"Teachers as political actors”: what can George Counts tell us?

Contemporary theories of education, focusing on the social reproductive function of school systems, often fail to emphasize the potential of teachers as agents of educational and social change. Technicalrational understandings of teachers’ work and “role” are privileged in policy and public discourse while current efforts tend to recast teachers’ agency in terms of performativity, thus reducing teachers’ “freedom” to think and make judgments about what is educationally desirable. In fact, teachers are often asked to reproduce the neoliberal social order, rather than build a democratic alternative. In view of these premises, in this conceptual paper, I argue that contemporary school requires teachers to transcend the status quo, rather than live within the parameters that frame it. In making this case, I would like to draw on the ideas and legacy of George Counts (1889-1974), one of the most controversial and complex theorists, analysts and activists of the social reconstructionist philosophy of education as well as a pioneering figure in the creation of the social foundation of education. Counts provides us with conceptual tools to help us rethink what teachers look like as political actors. More specifically, by adopting a critical and hermeneutical approach, I use George Counts’ landmark 1932 speech, ’Dare the School Build a New Social Order?’ as the conceptual lenses with the aim of examining the relevance of Counts’ words to contemporary teachers. It is argued that teachers face similar paradoxes and political risks to those encountered by Counts if they adopt a social justice/social reconstructionist perspective in schools. The problematic adherence to the principle of the “neutrality” in schools and the enhancement of the role of teacher influence in the school community and the wider society (teacher leadership) are being explored. This points to the challenge of empowering teachers with a strong sense of self-reliance and the importance of their work not only at the classroom level, but also at the social level, ideally pushing the profession beyond what “works”, interrupting discourses that threaten to undermine the critical and democratic dimensions of education