The teacher's soul and the terrors of performativity
Abstract
This paper is the latest in a short series on the origins, processes and effects of performativity in the public sector. Performativity, it is argued, is a new mode of state regulation which makes it possible to govern in an ‘advanced liberal’ way. It requires individual practitioners to organize themselves as a response to targets, indicators and evaluations. To set aside personal beliefs and commitments and live an existence of calculation. The new performative worker is a promiscuous self, an enterprising self, with a passion for excellence. For some, this is an opportunity to make a success of themselves, for others it portends inner conflicts, inauthenticity and resistance. It is also suggested that performativity produces opacity rather than transparency as individuals and organizations take ever greater care in the construction and maintenance of fabrications.
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The academic is a commodity to be consumed within the marketised education system, measured and weighed through the technologies of performativity.
“Here then is the academic as commodity to be consumed within the marketised education system, measured and weighed through the technologies of performativity (Ball, 2003).”
From The academic as consumed and consumer (2020) · cites this paper as Ball, 2003
The work of those charged with delivery of the curriculum has fundamentally changed through a performativity agenda that prioritises things that can be easily quantified and measured.
“The work of those charged with the 'delivery' of that curriculum has also fundamentally changed, principally through a performativity agenda that prioritises things that can be supposedly easily quantified and measured (Ball, 2003;Cochran Smith et al., 2009).”
From The policy and practice of music education in England, 2010–2020 (2021) · cites this paper as Ball, 2003
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“Such changes occur in very different national contexts, as noted by Ball (2003, 2010) in England and Dias (2018) in Brazil.”
BackgroundInfluentialAccountability and the affective labour of teachers: a Marxist–Vygotskian perspective
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- Authors
- Ball, S. J.
- Corresponding author
- Ball, Stephen J.
- ORCID
- Ball, Stephen J.
- Venue
- Journal of Education Policy
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2003-04
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 215-228
- ISSN
- 0268-0939 (ISSN-L)
- 1464-5106
- OpenAlex
- W1978474099
- Cited by
- 4,829
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 419 · 2025: 277 · 2024: 242 · 2023: 249 · 2022: 286 · 2021: 265 · 2020: 340 · 2019: 318 · 2018: 313 · 2017: 293 · 2016: 289 · 2015: 251 · 2014: 230 · 2013: 212 · 2012: 174
- FWCI
- 114.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Education Policy (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Public Administration › Public Policy and Administration Research
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Global Educational Policies and Reforms
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Foucault, Power, and Ethics
- Keywords
- performativity, teachers, public sector regulation, advanced liberalism, performance goals, self-government, teacher professionalism, authenticity, resistance, opacity, transparency, evaluation
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