Strategic Rhetoric: a constraint in changing the practice of teachers.

Within the overall occupational culture of teachers, there are a number of different staff subcultures which compete for limited resources within a contracting educational system This paper concentrates upon the subculture of physical education by focusing on one department engaged in a teacher initiated curriculum innovation where competing perspectives of change are made evident It is suggested that coping strategies developed within the educational context of the school in order to enhance subject status may deflect teachers from considering the possibilities of change in their classroom practice [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]