This study explores how education policies in Latvia, emphasizing performance measurement for students and teachers, shape school practices and redefine teacher professionalism. It employs Stephen Ball's theoretical framework to analyze how market principles, managerialism, and performativity influence educational changes. Policymakers at the state, municipal, and school levels act as neoliberal agents, introducing business-inspired practices that reinforce hierarchical power structures and redefine professional roles.

The research combines national education policy analysis with a year-long ethnographic case study conducted in a Latvian school. The author collected data through observations, dialogues, and interviews with teachers and school administrators.

The findings reveal that policies promoting monitoring, evaluation, and training position teachers as insufficiently professional and require constant supervision. These practices include daily lesson observations, performance evaluations, criteria-based feedback, annual self-assessments, and goal-setting exercises. They aim to collect data to meet policy-defined standards of a "good school." Initially met with resistance by school administrators, these methods later became tools for improving teacher performance and student outcomes.

Teachers must conform to predefined criteria for a "good lesson", and adherence to these criteria is linked to potential pay increases. However, this process shifts the teaching focus from student-centred learning to compliance with procedural requirements, reshaping the understanding of professionalism. Consequently, teachers must allocate significant effort to adapt to these new expectations, often at the expense of direct engagement with students, thereby altering the core focus of education.

Authors:
Solvita Lazdina, University of Latvia, Latvia

About the Presenter(s)
Solvita Lazdina is a PhD Candidate and research assistant at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Latvia.

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