Description
Dramatic, profound and far-reaching changes are being visited on schools worldwide that have their genesis a long way from the classroom but which impact heavily on teachers and their work. Most of this reform has been achieved with little or no involvement from teachers themselves. This book sets out to survey the contemporary context of what is happening to the work of teaching, and to show how teachers are “speaking” the changes that are occuring to their work in protracted economically rationalist times. Arguing against the discourses of economy as the major shaping force, the authors present a case for focusing on the discourses of teaching itself as the only feasible and adequate basis on which to make sense of teaching. By presenting a range of voices of practising teachers – allowing them to speak for themselves about the difficulty of trying to translate policy-makers’ intentions into words and actions – the book graphically illustrates the devastating long-term consequences for the future of schools of poorly-conceptualized reform policies.
