ABSTRACT
In this chapter we want to draw the conceptual threads together and represent a revitalized critical theory of teachers’ work as a ‘constellation’ of propositions. To develop a neat weave of these threads it is appropriate to pause for a moment and reflect on where the book has been so far. From the outset, we are motivated by a commitment to a socially critical view of schooling. Such a view asserts that schooling should be organized around the needs of the most disenfranchised members of society. We are trying to make sense of, with practical and emancipatory intent, the contemporary crisis in teachers’ work in many postindustrial countries characterized by:
1 an impoverishing of the material conditions of teachers’ work; 2 a damaging of the student-teacher relationship through the intrusion of the
market; 3 a silencing of teachers in the policy development process-teachers’ voices
are now a ‘subjugated knowledge’ (Foucault, 1980); and, 4 an infecting of consciousness with discourses that undermine the possibility
of critical thought/reflection (Shor, 1987).
