ABSTRACT
The main concern of this chapter is to chart the path by which appraisal has come about in England and Wales in order to inform and illuminate the practical issues and training considerations which follow. The widely accepted starting point is ‘The Great Debate’, initiated by James Callaghan in 1976 which called for higher standards and greater accountability in education. There was little response, other than some sage head-nodding, until well into the 1980s, although it was evident that a national programme of teacher appraisal was viewed increasingly as essential to the achievement of Callaghan’s demands. It was obvious that there would be a need for much careful negotiation with the teacher unions and associations if an innovation of this magnitude were to be introduced into a profession which had for decades shielded itself from anything which might smack of outside interference. Headteachers had been known to refuse access to their schools to LEA advisers: the island fortress mentality was still with us in some places even as late in the century as this. This was a situation to handle with diplomacy, then.
