Chapter 5: The Changing Nature of Teacher Work

Since the 1960s, there have been radical shifts in the character and composition of teacher work. This is a shift which has occurred in many different ways across many countries, but whilst there are many national differences, there are also common patterns which have emerged in the changing nature of their work. These changes have in large part been brought about by the adoption of neoliberal policies in the public sector involving the reorientation of philosophies, management approaches and ultimately teacher work towards practices far more aligned with market activity. There has been a rise in the development of quasi-markets, the use of data to measure performance and the creation of elaborate accountability systems, which are now accepted elements of many current education systems. These changes have resulted in approaches to education, which have brought a loss of teacher professionalism and autonomy and subsequent recruitment and retention crises. In this chapter, we will explore the shift in education, which has normalised neoliberal approaches to public service provision, examining examples from across the world. We begin with an overview of the shifts in England, which can be argued to have been the first laboratory for these changes, as well as one of the systems to have travelled furthest in the pursuit of a neoliberal policy agenda.