Teaching as Inquiry: Bureaucratic control or professional autonomy?

In this collaborative session, we will look at the ways which we can restore trust in the professional judgment of teachers. As a result of recent government policies, Codd (2015) identifies that teachers have become “managed professionals.” This raises questions of whether teachers have simply become “service-workers for the assessment industry." What and who is driving the need for appraisal? What evidence exists that measuring and assessing teachers in a summative fashion improves outcomes for students?
This session will explore ways in which a collaborative teaching inquiry model (Professional Learning Groups) have been approached at our school and some innovations in recent practice. We will look to spend time during this session listening to approaches from other schools on this issue. We hope that participants will walk away with some practical ways of improving school wide appraisal and inquiry.