School autonomy and the surveillance of teachers.

A significant paradox of school autonomy is that it tends to constrain the autonomy of teachers, instead subjecting them to the increased controlling of their work, heightened monitoring, and greater accountability. This paper draws on interview data to show how teachers in accountability-driven and business-like schools face three different but overlapping types of surveillance: vertical surveillance involving both top-down monitoring from management in the form of lesson observations and bottom-up monitoring via student voice initiatives; horizontal surveillance by way of peer observations and parents commenting on teacher effectiveness; and intrapersonal surveillance through teachers engaging in the act of self-surveillance and management analyzing their paperwork and student performance data. In mapping out this surveillance, this paper demonstrates that teachers are aware of the stakeholders watching them, the tools and techniques used, and that this surveillance takes place at all times. Significantly, some teachers are willing participants in their own surveillance. With the element of opacity removed from the surveillance process, this paper ultimately shows that the oft-cited panopticon is no longer an appropriate metaphor for scholars to use in the literature to convey the intense monitoring teachers face as we have now entered the post-panoptic era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]