ABSTRACT
In this chapter we present detailed information on the teachers who took part in the research. The information is derived from responses to the questionnaire that they completed at the end of the seven-day recording period. The questionnaire comprised twenty-nine items designed to give information under eight broad headings. These were: professional biographies (three items), professional context (seven items), working conditions (five items), academic background and qualifications (four items), teacher perceptions of match of teaching to qualifications (four items), teacher perceptions of obstacles to satisfactory teaching (two items), teacher perceptions of time (four items) and employing authority (one item). The content of the questionnaire items was originally created from our knowledge of the research literature and following discussions with the teachers' association which sponsored the research. It was trialled in discussion with a small group of experienced secondary teachers and minor changes were made to wording as a result of these discussions.
