Beyond the terrors of performativity: Teachers developing at the interface

Chartered College of Teaching ¬∑ Beyond The terrors of performativity: teachers developing at the interface   Stephen Ball's seminal paper (Ball, 2003), which discusses performativity in the public sector, perceptively captured changes in educational policy and their effects on the outer and inner lives of teachers. Seventeen years after its publication, Ball's radical, readable critique of accountability structures in schools appears to have a lasting resonance with many postgraduate students; particularly those completing professional awards whilst also working within schools as teachers, managers and leaders. In this article, I note that there was a need not only for the terminology such as performativity and fabrication that Ball (re)introduced, but also for his passionate denunciation of league tables, inspections and the associated paraphernalia of control which appear central to neoliberal models of educational governance. I contend that there is a need not onl