Propping up the Performative School

A Critical Examination of the English Educational Paraprofessional

Jo Bishop

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781839822438
• eBook ISBN: 9781839822445
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Educational Policy

Much has been written about 'performativity' and the 'audit culture' in relation to the teaching profession, but this literature has been neglectful of how these might impact educational paraprofessionals. Informed by Institutional Ethnography, this book provides a critical examination of the role, practices and everyday work experiences of educational paraprofessionals. Taking the learning mentor in English state secondary education as its starting point, the study then draws on international, historical literature to trace the genealogy of this role and examines the legacy of the paraprofessional movement in 1960s USA. Ultimately, the question of the adequacy of short-term policy initiatives in the face of intractable social inequalities is explored.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Chapter 1. Introduction
• Chapter 2. The Wider Policy Context Giving Rise to Learning Mentors
• Chapter 3. Historical and Comparative Accounts of Paraprofessional Experiences
• Chapter 4. Introducing Institutional Ethnography as a Means to Research Marginalised Work
• Chapter 5. Introducing Priory Park High School
• Chapter 6. The Official and ‘Seen’ Work of the Learning Mentors
• Chapter 7. The Unofficial and ‘Unseen’ Work of the Learning Mentors
• Chapter 8. View from the Top – A Coherent and Consistent Senior Leadership View of the Learning Mentor Role?
• Chapter 9. View from Middle Management: The Multi-faceted Learning Mentor
• Chapter 10. Mentors Talking Back
• Chapter 11. View from an ‘Older’ Paraprofessional Group
• Chapter 12. Discussion and Conclusion
• References
• Index