ABSTRACT
The teachers’ dispute of 1985-86 was as much about how the teaching force is to be managed as about levels of pay. Local Education Authorities and the Department of Education and Science were concerned about what would be delivered in return for higher pay, and how they could ensure control over teachers and the teaching process. This chapter examines one aspect of the development of managerial and employer control — performance appraisal. It argues that the development of teacher appraisal has taken two main forms, both deriving from the desire for more centralized control of the education system. The first is the attempt to rationalize teachers’ work through influencing both the teaching process, notably through control of the teacher training and in-service training systems, and the content and output of teaching through influence over the curriculum and examinations. The second form is the attempt to formalize the employment relation, by specifying much more closely teachers’ conditions of service.
