ABSTRACT
This is one contemporary British saying which needs little explanation, because its critical
thrust is only too apparent. However flippant, cynical and unfair this saying may appear to
those engaged in education, it sums up a peculiarly English contempt for both teachers and
teacher training. Yet is this contemptuous attitude embedded only in the UK, or is it now being
exported on a worldwide basis? The British have been exporting ideas in the name of trade
for a very long time. A central theme developed in this chapter is the idea that what has been
termed ‘the unconscious imperialism of trade’ was the means by which Britain exported far
more than goods. Ideas followed exports and Britain gave to colonies and emerging countries
alike her own circumscribed view of education.
