Teachers are more than 'supply': toward meaningful measurement of pedagogy and teachers in SDG4

Abstract

The significant improvement in school access (particularly at the primary level) is one success story of the Education for All (EFA) movement and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). However, many already marginalised children were left further behind during the global mass enrolment drive of the 1990s and early 2000s, and today half of the world's children without basic skills in literacy or numeracy are actually in school, according to recent data from UNESCO (Rose, 2015). With the launch of the Incheon Declaration for Education 2030 in May 2015 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) later that year came a noticeable shift in the discourse, from an almost exclusive focus on expanding access to formal schooling to the improvement of the quality of education, specifically through the improvement of student learning outcomes. SDG 4 includes targets and corresponding indicators for basic literacy and numeracy achievement (Targets 4.1 and 4.6), for 'relevant skills … for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship' (Target 4.4), and, finally, for 'the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development' (Target 4.7). This emphasis on improving quality by improving learning outcomes has ignited an interest in teachers and teaching and, subsequently, has put teachers in a position of greater prominence on the SDG agenda in the form of a dedicated 'means of implementation' in Target 4.c: 'By 2030, substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially least developed countries and small island developing States' (UNGA, 2015b). While some might view it as a promising development that teachers are included in the SDGs, in this chapter, we argue that how teachers are included in the agenda is a cause for concern for educationists and for the international community as a whole.