Abstract
Lesson study originated in Japan and is now becoming attractive worldwide as a research-based approach to developing teaching in the workplace. Like research, it is understood to be collectively constructed, but it is grounded in the practice, analysis and reflection of groups of teachers focused on real lessons collectively observed and analysed. We report two case studies of our lesson study work with primary and secondary teachers in England. The practice of lesson study is evolving as it disseminates globally, and the aim of this paper is to describe and analyse how lesson study can develop in a culture of performativity, where teacher professional learning in England is dominated by graded lesson observations and scrutinised in the light of national league tables. We theorise this performativity in social terms using the concept of commodification of knowledge and the use and exchange value of education. Our experience suggests that lesson study can pose an additional threat to teachers, but that they can find value in the professional learning derived from an appropriately evolved lesson study process in the workplace when that practice is able to focus on collaboration and make space free of competition and teacher-performance focused judgments. We discuss the potential for the profession to make such spaces for teaching to develop, and argue that resources from the wider community are essential for helping schools to build such spaces.
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- 1.
Year 5 (9- and 10-year olds) and Year 9 (3- and 14-year olds) in England.
- 2.
The TIMSS 2011 study was due to be published in December 2012.
- 3.
See for example, ‘Independent inquiry into care provided by Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust January 2005—March 2009, Volume 1 & 2’, chaired by Robert Francis QC, at http://www.midstaffsinquiry.com/pressrelease.html. Accessed 10 December 2012.
- 4.
BBC Panorama: ‘Dial 999…and Wait?’ BBC One, Monday, 3 September, 2012 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19455784. Accessed 10 December 2012.
- 5.
See statement of the current UK Education Secretary earlier in this chapter in relation to ‘highest performing education jurisdictions’.
- 6.
‘Multiplication Algorithm’ lesson video: http://hrd.apec.org/index.php/Multiplication_Algorithm_Grade_3_%28Japan%29. Accessed 10 December 2012.
- 7.
The TDA (Training and Development Agency for schools) became the Teaching Agency in April 2012 and then the National College for Teaching and Leadership in April 2013.
- 8.
Teaching Schools: a government designation that gives outstanding schools a leading role in professional development.
- 9.
Teaching School alliance: a group of schools and other partners supported by the leadership of a Teaching School (Department for Education). University partnership schools: schools that work in partnership with universities to provide placements for pre-service teacher education students.
- 10.
The name of the school has been changed.
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Williams, J., Ryan, J., Morgan, S. (2014). Lesson Study in a Performative Culture. In: McNamara, O., Murray, J., Jones, M. (eds) Workplace Learning in Teacher Education. Professional Learning and Development in Schools and Higher Education, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7826-9_9
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