Chapter 12: Teachers Organizing to Resist in a Context of Compliance

U.S. teachers confront an enduring tension between professional autonomy and institutional control. While several scholars have described this tension as endemic to the way U.S. teachers have experienced their work (e.g., Grant & Murray, 1999; Ingersoll, 2003; Labaree, 1992), there is evidence that the current policy environment has exacerbated this tension (Achinstein & Ogawa, 2006; Alvarez & Corn, 2008; Pease-Alvarez & Samway, 2008). In recent years teachers have had little if any say when it comes to the development of policies which specify what and how they should teach and assess their students. Schools, districts, and governmental entities expect teachers to comply with these policy initiatives via strictly enforced accountability measures and external monitoring. Despite claims that these policies will help close the achievement gap that has come to characterize how students of different ethnic, linguistic, economic, and racial backgrounds experience schooling in the U.S., there is evidence that these policies are further constraining learning opportunities for English language learners and students of color in U.S. schools.