Understanding performance management in schools: a dialectical approach

Purpose: the purpose of this article is to provide a dialectical framework for the examination of performance management in schools.

Design/methodology/approach: the article is based upon a qualitative study of 10 headteachers that involved in-depth semi-structured interviews.

Findings: the findings identified four dialectical tensions that underpin performance management in schools: the responsibility to teachers and the responsibility to pupils; external accountability and professional autonomy; discipline of teachers and support of teachers; fixed processes and improvisational practices.

Research implications: this article provides a means of examining the performance management of teachers from an alternative perspective, one that embraces tensions and contradictions and gives headteachers a richer understanding of how teachers are evaluated and judged.

Originality: this article moves beyond the traditional perspective of performance management in schools as a means of subjugation and control and offers an original dialectical framework within which to examine the phenomenon.