Improving teacher evaluation: key issues for appraisers in a globalised era

Abstract

[Excerpt] International educational reforms have taken many forms and one of the most widespread is the emphasis on quality assurance of the teaching force. Consequently, teacher evaluation accountability policies have emerged worldwide. Policy-makers in many countries espoused the belief that improving teaching quality will lead to educational success (Barzanò & Grimaldi, 2013). More specifically, reformers promoted teacher evaluation as the best vehicle for judging quality and assuring that every classroom has a highly qualified teacher.

A look at the international literature reveals that teacher evaluation has attracted many researchers and policy-makers. Although policies vary in substance, procedures and pace of implementation, various teacher evaluation models have been implemented worldwide (OECD, 2013). Globalisation has escalated demands for accountability policies while revealing local implementation differences of those policies in practice (Barzanò & Grimaldi, 2013; Flores & Derrington, 2017; Magno, 2013). Moreover, competitive and performance-related teacher evaluation policies have been introduced and pressure to implement them has been evidenced from international organisations (OECD, 2009, 2013). Acknowledging that similar accountability policies might generate different local results, Magno (2013, p. 203) states that leaders across contexts ‘face similar challenges, demands and are increasingly interconnected through international agencies and testing regimes’. Research has demonstrated the influence of school leadership in fostering teacher learning and development (Flores, 2004) as well as the key role and the complexity of school leadership in implementing policy initiatives by making sense of them (Flores 2009, 2010, 2012; Flores & Derrington, 2017; Vekeman, Devos, & Tuytens, 2015). [...]