Authority and authorship: A story about a supply teacher [sections 4.3-end]
4.3 Themes: old and new
A reading of this observation storyline shows some familiar issues already identified by Loveys (1988) and Trotter and Wragg (1990): continuity of classes having the same teacher, and maintaining an unbroken progression in work; the problem of unsettled pupils and therefore the greater chance of classroom management problems when continuity is threatened; a supply teacher trying to function without vital pieces of information or resources which, arguably, a regular member of staff may be able to take for granted; ownership by the teacher of lesson content, and degree of power in disciplinary matters; competence; the negotiation of relationships between supply teacher and pupils, and the issue of trust; and the idea of 'busyness' (Sharp and Green, 1975) as a desirable state of pupil activity in the eyes of a teacher.
To those, I would add: planning; the quality of tasks set for pupils in terms of focus and educational worth; the quality of work produced by pupils; communication; monitoring classes which experience long term absence of their regular teacher; issues related to non-specialists covering secondary school subjects; and the initiative exhibited by supply teachers.
4.4 Authorship
What becomes clear from this storyline is that many of the situations with which Diane was faced were not of her making, and were set up by others. The scenarios were created by five different authors at least: the supply coordinator (Dick), two heads of department (Sarah and Bill), the pupils (individually and collectively), and Diane herself.
Dick's last minute planning to book Diane meant that he almost did not manage to secure her services, and the pupils might have lost the little bit of continuity they received by having the same supply teacher to cover most of the absent teacher's work. Since he did not communicate to the heads of department that Diane was in for several days, they could not take into account that the classes would have the same teacher; with the promise of continuity, teachers might have considered liaising with Diane and setting 'rolling' rather than one-off pieces of work.
Bill, the Head of History, had constructed a syllabus heavily based on worksheets. Having planned such a clear sequence of work could have its advantages for supply. However, he did not monitor where the pupils were in the course during Julie's absence, and there came a point where what he was setting was no longer appropriate for the classes, despite Diane giving feedback on the official school Supply Teacher Feedback Forms; the forms go back to Dick, who hands them to the absent teacher on her return, but the teacher setting work during absence will not necessarily see the forms.
Sarah, the Head of English, appeared to have a commanding, calm presence and clear presentation style as a teacher, as well as command of her subject. However, despite knowing Julie was away, and being reminded by Diane about needing to set cover, Sarah did not appear to plan before the start of lessons. This meant that time could get lost, sometimes 15 or 20 minutes, during which undirected time the pupils could get restless and difficult to manage; on the whole, the tasks she set had no deadlines, or clear indication of whether they were to be handed in, and the discussion work was unguided. Both Diane and I wondered about the purpose of some of the work set, and whether it was simply, as Sarah put it, to "keep them busy", even though the work was obviously subject-related.
Diane said she had a good relationship with Sarah, and was valued by her, though the storyline suggests that perhaps Diane felt Sarah stepped over her boundaries a little in silencing one of her classes, and setting the standards of work and behaviour even when Diane was present - such behaviour undermined what Diane called her 'authority' in the classroom. Diane also felt unsupported when Sarah a) assumed Diane's competence to teach specialist areas like grammar and Elizabethan English, and b) left her to invent an English lesson (all at a moment's notice).
The pupils also exerted their own influence in the lessons. For example, the truth of the pupils' claims about what work they had covered was never really established. They ended up with (in their eyes) an easy task on 'Romeo and Juliet' that they had probably done before, and they manoeuvred Diane into allowing them to do the 'cartoon' activity. Diane was tested out with the name swapping, and the stealing of the pencil case. And the 'social chat' and work avoidance could be seen as testing Diane as well as a feature of the unsettled nature of the classes due to tasks which were not sufficiently focussed, and on which Diane could not necessarily offer much help.
Diane displayed considerable initiative in trying to keep classes running smoothly: she thought ahead in sorting out a key and the room change; she showed concern for the pupils in informing Sarah about how a particular class were losing out more than others; she attempted to rectify the lack of English planning and break in continuity by lending a pupil's exercise book to Sarah; she improved upon cover materials where necessary and possible; she used the class to "bail her out" in the 'Apostrophe' lesson; she used her knowledge of how cover materials worked with one group to give more detailed coaching to a later group.
4.5 Authority
As mentioned earlier, Diane introduced the concept of 'authority' and what this meant to her. It was important to her that she felt and was seen by the pupils to be in charge. Many factors, each perhaps small in itself, served to put this sense of 'authority' in jeopardy: Diane did not feel she could challenge Sarah either for taking charge at times of the discipline or teaching of her class, or for setting materials which she thought pointless or second rate; she did not feel she could rearrange the seat allocations of pupils, though it would have improved the control of the class; she often simply could not help pupils with either general-school or subject-specific information which pupils might reasonably expect a teacher to know; she could not always justify set work. If she was not doing anything, she felt she was not earning her money, and therefore felt anxious when Sarah left to sort out cover work, and she was left in limbo with a class. From the pupils' point of view, perhaps sometimes Diane was not 'good enough' for all these reasons, and they became restless and resistant. Many of these factors could contribute to Diane sometimes losing confidence in her own competence and 'right to be there'; she had a tendency to feel personally responsible when the pupils did not "get a good lesson", even though factors outside her control were helping create the situation.
Lindley (1994) raises the thorny point about the 'substitutability' of specialist workers. This is especially relevant to what was happening in some of Diane's lessons. She originally told me that she would not teach 'content' in those subjects where she felt she had no expertise, and mentioned History as an example. However, she taught a great deal of 'content' when I observed her. It was never clear whence her 'authority' to do this came. I did not discuss with her whether this was appropriate, nor whether she was accurate, but asked, "What would happen if you didn't introduce content?" She looked horror-struck, and immediately answered, "It would be absolute chaos!" For her, there was a very close link between possessing - or appearing to possess - authority in a subject (subject expertise) and having other kinds of authority (e.g. being considered the person legitimately in charge of the class). A number of questions arises:
- Can one distinguish between teaching subject content and teaching general study skills?
- What strategies for motivating pupils are left for the supply teacher who is not allowed to teach content?
- If lesson materials can be set which require no content input from the supply teacher ('teacher-proof' worksheets), or if non-subject-specialist supply teachers can teach content, does this not challenge the non-substitutability of secondary subject specialists?
5. CONCLUSIONS
Supply teachers are largely - and inexplicably - neglected in the literature on teachers' work, lives and careers (Huberman 1993; Sikes, Measor and Woods 1985; Nias 1989; Acker 1989; Goodson 1992). If one is to understand the constraints, opportunities and dilemmas with which supply teachers are faced, and the aims of their behaviour, it makes sense methodologically to add to 'the supply story' a direct investigation of those who know best what it is like to be a supply teacher. The interview project and case study so far conducted are intended to make just such a contribution. While one cannot generalise from these two studies, the findings may help 'grind a theoretical lens' with which to study a larger group.
First, in this case study, I have drawn attention to the multi-faceted concept of 'authority', and how a supply teacher's capacity to manage the behaviour of a group of children and promote a learning environment may depend on her own and the pupils' belief in her 'right to be there'; this may, in turn, depend on her and their belief in her subject and classroom-management expertise, her 'ownership' of many aspects of the lesson (content, setting standards of work and behaviour), her legitimacy as a 'classroom-law maker' and general 'law enforcer' in her own right, and her 'local knowledge'. This authority may be fragile and depend partly on how other staff behave around her, not least in front of the pupils; if any facet of her authority is eroded, and her own sense of competence is threatened, then the supply teacher's capacities both to cope and to perform competently in the eyes of others may deteriorate, setting up a vicious circle.
Second, while I have tried to present an account of some supply work as it was experienced by one teacher, that account can best be understood by recognising that the situations in which Diane found herself had a multiple 'authorship'. It seems that the situations and problems with which a supply teacher might be faced may arise from a number of interacting elements, some of which could lie entirely outside the control of the supply teacher. One of the implications of such a theory is that the 'negative' images of supply and problems encountered in schools in the context of supply cannot be easily attributed to single causes, groups or individuals.
Given this, it would be valuable to map the diversity of behaviours exhibited and aims held by the groups which touch and are touched by supply; some of the aims may match, while others may complement or contradict each other. Similarly, it would help to learn about any constraints which might hinder the achievement of these aims, and who - out of the practitioners, managers and policy makers - knows about which constraints. To get a clearer picture of this network of contributory factors, it would be valuable to conduct a more detailed ethnography in a school; such a study will provide the basis for the next phase of my research.
Ultimately, raising awareness of these behaviours, aims and constraints, and the different perspectives, may help inform dialogue about supply issues, and help develop practice by making available to the 'authors' of the problems a wider set of conscious choices on how to 'write' their own solutions.
6. REFERENCES
- Acker, S. (ed.) (1989) Teachers, Gender and Careers, Falmer, Lewes
- Barrell, J. and Barrell, J. (1975) 'A self-directed approach for a science of human experience', Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 63-73
- Brown, S. and McIntyre, D. (1993) Making sense of teaching, Open University Press, Milton Keynes
- Camus, A. (1957) L'Žtranger, Folio, France,1986 printing
- Galloway, S. (1993) ''Out of sight: out of mind': A response to the literature on supply teaching', Educational Research, 35, 2 , 159-69, NFER, Slough
- Galloway, S. and Morrison, M. (Eds.) (1994) The Supply Story: Professional substitutes in education, Falmer, London
- Goodson, I.F. (ed.) (1992) Studying Teachers' Lives, Routledge, London
- Huberman, M. (1993) The Lives of Teachers, Teachers College Press: Cassell, London, translated from 1989 edition
- Lindley, R.M. (1994) 'Supply Teaching as a Labour Market Phenomenon', Galloway, S. and Morrison, M. (eds.) The Supply Story: Professional substitutes in education, Falmer, London, 157-80
- Loveys, M. (1988) 'Supplying the demand? Contract, mobility, and institutional location in the changing world of the supply teacher', in Ozga, J. (Ed) Schoolwork: Approaches to the labour processes of teaching, 177-94, Open University Press, Milton Keynes
- Massey, A. (1995a) Supply teachers in secondary schools: a pilot study on how to elicit their conceptualisations of their experiences, MSc, Oxford University
- Massey, A. (1995b) 'Reflections from the supply pool: exploring the subjective world of the supply teacher', paper presented at St Hilda's at Warwick ('Ethnographies of Teachers and Students at Work'), 11 September
- Morrison, M. and Galloway, S. (1995) 'Researching moving targets: using diaries to explore supply teachers' lives', in Lyon, E.S., & Busfield, J. Methodological Imaginations, 34-57, Macmillan, London
- Nias, J. (1989) Primary teachers talking: a study of teaching as work, Routledge, London
- Sharp, R. and Green, A. (1975) Education and Social Control, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London
- Shilling, C. (1991) 'Supply teachers working on the margins: A review of the literature', Educational Research, 33, 1, Spring, 3-11, NFER
- Sikes, P., Measor, L. & Woods, P. (1985) Teacher Careers: Crises and Continuities, Falmer, London
- Trotter, A. and Wragg, E. (1990) 'A study of supply teachers', Research Papers in Education, 5, 3, 251-76
- Wood, E. and Knight, J. (1989) 'I feel sorry for supply teachers - an ethnographic study', Unicorn, 15, 1, Feb., 36-43
- Woods, P. (1983) Sociology and the school: an interactionist viewpoint, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London
[Contact me]
If you know of other good places which might link well with this website then please EMAIL ME so that I can add them. Let me know if you have any problems with these links as well. I like to keep this website up to date. (© 27 June1999)
© 22 April 1999 alexandermassey@compuserve.com
This page hosted by 
Get your own Free Home Page