Global Education Monitoring Report - Non-state actors in education: Who chooses? Who loses?

Non-state actors’ role extends beyond provision of schooling to interventions at various education levels and influence spheres. Alongside its review of progress towards SDG 4, including emerging evidence on the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact, the 2021/2 Global Education Monitoring Report urges governments to see all institutions, students and teachers as part of a single system. Standards, information, incentives and accountability should help governments protect, respect and fulfil the right to education of all, without turning their eyes away from privilege or exploitation. Publicly funded education does not have to be publicly provided but disparity in education processes, student outcomes and teacher working conditions must be addressed. Efficiency and innovation, rather than being commercial secrets, should be diffused and practised by all. To that end, transparency and integrity in the public education policy process need to be maintained to block vested interests. The report’s rallying call – Who chooses? Who loses? – invites policymakers to question relationships with non-state actors in terms of fundamental choices: between equity and freedom of choice; between encouraging initiative and setting standards; between groups of varying means and needs; between immediate commitments under SDG 4 and those to be progressively realized (e.g. post-secondary education); and between education and other social sectors. Supporting the fifth Global Education Monitoring Report are two online tools: PEER, a policy dialogue resource describing non-state activity and regulations in the world’s education systems; and VIEW, a new website consolidating sources and providing new completion rate estimates over time.

Configuring a Construct Definition of Teacher Working Conditions in the United States: A Systematic Narrative Review of Researcher Concepts

Teacher working conditions (TWCs) are, in many ways, student learning conditions. Furthermore, they have also been linked to teacher retention. These connections make TWCs important to understand; yet there is no accepted construct definition delineating and defining what TWCs are. Through a systematic review and narrative synthesis of literature from the United States, I define TWCs and organize the topics that emerged from the literature into a catalog of TWCs. After defining what TWCs are, I employ findings from the narrative synthesis to discuss what TWCs are not. Additionally, I document sources of variation in operationalizing TWCs as well as areas of homogeneity in how researchers study TWCs. I find that researchers agree on the underlying concept of TWCs, vary widely in how they decompose the concept, and overwhelmingly use survey methods to study TWCs. Last, I offer three suggestions to consider in future research.

Teachers’ Psychological Distress in North Carolina: An Analysis of Urban versus Non-Urban School Districts

Teachers experience a great deal of psychological distress. However, there is a gap in the literature concerning the difference between the distress of teachers working in urban schools versus those in non-urban schools. Thus, the present study utilizes data from the 2018 North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey to conduct a statistical analysis of the agreeability differences between urban and non-urban teachers’ responses to constructs with implications for their psychological well-being. The results reveal some differences between urban teachers and non-urban teachers. Suggestions are offered to key stakeholders to better support the psychological well-being of teachers.

CONDIÇÕES DE TRABALHO DOCENTE NA ESCOLA PÚBLICA DE TEMPO INTEGRAL

This article is an excerpt from the Master's research entitled “Malaise in teacher work in full-time public school” that addresses the complexity of teacher malaise among teachers in the public school system through the Cidadescola Integral Education Program in the municipality of Presidente Prudente. We aimed to investigate and analyze the working conditions of teachers who work full-time in the refered Program. The qualitative approach was used as the methodological design of the study, more specifically, the field research. As instruments of data collection the questionnaire and the semi-structured interview were used. The data analysis procedure was based on the proposal of Miles, Huberman and Saldaña (2014), systematized through 1) data condensation, (2) data display, and (3) conclusion drawing/verification. The results showed that three categories related to teacher working conditions prevailed, namely: teacher participation in the process of implementation of the Cidadescola Integral Education Program; school infrastructure and teacher work development and organizational, social and economic conditions of teachers. We concluded that teacher working conditions at the Cidadescola Program demand some improvement. It is necessary to pay attention to the relationship between working conditions and effects on teachers’ health, suffering at work and teachers' quality of life.

Teacher Working Conditions, Teacher Commitment, and Charter Schools

Background The charter school movement relies on teachers as critical components. Teacher commitment is an important aspect of teachers’ lives, because it is an internal force for teachers to grow as professionals. It is also considered one of the crucial factors in influencing various educational outcomes, including teacher effectiveness, teacher retention, and student learning. However, no empirical studies have examined teacher commitment in charter schools. Purpose To address this knowledge gap, this study compares organizational and professional commitment of teachers in charter schools and traditional public schools (TPSs) and explores how these differences are associated with teachers’ characteristics, school contextual factors, and working conditions in the two types of schools. Research Design This study utilizes quantitative analyses of national data from the 2007– 2008 School and Staffing Survey. Hierarchical linear models were developed to examine whether teacher commitment differs between charter schools and TPSs; how teacher characteristics, school contextual factors, and teachers’ perceptions of working conditions contribute to the difference; and finally, whether these variables differentially influence teacher commitment in charter schools and TPSs. Conclusions On average, teachers in charter schools experienced lower levels of organizational commitment than teachers in TPSs, but similar levels of professional commitment. Teacher working conditions explained a large amount of the variance in between-school teacher commitment, suggesting that improving principal leadership, increasing opportunities for professional development, and alleviating teachers’ workload would be effective ways to promote teacher commitment in charter schools.

Understanding the Relationship Between Urban-Centric Locale and Teachers’ Perceptions of School Leadership as a Working Condition

Using the 2012 North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey data, school demographic information, and school’s urban-centric locale census designation, hierarchical linear modeling was conducted to examine the relationship between locale and teachers’ perceptions of school leadership as a working condition and explore any variance in the relationship between school contextual factors and teachers’ perceptions of school leadership associated with locale. After controlling for school contextual factors, the results showed urban-centric locale is not a predictor of teachers’ perceptions of school leadership, and most of the variance in teachers’ perceptions of school leadership is explained by factors within, not between, schools.