ABSTRACT
The teachers’ dispute began in March 1984, at virtually the same time that the National Union of Mineworkers began what was to become a year-long strike against pit closures. The story of the teachers’ pay dispute is one of a leadership, in the main union — and at the beginning of the dispute the majority union — the NUT, that has historically seen its role as the representative of the third ‘partner’ of the English and Welsh education system, the teaching ‘profession’; the other two partners being the Department of Education and Science and the Local Education Authorities. Many teachers have been gradually moving away from a perception of their job as a profession comparable to doctors and lawyers. The most significant change in teacher union membership has been the growth of the National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers.
