ABSTRACT
This edited extract takes externally imposed staff development activities as a starting point for its major argument that teachers must be appreciated and understood in terms of their purposes, as people, and in terms of their work context-as ‘total teachers’. Teachers, in other words, should not he seen as mere technicians, ‘delivering a national curriculum or anything else. Teaching involves skill, values, and expertise. It draws on the whole person of teachers who must he valued as people if they are to give of their best. Teaching takes place in contexts which are challenging and diverse and which call for expertise and judgement in resolving the dilemmas which are posed.
