Deskilling of Teachers: The Case of Turkey.

AbstractStudies in various Western countries since the 1980s established that teachers find themselves increasingly more subjected to outside control and are often reduced to enforcers of decisions made by others. This study presents findings from a qualitative study with 20 teachers in an attempt to discover i) whether teachers' work is being transformed and ii) what type of transformation, if any, takes place. It first analyzes the debate on changes in teachers' skills in advanced industrial societies and moves onto a discussion of the nature of teachers' work, the transformation thereof and the alleged deskilling of teachers. The study later presents findings from a qualitative research indicating that there are significant similarities and differences between teachers' experiences in Turkey and in developed countries. This study reveals that the deskilling approach fails to adequately account for Turkish teachers' experiences, agency and adaptability. Furthermore, while teachers do not regard rather detailed curricula and guidebooks as a restriction of their professional domain, they express the opposite view regarding interventions by parents, inspectors and others. Finally, the study demonstrates that educators in Turkey have strong concerns regarding the future of their profession.Key WordsControl, Decision-making, Deskilling, Guidebooks, Professionalism, Teachers' Work.Teaching as a profession in Western countries underwent a significant transformation from the 1980s onwards. The changes occurred in two ways. First, the critical role of high-quality teachers within the education system began to draw increasingly more attention (Barber & Mourshed, 2007). As students' shortcomings and various social problems came to be associated with teachers' underperformance, decision-makers took various steps to render teachers more qualified and to transform teaching into a professional occupation (Ingersoll, 2012). Second, such steps, in turn, have transformed traditional forms of teaching as teachers' work has been subjected to increasingly control from outside. As such, a number of decisions that teachers can reach and implement themselves have been redirected to outside decision-makers who presented teachers with certain decisions for implementation (Apple, 1988, 1995; Shannon, 1989). The outcome of these changes has been to move teachers away from decision-making processes. Studies show that teachers have no control over the majority of decisions regarding schools' daily procedures (Ingersoll, 2007, 2012). For instance, teachers in many countries are not even entitled to choose which textbooks to be used in their classes. As such, traditional definitions of teaching including respect (i.e., teachers want the best for their students), trust (i.e., teachers have the right skills to perform their tasks), autonomy (i.e., the teacher is responsible and accountable for education-related decisions in the classroom and the school) and life-long job security have become contested (Day, 2000). Considering that children spend a significant part of their lives at school, it is understandable for parents and the governmental authorities to become involved in education and to concentrate on teachers' qualifications. Meanwhile, teachers have increasingly less authority over teaching, undertake increasingly more administrative duties and face busier schedules as they come under more central control, make use of prepackaged educational materials, place greater emphasis on standardized tests and find themselves surrounded by managerialism in the workplace (Hall, 2004; Helsby, 2000; Luke, 2006). Furthermore, reform policies geared toward structural harmonization in many countries have worsened the working conditions of educators (Day, 2000). Overall, teachers in various countries find themselves seriously demoralized, disenfranchised and discouraged. Moreover, educators in both developed and developing countries experience more and more concern over their professional status. …