Loading...
Conspicuous practice: self-surveillance and commodification in English education
Page, Damien
Page, Damien
Authors
Editors
Other contributors
Affiliation
Epub Date
Issue Date
2017-10-23
Submitted date
Alternative
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/10.1080/09620214.2017.1351309
Publisher
Research Unit
PubMed ID
PubMed Central ID
Embedded videos
Additional Links
Type
Journal article
Language
en
Description
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.
Series/Report no.
ISSN
0962-0214
EISSN
1747-5066