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In this paper, we examine how evolutions related to the fragmentation of labour markets, the flexibilisation of work and employment conditions, and the multiplication of teacher training models and teachers' roles in schools, are contributing to reshaping teachers' careers. Drawing on interviews with teachers and senior leaders from 8 schools in London, our analyses highlight six career patterns and their embeddedness in the changing institutional environment of labour markets for teachers. Our results help renew the dialogue between research on teachers' professional lives and on teachers' labour markets. They have wider implications for knowledge on the fragmentation of the teaching profession, beyond the London case.

This paper explores the different ways that primary school teachers in Uganda navigate the boundary between school science and everyday knowledge in the context of a centrally mandated curriculum innovation. The paper is based on a study of the pedagogic practices of 16 teachers in eight Ugandan primary schools that were selected on the basis of having a track record of either high or low academic achievement in the public primary school-leaving examination. The official primary school curriculum in Uganda prescribes that science be taught in an integrated form, including integration between science subject knowledge and everyday knowledge. The strategies that teachers in the study adopted in relating science to everyday knowledge was a key feature that differentiated between pedagogic practices in the high-performing and low-performing schools. In high-performing schools, teachers recruited everyday knowledge as a resource for learning science as a specialised discourse; whereas in the low-performing schools, acquiring everyday knowledge was viewed as an end in itself. The paper, then, considers the implications of differences in teachers' pedagogic strategies for the kinds of knowledge to which learners are given access. (Contains 2 tables.)

The present paper explores the fascist vision for education in 1930s Britain through the presentation of extracts from official publications of the British Union of Fascists (BUF), as well as from the writings of Party members. The paper presents a socio-historical study of British adherents to fascism and provides an account of their thinking in relation to education and schooling, exposing a milieu of ideologues, Party functionaries and serving teachers who were animated by their political commitment. Following a brief outline of the early years of British fascism, there is an account of some key members and their educational ideas, followed by a discussion of the BUF's educational policies and of its approach to internal education and training. The orientation of the BUF and its membership to education, and the Party's formulated policies in this field present a modernist vision that was calculated to have particular appeal to educational professionals. There is a consideration, through memoirs, of the experiences of two BUF members who were teachers. The paper reveals a relatively hidden episode in the social history of British educational politics; one that contained paradoxes of intent and outcome, and of means and ends, when ostensibly progressive and socially elevating concepts were employed in ways that had an ultimately destructive impact on individuals, both personally and professionally, as well as on whole societies.

Argues that professionals were once considered to be civic leaders; however, social changes have created a very different relationship between professionals and the public. Reviews changes in professionalism and outlines a new teacher professionalism based on the enabling of learning, the accommodation of difference, and the practice of agreement. (DSK)

Illustrates recent concerns about the fields of sociology, sociology of education, and women's studies through means of an autobiographical account of a career of a British teacher and researcher in these fields. Discusses the nature of sociology of education as a marginal and border-academic territory. (DSK)

This article investigates how risk perception amongst teachers within an outdoor educational initiative, Forest School, both shape and are shaped by their understandings of childhood, pedagogy and their own professional identity. Drawing on a social constructionist perspective in theorising risk and childhood, the article argues that contemporary, hyper-sensitised concerns regarding children's vulnerability emanate from both fears of the modern world, and the proclivity towards over-protection which these fears precipitate. Rather than treating this hyper-sensitivity as irrational or paranoid, the paper draws on socio-cultural theories and qualitative methods to interrogate how risk is perceived, managed and performed by teachers within an initiative which aims to reintroduce risk into children's lives. The research found that while these teachers' motivations to participate in Forest School were derived from a desire to expose children to formative risk-taking in the outdoors, the hegemonic cultural and institutional risk aversion which they were attempting to counter, aligned with their contested occupational identity, created tensions in how they managed and performed risk which militated against the full realisation of a Forest School pedagogy.

Using a comparative case study, this paper explores the pedagogic practices for regulating behaviour in two Norwegian primary school classrooms with social compositions that become increasingly contrasted due to an increasing school segregation. Based on classroom observations and teacher interviews and using Bernstein's concepts of 'framing' and 'classification', the study has found that working-class students are subjected to a more visible pedagogic practice than middle-class students. The different behavioural expectations in the classrooms shape a passive and receptive learner identity in the former case and a more active learner identity in the latter case. Social class assumptions and neoliberal education policy may underlie the formation of these distinct identities. This paper argues that in an education system that advocates equal opportunities for everyone as the most important value, it is crucial to consider whether visible pedagogic practices promoted through evidence-based programmes rather contribute to reproduction of existing social inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the corporeal turn in social theory, this paper explores how the body is implicated in pedagogic practice and leaning. Focusing on the body has usually been recognised as part of the regulative rather than instructional discourse in schools. Work has begun to redress the mind-body imbalance through the "corporeal device" developed from Bernstein's "pedagogic device", the fundamental relay through which social inequalities are reproduced in schools. To properly recognise the way bodies act as pedagogic relays requires a robust understanding of persons as multi-sensorial acting beings. Examples for choreographic pedagogy are used to illuminate the complex and multimodal features of instructional discourse and to suggest how the moving body could be enlisted to enhance students' access to formal academic discourses and better understand why some young people fail to achieve in schools.

Argues that curriculum changes which include content and pedagogical change contain within themselves new forms of social control. Reduction of teacher skill is also an outcome. The argument is based on research in a school employing such a curriculum. (Author/KC)

In this paper, we examine how evolutions related to the fragmentation of labour markets, the flexibilisation of work and employment conditions, and the multiplication of teacher training models and teachers' roles in schools, are contributing to reshaping teachers' careers. Drawing on interviews with teachers and senior leaders from 8 schools in London, our analyses highlight six career patterns and their embeddedness in the changing institutional environment of labour markets for teachers. Our results help renew the dialogue between research on teachers' professional lives and on teachers' labour markets. They have wider implications for knowledge on the fragmentation of the teaching profession, beyond the London case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers' evaluations of students do not consider only academic competence, but are imbued with social considerations related to individual teacher and student characteristics, their interactions, and the surrounding context. The aim of this paper is understanding the extent to which teachers grade girls more generously than boys, and which characteristics of teachers and classrooms are likely to reduce this gender grading gap. We use Italian data from INVALSI-SNV, providing information on 10th-grade students linked with their teachers. The analysis relies on grade equation models in multilevel regression analysis, with students as first level, teachers/classrooms as second level, and schools as third level. Results show that, when comparing students who have identical subject-specific competence, teachers are more likely to give higher grades to girls. Furthermore, they demonstrate for the first time that this grading premium favouring girls is systemic, as teacher and classroom characteristics play a negligible role in reducing it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on actor-network theory and on the sociology of cultural consumption to examine the phenomenon of corporate Massive Open Online Courses. Through an analysis of texts available in the public domain, the paper argues that over a short period (between 2012 and 2013) digitisation technology became associated with the emergence of a hybrid ‘actor’: the digital video-recorder teacher. A parallel is drawn between the ‘interactive affordances’ of digital instruction and the playback and cataloguing options that have contributed to shifts in television viewing habits. The digital video-recorder teacher is described as an artefact in the service of a postmodern project of self-improvement through cultural consumption, which recruits digitisation to meet a growing demand for ‘upgrades to the self’. In the conclusion, the paper explores how the study of digital education could benefit from an interface between sociomaterial studies and the sociology of culture. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines New Right argument on educational provision, including the establishing of a voucher scheme and the introduction of elements of a 'free market' into public sector education. The paper examines the right-wing allegation that educationalists have 'captured' the school curriculum and the argument on the need for 'consumer capture' of education. It discusses the New right tactic of privatization by stealth, and the argument that gradualism provides the most effective means of securing educational reform. The paper discusses arguments put forward by the right on the idea of a General Teaching Council (GTC) and argument on the need for the development of a teacher labour market freed from national salary scales. It goes on to examine Mary Warnock's proposals for a GTC and her views of teacher education. The paper examines the likely effects of the implementation of right-wings education policy, concluding that the 1988 Education Reform Act will prepare the ground for the privatization of education and the development of a teacher labour market of the kind proposed by the New Right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of the technical teacher in training skilled workers within the FE system has perhaps been one of the least examined aspects of the researched education system in Britain It is not my intention here to explore why this is the case, particularly in view of contemporary debate about the importance of industrial training, but rather to examine the part technical teachers play within the existing arrangements of FE and work practice [1] The paper analyses how the technical teacher perceives the role of teacher as secondary to his occupational status within his former trade In addition, the paper examines the implications of this for his practice, his relations with apprentices and perceptions of his subject matter The main argument questions the assumption that the craft teacher and apprentice, by virtue of their common industrial experience, share a 'special relationship' which unites them in their work The paper is divided into three inter-related parts The first explores the basis upon which such a 'special relationship' is seen to exist the second considers how the conditions of FE practice prevent teachers from exploiting that sense of communality with apprentices which they consider important Finally, the third section analyses how the technical teacher, despite his allegiance to 'trade practice', gradually adopts 'educationist' and 'teacher' strategies to legitimate his training 'function' In so doing, the paper examines the uneasy coexistence which is seen to characterise the relations between 'education' and 'training' in Further Education [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper explores the fascist vision for education in 1930s Britain through the presentation of extracts from official publications of the British Union of Fascists (BUF), as well as from the writings of Party members. The paper presents a socio-historical study of British adherents to fascism and provides an account of their thinking in relation to education and schooling, exposing a milieu of ideologues, Party functionaries and serving teachers who were animated by their political commitment. Following a brief outline of the early years of British fascism, there is an account of some key members and their educational ideas, followed by a discussion of the BUF's educational policies and of its approach to internal education and training. The orientation of the BUF and its membership to education, and the Party's formulated policies in this field present a modernist vision that was calculated to have particular appeal to educational professionals. There is a consideration, through memoirs, of the experiences of two BUF members who were teachers. The paper reveals a relatively hidden episode in the social history of British educational politics; one that contained paradoxes of intent and outcome, and of means and ends, when ostensibly progressive and socially elevating concepts were employed in ways that had an ultimately destructive impact on individuals, both personally and professionally, as well as on whole societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines claims that recent reforms to UK education have led to significant organisational changes in primary school and higher education. It also examines two main theoretical explanations for these, namely post-Fordism and New Managerialism. Examples of changes in both schools and universities, including flexibility and teamwork, are explored. Up to the mid-1980s, publicly funded educational organisations did display bureaucratic features, including rules, staff hierarchies and complex procedures. However, professionals employed in these organisations retained discretion and autonomy in their work. Since then, the introduction of an audit culture and a greater emphasis on management and regulation of the work of teachers and academics has decreased discretion and autonomy. This paper suggests that theories of New Managerialism offer a more satisfactory explanation of the changes explored than post-Fordism, which has more often been used as a normative model of what contemporary organisations should look like. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the ways in which British Chinese pupils are positioned and represented within the popular/dominant discourse of teachers working in London schools. Drawing on individual interviews from a study conducted with 30 teachers, 80 British Chinese pupils and 30Chinese parents, we explore some of the racialised, gendered and classed assumptions upon which dominant discourses around British Chinese boys and girls are based. Consideration is given, for example, to teachers' dichotomous constructions of British Chinese masculinity, in which British Chinese boys were regarded as 'naturally' 'good' and 'not laddish', compared with a minority of 'bad' British Chinese boys, whose laddishness was attributed to membership of a multiethnic peer group. We also explore teachers' constructions of British Chinese femininity, which centred around remarkably homogenised representations of British Chinese girls as 'passive' and quiet, 'repressed', hard-working pupils. The paper discusses a range of alternative readings that challenge popular monolithic and homogenising accounts of British Chinese masculinity and femininity in order to open up more critical ways of representing and engaging with British Chinese educational 'achievement'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on research in three English Midlands local education authorities to analyse the changing role of the teacher trade union representative in schools. It focuses on representatives of the largest teachers' union in England and Wales--the National Union of Teachers. The paper draws on mainstream industrial relations literature, and more recent research into school sector industrial relations, to assess how the role of the union representative is changing in an era of autonomous schools. The research indicates that new issues are emerging in schools, and these have the potential to transform the role of the representative. Where representatives can respond to the emergence of these new issues there is the prospect of a new, more participative trade union culture developing in schools. However, it is far from certain that school union representatives will want to assume these increased responsibilities, and this poses a major challenge for the development of teacher trade unionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a critical exposition and analysis of the work of an acclaimed Italian educator, Lorenzo Milani, and ideas that emerged from his experiences in two Tuscan localities. His work is well known in Italy and many parts of southern Europe. Despite the translations of his works into English and Spanish, in the early 1970s, and their use in sociology of education classes in the United Kingdom, he seems to have had a very limited impact on the Anglo-North American-dominated critical education field. The paper revisits his ideas, in this 90th anniversary year, indicating their contemporary relevance and the signposts they provide for a critically and sociologically engaged pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper draws on questionnaire responses from senior commissioning editors located within nine of the major UK education publishing outlets. It explores changing priorities in educational publishing with reference to authorship, readership and the changing policy context within which publishing 'lists' are conceived, developed and marketed. The shift of orientation within educational publishing from a 'general' to a 'professionalised' public is central to the argument of the paper. That argument is pursued through an analysis of how the changing priorities of educational publishing are impacting upon academics and practitioners. Central to that analysis, however, is a recognition that publishing houses, schools and institutions of further and higher education are subject to social and economic pressures that not only shape the educational agenda, but help determine what groups, individuals, institutional interests, etc. constitute the 'public' debate around that agenda. Through a specialist focus on educational publishing, the paper is able to identify some of the key issues that need to be addressed in order to revivify the public sphere and reintegrate it into what is becoming an increasingly 'professionalised' debate on education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, drawn from an ESRC-funded research project, deploys data from one secondary school to raise some general times about the development of disciplinary technologies of surveillance and uses of performance in education. It is argued that the use of Total Quality Management, school Development Planning and ofsted (The Office for Standards in Education) Inspections, individually and collectively produce an intensification of teachers' work, submit teachers more directly to the 'gaze' of policy, and encourage schools and teachers to 'fabricate' themselves for the purposes of evaluation and comparison The paper is premised on the argument that schools cannot be represented adequately within research (or evaluation) by simple stones or single essentialising tags, `good/bad', `successful/failing'-they are inherently paradoxical institutions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent review essay of three books on effective schooling stated that the literature on school effectiveness largely adopts a functionalist view of society and schooling and the field of inquiry is dominated by a positivist paradigm. The review argued for a sociological analysis of effective schooling. This paper examines from a sociological perspective the nature of effective schooling. The paper draws on case studies of four high schools to analyze their relationship with the social, cultural and policy dimensions oft heir context. A major focus of the paper is on the dilemmas, tensions and issues arising from the interrelationship between each school and its context, and the implications of these for an understanding of effective practices in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews and explains the perceptions of a specific group of teachers in South Africa-white English-speaking teachers. The analysis, based on research conducted during 1986-4987, investigates the context in which these teachers perceive their subordination and articulate their interests The discursive approach which is used here poses the notion of white English-speaking teacher as a construction of social identity winch is contingent in the historical sense and is a product of discursive articulata. The article analyses the historical and the maternal conditions in which the teachers' work is situated. It explains the nature of the teachers' perceived subordination and social identity. Finally, the paper offers a short note of conclusion about the implication of this analysts for the possibility of a pluralist notion of teachers' unity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that in recent years sociologists have neglected the processes of occupational socialisation of teaching, despite research interest in everyday life in other educational settings Shortcomings in the extant research on teacher socialisation and in the wider literature on professional socialisation are detailed to explain the lack of intellectual interest in teacher socialisation Finally, the paper offers some potential lines for the development of research on teacher socialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of neoliberal reforms, evidence-based practice is increasingly influencing teachers' work. In Norway, the American programme 'School-Wide Positive Behavioural Intervention and Support' (SW_PBIS) has been implemented in a great number of schools. One school experienced an intense conflict with parents, so that eventually it opted out of the programme. Using Basil Bernstein's framework, this paper investigates what the conflict was about and how it can relate to class and ideology. The conflict was rooted in the ideological foundation of the programme, as well as its unintended negative effects. The teachers' unexpectedly persistent support of the programme may be explained by the fact that it offers them a way out of taking personal responsibility for a pedagogically challenging situation. Looking into the role the specific contexts play may contribute to a deeper understanding of the complex relationship between class, values and practices as teachers' hierarchical relations may be changing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lesbian, gay and bisexual teachers have struggled with managing their sexual identities in contexts where heteronormative policing has resulted in deep silences and misrepresentation. However, many teachers have tried to counter this by ‘coming out’ or engaging with a process of disclosure. This paper draws on qualitative research with eight self-identified lesbian and gay teachers in primary and second-level schools in Ireland. Findings suggest that, for these teachers, the process of disclosure is valuable and fulfils a desire for openness and honesty. However, they continue to struggle with their teacher identities and aspects of their school culture. This paper argues that the complexities faced by these teachers in negotiating the process of disclosure are an illustration of the privileged position afforded heterosexuality in the Irish education system and the dividends that accrue to those who occupy a ‘normal’ sexual identity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper I explore the process of subjectification (sometimes also called subjectivation, or simply, subjection) through which one becomes a subject—a process that Butler describes in terms of simultaneous mastery and submission, entailing a necessary vulnerability to the other in order to be. I examine the conceptual work Butler has undertaken to extend the Foucauldian concept of subjectification, and I draw on some encounters between teachers and their students in order to make these processes of subjectification understandable in the context of education. I conclude the paper with some notes toward an ethics of classroom practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a brief and vigorous appearance in the 1980s, labour process theory has become a marginal presence in the contemporary literature on teachers' work. This paper argues that a key reason for this marginal status is that, in the education literature, labour process theory has been unable to shake clear of its historical connection with the Braverman proletarianisation thesis. This has produced a focus on a single mode of control (scientific management) and its effects (e.g. deskilling and intensification), rather than on the forms and purposes of control of teachers. As a consequence, labour process theory has appeared deterministic. If it is to fulfil its potential as an important lens through which to analyse empirical research into the work of educators, labour process theory requires theoretical renovation, particularly in relation to the special contexts and circumstances of education and teachers' work. The paper contributes to one aspect of that task--the nature of control and its purposes in relation to state teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this paper is to critique the concepts of 'teacher professionalism' and 'professional identity' as they are currently manifest in the field of teaching and teacher education from two related feminist perspectives. In the first instance, feminist critiques of liberal democracy are drawn upon to expose the gendered assumptions which underlie dominant conceptions of the 'professional' teacher. Particular attention is paid to the now dominant view of the teacher as a rational and instrumental actor, and its gendered dimensions are explored. Second, the gender dualisms which reside at the heart of the concept 'teacher professionalism' are identified and discussed. The discussion is then widened to examine the role of gender politics in shaping the epistemological premises upon which teacher professionalism is developed and its more formative role in the exploitation of women teachers' labours. Drawing upon examples of current feminist research and my own preliminary empirical data, the paper concludes by presenting an alternative conceptual framework for assessing the gendered nature of identity formation in teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most analyses of resistance, subjectivity, and identity formation have been developed out of research on predominantly `western' industrialized nations. It his research has been full of insight, but it has limited our understanding of the importance of historical specificity, of conjunctural relations, and of the ways dais, gender, and race! ethnic histories and experiences take on specific meanings in different contexts. By focusing on one of these `different contexts `-South Korea and its recent moves to institute career education and to have more students identify as manual workers we wish. to show how such specificities work to produce particular forms of resistance, subjectivity, and identity, in the Republic of Korea (South Korea), the dominant faction of the power bloc has tried to reconstitute work subjectivity through education as part of its ongoing hegemonic project. This has been done in order to deal with economic stagnation and to recover the bloc's political and ideological power which was seriously weakened by the democratic and labor movements of the 1980s. This paper examines the ways in which administrators, teachers, and students in Korean commercial high schools responded to the policies and work subjectivities that were newly articulated by the dominant grout. Data used in this paper were gathered in an ethnographic study of two commercial high schools in Korea. The paper combines perspectives from both structural and poststructuraI theories to explore the complexities of these responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professionals were once considered to be the civic leaders, the deliverers of the - society However, the old order has cracked under the pressure of social change, leaving a very different relation between professionals and their publics. This paper addresses some of the questions occasioned by these changes. Where does the altered pours relation between parents, students and teachers leave the notion of teacher professionalism? What is the role of professionals within the emergent order? The paper is a product of the ESRC-funded New Forms of Education Management Project (Local Governance Programme) It argues that, within the new management of education, the professional codes and practices point to a changing relation between teachers and what has traditionally been seen as their specialist knowledge. An outcome of this altered relation is the empowerment of parents and students in relation to teachers However, the new relation depends upon new shared understandings and new sets of agreement-making and these in turn depend upon new processes of agreement-making and a radically altered power relation between parents, students and teachers as they jointly develop these processes The paper reviews the changing purposes of professionalism during the second half of the 20th century and outlines a new version of teacher professionality based upon the enabling of learning, the accommodation of difference, and the practice of agreement Agreement is then 'theorised' in terms of the nature of agreement and the institutional structuring of agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores some of the relationships between the understanding of gender equity and gender issues in education held by academic staff in an institute of higher education, and their views on the importance of incorporating gender into the curriculum. The paper discusses findings pertaining to how academics approach gender issues in their teaching in their relationships with students and with other members of staff In so doing the question is raised--what messages are trainee teachers receiving about gender issues? The findings also discuss some of the pedagogical implications arising from the absence of theoretical perspectives or orientations in relation to gender in preservice teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper details data obtained from research into the setting up of representative committees in state schools in Victoria, Australia. The aim of the research was focused on how successfully these new administrative structures were operating. However, during the conduct of the research project and when analysing the data later, it became obvious that temporal factors were a major consideration in the minds of the great majority of teachers. The research suggests that there may be inherent contradictions in trying to impose the time/ space administrative structure of a representative committee system on top of the traditional, time-tabled, clock-regulated structuring of teachers work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the ways in which student teachers position themselves as teachers in primary classrooms. It focuses upon one discourse an primary teaching, which we have called the 'real teacher' discourse, and argues that it is mainly in terms of this that students come to understand `being a teacher'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is part of a broader study which investigates the relation between differential patterns of achievement in the sciences at the secondary school level and social class, and in which a relation was found between the high level of conceptual demand of modern science courses and the underachievement of the working-class pupils Thu relation is mediated by a number of sociological factors, the teacher being one of them This study describes the assessment we made of teachers' pedagogic practice and its influence on pupils' achievement The evidence obtained shows that teachers differ greatly in the level of conceptual demand they make of their pupils and an their ability to enable pupils to attain that Level Both of these competencies of the teacher are strongly related to the social context of the school where he/she teaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between teachers' general beliefs about sexism in society with their views on sexism in curriculum materials In so doing, it seeks to elaborate on the nature of teachers' ideological perceptions of sexism, sex roles and feminism By analysing sex stereotyping in the school texts of one secondary school for the subjects English, mathematics and French the research reported in the paper substantiates much of the previous research in this area which has found school texts to be male dominated In conclusion, the paper suggests that, in certain cases, teacher ideology could be a considerable obstacle to the development of anti-sexist pedagogies because those teachers who support traditional sex roles tend to resist or devalue anti-sexist initiatives in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the argument is made that forms of consciousness, knowledge, sentiments and values that teachers use as part of their cultural repertoires in schools are the result of social constitution The `social' is composed of a number of overlapping discourses that are characteristic of schools everywhere `Teacher culture' is a signifier for the production and consumption of these discourses Recent trends to emphasise the plurality of teacher culture(s) are countered by a review of work that suggests more uniformity in teacher culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of bricolage, as it is developed by Levi-Strauss, is useful in characterising the form of teacher's work, it subsumes extensive research on the form of teacher's work and provides a heuristic device for developing causal explanations of the form of teachers' work as well as drawing together and unifying explanations developed in the literature. This assists and informs interventions to promote progressive pedagogy. The paper begins with an account of bricolage and its relationship to a science of pedagogy Next,features of teachers' work which push it toward bricolage are discussed, viz. Conservatism, limited creativity, repertoire enlargement, teacher' use of theory, the use of devious means, and ad hocism. Causal explanations of various of these features are discussed, viz. anticipatory socialization, aspects of preservice teacher education experiences and constraints in the work situation. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for teacher education of taking seriously the suggestion that teachers' work is bricolage and taking seriously the associated causal explanations. It is argued that a critical starting point for progressive change in educational practice is the provision of inservice for tertiary educators who may themselves be bricoleurs. Without this, the significant necessary changes to preservice student's on-campus and within school experiences are unlikely to be supported or legitimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1981 we gave a paper at the International Sociology of Education Conference at Westhill, subsequently published as 'The Educational Worker' A Reassessment of Teachers', which was a polemic on the subject of teacher professionalism and proletarianisation. The paper is partly a critique of 'The Educational Worker', following from a belated recognition of the importance of gender in analyzing teachers' work, and also makes use of more recent historical and comparative research. This paper puts the emphasis on the social construction of skill and argues for the study of 'schoolwork', that is for the study of the labour process of teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the considerable media time devoted to the teachers' industrial dispute in England and Wales during 1985-86 little or no effort was made to represent the conduct of the dispute in particular school or through the experiences of individual teachers. The impression conveyed was of a uniform type of 'action' and similar effects in different schools, although some were reported as being 'harder hit' than others, that is more days on strike. In reality, although related to a set of general conditions affecting teachers' work, the dispute was enacted and experienced very differently in different schools and localities. The conduct of the dispute in particular school emerged from and was related to a variety of 'local' factors. In this paper some of these institutional variations are examined. The paper consists of two sections. The first attempts to describe and analyse recent structural changes affecting the conditions of work of teaching and thus provide a context for the 1985-86 industrial action in schools. The second section explores teachers' interpretations of and involvements in the industrial action in particular schools. The data on which the paper is based were collected as part of a more general research study on school organization and micro-politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is twofold to further elaborate processes of teacher socialization and to explore their implications for a critical theory of schooling. Employing a radical humanist paradigm (Burrell & Morgan, 1981), and in delimited fashion, it attempts to elucidate multi-dimensional processes of chalkfacial negotiation-in a school where the pupils' 'parent culture' is jewish, bourgeoise and patriarchal, and the teacher is a non-Jewish, home economist. As such, the paper is a study of a non- 'unidirectional' intercultural classroom where the 'parent society' is no officially 'fenced out of the school' unlike, for example, the Cherokee (Dumont & Wax, 1969) or the working class. As a critical case, despite and because of its anthropological strangeness, it hopefully metaphorically illumines processes that all teachers, especially 'cleanworkers', experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An empirically grounded discussion of relationships which can exist between the maintenance of order in teaching situations and the use of space in primary school buildings is offered in this paper. Attention is specifically focused on verbal directives issued by teachers to their charges about what they deem acceptable behaviour in teaching areas during lesson periods. Examples of these directives are presented in order to illustrate both how teachers may manipulate children's use of space to impose on them particular definitions of educational order and also how they may use space as a means of disciplining those who transgress against that order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws its inspiration from the three socio-epistemological theories of phenomenology, contextualism and traditional epistemology and their abrasive interrelation. From these foundations, theoretical framework is devised as a basis for an exposition and interpretation of empirical work undertaken in four contrasting school contexts. The aim of the research was firstly to look for similarities between teacher' conceptions of the curriculum and secondly to provide evidence which could be used as a basis for judging to what extent these similarities were constrained by teachers' conceptions of 'truth'. The paper discusses teachers' responses to three questions from an open-ended questionnaire, these requested views on how far curriculum content was considered to be related (a) to individual pupils, (b) to social requirements and (c) to 'truth'. The discussion of each question resolves itself into a number of issues connected connected with these three themes. The article is predominantly interpretative but a short appendix displays a more rigorous analysis of the distribution of the responses across the four schools. Finally, although the paper is concerned with opinions about curricula rather than with actual curricula transactions, my hope is that awareness of teachers' ideas may provide indicators for curricular realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new institutionalism predicts that professionalism is a key element of organizations' ability to be seen as legitimate. Emphasizing the professionalism and formal credentials of its members lends legitimacy to the organization, protecting it from scrutiny. What happens when this norm of professionalism is absent? How do schools legitimate themselves, if not through professionalism? This paper examines a population of small, secular non-elite private schools that overwhelmingly hire uncertified teachers. Using data from 60 private school principals in Toronto, Canada, I examine the ways in which private schools tap into alternate means of legitimacy. This study finds that small, secular 'rogue' private schools fail to invoke norms of professionalism as a means to garner constituent support and legitimacy. I argue that these schools substitute an innovative, unconventional 'caring consumer ethos' in place of teacher professionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of teachers' agency as multifarious change, embedded in educational reform in the global era, stands largely unexamined in educational policy. Although the concept of teachers as agents has political implications, beyond this, examining teachers' agency offers ways of describing and reviewing changes to teachers' work and relations within evolving education systems. Local systems draw from globally orientated education policies, which continue to influence to the way that local systems redesign education. In the global context, education systems are complex interactions between structure and agency, evidenced as 'multiplicity undergoing change'. In other words, there is dynamic and dialectic interplay between structure and agency. Teachers' agency, germane to dynamic interplay, means that teachers are not only engaging in the reproduction of structural change aligning globalization-driven reforms to their work and practice, but also, in adapting and reacting to new structural conditions, they are transformed through their actions. In this paper, the focus becomes teachers' agency as a framework for understanding how teachers are redesigned and reassembled to do things differently within restructured education systems. Finally, the discussion considers the possible consequences of teachers work and practice, given teachers' agency relative to the macro policy of superfigures and the transitional national/global structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transformational leadership is widely recognised as being central to the implementation of educational reform. In this paper I draw on selected educational speeches made by New Labour politicians in order to locate shifting discourses of leadership within the broader accountability framework through which the terms of the relationship between central government and head teachers have been re/configured in the United Kingdom. The gendered politics of transformation are examined, highlighting new and renewed forms of masculinity embedded within new leadership ideals. It is suggested that a gendered critique of transformational leadership offers an important contribution to critical analyses of the neo-liberal and managerialist educational project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines issues of selection, merging an analysis of policy with data from a qualitative case study. It focuses on the 'modernisation of the comprehensive principle' proposed by New Labour, in which selection within schools (through setting 'by ability') is increasingly encouraged. Data collected at an inner-city, multi-ethnic comprehensive school are used to illustrate how discourses on selection are being reworked locally. The school was largely supportive of setting, despite some teachers acknowledging that the practice prioritised high-achieving pupils with perceived 'good attitudes'. In the form under study, setting involved disadvantaged pupils from ethnic-minority backgrounds, particularly those who received support in English as an Additional Language. It is concluded that setting did not contribute to an inclusive agenda for education, in spite of government claims of increased 'standards for all'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distributed leadership has come to prominence in school management discourse as a means to achieve the participation and empowerment of teachers and to create democratic schools. In this paper I explore the contradictions between these claims and both the hierarchical power structure of schools and the use of distributed leadership to secure the commitment of teachers to government education agendas. I examine how the relationship between distributed leadership and managerial power is addressed in the discourse of education management theorists and the practice of headteachers. Examples of authentically democratic schools based on collective self-management provide the basis for questioning the hegemonic hierarchical model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]