Professionals at the Crossroads

Professionals at the Crossroads

Late in 2003, two editions of the Times Educational Supplement, the premier UK teacher's journal, led with very different stories about the condition of England's state schools. One, a report entitled ‘Schools without Teachers’ (5 December 2003), was concerned with an official government paper, Workforce Reform – Blue Skies, which claimed that there was need for only one qualified teacher in each school. The other story, entitled ‘Call me Mr Forgettable’ (19 December 2003), reported that over half of the teachers in a TES survey had no idea who the current Secretary of State for Education was. Both of these stories are highly significant for this book, the first because it suggests that official thoughts on the deprofessionalization ...