An analysis of teacher professionalism, in lightof personal learning networks and an onlinehabitus

[conceptual paper]

David Noble Email: scot-ed@hotmail.co.uk URL: http://edonisproject.blogspot.com

David Noble isChair of the Association of Chartered Teachers Scotland. He is aclassroomteacherof general subjects atHillsideSchoolinFife,a school for teenage boys who are ‘lookedafter and accommodated’. He recently published a paper, 'Technologies for career-long CPD', for the Scottish Government's Technologies for Learning Strategy. David is aneducational podcaster,collaborating on the innovative Edutalk project, and isa Director of Scot-Ed Consultancy and theeLearningAlliance.Keywords:

teacherprofessionalism, personal learning network, habitus, managerialism, socialcapital, connectivism

Abstract

Discourses on teacher professionalism illustrate its contested nature, and professional traits or paradigms are heavily influenced by ongoing tensionsbetween managerialism and teacher autonomy. Yet, a singular class teacher habitus commonly featuresacross discourses, whichdirectly links themindset of teachers to paid work in physical locations, for examplesitesof schooling, withnotions of professional autonomy clearly constructed in terms of the relationship between teacher and student. In recent years, many teachers have engaged extensively with newwork, online, away from sites of schooling. The literature relies on the computer network metaphor to explain the new relationships, spaces and data arising from what some connectivistsand others have termed ‘personal learning networks’ (PLNs). In identifying themselves asteachers and working around selected educational key words and concepts, these professionals arecreating knowledge, identities, and social and other capital. However, online PLNs are not sites of public discourse,as access and participation are restricted by cultural codes and methods of artifact creation. Teachers online may find that, similar to their work in sites of schooling, performativity may offer them individual rewards, at the same time drawing them from micro-level generativity, to macro-level envisioningof change. The existence of PLNs raises twoquestions. Firstly, should we broaden teacher habitus to recognise newprofessional values,actions, commitments, capacities, skills, impact and collaboration, where activity in PLNs doesnot involve clients, stakeholders and colleagues from physical work locations? Secondly, howmight we reconceptualise online work so thatin future, discourses on teacher professionalismrecognise teachers’ work across multiple sites, yet retain a singular teacher habitus?The lack of criticality and empirical grounding in the literature on PLNs must also be addressed, in order for our conceptualisations of the variedwork of teachers to move beyond narrow theories of e-learning.

1.Introduction

For teachers with anonline personal learning network(PLN), freedom exists to move beyond thesingular occupation, roleor identity, and yet remain identifiable as a teacher. PLNs consist of loose interactions (Wilson, 2008), and fluid and weak spaces, sources of data,and relationships(Haythornthwaite, 2000). Interrogating online PLNs enableus to seethe existence of

multiple

teacherhabituses,and I will show how both notions now influencediscourseson professionalism,

2having previously been unrecognised.This has implications for the future conceptualisation of teachers’ work, learning, collegiality, and accountability.By teacher habitus,I mean the structure of teachers’ minds;incorporating schema, dispositionsand modes of work(Bourdieu, 1985a). Habitusis learned or adopted,and for teachers this hastraditionally been scaffoldedin and aroundthe classroom and school.In examining the onlinework of teachers, and in particular the constructionof artifacts within their PLNs,I will argue thatasingular teacher habitus, developed at traditional sites of schooling, mayno longer be sufficientwhen significant professional activity (as defined by, for example, teaching Codes and Standards)takes place remote from school buildings and their inhabitants. By developing an online teacher habitus, contemporary discourses on professionalism may in the futurebetter reflect the pluralityof sites of teachers’ work.Iseek to illustrate and explorethisemergingonline teacher habitus,relating it to existing coreconcepts around teacher professionalism, these being:traits, autonomy, managerialism andservice. I begin by settingout established notions of teacher professionalism,recognising theongoing tensionbetweenmanagerialismand autonomy. After illustrating the historicalswing between the freedom and control of teachers, and the present pervasiveness of schoolmanagerialism, Iattempt to explain thenature of thehistorical focus of teacher autonomy.I arguethat service for the benefit of students’ learning has been an establishedfocusof the autonomousactions of teachers.I go on to show that this relies ona teacher habitus, developed around sites of schooling,that can no longer be assumed to existin isolationin light of the stratification of thedefinition ofa teacher,and developments in information and communications technologies (ICT).I thenintroduce the emergingpractices of teachers who work online around what have beenloosely defined, particularly by writers on connectivism and educational technologies, as personallearning networks.Herewe see contemporary teacher professionalism through a wider lensthanthe established, singularschool-based teacher habitus.I show that the new ways of working areseductive, though haveimplications for the focus of teacher action. This broadly means that newwork is taking place in online sites to which traditional clients, stakeholders and colleagues haveno access, and therefore students’ (in physical sites of schooling) learning, experiences andoutcomes cannot directly be addressed, influenced or improved where none of the above threegroups exist and participate in PLNs.I begin my analysis of personal learning networks by arguingthat the literature on PLNs lackscriticality,and that there are problems in examining notions of online freedom and autonomythroughusing the metaphor of the computer network and the recenttheory of connectivism. After consideringhow artifacts and identities (and therefore a type of online teacher habitus) are createdwithinPLNs, Isuggest that clients of schooling (in particularpupils and parents or carers) will berestricted in their ability to access and participate inPLNs as online sites of educational discourse.It is possible to question why clients would wish to do so, particularly where they have not previously been active in systems-designed sites of discourse such as parentcouncils and policyconsultation events. However, classroom-based teachers and others workingwith young peopleare existingand,it is often claimed,developing their practice (Noble, 2011)within their PLNs.Thereappears to be no direct or rounded consideration of the educational needs and wants of young people and their parents or carers.Stakeholders, such as managers and employers, construct policies and priorities based upon, for example, successful manifestos and ‘school improvement plans’. These pertain to geo-politicalareas and systems, and are often arrived at through consultation and suffrage. These may boundthe work of colleagues within sites of schooling. Again, I will argue that none of the above are

3materially present in online PLNs, whereas they dohave, and have had, access to sites of discourse which feature clients and stakeholders (admittedly each to different and varyingdegrees) in physical proximity.I show howknowledge in PLNs may be beingconstructed for the benefit of individuals within it(likely to be educationists) and that theportabilityof this knowledge will belimited. I explorehow this alters one notion of teacher professionalism;the transformative teacher, that is, one whois inclusive, ethical, collaborative, collegial, activist, progressive and policy-active (Sachs, 2000).The transformative teacher sees their “primary responsibility in terms of the development of critical, literate, socially aware citizens with a strong sense of their own civic responsibility, andthrough them the generation of social capital and the propagation of civil society.” (Mockler,2005:736)Returning to my earlier identification of the focus of traditional teacher autonomy, I claimthat thetransformative teacher withanonlineteacherhabitus is foremost an expert and pre-figurerof change, and isfocused onsystems, pedagogies and technologies, not classrooms and the lives of individual students.I develop this idea by briefly considering another possible new teacher habitus around the concept and work of the enhancedor extendedpractitioner, that is, one who isrecognised (and rewarded) by their peers or systems managers as possessing desirable traits,values and commitments, and developing and exemplifying additional skills, abilities, knowledgeand understanding.Afterinterrogatingthe apparent transformative and extended traitsof an online teacher habitus, Igo on to explore the implications of the concomitant marketising of individual teachers whosuccessfully work onlineand in their PLN. I suggest that there isan ongoing requirement for performancewithin a PLN, which ensures thatone aspect of managerialism, performativity, isnowadayspresent onlineas well asofflinein these teachers’ professional lives.I conclude by interrogatingthe use of the agora as an alternative to the network metaphor, as Iconsider whether an online teacher habitus can be reconciled with a school teacher habitusand thecore concepts of teacher professionalism.

2.Conceptions of teacher professionalism

Teacher professionalism is a contested area of educational theory,with conceptions influenced bycivic societies, stakeholders, economics, political ideologies and professional bodies(Mockler,2005). Early conceptions were influenced by, or alignedwith, the early professions suchasmedicine and law. These professions retain distinctive traits,including:a discrete body of specialist knowledge, restrictions on entry, and the freedom to policethemselves(Carr, 1999).Within discourses on teacher professionalism, each traithas beenchallenged by educational philosophers, teachers, politiciansand employers(Mockler, 2005). Teacher professionalism hascontinued to be redefined by conceptions of public servicesuch as vocationalism, semi- professionalismand deprofessionalism(Carr, 2000; Stevenson, 2007).The iterative nature of teacher professionalism is evident. Discourses have reflected relatedtensions,such as: teacher autonomy versus government control (latterly, managerialism),self-servers versus policy implementers, freedom versus accountability,and expansiveness versusrestrictedness. Following a review of relevantliterature, Menter et al (2010) identified four influential paradigms of teacher professionalism: the transformative teacher, the enquiringteacher, the reflective teacher, and the effective teacher. Menter et alchart how each paradigm