ABSTRACT
The expertise and experience of its academic and administrative staff are a school’s most valuable resource, and for all teachers learning and development are central to professional practice. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, whole-school in-service education and training for teachers were considered by the government to be a suitable means by which to implement professional development for teachers and, more specifically, change. Since 1985, five days per academic year (so-called ‘Baker days’) have been allocated in all schools for staff development. After almost a decade, the government began to voice its recognition that the impact on practice of such training provision had been limited (TTA 1994) and that this was due, in part, to ineffective management by schools of the professional development of their teachers.
