ABSTRACT This study made use of content and discourse analysis to critically examine how the ideas of good
teaching and good teachers were developed and used within the policy-document A Vision for 21st Century Education. Released in 2010 by British Columbias Premiers Technology Council, A Vision for 21st Century Education is a localized policy that attempts to re-imagine key features of teachers and their work in ways that are consistent with the goals of the larger 21st-century policy agenda currently circulating the world. Through my use of content and discourse analysis, I show how A Vision for 21st Century Education promotes a vision of schooling that is largely a neoliberal and managerialist enterprise that relegates teachers and teaching to subordinate roles within processes of policy development and policy implementation. The study identifies two prominent discourses within A Vision for 21st Century Education: learnification translates and reduces public education to terms of learners and learning, and accountingization re-imagines teachers work as that which can be counted. I take care to show how these discourses (i) are developed within the text through genre and style, modalization and passivation; and (ii) subordinate teachers beneath the values of policy makers. I argue that this relative devaluation of teachers and their work provides a basis for increased school conflicts, contributes to elevated stress among teachers, and may encourage teacher burnout. As a point of contrast, I sketch an alternative vision of the role of teachers work that is grounded in democratic values and practices.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES Academic Studies: Current Position: GRADUATE STUDIES Field of Study: AWARDS PUBLICATIONS Steeves, T. (2012). Bridges to difference & maps of becoming: An experiment with teachers in nomadic spaces for education in British Columbia. Workplace: A journal for academic labor, 20, 94-109. Steeves, T. (2012). British Columbias neoliberal folly: Dissecting the 21st century agenda. BCTF Teacher, 23(4). Accessible at: http://bctf.ca/publications/NewsmagArticle.aspx?id=21900 Steeves, T. (2012). Mapping desire and power within the field of education policy in BC. BCTF Teacher, 24(7). Accessible at: http://bctf.ca/publications/NewsmagArticle.aspx?id=27116 PRESENTATIONS Steeves, T. (2011, April 1). Contesting BCs vision of 21st-century education: A critical discourse analysis. Paper presentation at Explorations in Education, Vancouver, BC. Accessible at: https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/ 2429/35883 Steeves, T. (2011, April 1). Leadership debate 2011: [Tentatively] Positioning the NDPs education agenda. Paper presentation at Explorations in Education, Vancouver, BC. Accessible at: https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/36185 Steeves, T. (2011, October 21). 21st-century education: Entrepreneurial citizenship vs democracy? Presentation at British Columbia Social Studies Teachers Associations Annual Conference, Vancouver, BC. Steeves, T. (2012, April 15). (Re)Territorializing the known: Fieldwork in philosophy as critical policy analysis. Paper presentation at the American Educational Research Associations 2012 Conference, Vancouver, BC. Steeves, T. (2012, October 19). (De/Re)Territorializing rights and responsibilities in a neoliberal world: A conceptual and discursive analysis of education/ curricular policy in British Columbia. Presentation at British Columbia Social Studies Teachers Associations Annual Conference, Vancouver, BC. Education policy studies B.A., University of South Alabama B.Ed, University of British Columbia MA candidate, University of British Columbia
THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL STUDIES
PROGRAMME The Final Oral Examination For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS (CROSS FACULTY INQUIRY IN EDUCATION)
CORY STEEVES
B.A., University of South Alabama, 2002 B.Ed, University of British Columbia, 2009 Tuesday, November 27, 2012, 12:00 p.m. Ponderosa H115 (De/Re)-Constructing teachers and their work: A discourse analysis of British Columbias 21st-century policy agenda EXAMINING COMMITTEE Supervisory Committee: Dr. Taylor Webb, Research Supervisor (EDST) Dr. Claudia Ruitenberg (EDST) Dr. Michelle Stack (EDST) External Examiner: Dr. E. Wayne Ross (EDCP)
