Abstract
The 1988 World Education Report, edited by UNESCO, mentions increased concerns about the evaluation of teachers' performance among policy-makers, which is also true in Japan. We witness teacher evaluation policies being articulated locally as well as nationally, mostly based on the principle of managerialism. Current policies tend to emphasise the link between the assessment of teachers' performance and personnel decisions : decisions related to salary and promotion among others. They also claim that teacher evaluation should help teachers develop their own professional competence. The logic of current policies, however, needs to be examined in the light of the knowledge base drawn from experiences concerned at home and abroad. For example, it is reported in the U.S. that performance-related pay schemes fostered competition among teachers and thus worked against their collaboration. We can now look into the effects of Teaching Personnel Assessment, introduced by Tokyo Metropolitan Education Authority in April 2000, making use of the results of a survey conducted by Professor Urano, the University of Tokyo. Teachers in Tokyo have to go through procedures of an 'authentic personnel assessment concerned with their ability and performance'. This is intended to contribute to 'developing their talent and ability and also activating school organizations'. The assessment procedures include a self goal-setting arrangement, since it is recognized that the procedures must be seen to be fair and trustable. Heads and deputy heads make an assessment of individual teachers. The survey asked a number of heads and teachers working in Tokyo how they consider the assessment. The examination of their responses shows that it is difficult to see the intended effects. The survey result also reveals that teachers in Tokyo are generally negative toward the idea of either pupils or parents participating in the process of teacher evaluation. Given deficiencies of the present procedures, teachers being neither informed of their own assessment result nor given a right to appeal against a seemingly unjustified assessment, such attitudes on the part of teachers is understandable. However, it follows from the idea of teachers assuming professional responsibility for the aims and means of education to pupils, parents and local community that the process of teacher evaluation should be open to the interested parties. The quality of education is related to the process of teacher evaluation. And thus an alternative conception of teacher evaluation, opposed to the one based on managerialism and contractual accountability, needs to be developed. We can see that the most important part of teaching ability is to try to arrive at better decisions or choices about essentially ambiguous aims and means of education, holding continuous dialogue with colleagues, pupils and parents. Such an understating, which sees teaching as practical inquiry, will lead to a democratic and participative conception of teacher evaluation, which should contribute to a rise in the quality of education as well as in teachers' professional ability.
