ABSTRACT
In this chapter we want to explore the basis for much of the educational reform that has come to surround teachers’ work in the past two decades or so. The case has been made from several quarters that since the 1960s there has been growing disaffection and disenchantment worldwide from parents and the wider community with schooling, such that: ‘There exists today an “informed scepticism” about educational change that distinguishes the 1980s from the 1960s and has led to the declining appeal of grand principles and all-embracing educational theories’ (OECD 1989:136). The evidential basis for this alleged shift has been made less than clear on most occasions but, notwithstanding, significant changes have proceeded as if the claims had a solid foundation.
