‘I Must Be Crackers.’ Teacher Self‐Appraisal for Professional Development: reflections based on a case study of a group of teachers

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Abstract
Teacher appraisal has re‐emerged on the political agenda as one of several perspectives on quality control in the education of pupils. Many local authorities now have systems for the appraisal of teachers and they are in the process of imposing politically inspired models that use administrator friendly methodology. Appraisal has a long history both in the United Kingdom and in the United States where it is clear that the systems chosen for teacher appraisal frequently reflect the interests of the end users other than the teachers themselves. This paper looks at the different systems that have been adopted and argues for the use of appraisal methods that will empower teachers to reflect upon their own professional needs and interests. In particular it reflects upon the experiences of a group of teachers who were involved in an open‐ended approach to self‐appraisal. They found the process to be difficult and a number of key issues emerged. If one of the purposes of appraisal is to respect the individuality of teacher's contributions to the quality of education, then issues relating to the empowerment of teachers must be examined as a part of the apprsaisal system. [1]

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