Conspicuous practice: self-surveillance and commodification in English education
Abstract
Teachers in England have always been watched; only more recently have they been surveilled, with senior leaders, peers, students and stakeholders all collecting performance data. Yet surveillance in schools and colleges increasingly relies on watching the self, with teachers voluntarily participating in their own surveillance, making their practice visible for easy consumption by interested parties. This article builds on previous work on the surveillance of teachers to argue that this ‘conspicuous practice’ represents a convergence of surveillance and consumerism, with teachers being recreated as commodities and their own marketing agent, embodying the entrepreneurial self to maximise employability. Through social media such as Twitter and LinkedIn to exploiting open plan learning spaces, teachers engage in conspicuous practice for three main reasons: from fear, to avoid sanction; as a result of acculturation into commodified environments; as a means of routine resistance, employing the dramaturgical self for personal gain, to avoid work or re-appropriate professionalism.Citation
Page, D. (2017) Conspicuous practice: self-surveillance and commodification in education. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 27 (4). pp. 375-390. ISSN 0962-0214 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09620214.2017.1351309Journal
International Studies in Sociology of EducationAdditional Links
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09620214.2017.1351309Type
Journal articleLanguage
enDescription
This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Studies in Sociology of Education, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/09620214.2017.1351309 The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.ISSN
0962-0214EISSN
1747-5066ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1080/09620214.2017.1351309
Scopus Count
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/