Public education and teacher professionalism in an age of accountability

The meaning of public education is contested, the meaning of public education is contested. This article aims to understand national policy trajectories of reforming public education and teacher professionalism across three European countries. In this analysis, we will work with Evetts' and Biesta's dimensions of professionalism as conceptual tools to trace shifting reconstructions of teacher professionalism and public education. We include an analysis of the national nature of accountability and the status of professional knowledge in education across cases. The following questions are guiding the analysis: (1) What characterizes policy trajectories relating to public education reforms and teacher professionalism across countries? (2) Which convergences and divergences can be identified regarding the interplay between policies about public education reforms and how teacher professionalism is manifested across contexts? (3) What are possible implications of the re-articulation of public education and teacher professionalism in an age of accountability? England, France, and Norway act as cases to illustrate contrasting trajectories in education policy, public administrative traditions and rationales. The analysis shows striking differences between the transformation processes going on as countries have to varying degrees embraced NPM-approaches to educational reforms. We argue that research on public education needs to be examined historically to understand the national status of teacher professionalism.