Living the tension: a case study of teacher stories of teacher evaluation

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Abstract
This article is one of eight case studies prepared for Alberta Education (the provincial Department of Education) specifically the Teacher Evaluation Policy Impact Project, on the subject of teacher evaluation. A suburban, Protestant education district of thirteen schools participated in this study. A five‐member research team of university faculty and graduate students collaborated on the case study. Four of them have re‐presented the findings in this journal article. The educational background and teaching experiences of the teacher participants were rich and diverse. They brought an understanding of teacher evaluation from their personal experiences with evaluation in provinces and territories throughout Canada across their career spans. The district's teacher evaluation policy required that school administrators complete evaluations of teachers every three years, although there were different requirements for teachers who transferred into the district, teachers who transferred within the district and beginning teachers. The evaluation procedure involved a series of classroom observations by the administrator in which particular competencies were observed. A process of conferences, written reports and summaries was set out by the district office. One school had modified its evaluative process as a result of an in‐school evaluation committee. Although district administrators and school principals were involved in the case study, the focus in this article is on the teachers as they speak of their experiences of teacher evaluation.

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