The Market and School: Confidences about the Real Work of Teachers.

This paper explores the impact of marketization on the management of primary schools in an English country town and compares them to nursing homes and fast food restaurants as service providers. The focus is on the teachers' responses in teaching and classroom to government-initiated changes resulting from changing residential patterns in the town and the publication by the local newspaper of confidential, national assessment results. Two elementary schools out of 32 were selected for a 4-term case study. Data were gathered from weekly observation of teachers, informal discussions with staff, informal observations of staff meetings, and semi-structured interviews with seven teachers. Government initiatives had a profound effect on the role of the teachers in the form of intensification of their work, increased managerialism through the increased delegation of responsibility, increased external controls, and the loss of classroom autonomy. As the traditional autonomy of the teacher in the classroom was threatened; teachers provided dual accounts. Publicly, they expressed support for the new innovations but when they spoke confidentially they expressed feelings of restriction in their contribution efforts by government controls. Teachers felt that government initiatives created a parents' charter for choice and diversity, but denied this charter to teachers. (Contains 15 references.) (NAV)