ABSTRACT
Since 1988 and the introduction of the NC, central government has moved beyond its traditional role of education policymaker and has progressively taken over much of the educational decision making that was formerly left to educators. The plethora of new initiatives that schools have been called upon to implement have made huge demands on teachers and, arguably, have required a far greater degree of conformity and compliance and less opportunity to develop as autonomous professionals. At the same time, however, never has there been greater formal guidance and support on offer, emanating both from central government, through the DCSF and the TDA, and from quasi-governmental organisations such as CILT. Informal networks of individuals, links between local schools
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teachers. Equally, relationships among staff in schools have changed, with frequent, formal team meetings at every level, to discuss the implementation of policy and curriculum initiatives, which have to some extent taken over from the perhaps more haphazard, though often very creative, staff room and departmental office discussions between colleagues. Teachers, especially those who are new to the profession, need to be able to ‘navigate the system’, be able to seek out appropriate support for their professional development, but more importantly, to examine the changing relationship between education and society in order better to understand the policy initiatives that they are subject to and to gain a more objective understanding of their own professional practice.
