The ethical practice of teaching literacy: Accountability or responsibility?

Kostogriz, Alex;  Doecke, Brenton1

Abstract: This article focuses on the recent introduction by the Australian government of standardised literacy testing, and raises questions about the impact of this reform on the professional ethics of English literacy teachers in primary and secondary schools. We draw on data collected as part of a major research project, involving interviews with teachers about their experiences of implementing standardised testing in Victoria and South Australia that focused on the changing nature of their work practices through the implementation of such tests. The paper traces the ways in which teachers' work is increasingly being mediated by standardised literacy testing to show how these teachers struggle with the tensions between state-wide mandates and a sense of responsibility towards their students. Through an analysis of research data collected in public schools, the paper challenges circumscribed understandings of ethical practice on the part of teachers as a matter of being publicly accountable through mechanisms like the publication of standardised test results. It invokes, instead, a situated notion of professional ethics as responsiveness to those around us. The paper argues the primacy of an ethic of care that cannot be measured, and which is enacted in resistance to the judgments made by standardised tests.

Key words: ethical practice; teaching literacy; Accountability; responsibility

总结：文章侧重于澳大利亚政府最近推出的标准化知识测试,并提出了这一改革影响小学和中学教师的职业道德素养的质疑。我们利用收集的数据作为一个主要的研究项目,涉及采访老师对他们实施标准化测试，借鉴维多利亚州和南澳大利亚的经验, 通过这些测试的实现专注于他们的工作实践的变化。本文追溯了教师工作的方式是越来越多地由标准化的读写测试。表明这些教师挣扎与州际之间的紧张关系要求和对学生的责任感。通过分析研究在公立学校里收集的数据,本文揭示限制对教师道德的实践理解，被公开通过标准化测试结果的出版等机制。相反,它会调用一个位于职业道德的概念作为周围的人的反应。

来源:Australian Journal of Language & Literacy. 2013, Vol. 36 Issue 2, p90-98. 9p.