ABSTRACT
This introduction is an ode to the amazing teaching body. It sets out that teachers and staff that work in schools are heroes of the highest order. They are kind, decent, principled, flexible, humorous and approachable.
The content of the chapters in this book are outlined. The introduction explains that through the author’s work as teacher, senior leader, external coach and teacher trainer she has had the opportunity to sit with many people who work in schools and hear their inner lives. It presents the juxtaposition between the amazing individuals in education and the systems that schools create, and how they do not, in the main, reflect the heroic and compassionate nature of teachers.
This introduction touches upon the worrying statistics about the number of teachers leaving the profession and the difficulty in recruitment, meaning that it is time to look at what is happening to create the often oppressive and suffocating cultures, for staff, in schools.
A discussion is provided about the hope to create a common language for this issue and that through the author’s work and research in schools in the most deprived and socially challenged areas of the country, combined with study at the University of Warwick, this book looks to tackle the current education paradigms and mindsets from the perspective of the people working in schools.
