ABSTRACT
There is no doubt that in Britain, in the last ten years, we have seen massive strides forward in the education system. The establishment of a national curriculum and other reforms have provided the basic framework for improvement in educational provision, but at a considerable cost to teachers. Since the Education Reform Act (1988), we have seen a continuous stream of systemic, top-down change which has had a major impact on teachers’ professionalism. Their roles in strategic planning and decision making have been dominated by the requirement to implement externally driven initiatives, and workloads have expanded leading to high levels of stress, low levels of morale and difficulties with recruitment and retention.
