The teacher's soul and the terrors of performativity

2003/04/01 by Stephen J. Ball · 1 voice · 11 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Social Sciences · #Management and Organizational Studies #Political theory and Gramsci #Public Policy and Administration Research

paper · doi:10.1080/0268093022000043065

openalex publication_date 2003/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02

Abstract

This paper is the latest in a short series on the origins, processes and effects of performativity in the public sector. Performativity, it is argued, is a new mode of state regulation which makes it possible to govern in an ‘advanced liberal’ way. It requires individual practitioners to organize themselves as a response to targets, indicators and evaluations. To set aside personal beliefs and commitments and live an existence of calculation. The new performative worker is a promiscuous self, an enterprising self, with a passion for excellence. For some, this is an opportunity to make a success of themselves, for others it portends inner conflicts, inauthenticity and resistance. It is also suggested that performativity produces opacity rather than transparency as individuals and organizations take ever greater care in the construction and maintenance of fabrications.

Citations

• Good School/Bad School: paradox and fabrication
• Modernity and Self-Identity

Cited by

• Performing support in higher education: negotiating conflicting agendas in academic language and learning advisory work
• Judging the institution: Simulated jurisprudence and the governance of professional futures
• Ofsted experiences: performing inspection and suicidal ideations
• Small things/bigger picture: Foucault, Vygotsky and exclusionary practices in schools
• The Impact of Leadership on Student Outcomes
• How platformised data collection practices in state primary schools in England mediate the parent–child relationship
• The teacher as a ‘colony’: a case study of agentive responses to ‘colonising’ education policy in Vietnam
• Teacher job satisfaction: the importance of school working conditions and teacher characteristics
• Exploring strategies to sustain teacher agency in the context of ‘hyper-accountability’: Reflections from ten experienced chemistry school teachers in Chile
• Upward responsibility and downward accountability: Characteristics and causes of non-teaching workload on Chinese rural teachers
• School choice, teachers’ work, and professional identity

Discussions

• Immediate thoughts: I could not disagree with him more about professionalism in teaching. The whole drive of teaching towards professionalism was towards teachers who were capable of exerting professi [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]