| Chapter 1: | Story of the Research |
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This impediment is related to the amount of freedom teachers have to do what they think is right for their students. This impediment is working conditions. Shulman (1983) said that, unlike other professionals, teachers work in a top-down management system. This system often strips teachers of a great deal of control due to policies set forth by others. Although there is a great distance between policy and the classroom, the policies still must be followed. Shulman argued that those who mandated these research-based policies failed to acknowledge the human side of teaching. If teachers believed that the reform efforts intended to improve student achievement actually decreased opportunities for spontaneity and discovery, disrupted student-teacher relationships, and decreased opportunities for students to learn together, then those reform policies were doomed to fail.
Was there a resolution to this apparent dialectic between external mandates and teacher autonomy? Shulman (1983) argued that the very complexity of teaching demands a certain level of professional autonomy. Teachers are a scarce resource in the classroom. With many students competing for their attention, teachers end up spreading themselves far thinner than their students deserve. Also, Shulman found that teachers must navigate the waters of curricular competition by teaching several subjects to mastery and devoting instructional time to one subject at the expense of another. Finally, teachers must function within a larger bureaucratic system that places demands on their time and energy in addition to their teaching duties. All of these competing expectations force the individual teacher to make myriad decisions, thereby making the individual teacher quite autonomous in an environment that is seemingly stifling and controlling. The ultimate goal is to make teacher autonomy yield education that meets policy demands and ensures equity, yet maintains the flexibility needed to negotiate the everyday complexities presented by the classroom’s specific context.