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Framing Teachers in National EducationPolicy and in the Popular Media
Discourses on Teachers and their Work in South Asia
Yusuf Sayed, Vidya Subramanian, and Manish Jain
ContentsIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Teachers and Teaching: Situating the Global and Local Discourses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Teachers Representation in Policy and Media: Unpacking Discourses of Derisionand Agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Context of Teacher Discourses in South Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Teachers in National Policy Discourses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Overview and Understanding of Teachers Within National Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Multiple and Diverse Conceptions of Education, Teachers, and their Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Teachers as Having Deficits and as Part of the Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Teachers and Accountability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Teacher Quality and Education Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Controlling the Growth of Private Teacher Education Providers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Teachers in Public Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Teacher Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18National Education Policy on Teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Teacher Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Y. Sayed (*)International Education and Development Policy (UK), South African Research Chair for TeacherEducation (SA), School of Education and Social Work, University of Sussex, Brighton, EastSussex, UK
Centre for International Teacher Education, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Mowbray,Cape Town, South Africae-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
V. SubramanianTata Institute of Social Science, Mumbai, Indiae-mail: [email protected]
M. JainAmbedkar University, New Delhi, Indiae-mail: [email protected]
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020P. M. Sarangapani, R. Pappu (eds.), Handbook of Education Systems in South Asia,Global Education Systems, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3309-5_28-1
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Abstract
Globally and nationally, teachers and their work are key to realizing equitable,quality, and lifelong learning for all. Teachers are considered key determinants ofeducation quality – playing a vital role in nation building and identity construc-tion and providing meaningful learning to young children and youth – responsiveto changing global and national economic, social, and cultural imperative. Thisrecognition and increased attention on teachers and their work feature promi-nently in public and policy discourses. Yet very little attention has been paid tohow teachers are framed and positioned in such discourses. It is this gap whichthis chapter seeks to address by considering the discourses that inflect and infuseteachers and their work in the public media and policy text across three countriesof South Asia: Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. The chapter maps out thecommon themes and ideas that frame teachers and their work in diverse nationalpolicy texts in the South Asian region, and specifically in the media, usingdiscourse analysis. At the level of national policy, the chapter focuses on thecomparative analysis of policy of the National Education Policy 2010 inBangladesh, the draft National Education Policy in India 2019, and the NationalEducation Policy 2009 and 2017 in Pakistan to argue that policy and popularmedia project contradictory, multiple, and contested statements of the work ofteachers in the South Asian region, oscillating between portrayals of teachers asvillains or saviors. Moreover, the work of teachers is increasingly subject totightening regulations which challenge teacher professional identity andautonomy.
Keywords
Discourse of derision · Teachers and the media · Education policy · Teacherperformativity
Introduction
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) cemented a growing realization ofteachers as key to education reform, equitable quality education, and lifelonglearning for all (SDG4). In particular, SDG4 has the “teacher” as one of its tentargets committing national governments and the international development com-munity to “increase the supply of qualified teachers” (Sayed and Moriarty 2020).This recognition and increased attention on teachers is not new or surprising.Teachers and their work feature prominently in public discourses. They are variouslydescribed in popular parlance and public speak as inspirational on one hand and asvillains on the other.
These public discourses in national policy and in the media have introduced anew set of parameters to evaluate schools and teachers – discourses of
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accountability, efficiency, and performance – which have reconceptualized andreconstituted the idea, expectations, work, professionalism, autonomy, and agencyof teachers (Ball 2012a, b; Mukhopadhyay and Sarangapani 2018; Subramanian2018, see Mukhopadhyay this section). As these new discourses have found signif-icant expression in popular media, the popular construction in media of the schoolteacher working in the public sector feeds into the policy discourses to legitimizegreater surveillance and regulation of teachers. Networks of global and national civilsociety organizations, policy advocacy networks, and “new” corporate and venturephilanthropists have instituted and advocated new regimes of governance in thepublic schools to find solutions related to schools and teachers.
Yet little attention has been paid to how discourses in both national policy andpopular media construct teachers and their work and shape their sense of self. It isthis gap which this chapter seeks to address by considering the discourses that inflectand infuse teachers and their work in the public media and policy texts. This chapterspecifically examines the discursive construction of teachers in the contemporarypublic media and policy discourses across three countries of South Asia:Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Key questions this chapter seeks to address are asfollows: Who is an ideal teacher? What are the key problems identified withreference to teachers and the domain of teacher education? What are the keycategories used to describe these problems? What reforms are advocated and dothese reforms draw on the dominant inter/national discourses couched in the lan-guage of accountability, efficiency, and performance?
This chapter relies on a variety of sources to answer these questions, to map whatteachers look like in these discourses, and to evaluate what this image signals andcommunicates about how teachers are framed in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan.Attention is given to common themes and ideas that frame teachers and their work indiverse national policy texts in the South Asian region, and specifically in the media,using discourse analysis.
Like all discourses, policy texts construct their object of reform to justify theproposed solution to achieve and define an ideal teacher. In this process, they suppress,ignore, misrepresent, and marginalize other problems and their causal explanationsand alternative solutions, with attendant consequences for social structures, socialrelations, institutions, and distribution of resources and power This chapter, at the levelof national policy, is concerned with the discursive construction of teachers as both aproblem and solution in the education policy texts of Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan.For this comparative analysis, the National Education Policy 2010 in Bangladesh, thedraft National Education Policy in India (2019), and the National Education Policy2009 and 2017 in Pakistan are examined. The chapter juxtaposes “policy speak” onteachers in these policies with how they are represented in media. For this analysis,three prominent English-language newspapers from Bangladesh, India, and Pakistanare considered: The Daily Star, Times of India, and Dawn, respectively.
This chapter begins by situating the global and local discourses that shape teacherand their work. In the second section, the chapter situates the key national educationpolicies in the country contexts of Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. This is followedby a discussion of how teachers and their work are constructed in the national
Framing Teachers in National Education Policy and in the Popular Media 3
education policies reviewed. Finally, the chapter examines the discourses surround-ing school teachers, their professional status, quality and related aspects of educationpolicy as represented in the media.1 The conclusion outlines some of the key themesemerging from an examination of teacher discourses in policy and in regional media.In so doing, this chapter highlights how teachers are framed in policy and publicdiscourses, throwing into sharp relief the ways in which teacher agency is framed aswell as suggesting areas for future research.
Teachers and Teaching: Situating the Global and Local Discourses
Teachers and their work are often constructed in particular ways in public media andpolicy discourse which reflect and imagine their social practices. They are thusconstituted in discourse in ways which shape what it means to be a teacher, howto teach, how teachers should be rendered accountable, and what constitutes theirsense of professionalism. The regime of standards and performance managementand measures of accountability speaks powerfully to the work of teachers and, inparticular, how teachers work. Public policy and the media begin to provide alanguage, a landscape, and imagery of what it means to be a teacher. Differentnational policies, as this chapter argues, provide various narratives about teachers.
Increasingly, as Robertson (2012) and Paine and Zeichner (2012) point out,international agencies such as the World Bank (WB), UNESCO, and the Organisa-tion for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) are playing a significantrole in framing teachers and teaching in a global context, particularly in the GlobalSouth, through indicator studies, policy briefs, large-scale assessments, and surveyssuch as TALIS, TIMMS, and PIRLS. In these ways, they render teachers and theirwork visible in particular ways and seek to construct global policy common sensepertaining to what teachers do and how they work (Paine and Zeichner 2012, p. 571).Specifically, they construct a notion of the twenty-first-century teacher as oneengaging in future-focused learning such as the 4iR. Such a teacher is managedthrough teacher performance regimes focused on outputs and outcomes and throughincreasing standardization of teacher labor and learner performance. A particularvision of teachers who aspire to be “world class” has become common in nationalagendas. As Paine and Zeichner (2012) point out, it is no longer possible to talkabout teaching or teacher education in a national context disconnected from global
1Considering the limited research available on teachers in popular newspapers, this chapter under-took a review of selected newspapers in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan through the news websitesof Times of India, Dawn, and The Daily Star. As these three countries in South Asia are linked bysimilar colonial legacies and histories of development, discussions pertaining to school education,teachers, and policy in the news media are comparable. Two important points must be noted. Firstly,the time frame of the selection spanned a broad sweep of news items over approximately 10 years(2008–2018). Secondly, the news items were selected through a search of headlines aroundkeywords such as “school teachers,” “education policy,” “school education,” “teacher evaluation,”“quality,” and “international education reforms.” These keywords, however, do not indicate sepa-rate themes; during the coding process, overlaps were identified between certain discussions aroundteachers.
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shifts, patterns and imperatives. Understanding teaching and teacher educationcomparatively, or cross-nationally, is imperative for recognizing the impact of globalforces but also to acknowledge how global forces are profoundly shaped by local,national, and sub-national contexts (pp. 572–573). This chapter, therefore, considersthe complex interrelationship between global discourses and national approaches toteachers and their work in the South Asia region.
This chapter pays close attention to the multiple discourses about teachers andtheir work which speak to what an ideal teacher is or should be in public policy andin public narratives. There are three dominant discourses examined in this chapter:first, the humanist discourse; second, the performativity discourse; and third, the ideaof teachers as experts drawing on localized and indigenous ideas of teacher work.For each of these three discourses, explained below, this chapter analyzes nationalpolicies and the media.
Connell (2009), talking about teacher education, refers to a humanist teachereducation approach in teacher education as a site of humanistic learning:
This provided a basis for an idea of the good teacher who not only knew how to run aclassroom but also had learned how to think for herself, apply disciplined knowledge, andact as an agent of cultural renewal. The quality of teaching and the purposes of democracywere linked by a kind of mass humanism, embedded in common-learnings curricula, andtranslated by a workforce of intellectually autonomous, university-educated teachers. I callthis the ‘scholar-teacher’ model. (pp. 215–216)
A humanist tradition of teachers and their work is encapsulated in dominant ideasand metaphors such as the “reflective practitioner,” the “critical pedagogue,” and the“transformative intellectual” (Giroux 1988; Freire 1970/1993).The humanist tradi-tion is thus associated with pedagogies that seek, in Freirean terms, to read the worldand not just the word, and with curricula approaches which provide teachers withagency and flexibility in the classroom.
This discourse was challenged in the late 1970s and 1980s in the Global Northwhen teachers and their work fell under tighter subjection to control and specifica-tion. Connell (2009) specifically talks about this shift as a focus on the specificationof teacher competencies to render visible what teachers should do and achieve asoutcomes. Variously described as an audit culture and “performativity,” this traditionfocuses primarily on providing a clear set of regulations, requirements, and expec-tations about teacher labor and work, defining the terms under which teacherautonomy can be exercised. In this discourse, teaching as a profession is increasinglyrepositioned for producing certain skills for future labor markets. There is a con-certed transformation from a long-term culture of public service to a culture ofenterprise (Maguire 2010, p. 64). Woods and Jeffrey (2004) argue that the pedagog-ical role and identity of the school teacher is refashioned in terms of form andpurpose to meet the instrumental purposes of audit accountability. They write:
The teacher’s personal identity in the new order is partial, fragmented and inferior to that ofthe old in that teachers retain a sense of the ideal self, but it is no longer in teaching. . ..Teachers’ real selves are held in reserve, to be realized in other situations outside school or insome different future within. (ibid, p. 238)
Framing Teachers in National Education Policy and in the Popular Media 5
The performativity discourse which stands in stark contrast to the humanisttradition reconfigures how teachers engage with students in the class to ensurestudent performance on tests. School teachers are constructed as “production lineworkers” as their complex pedagogical work is stripped down to routine tasks thatshift the focus away from more meaningful dialogical engagement with students,research, and curriculum development to a narrower focus on leaner attainment.Hardy (2015) discusses the increasing pressure for “ever-improved outcomes onstandardized testing” where teachers are constantly criticized for poor performanceand schools institute particular mechanisms to regulate teachers’ work through:
. . .a plethora of information networks, whole-school programs teaching and assessmentprograms, and specific testing and professional development packages – commodities to bepurchased by educational systems, schools and/or teachers. Through such managerialtechnologies, education has itself become a ‘risky business’ whose governance processesboth reflect and produce a range of specific, and arguably relatively narrow, outcomes forthose caught up in these webs of intervention. (pp. 391–392)
The performativity discourse is, as Connell (2009) notes, deeply suspicious ofprofessionalism; it regards the teaching profession and representative unions andassociations as anticompetitive monopolies and self-interested, capturing educationservices and producers acting against the interest of the beneficiaries. Theperformativity discourse is made possible by a discourse of derisions. A discourseof derision, as Wallace (1993) explains, seeks to ridicule and project a negative viewof teachers and their work. Circulating myths and stereotypes about teachers (such asteachers are the problem, teachers are lazy, teacher unions serve only their own self-interest) stirs up a negative images of teachers and provides popular justification forstandardization, regulation, and the narrowing of teachers’ labor.
A third set of ideas rooted mainly in the South Asia regions locates the work ofteachers and teaching in a notion of expertise which dates back to pre-colonial times(see Sarangapani, this volume). This discourse sees the work of teachers andteaching as rooted in notions of service and expertise based on region and culturalpractices encapsulated in the idea of the “guru” and “ustad’ (see Sarangapani, thisvolume). Such ideas present teachers as active agents held in high esteem in societyin which their work and performance are assessed in relation to the transfer ofknowledge to others. But this is not without problems as such pedagogues areclassed, casted, and gendered and reflect the values and norm of the societies withinwhich they work. This ideal of the teacher straddles both humanist andperformativity discourses in that, on one hand, they project an image of a teacheras an agent in service and in relationship with society resonating with the publicservice ideals of a humanist discourse. But on the other hand, this ideal challengesthe performativity discourse as limited to a concern with teachers regulated by states.Instead, they cast performativity within the ideal of teaching as an esteemed profes-sion but which is nonetheless enmeshed in the sociopolitical inequalities of societies.
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Teachers Representation in Policy and Media: UnpackingDiscourses of Derision and Agency
In relation to the discourses sketched above, this chapter considers the narrative andrepresentation of teachers in policy texts and in public media as a “policy problem”with an emphasis on identifying “what is being called for, by whom, and for whatpurposes” (Cochran-Smith 2005, p. 4). Teachers and their work can be understood asinherently political, based on values and ideals in specific contexts (Cochran-Smith2005, p. 3). As such, this chapter unpacks how teachers are represented as havingagency to act but are also simultaneously constrained. The analysis of policy textsunderstands policy-making as a “messy and interactive process occurring withinongoing struggles over ideas and worldviews among multiple actors at multiplelevels” (Cochran-Smith et al. 2013, p. 8). Surfacing these struggles in policy textseeks to render visible the multiple and contradictory discourses of teachers and theirwork understanding policies as “normative, expressing both ends and meansdesigned to steer the action and behaviour of people” (Rizvi and Lingard 2009,p. 4). Further, policy is understood as “value-laden,” and values are understood to“pervade policy processes and policy content” (Rizvi and Lingard 2009, p. 16).
The news media in this chapter is understood as key to the discursive way inwhich teachers are represented as both policy problem and solution.2 Representationin news media encompasses the space and coverage that news media gives toteachers and the narratives of professional status, quality, and related issues of policy.The media’s role in shaping the public image of teachers and education is notparticularly new. While there have been some studies examining the portrayal ofteachers in film and other related media content, very little research has investigatedthe “most prominent and politically important genre of media content: news”(Hansen 2009, p. 335). The news media creates “climates of opinion,” shapingpublic debate and discussion. Representation, in particular, draws attention toselections and syntactical and lexical choices which in turn promote certain defini-tions and interpretations (ibid,, p. 336). In this context, this chapter considers howeducation and associated themes such as teachers and quality of education and policytraverse regional, national, and global spheres, mapping these in the media in India,Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
2News media in this chapter is understood as encompassing print media (newspapers and newsmagazines) and broadcast media (television and radio) which circulate via the medium of theInternet. News media is understood in this chapter within a political economy perspective with tiersof organisations extending across local, regional, national, and international geographies addressingspecific target audiences. While it is important to acknowledge the political economy of the newsmedia, this section is focused only on the representation of news.
Framing Teachers in National Education Policy and in the Popular Media 7
Context of Teacher Discourses in South Asia
This section situates the diversified landscape of teachers, teacher education, andteacher discourses in three prominent countries of South Asia: Bangladesh, India,and Pakistan. (See ▶ “Understanding Teachers and Teaching in South Asia” and▶ “Mapping the Profession of Teaching in South Asia” in this section of theHandbook for a detailed account of the education and teacher education contextsof these countries and the South Asia region in general.) These three countries sharean intertwined colonial history and regional similarities with regard to state engage-ment in public education, emerging over the past three decades as potent sites in theGlobal South where international aid agencies have been facilitating a series ofsocial sector reforms.
As noted in other chapters, the roles of the school teacher and the profession ofteaching in South Asia reflect continuity from the colonial period but also significantdiscontinuities. Before the coming of the British, the school teacher was embeddedwithin differing social and religious contexts across the country. There were vastdifferences with regard to the forms of schooling, the codes and mediums of instruction,the curriculum, and the purposes of education. These variations were further compli-cated by issues of caste, religion, social class, and gender. These diverse indigenoussystems of teaching and learning underwent much change as schools came undercolonial control and the school teacher became a State functionary (Kumar 1991;Rao 2014). Post-independence, elementary education in South Asia, as evident in thecountries that comprise this chapter, was envisaged as a key institution through whichequality of opportunity and social justice could be, and would be, achieved.
The mass scale expansion of the school education system in India during the 1990sbrought people from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds into the teaching pro-fession. There were justifiable concerns about the failing standards of teacher trainingas highlighted by the Chattopadhyay Commission Report (1983–85). Calling forreforming teacher education programs institutionally, the report emphasized the needto locate teacher education within the higher education system to bring more depth andrigor to the training programs (Batra 2006; Govinda 2002). The twenty-first centurybrought a series of important policy reforms in the field of elementary education thatsought to make the Indian State more accountable to its vast population of childrenenrolled in a range of government schools across the country.
Discussions on curriculum and free and compulsory education for all childrencame into the public domain with the National Curriculum Framework 2005 (NCF)and the Right to Education Act 2009 (RTE). The RTE in particular stipulated qualityguidelines on teacher education determining length of academic preparation as wellas level and quality of subject matter knowledge. The Justice Verma Commission(2012) recommendations also reiterated the necessity of locating teacher educationprograms within the ambit of the university as a step in broadening the academiccurricular content of these programs. With the coming of the RTE and the conse-quent increase in enrollment, teacher scarcity alongside concerns of quality outlinedin the earlier section became increasingly apparent. As of 2014, there was a shortage
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of 9.4 lakh teachers in government schools. This included 5.86 lakh teachers inprimary schools and 3.5 lakh teachers in upper primary schools. In addition, around6 lakh teachers remain untrained.3
Like India, the trajectory of teacher education in Bangladesh has inevitably beenshaped by a triad of intersecting influences encompassing its colonial past, Bengaliculture, and Islamic discourses of knowledge and learning (Chowdhury 2018).Cultures of teaching-learning do not map into larger Western narratives of teacherprofessionalism, standards, and accountability, as Chowdhury (2018) notes thatteaching is embedded within local beliefs and practices. The State in Bangladeshhas hardly invested in building teacher education, and a 2016 World Bank reportstates that only 58% of secondary school teachers were fully trained and accreditedwith a Bachelor of Education qualification. As of 2018, there were 59 primarytraining institutes (PTI) providing a 1-year Certificate in Education course forprimary school teachers. Recently an 18-month Diploma in Primary Education(DPEd) course for primary school teachers was introduced. A total of 118 teachertraining colleges (TTC) offer 1-year Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) and 1-yearMaster of Education (M.Ed) courses for teachers of secondary schools. In addition,five higher secondary teacher training institutes (HSTTI) provide in-service trainingfor teachers at the higher secondary level. There are also institutes which providetraining exclusively for teachers working in technical and vocational institutions andmadrasahs. There are 30 physical education colleges offering training to physicaleducation teachers. However, the uptake of formal teacher training remains low(Chowdhury and Sarkar 2018).
Similar to India and Bangladesh, the post-colonial state in Pakistan emphasizedteacher education as an important aspect in national policies to build education, butlikewise did not invest substantially in practice. The country, with a low literacy rateof 58%, has not managed to provide access to schooling for all children or addressconcerns of improving quality of education adequately. Teacher education has alsoemerged as an important plane of collaboration between Pakistan and the USA, a keypartner in the war against terrorism (Khan 2011). As of 2009, USAID has spent $75million in the pre-service teacher education program (pre-STEP) to support teachers,teacher educators, and education managers. Teacher education in the public sector inPakistan is offered in five types of institutions managed by the provincial govern-ments: government elementary colleges of education (GECEs); government collegesof education (GCEs); university departments; institutes of education and research(IERs); and directorates or centers for in-service training. The GECEs offercertificate-level courses of 1 year (Khan 2011).
3This data was part of the report on the status and challenges of the RTE authored by Ambarish Rai,Convener of the Right to Education Forum, published on the Common Causes website (http://www.commoncause.in/publication_details.php?id¼466) October–December 2015.
Framing Teachers in National Education Policy and in the Popular Media 9
Teachers in National Policy Discourses
This section considers how teachers and their work are framed in key nationalpolicies in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. It begins by providing an overview ofthe policies and the positioning of teachers and their work in the policies. Particularattention is paid to four current national policies in respect of teachers – the 2010National education Policy of Bangladesh; the 2019 draft National Education Policyin India; and the 2009 and 2017 and National Education Policies in Pakistan –although this chapter focuses primarily on the latter.
Overview and Understanding of Teachers Within National Policies
Discourse analysis of the main national policy documents in the three countriessuggests that the key concerns driving the focus on teachers are accountability linkedto transparency, performance and efficiency, standards, quality, teacher professionaldevelopment, and working conditions. This section addresses these and other keyissues.
The National Education Policy of Bangladesh (2010) contains 28 chapters with2 of the last few chapters directly focused on teachers, namely, Chapter 24 entitledTeachers’ Training and Chapter 25 entitled Status, Rights and Responsibilities ofTeachers (Ministry of Education 2010: chapters 25 and 70). Key to the document is avision of teacher work, noted as below:
The major duties of the teachers include: to inspire and encourage the students to cultivatefine habits; to build them up with the habits of diligence, tolerance, perseverance, patience,respect for religion of his/her own and of others; to build them up as patriotic, efficientcitizens free from superstitions. Their responsibilities will include delivery of lessons withinthe classroom with sincerity and involvement in activities related to education. They will feelresponsible to build up the future of the learners. The teachers will be present in theirrespective institutions for some fixed hours. (Ministry of Education 2010, p. 72)
Such a conception of teachers’ work straddles a focus on classroom performanceas well as a concern with national priorities. Furthermore, the document makes clearthat teacher dignity and status must be “re-evaluated through in-depth examinationsince they are supposed to inspire the meritorious students to be interested in theteaching profession by discharging their proper duties” (Ministry of Education 2010,p. 71).
The draft National Education Policy of India (draft 2019) comprises 23 chapterswith Chapter 5 entitled Teachers and Chapter 15, Teacher Education, directlyaddressing teachers and their work. Collectively, these two chapters address allkey areas of teachers and their work from professional development to recruitmentand ongoing professional development support. A core priority of the draft NEP(Ministry of Human Resource Development [MHRD] 2019, p. 113) is to “ensurethat all students at all levels of school education are taught by passionate, motivated,highly qualified, professionally trained, and well equipped teachers”. The policy
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recognises that teachers “form the very heart of the education process – all teacherswill have academic and professional support within a motivating environment andculture” (MHRD 2019, p. 120).
The Pakistan teacher education environment is shaped by two key policy docu-ments: the National Education Policy of 2009 and the National Education Policy of2017. In this chapter, the focus is on the latter. The NEP 2017 is made up of ninechapters. Teachers and their work form part of Chapter 6 entitled Raising the Qualityof Education. Section 6.1, Improving Teacher Quality, specifically addresses teachereducation. However, teachers and their work are central to other chapters, includingChapter 4 entitled Islamic Education where the issue of the quality of teachers inMadrasahs and other Islamic schools is addressed as a key policy concern. The NEP(2017) notes “there are five to six basic pillars that make a major contribution[to education quality]. These are curriculum, textbooks, assessments, teachers, thelearning environment in an institution and relevance of education to practical life/labour market. . ..The reform of teaching quality is of the highest priority” (Ministryof Federal Education and Professional Training 2017, p. 42).
Collectively, the three national policies afford centrality to teachers as necessaryto ensure meaningful and quality learning.
Multiple and Diverse Conceptions of Education, Teachers,and their Work
The vision of national education policies frames teachers and their work in twoways. On one hand, teachers are framed as part of the education system in whichthey are agents of national development and accorded the responsibility of the moraland spiritual development of society as evident in the National Education Policy ofBangladesh (2010, Preface-1):
Education is the key to a nation’s development. . .poverty alleviation, modern in genius andintellect and forward-looking in thinking. . ..Education will help them [learners] to grow upas non-communal, patriotic and efficient persons free from superstitions.
Similarly, the draft National Education Policy of India (draft NEP 2019) arguesthat:
Education must aim to be character-making, enabling learners to be ethical, rational,compassionate, and caring, while at the same time preparing them for gainful, fulfillingemployment. (p. 3)
Rich legacies (and heritage of ancient Indian Knowledge, Indian Religion and Philosophy)to world heritage must not only be nurtured and preserved for posterity, but also enhancedand put to new uses through our education system. (p. 4)
Framing Teachers in National Education Policy and in the Popular Media 11
One the other hand, these national policies construct a narrow economic growthhuman capital model of education in which teachers are framed as enabling learnersto develop skills and competencies for the nation to grow economically and competein a global economy, as is evident in the following extracts from the national policiesin Bangladesh and Pakistan:
Bangladesh: Only education can equip the nation to acquire the qualities and skills that willstrengthen Bangladesh to work with equal capacity and pace of the global community.(Bangladesh: NEP 2010, Preface by PM)
Pakistan: To compete successfully in the global knowledge economy and convert the rawtalents of its people into productive asset it has to create a world class educational systemfrom pre-school to postgraduate levels. A world class education is not possible withoutworld class teachers, most importantly at the foundational levels of Katchi-10 grades.(Ministry of Education 2009, p. 2)
Education is the only source of human capital formation and producing responsiblecitizens in the country. (NEP 2017, Message from Minister of State for Federal Educationand Professional Training, p. i)
Global competition demands human capital that is creative, constructive and contributingto individual and collective wellbeing. (NEP 2017, p. 5)
Teachers as Having Deficits and as Part of the Problem
The instrumentalist way in which education and the work of teachers is framedabove is reflected in a key policy discourse which characterizes teachers as failingtheir learners, as unaccountable, as responsible for the poor quality of education, andas lacking in skills and capabilities to teach effectively. Thus, national policies in thecountries reviewed construct teachers as part of the problem of poor quality educa-tion and poor economic growth, fashioning a discourse of derision in which teachereffort is derided and found wanting in numerous respects. For example, the draftNational Education Policy of India (draft NEP 2019, p. 15) states:
The quality of training, recruitment, deployment, service conditions, and empowerment ofteachers is not where it should be, and consequently the quality and motivation of teachersdoes not reach the standards where it could be.
The National Policy of Pakistan (NEP 2009) even more negatively frames thework and status of teacher as well as of teacher education providers arguing that:
While elementary schooling is facing many deficiencies in each of the input areas thatwould need to be improved, the most significant action is required in improving the teaching
12 Y. Sayed et al.
resources and the pedagogical approaches teachers employ. The reform of teaching quality isof the highest priority. There is a consensus amongst all stakeholders that the quality ofteachers in the public sector is unsatisfactory. Poor quality of teacher in the system in largenumbers is owed to the mutations in governance, an obsolete pre-service training structureand a less than adequate in-service training regime. Presence of incompetence in such a hugequantity and permeation of malpractices in the profession have eroded the once exaltedposition enjoyed by teachers under the eastern cultural milieu. Teaching has become theemployment of last resort of most educated young persons, especially males. (NEP 2009,p. 35)
Teachers’ incompetence and lack of commitment led to low quality of education whichwas a major challenge and issue confronting primary education in Pakistan. (NEP 2017,p. 47)
The education crisis in Pakistan is linked in the national policy to “politicalinfluence and favoritism” that influence “the recruitment, training, and posting ofteachers and school administrators” (NEP 2009, p. 15).
Teachers and Accountability
In creating a deficient and negative perception of teachers and their work, thenational policies are able to develop a culture of performativity and accountabilityas described above. This culture of performativity is inflected in national educationpolicies with three key features. First, there is a growing policy discourse in whichteacher testing is regarded as an important means to assess ability and competenceand address teacher failures which the policies identify. For example, the draftNational Education Policy of India (draft NEP 2019, p. 16) states:
Teacher Eligibility Tests (TETs) will be strengthened to better test material correlated tobeing outstanding teachers, both in terms of content and pedagogy. The TETs will also beextended to cover teachers across all stages (Foundational, Preparatory, Middle and Sec-ondary) of school education. For subject teachers, suitable TET test scores in thecorresponding subjects will also be considered for recruitment. To gauge passion andmotivation for teaching, a classroom demonstration or interview will become an integralpart of teacher hiring at schools and school complexes.
However, quite importantly, the notion of testing is broadened positively toinclude classroom observation and interviews as “in order to gauge passion andmotivation for teaching, a classroom demonstration or interview will become anintegral part of teacher hiring at schools and school complexes; these interviewswould also be used to assess comfort and proficiency in teaching in the locallanguage so that every school/school complex has at least some teachers who canconverse with students in the local language” (draft NEP 2019, p. 117).
Second, the culture of teacher performativity embedded in the national policyinvokes the idea of standards and standardization of teacher work to address teacher
Framing Teachers in National Education Policy and in the Popular Media 13
failures. The discourse of standards (see Mukhopadhyay with Ali, this volume)extends to developing standards for teachers, standards for teaching, and standardsfor teacher education. Standards are vital for addressing, and rectifying, the problemof teacher failure. Reforming initial and continuing teacher education thus becomes acritical part of the policy discourse in overcoming teacher weakness, as evident inpolicy excerpts below:
India: All B.Ed programs will include training in time-tested as well as the most recenttechniques in pedagogy, including with respect to foundational literacy and numeracy,multilevel teaching and evaluation, teaching children with special needs, teaching childrenwith special interests or talents, use of educational technology, and learner-centred andcollaborative learning; all B.Ed. programs will also include strong practicum training in theform of in-classroom teaching at local schools. (draft NEP 2019, p. 18)
Pakistan: Primary school teacher certification programs are the relics of the 19th centurynormal school model. They neither provide broad general education necessary to fostereffective communication skills, critical thinking and creative instructional leadership norpromote in depth content knowledge of language arts, mathematical reasoning, social andnatural sciences and cultural context. . ..The PTC and CT programs do not comply with anyof the accepted norms, benchmarks, criteria or professional standards for teachers. (Min-istry of Education 2009, p. 8)
Setting standards and monitoring mechanisms to nationalize and internationalize the typesand quality of teacher education programs.. . .Set common minimum requirements of aca-demic and pre-service teacher education qualifications for employment of teachers in thepublic, private and private-public-partnership schools. (NEP 2017, p. 63)
Key to the policy discourse about teacher education reform is the idea that itshould focus on core learning (arguably essential learning) such as languages andnumeracy and focus on a narrow set of outcomes. This discourse of learningefficiency delegitimizes the idea of teacher education as enabling teachers to becomecritical, reflexive, and transformative professionals.
The third key feature of teacher performativity in national policy is captured bythe idea of incentivizing behaviors. The discourse of derision portrays teachers asfailures and self-interested professionals serving their own needs. To this end,national policies suggest that incentives such as performance-related pay should bepart of the tools and techniques for managing teachers and their work, as thefollowing excerpts from the National Education Policy in India and Pakistanindicate:
India (draft NEP 2019, p. 119): Teachers doing outstanding work must be recognised,promoted, and given salary raises, to incentivise all teachers to do their best work.Therefore, a robust merit-based tenure-track, promotion, and salary structure will bedeveloped, with multiple levels within each teacher rank that incentivises and recognisesexcellent and committed teachers through tenure, promotions, and salary increases. Asystem of multiple parameters for proper assessment of performance will be developed for
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the same by the State/UT Government based on peer reviews, attendance, commitment,hours of CPD, and other forms of service to the school and the community, etc. Such merit-based assessments would be used to determine tenure decisions and the rate of promotionsand salary increases for each teacher.
Pakistan (NEP 2017, p. 64): The social status of teachers shall be improved by establishinga performance based reward system, acknowledging the accomplished teachers, participa-tion of teachers in academic decision making, and providing opportunities for continuousprofessional development.
Teacher Quality and Education Quality
The national education policies in the three countries place a great deal of emphasison achieving education quality, often understood as improving student learning.Further, all national policies pay attention to learning attainment in STEM as a keycomponent of education quality. It is not surprising that across all the nationalpolicies of the three countries, teachers are regarded as key to education quality.The National Education Policy of Bangladesh (2010), for example, argues that:
Qualified teachers are essential for proper and quality education. To ensure the quality ofteachers, it is essential to recruit qualified teachers through scientific and transparentrecruitment processes on one hand, and on the other, quality teachers’ education andrepetitive demand-driven training is imperative to develop the professional excellence ofthe teachers. (p. 68)
The importance of teachers in ensuring education quality is linked to the nobilityof teachers historically in the draft National Education Policy in India. This policyargues that teachers in ancient India were highly respected:
Only the very best and most learned became teachers. Society gave teachers, or gurus, whatthey needed in order to pass on their knowledge, skills, and ethics optimally to students; inparticular, gurus were given full autonomy to decide how best to carry out this creativeprocess, and as a consequence, they did their very best to develop personalised learningplans for every student in order to help each student achieve her/his life’s potential. (draftNEP 2019, p. 113)
However, the draft of National Education Policy of India notes that as this is notthe case at present, it is imperative to recover the previous high status of teachers byensuring that the best candidates enter the teaching profession so that the country canensure “the best possible future for our children and our nation” (draft NEP 2019,p. 113).
Core to ensuring that the best candidates enter teaching and that their working andlearning conditions are “safe, comfortable, and inviting” (draft 2019, p. 113) is topay attention to teacher education. Across all policies reviewed, there is deep
Framing Teachers in National Education Policy and in the Popular Media 15
concern that the quality of teacher education is insufficient and in need of improve-ment. Consequently, all policies suggest a revamping of teacher education curriculaand programs; for example, the draft National Education Policy (2019) of Indiastates:
Teacher education is truly vital in creating the team of teachers that will shape the nextgeneration. Teacher preparation is an activity that requires multidisciplinary perspectives andknowledge, the formation of dispositions and values, and the development of practice underthe best mentors. Teachers must be grounded in Indian values, ethos, knowledge, andtraditions, while also being well-versed in the latest advances in education and pedagogy.(draft 2019, p. 283).
Similarly, the National Education Policy of Pakistan (NEP 2017, p. 43) states that“Teacher education curriculum shall be adjusted to the needs of the school curric-ulum and scheme of studies. The curriculum shall include training for student-centred teaching, cross-curricular competencies, and an on-site component.”
Key to improving teacher education in all three countries is moving teachereducation from monothetic colleges to university settings as in the case of Indiawhere it is argued that as “the best teachers will require training in a range of contentas well as pedagogy, teacher education will gradually be moved into multi-disciplinary colleges and universities” (draft NEP 2019, p. 10.4) that “combinehigh-quality content, pedagogy, and practical training” (draft NEP 2019, p. 134).
The changing curriculum of teacher education is accompanied in all the countriesby the ambition to make teacher education a fully degree holder profession. India hasproclaimed, “By 2030, the minimum degree qualification for teaching will be a four-year liberal integrated B.Ed. degree. . .and includes strong practicum training in theform of student-teaching at local schools” (draft NEP 2019, pp. 119–120), whilePakistan previously announced that a “Bachelor’s degree, with a B.Ed., shall be therequirement for teaching at the elementary level. A Master’s level for the secondaryand higher secondary, with a B.Ed., shall be ensured by 2018” (NEP 2017, p. 42).
Controlling the Growth of Private Teacher Education Providers
Across all three countries, the uncontrolled growth and quality of private educationproviders is of grave concern. In the case of Bangladesh, it is argued that “theestablishment of non-government training institutions of inferior standards will bediscouraged. Rather, the number of government institutions will be increased to arational number and full residential facilities will be provided to the trainees to makethe training programs meaningful and effective” (Bangladesh NEP, p. 70).
The draft of policy of India in particular is concerned with the mushrooming ofpoor quality private teacher education providers, noting that the “integrity andcredibility of the teacher education system has unfortunately taken a great hit andwitnessed a severe decline due to the thousands of ‘Teacher Education Institutions’that are solely commercial operations where little if any teacher education is takingplace” (draft NEP 2019, p. 284).
16 Y. Sayed et al.
The draft of policy in India makes a strong call for the closure of “corrupt andsubstandard ‘institutions’ with energy and will, in the face of every resistance. Itmust be carried out urgently because the future of the nation is truly at stake on thismatter” (draft 2019, p. 284). It is significant that the draft policy calls for politicalwill to enforce the closure of such private colleges, arguing that “by 2023, Indiashould have only educationally sound teacher preparation programs in operation,developing professionally competent teachers - all others must be shut down” (draftNEP 2019, p. 285).
Teachers in Public Media
This section considers how teachers and their work are framed in popular newspa-pers in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. This is important as the growth of the mediain terms of access, form, and technology – encompassing conventional forms such asprint media (newspapers and news magazines), broadcast media (television andradio), and news media (online news websites and related forums disseminatingnews and videos) – shaped what the public and policy-makers think about teachersand how their agency is discursively constituted. In particular, this section investi-gates how teachers are represented4 in online news media, seeking to unpack thespace and coverage that it accords to teachers and the attendant discourses ofprofessional status, quality, and related issues of policy. The media’s role in shapingpublic image of teachers and education is not new. While there have been somestudies that have examined the portrayal of teachers in film and related mediacontent, little research has been conducted on the “most prominent and politicallyimportant genre of media content: news” (Hansen 2009, p. 335).
The scarcity of research literature on the themes of teachers and representation inthe news media reaffirms the poor and negative coverage of education and teachersin the media (Alhamdan et al. 2014). They (ibid.) point to the discourse of derisionand crisis that the media conjures up about teachers who are blamed for poor studentperformance and poor educational outcomes. In engendering a blame discourseabout the deficiencies of teachers, media plays a crucial role in undermining publictrust in teachers and inciting policy-makers to subject teachers to virulent andprofessionally undermining forms of regulation as they are seen as agents opposedto reform, out of sync with societal needs and concerns.
Similarly, Stromquist (2018) concurs, observing that across the world, teachers,and their work are largely poorly represented by the news media:
Globally, the distinction of having the mass media present a ‘very positive’ view of teachersspecifically is extremely rare, as it is reported by only one country (Fiji). Likewise, a ‘verypositive’ view of teacher unions specifically is reported in only one country (Gambia).
4The news media creates a “climates of opinion,” shaping public debate and discussion. Represen-tation draws attention to selections and syntactical and lexical choices which in turn promote certaindefinitions and interpretations (ibid., p. 336).
Framing Teachers in National Education Policy and in the Popular Media 17
Europe reports a mostly negative portrayal of teachers in the media, except in Denmark,Ireland, Armenia, Russia, Norway, Germany, Bulgaria and Estonia. Europe also reports anegative portrayal of teacher unions, except in Switzerland, UK, Norway, Germany andBulgaria. In other regions of the world, Africa and Latin America face negative mediaimages of both teachers and teacher unions. (pp. 49–50)
Alhamdan et al. (2014), comparing the representation of teachers in a segment ofEnglish language newspapers across Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Oman,Bangladesh, and Australia, note that the representations of teachers in their datasample were influenced by the particular socioeconomic and politico-historicaldimensions of the respective countries. Cautious of making large-scale generaliza-tions, their research pointed to the continuing expectations of teachers to be moralrole models, that teachers’ work profiles had increased substantially without aconcomitant increase in professional status and that teachers continued to be heldunequivocally responsible for student performance.
In the South Asian context, Vidya and Sarangapani (2011) illustrate the poorcoverage of education and related themes in the largest circulated English-languagenewspaper in India. Their study, conducted over a 1-year period foregrounding thepassage of a prominent national policy on compulsory education, the Right toEducation Act 2009, noted that education accounted for a mere 1.6% of newsreporting.
Across all these studies, teachers are often portrayed negatively. To furtheranalyze such discourses, this section of the chapter maps discourses surroundingschool teachers, their professional status, quality, and related aspects of educationpolicy as represented primarily across three prominent English-language newspa-pers: Times of India for India, Dawn for Pakistan, and The Daily Star forBangladesh. (The study examined the e-versions of the newspapers.) These themeshighlight the complex dimensions through which teachers, their status, and questionsof quality, most notably the increasing reliance on private actors and organizations,were shaped not only by particular nation-state discourses but also by internationalmandates of teacher standards and quality.
Teacher Quality
Across the three countries, a certain pattern emerges when situating discourses ofquality and teaching. In Pakistan and Bangladesh, news stories from 2009 to 2010connected progress in school education to the quality of teacher education and theneed to revamp the system. The Daily Star carried the news story “Teacher amid newexpectations” (5 October 2010) which opened by highlighting the global demand forteachers and the shortage of qualified teachers in developing countries such asBangladesh. It pointed to the country’s national policy of education that emphasizedthe need to streamline provision of teacher education, address diversity within thesector on adequate teacher qualifications, and make changes to increase the attrac-tiveness of teaching by remuneration and professionalism.
18 Y. Sayed et al.
Similar discussions were echoed in Dawn’s news story, “A Task force for Edu-cation” (17 January 2010), which also noted the national education policy reforms ineducation in Pakistan and the burgeoning discussion on standards of teaching aslinked to a certain kind of teacher preparation. The news story invoked thesediscussions in the context of international education reforms spearheaded by DfID,UK. These discussions mapped the national frameworks of teachers, teaching, andquality with regard to larger international transitions. In India, 2009 saw the passingof the Right to Education Act which identified the State as being accountable in theprovision of school education for children from the ages of 6 to 14 years. This wasfollowed by the framing of the National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Edu-cation (NCFTE) in 2010 which mandated strong guidelines for overhauling teachereducation in India with respect to teacher preparation and teacher autonomy. Thisshift toward improving quality by setting teacher standards in the Indian context wasreflected through news stories that discussed how school teachers had to qualify withteacher eligibility tests to be recruited. In the past few years, state governments inIndia have increasingly regulated teacher standards through qualifying state-basedteacher eligibility tests. A 2018 news story in the Times of India noted that theMaharashtra government made it mandatory for teachers hired after 2013 to qualifywith the state-based teacher eligibility test or risk losing their jobs (“TET it or leaveit, Maharashtra tells teachers hired post 2013”).
Within these discourses of quality, the nature of teacher preparation was linked toqualifications and in turn standards; there was a conscious alignment of visualizing“good” teacher education as one that produced “good” learning outcomes. A largenumber of news stories in Pakistan highlighted this transition. For example, asignificant editorial carried in Dawn in 2014 (“Systemic Reforms: Withering Peda-gogy” by Dr Muhammad Memon, 13 April) emphasized the need to reorientteachers and teaching preparation. What was interesting was that the observationsregarding how teaching had to be altered were drawn from a McKinsey study’s ideasof bringing about quality in education:
A study carried out by McKinsey & Company (2007) linked the quality of education to threekey factors which included: a) getting the right people to become teachers, b) developingteachers as effective instructors, and c) developing the best possible instruction for everychild for improving school performance. This suggests that student learning outcomes aredirectly linked to teacher pedagogy which is responsive to all students’ needs.
Quality in some of the news stories in Pakistan also interfaced with the need torecruit teachers proficient in English. In one news story, “Teaching jobs: Whenhiring teachers” (18 February 2012), English proficiency was acknowledged as animportant requirement for upward mobility in the teaching profession, especially inthe private school sector. This shift for English as a measure of quality highlightedthe growing trend of English for economic development and global competitiveness(Tikly 2016). This thrust for English compromises serious pedagogic concerns ofteaching in regional languages, however, which is closely associated with moremeaningful teaching-learning engagements in government schools catering to largernumbers of marginalized students.
Framing Teachers in National Education Policy and in the Popular Media 19
These discussions surrounding quality rarely address the status and socioeco-nomic position of teacher education institutions in these countries. There was onlyone news story from Pakistan that drew attention to the poor status and inadequatefunding for teacher education institutions in the country. The news story, “Educationin Sindh” (22 February 2018), identified the abysmal infrastructure and quality ofeducation in the Sindh province. One primary reason for the lack of teachers in thisregion was linked to the poor infrastructure and support system available to teacherswhich in turn impacted their motivation to reside and commit to teaching underpriv-ileged girls in that region.
National Education Policy on Teachers
Discussions around national education policies are important indicators of howcountries imagined development through education; engaged with socioculturalinteractions and tensions around education; negotiated interface between the global,national, and local discourses of education reform; and devised programmaticmeasures to strengthen various aspects related to public education.
During the timeframe reviewed for this chapter, 2008–2018, Bangladesh andPakistan brought out national policies on education. In India, the Right to EducationAct was instituted in 2009 and the NCFTE in 2010. The country was still discussingthe contours of the new National Policy of Education in 2018–2019.
Bangladesh had the highest number of news stories on this theme, followed byIndia and Pakistan. One news story from Bangladesh, “Education policy: Improve-ment envisaged” (11 September 2009) highlighted that the project of universaleducation was tied to teachers as skilled personnel. Another news story from TheDaily Star on the national education policy in Bangladesh emphasized the need toalign teacher quality with evaluation citing international trends in this area (“Teacherevaluation for quality education” 23 June 2012). These moves were seen as neces-sary to curb student drop-out rates and boost student performance. This was alsoreflected in another news story from India, “UT to issue guidelines on qualityeducation to teachers, principal.” In India, the intention was that teachers were toutilize their time most effectively within the schools to ensure that students wouldsecure more than 80% in the Board Exams (Class 10 exams). This meant a cut backof extracurricular activities, more remedial classes and enforcement of attendance inschools.
Teacher Status
The theme of teacher status encompassed issues of remuneration, tenure, andworking conditions where there was an increase in surveillance and efforts toinstitutionalize change through protests by various teacher unions. A comparisonof the number of news stories across the themes emerging from the sample revealedthat the number of news stories under this theme was the highest across all three
20 Y. Sayed et al.
countries. All three countries shared certain common historical lineages that placedschool teaching at the lowest end of public professions. While the school teacher wasculturally revered, in terms of social and economic status, the school teacherremained low. Poor working conditions of the school teachers were highlightedacross the three countries, with school teachers protesting for regularization of jobsand higher salaries.
School teachers went on hunger strikes for salaries in Bangladesh (“Teachers goon hunger strike in Chittagong” 12 July 2012). The country adhered to strict rulesprohibiting government school teachers from taking private tuitions (“Jail, fine forprivate tuition” 7 April 2016). Teachers from non-state institutions in Bangladeshcalled regularly for regulations under government to be paid on par with governmentschool teachers (“More teachers may get Minimum Pay Order” 6 January 2018). InIndia and Pakistan, news stories reporting on surveillance of school teachers wereprominent. Digital apps to track teacher attendance, biometric scans, and measures toenhance accountability of teachers were discussed (“Truancy check: Teachers tomark app-attendance now” 8 Feb 2018). Both countries also saw protests by schoolteachers for better pay scales and calls to regulate NGO interventions under public-private partnerships (“Agitating teachers brave heavy rain and thundershowers inBhubaneswar” 17 August 2017). The increasing polarization of private and govern-ment schools was evident in one news story from India that identified surveillance ofprivate school teachers as the reason for better student performance in comparison togovernment school teachers (“Lack of monitoring system in government schoolsaffecting results, says NCERT director” 18 February 2018). News stories on protestsby school teachers in Pakistan portrayed elements of violence by the State as policebeat protesting teachers (“Police beat up, detain agitating teachers protesting forregularization of jobs” 26 December 2017). One news story in Dawn also reportedthe dictatorial measures enforced in classrooms where chairs were removed in orderto prevent teachers from resting in any manner during school time (“Teachers chairsto be removed from the classrooms” 20 August 2018).
Conclusion
This chapter tackled a neglected area of teacher education policy and practiceresearch globally and in South Asia by unpacking how teachers and their work arepositioned and framed in national education policies and in popular newspapers inBangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Like all discourses, policy texts and media con-struct their object of reform to justify the proposed solution to define an ideal teacher.And in this regard, the chapter points to two particular ways in which teachers arepositioned. First, they are positioned as the “policy problem.” The problems forwhich they are held responsible are the failure of the education system to respond tochanging economic needs and poor learning attainment results. The causes of thefailure are ascribed to teacher deficit: deficit in content knowledge; deficit in teachingskills; deficit in motivation and comment; and deficit in accountability. The solution
Framing Teachers in National Education Policy and in the Popular Media 21
advocated for this in policy and media discourse is tighter regulation and standard-ization of teachers’ work and more scripted pedagogy and training.
Second, teachers are positioned in policy text and newspapers as key toaddressing the education crisis and thus the “policy solution.” The notion of crisisis typically invoked in national policy and media to suggest a deep and systemiceducation problem for which teachers are projected as the solution. Teacher support,teacher dignity, teacher status, and teacher reward are invoked as strategies tomotivate teachers to addresses deep seated systemic problems and thereby positioncountries to grow economically.
The contradictory positioning is manifest in national policy and popular media indiscourses of derision balanced by discourses of salvation and hope. In the former,policy and media portray teacher behavior, teacher knowledge, teacher skills, andteacher attitudes and values negatively to suggest that they do not work for the goodof society or for their learners or communities. In the latter discourse, national andpolicy media reach out to teachers to valorize their labor and invoke a historicalmoment of teacher status in the pre-colonial past. This discourse positioning, whileseemingly contradictory, reflects a view of agency in which teachers are able to acteither positively or negatively. As a consequence, much policy and media attention isspent on seeking to articulate under what conditions this might be realized. Policyattention pertains to teacher professional development to address both the “policyproblem” of teacher knowledge, skills and dispositions and, at the same, to empowerteachers to be part of the “policy solution.”
As part of the solution and in tackling teacher deficits, a “good” teacher isvisualized as one who produces good learning outcomes, empowering learnerswith the skills to grow the economy. Thus, teacher positioning and agential framingengender a vision of an ideal teacher and teaching as one in which the teacherprovides learning for the twenty-first century and STEM as key components ofeducation quality. Likewise, the positioning of teachers is also to support an expan-sive notion of education quality in which the teacher provides learning for nationbuilding and social cohesion. This vision of the ideal good teacher pays limitedpolicy attention to the socioeconomic position of teacher education institutions andteacher working conditions in the three countries. As a result, there is limited policyand research attention on the conditions under which teachers are prepared,supported, and working. Further, a key policy and research gap is the increasingmove toward regulation, potentially disempowering teachers to achieve the goals ofpolicy and society.
Creating competent teachers in the South Asia region requires the reinvigorationof teacher dignity and status, creation of enabling conducive working environments,providing supportive and ongoing professional development, and meaningful andteacher owned forms of accountability and performance management rooted in thespecificity of the local context as this chapter, and others in this section of thisHandbook, argue. This will result in teachers who inspire, motivate, and equiplearners with learning to be, do, become, and live together as critical and productivemembers of society. Reframing the discourse of teachers by drawing on local andculturally appropriate knowledge of teachers and their work will go a long waytowards empowering teachers and inspiring the best to enter the teaching profession.
22 Y. Sayed et al.
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