ABSTRACT
The combination of recession and market mechanisms have implications for teachers that become apparent through the decisions of school-based managers. The loss of the local education authority (LEA)-based system leaves heads dependent on finding school-based solutions to potential conflicts. In the absence of strategic planning, heads are turning to human resource management techniques in their attempts to shape teacher commitment to the market-driven goals of the local management of schools. Traditional collective bargaining has played an important role in stabilising industrial relations in schools and, although it has been weakened, LEA-level bargaining continues to resolve many of the difficulties faced by school managers. The upheaval of the school system, induced by recession and reform, is generating forces that are dividing the teaching profession. The reformed education system is crisis-prone, generating conflict that will surface in schools in a random and unpredictable fashion.
