Administrative Intensification and the Global Decline of Teacher Autonomy: Emerging Empirical Patterns across Contexts

Abstract

Teacher autonomy has become increasingly constrained across diverse education systems, reshaped by expanding administrative demands, curricular standardization, digital monitoring infrastructures, assessment pressures, and shifts in the employment structures globally. This paper examines the empirical evidence of this decline by synthesizing evidence from international surveys and research, national reports, and qualitative research. After examining these, the analysis highlights how teachers’ decision-making space has been progressively reorganized and constrained by systemic and constant demands for documentation, pacing fidelity, measurable performance, and data visibility. Thus, teachers frequently describe their work as shifting from meaningful instructional engagement toward routine compliance, a sentiment that reflects deeper organizational changes in schooling taking place. Also, empirical studies from varied contexts, including large international datasets, national reviews, and school-level investigations, indicate that these transformations are neither isolated nor temporally brief but part of a sustained restructuring of teachers’ work. This section outlines these evolving pressures and their effects on professional judgment, laying the foundation for subsequent theoretical and structural analysis.