ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book contains the discussion of the impact of social change on the ideological basis of schools and schooling. The real source of anxiety was that the apparent deconstruction and reconstruction of education essential to the educational programmes incorporated in Conservative policy for the 1980s was being implemented quickly, comprehensively and relentlessly. The examination made of social change and teachers' identity is conducted through investigations of the concept of teacher identity and how identity changes, and of the effects of changes in internal organisation of schools upon teachers' views of themselves and their work. Through investigations of the response teachers is conducted that collectively make and might make to changes in local educational conditions, through historical analysis of the images of teachers and of the source of these images, and of the changing social and political contexts in which evaluation of teachers take place.
