Educational equity based on teachers’ reflective autonomy

Abstract

The expansion of accountability has fuelled the debate on the so-called Evaluating State’s consequences for the professional autonomy of teachers, a debate in which a negative and distrustful vision predominates. However, two major models of accountability in education need to be distinguished: a) the neoliberal model that promotes the publication of school rankings and a pressure for results, and b) the teacher-responsibility model derived from internal diagnostic assessments that activate teachers’ reflective autonomy and initiate comprehensive school restructuring and innovation processes. The first model leads to the de-professionalization of teaching and to the steamrolling of its pedagogical authority. The second model can enhance re-professionalization and a new sense of the teaching team’s public function. The “genuine school restructuring” movement based on bottom-up changes and innovations would be an example of reflective autonomy that incorporates equity as a central objective. However, schools and teaching effects on equity are scarcely known by the educational community due to the limited research carried out in Catalonia and the erratic educational equity policies.

Keywords: Teaching autonomy, educational equity, professoriate, educational change, reflective professionalism, teacher accountability.