ABSTRACT
The above quotation is drawn from the introduction to a major policy reform of the 1980s which focused on teaching quality (DES, 1985). In the context of the policy document it was quickly made and then passed over in the rush to policy details. Yet in the quotation there are a number of possibilities raised about how expectations of schools (and so, of teachers) have altered and as a consequence of this, the idea of the teacher has altered.1 Indeed for the purposes of this essay it introduces the notion of changed expectations about and successive definitions of teaching quality very well. There cannot be a useful definition of teacher quality which transcends its context. Strong definitions about teacher quality are most prone to ahistoricism and arguments that use them tend to assertion not argument. Most policy documents which are relevant to this area tend not to argue for their view of teacher quality so much as they content themselves with a self-evident description.
