en del af lÆrerens professionelle virke [Evaluation in teaching is a part of the teacher's professional work]. An evaluation tool for teachers produced by the Danish Ministry of Education. http://www.evaluering.uvm.dk.
19.
Danish Ministry of Education (2007e) Undervisningsiagttagelse [Observation of teaching]. An evaluation tool for teachers produced by the Danish Ministry of Education. http://www.evaluering.uvm.dk.
20.
Danish Ministry of Education (2007f) Almindelige test, prøver og opgaver i skolen [Ordinary tests, exams and exercises in the school]. An evaluation tool for teachers produced by the Danish Ministry of Education. http://www.evaluering.uvm.dk.
21.
Danish Ministry of Education (2007g) Test er et vÆrktøj for lÆrerne [Test is a tool for teachers]. Report on development of evaluation in schools produced by the Danish Ministry of Education. http://www.evaluering.uvm.dk.
22.
Danish Ministry of Education (2007h) Evaluering og skoleudvikling [Evaluation and school development]. Report on development of evaluation in schools produced by the Danish Ministry of Education. http://www.evaluering.uvm.dk.
23.
DeanM. (1999) Governmentality: Power and rule in modern society. London: Sage.
24.
DeanM. (2003) Kulturstyring og individualisering [Culture governance and individualization], in BorchC.LarsenL.T. (Eds) Perspektiv, magt og styring [Perspective, power and steering]. Copenhagen: Hans Reitzels Forlag.
25.
DeanM. (2007) Governing Societies: Political perspectives on domestic and international rule. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
26.
FoucaultM. (1997) Technologies of the Self, in The Essential Works of Michel Foucault, vol. 1. New York: New York Press.
27.
FoucaultM. (2000) The Subject and Power, in FaubionJ.D. (Ed.) Michel Foucault: Essential works of Foucault 1954–1984. London: Penguin.
28.
HartleyD. (1999) Marketing and the ‘Re-enchantment’ of School Management, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 20(3), 309–323. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01425699995281.
29.
HolmL. (2007) Hvem tester testen? En analyse af folkeskolens nationale IT-baserede test med dansk/lÆsning som eksempel [Who will test the test? An analysis of the national IT-based test in the public school using Danish/reading as an example], in MoosL. (Ed.) Nye sociale teknologier i folkeskolen –kampen om dannelsen. [New social technologies in the public school – the struggle of education]. Frederikshavn: Dafolo.
30.
JeffreyB.WoodsP. (1998) Testing Teachers: The effect of school inspections on primary teachers. London: Falmer Press.
31.
KamilC. (2009) Skoleudvikling krÆver plads til ledelse [School development relies on space for management]. Skoleledelse [School leadership], 1, 32–34.
KnudsenH. (2009) The betwixt and between Family Class, Nordisk Pedagogik, 29(1), 149–162.
34.
KrejslerJ. (2007) Elevplanen mellem refleksion og kontrol. [The Student Evaluation Scheme between reflection and control], in MoosL. (Ed.) Nye sociale teknologier i folkeskolen - kampen om dannelsen [New social technologies in the public school – the struggle of education]. Frederikshavn: Dafolo.
35.
LuhmannN. (1990) Political Theory in the Welfare State. New York: Walter de Gruyter.
McGheeM.W.NelsonS.W. (2005) Sacrificing Leaders, Villainizing Leadership: How educational accountability policies impair school leadership, Phi Delta Kappan, 86(5), 367–372.
39.
McInerneyP. (2003) Moving into Dangerous Territory? Educational Leadership in a Devolving Education System, International Journal of Leadership in Education, 6(1), 57–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1360312022000069996.
MoosL., (Ed.) (2007a) Nye sociale teknologier i folkeskolen – kampen om dannelse [New social technologies in the public school – the struggle of education]. Frederikshavn: Dafolo.
42.
MoosL. (2007b) Det offentlige: DjÆvelen ligger i detaljen [The devil is in the detail]. Comment in the Danish newspaper, Information, 22 October.
43.
MoosL.KrejslerJ., (Eds) (2003) Professional Development and Educational Change – what does it mean to be a professional in education?Copenhagen: Danish University of Education Pres.
44.
MoosL.KrejslerJ.KofoedK.K. (2007) Meninger i ledelse – succesfuld skoleledelse mellem visioner og selvledelse [Opinions in leadership – successful school management between visions and self-management]. Frederikshavn: Dafolo Forlag.
MortimoreP.David-EvansM.LaukkanenR.ValijarviJ. (2004) OECD-rapport om grundskolen i Danmark – 2004 [OECD report of the public school in Denmark – 2004]. Uddannelsesstyrelsens temahÆfteserie no. 5–2004. Copenhagen: Danish Ministry of Education.
47.
PedersenD.HartleyJ. (2008) The Changing Context of Public Leadership and Management: Implications for roles and dynamics, International Journal of Public Sector Management, 21(4), 327–339. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09513550810880214.
48.
RaffnsøeS. (2004) Ledelse, styring og stat fra antikken til moderne tid [Management, steering and state from classical to modern times], in PedersenD. (Ed.) Offentlig ledelse i management staten [Public leadership in the management state]. Frederiksberg: Forlaget Samfundslitteratur.
49.
RileyK.MahonyP.MacBeathJ., (1995) Effective School Leadership in a Time of Change: Emerging themes and issues. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association annual conference, San Francisco, April.
50.
RoseN. (1999) Powers of Freedom: Reframing political thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
51.
RoseN. (2003) At regere friheden – en analyse af politisk magt i avancerede liberale demokratier [To rule freedom – an analysis of political power in advanced liberal states], in BorchC.LarsenL.T. (Eds) Perspektiv, magt og styring [Perspective, power and steering]. Copenhagen: Hans Reitzels Forlag.
52.
ShakespeareW. (2003): The Tragedy of Hamlet. New Haven: Yale University Press.
53.
SmythJ., (Ed.) (1993) A Socially Critical View of the Self-Managing School. London: Falmer Press.
54.
StoppardT. (1967) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. New York: Grove Press.
StronachI.CorbinB.McNamaraO.StakS. (2002) Towards an Uncertain Politics of Professionalism: Teacher and nurse identities in flux, Journal of Education Policy, 17(1), 109–138. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02680930110100081.
57.
TeubnerG. (2006) Paradoxes and Inconsistencies in Law. Oxford: Hart Publishing.
58.
ThruppM.WillmottR. (2003) Educational Management in Managerialist Times: Beyond the textual apologist. Maidenhead: McGraw Hill.
59.
WebbR.VulliamyG.SarjaA.HamalainenS. (2006) Globalization and Leadership and Management: A comparative analysis of primary schools in England and Finland, Research Papers in Education, 21(4), 407–432. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02671520600942420.
WilliamsJ.RyanJ. (2000) National Testing and the Improvement of Classroom Teaching: Can they coexist? British Educational Research Journal, 26(1), 49–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/014119200109516.
62.
WilsonD.CroxsonB.AtkinsonA. (2006) What Gets Measured Gets Done: Headteachers' responses to the English Secondary School Performance Management System, Policy Studies, 27(2), 153–171. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01442870600637995.
