The education evaluator: An emerging profession.
Item
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Title
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The education evaluator: An emerging profession.
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Identifier
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AAI9431355
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identifier
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9431355
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Creator
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Fybish, Ira Norman.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Lindsey Churchill
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Date
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1994
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Sociology, General | Education, Sociology of | Education, Special
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Abstract
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As a part of the process of evaluating children to determine whether they required special education services, in the early 1970's a special position, filled by a teacher, the education evaluator, was developed. Over the course of the next two decades, the education evaluator has developed a professional identification which has distanced him significantly from his starting role as a classroom teacher. In studying this development, we have used fieldwork experience and ethnographic interviews. A theoretical base for the study has been drawn from Andrew Abbott's book, The System of the Professions. Abbott has suggested that when a new profession emerges, one of the issues which needs to be examined is the relationship of its jurisdictional claims to those of already existing professions. This involves questions of boundaries, and boundary conflicts. When education evaluators came on to the scene, they worked with other colleagues to conduct evaluations. Although individuals from diverse professions are involved in evaluating students, in most cases these evaluations are carried out by only three professionals: a social worker, a psychologist, and an education evaluator. From the perspective of many social worker and psychologist professionals, the education evaluator was an intruder. In connection with this the various contexts, legal, public, and workplace, in which jurisdictional claims are asserted have been examined and we have noted how relations among these three professional groups have developed. Workplace assimilation, another issue discussed by Abbott, has also been reviewed. This was done particularly in connection with the education evaluator's assumption of the task of writing social history updates, traditionally, part of the social worker's jurisdiction. Although there have been some interprofessional tensions over the years these have, for the most part, not been severe. Nevertheless, as a result of circumstances which we consider Abbott to have underestimated, the weakness of professional defenses combined with the power of bureaucratic and external forces, we found that the position of an older, established profession social work was seriously weakened, while that of a new profession, the education evaluator emerged with an unexpected strength.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
