ABSTRACT
The everyday work of the classroom teacher cannot be separated from the reproduction, transmission and control of knowledge(s). The omnipresence of the teacher (Woods 1990), and the expectation that they ‘know’ everything, is caught up with the role of the teacher in defining what is valid and relevant information, and in deciding how that information should be packaged to students. Teachers can be perceived as definers of curricula at both explicit and implicit levels; or at least the mechanisms and means through which the curriculum is effectively transmitted to students and pupils. Of course, ‘official’ school knowledge taught via a curriculum is only part of the knowledge base that is reproduced and transmitted in the school and in the classroom. Teachers and the school are also vehicles for the reproduction and transmission of social values, knowledge in the realm of personal and social education, and folk knowledge about social norms such as sex roles and gender relations. Thus the school is the site and teachers the source of multiple knowledge(s).
