Resigned Compliance: Teacher Attitudes Towards Performance Related Pay in Schools

This article reports on the introduction of performance-related pay (PRP) in schools in Wales. Specifically, it evaluates the attitudes of teachers to PRP by means of a large-scale questionnaire survey. The results suggest a strong antipathy to PRP for school teachers on the basis that it would be divisive and difficult to implement. In particular, teachers felt that it would be problematic to isolate the performance of individual teachers and deleterious to collegiality and teamwork in schools. Moreover, teachers were critical of the methods of assessment, differences between schools, the potential for subjectivity and favouritism, the negative effect on morale and the bureaucratic burden.