ABSTRACT
Following on from the previous chapter which drew on Bourdieu and Foucault to explore how power works through the discourse of education, chapter 3 provides an illustration of these influences which we suggest drive “scientific” practice in the field. The chapter shall include some empirical reporting in the final section around the political and economic assumptions coursing through contemporary education policy-making. Two specific strands of thought are brought together in chapter 3 in order to carry out this analysis. First, the chapter begins by outlining elements of Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical oeuvre. This is done in order to conceptually frame the policy analysis with regard to field, habitus and practice, and references his concept of doxa to highlight the complex nature of these interconnections and how they influence policy-making about the evaluation of teachers’ work. Second, we connect this narrative to the Foucauldian concept of “governmentality” to show the strategic policy construction of an accountability framework over teachers’ work and performance. The chapter exposes the “best practice” objectifications of classroom teachers’ work where improvements to teacher effectiveness form part of a reified technization of the pedagogic process.
