ABSTRACT
There is nothing simple or static about the concept of teacher professionalism in England: it is constantly changing and constantly being redefined in different ways by different voices at different times. This chapter draws upon datafrom a thirty-month study of teachers’ professional cultures to explore recent changes in teachers’ work and in teacher professionalism. Evidence from interviews with English secondary school teachers suggests a lessening of the extent to which the National Curriculum acts as a constraint upon teacher autonomy and, in some cases at least, an increase in the way in which it acts as a positive prompt to teacher development. At the same time, it is suggested that other factors are now replacing the National Curriculum as the major threat to the exercise of teacher professionalism. Complementary evidence from a small number of senior policy makers and educationalists indicates a degree of movement in thinking at national level towards the necessity and desirability of enhancing teacher professionalism.
