A Triumph of Politics over Pedagogy? The Case of the Ontario Teacher Qualifying Test, 2000-2005
At a time when most American states have embedded an initial certification test into their teacher preparation programs, Canadian educational authorities are faced with a choice: to test or not. One province, Ontario, has experimented with a standardized entry-to-the- profession testing instrument. For three years, 2002-04, teacher candidates were required to take an externally-administered examination, on top of the normal Bachelor of Education requirements, prior to certification. The results were decidedly mixed: politically viable, but pedagogically questionable. Now, the debate has been re-opened, as a new government seeks a more effective form of entry-level assessment for aspiring teachers.
The Impact of Centralized Examinations on Teacher Professionalism
The proliferation of centralized examinations erodes teacher autonomy by decreasing teachers' responsibility for evaluation, enforcing centralized curriculum, reducing teachers' control over the outcome of their labour, and introducing new and inappropriate measures of teacher productivity. A case study of provincial testing in Alberta, however, reveals that teachers have retained their assessment skills and their responsibility for evaluation technique, and so cannot be said to have undergone deskilling. Instead, Alberta's teachers appear to have undergone ideological proletarianization, an alternative form of control in which workers are delegated considerable technical discretion but only in the implementation of externally set goals. La proliferation des examens du ministere implique l'erosion de l'autonomie des enseignants par la diminution de leur responsabilite en matiere d'evaluation, par la mise en place de programmes centralises, par la r6duction du controle qu'exercent les enseignants sur les resultats de leur labeur et par l'introduction d'outils qui mesurent de fagon inad6quate la productivite des enseignants. Une 6tude de cas portant sur les examens provinciaux en Alberta revele toutefois que les enseignants conservent leurs aptitudes a 6valuer et leur responsabilit6 en matiere de techniques d'evaluation; on ne saurait donc parler de d6qualification. En fait, les enseignants albertains semblent avoir subi une prol6tarianisation id6ologique, soit une autre forme de controle dans laquelle les travailleurs se voient confier d'enormes pouvoirs techniques, mais seulement pour la mise en ceuvre de buts 6tablis de l'exterieur.
Historias de mi barrio: contemporary art in a community at high risk of social exclusion
Abstract Historias de mi barrio is a piece of pedagogic research aimed at highlighting the way art can articulate the relationship between the educational context and a neighbourhood at high risk of social exclusion. The starting point for this study was to ask whether this type of research, centred around the arts, was suitable in complex contexts and whether it might eventually lead to pedagogic improvement. The results gathered, and indeed the work carried out by the artists and university lecturers involved, together with pupils 6–12 years old and their instructors in a state school, provide evidence of a positive answer – and notably of the necessity of knowing about the socio-economic reality of the student cohort when planning learning projects and of the importance of the arts as a crucial element in education.