ABSTRACT
Teachers do not work in a vacuum. They are part of a system of education which interacts with other social systems, defines certain roles for its main institutions, the schools, and in doing so also defines roles for the pupils, teachers, and governors and managers who form the schools. Head teachers have the ambiguity of responsibility shared with governors or managers who may raise questions about the curriculum, as may local inspectors or HMI, and any of these may involve the headteacher in general discussion of the school curriculum. As schools both transmit the culture and contribute to its modification, both the above groups find things to criticize in the work of schools, thus subjecting the teachers to powerful, contradictory pressures. Teachers of slow learners are influenced by all the general and professional difficulties but their role also exposes them to certain special difficulties.
