ABSTRACT

The present teachers’ dispute is the most bitter since the war. Underlying it is the changing relationship between teachers and the State. School teachers are in dispute with

their employers, the local education authorities, about their annual wage settlement and they have been for over a year. They have been resolute and resourceful in taking various kinds of action and they have grown in confidence and in anger as the strikes have continued. Underlying their action is a strong anxiety about the future of education and, in particular, the plan that Sir Keith Joseph, the Secretary of State for Education, has proposed for the future. The main feature of this plan is the connection made between productivity and pay. Regular assessment of teachers is intended to make them more ‘productive’ but it will also intensify the controls upon them. The action the teachers are taking and the new structure of work and pay proposed for them are part of a changing relationship between teachers and the central State. The post-war relations have been altered and direct intervention and control of teaching has replaced the old idea of consensus in policy making and management.