Quality in an audit society: The work of teacher-educators

The work of teacher-educators is complex. Visible and recognizable aspects of the labor of teacher-educators include preparing and delivering lectures and tutorials as well as recording student achievement. However, much of this work, including documenting and reporting on the quality of their teaching and student learning, is invisible and not always recognized in contractual arrangements. Teacher-educators are increasingly subject to systems of audit capturing the quality of their work through measures such as workload monitoring, student opinion surveys, and student achievement data. There is no consensus on the definition of quality within teacher-education, and, as such, implementing systems that change teacher-educators’ work with the aim of raising quality is generally contentious among teacher-educators, which is reflected in scholarly literature. Debates often center around whether or not quality systems really do increase quality...