Performing to expectations: Teachers’ dilemmas in East Asia and in Chinese societies

All teachers perform in accordance with different layers of societal, organizational, and educational expectations. These expectations are built into the fabric of schooling by communal choice, official sanctions, and professional inclinations. Some are cultural derivatives that have been nurtured by history, while others are fashionable imaginings that appear fleetingly over the educational horizon. When ingrained, these expectations become an integral part of the culture of teaching. For teachers in East Asian societies-the Chinese societies, Japan and South Korea-performing to different layers of expectations is a normal part of the job. The East Asian schools responded slowly but surely to the new demands of policymakers who were anxious to strengthen their nations’ competitiveness in the global market. Through curriculum reform, the governments have mandated a transformation of schooling. Concomitant with curriculum reform, a series of quality assurance policies related to school and teacher quality were promulgated. The entrenchment of quality assurance and accountability as managerial imperatives will guarantee that the performance of future generations of teachers will be measured against a set of competence criteria sanctioned by the state. Concerns over the growth of performativity in teaching have now entered the educational discourse in the region. In western literature, “performativity�? is a phenomenon wherein the optimal performance of workers is sought through the maximization of output (benefits) and minimization of input (costs). It is “a technology, a culture and a mode of regulation, or even a system of ‘terror’ … that employs judgments, comparisons and displays as means of control, attrition and change. " (Lyotard 1984, in Ball 2003: 216). The performance of individuals and organizations represents their worth and the quality of their value (ibid.). In the field of education, performativity is typically viewed as an outgrowth of the new public management, neo-liberalism and deregulation of education policy (Lumby 2009). It represents yet another “policy epidemic�? that permeates major education reforms all over the world (Levin 1998). In the teaching profession, performativity nudges teachers toward the metrics of calculation, for it encourages them to improve productivity through calculation and adding value to themselves (Ball 2006: 700). Performativity also causes teachers to change their professional identity, for they have to prove their effectiveness to controlling and appraising parties by working purposefully in order “to be accountable�? (Ball 2003: 224). From a critical perspective, then, performativity creates structural and managerial means that undermine the professional autonomy of teachers. It transforms the culture of teaching into a milieu where self-interests, compliance, and fabrications replace collegiality, independence, and truthfulness as the prevailing principles.