ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the mechanisms available to the local education authorities (LEA) in managing teachers in a period of contraction and their implications for professionalism and careers. The autonomy of the teacher and the school in determining not only the extent, but the character, of the curriculum will be limited. The decline in teacher mobility that has accompanied the decline in available posts and the adoption of ring-fence appointment policies has affected women more than men. The LEAs and headteachers give a much higher priority to school-based in-service training than do teachers. Teachers' promotion prospects are presently governed by the Burnham system. The system has been questioned by academics, educational administrators and teachers. The vagaries of the local government financial system continually threaten pay and jobs. As teachers lose autonomous self-control the onus for maintaining morale passes to the LEA. Labour-market conditions gave the teacher a degree of dominance in the employer–employee relationship.
