ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by mapping the components of a teacher’s professional knowledge. Then, by means of a Bernsteinian analysis, it offers an account of ways in which the construction of an English teacher’s professional knowledge in both pre-service and in-service teacher education over the last three decades has been a quiet but relentless battle between competing and often contradictory discourses related to the nature of the subject, its assessment practice and the professional identity of English teachers. In doing so, it will offer an overview of the agency by which these discourses both empower and disempower teachers.
