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Chasing improved pupil performance: The impact of policy change on school educators’ perceptions of their professional identity, the case of further change in English schools
Author(s) -
HammersleyFletcher Linda,
Qualter Anne
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
british educational research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.171
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1469-3518
pISSN - 0141-1926
DOI - 10.1080/01411920903215853
Subject(s) - centralisation , restructuring , deskilling , workforce , perception , pedagogy , perspective (graphical) , cognitive dissonance , professional development , identity (music) , focus group , sociology , psychology , work (physics) , public relations , political science , social psychology , mechanical engineering , physics , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , computer science , acoustics , law , engineering , anthropology
Changes in education systems across Europe are a response to perceived needs to improve academic performance. The recent workforce remodelling agenda in England (2003–2005) reflected a growing concern that centralisation and the associated deskilling of teachers had gone too far. The resultant restructuring of the work of teachers, giving roles previously performed by teachers to staff without teaching qualifications, needs to be considered from the perspective of those involved. What is clear from comparative studies is that experiences of the implementation of such policies are influenced by local factors. The study reported here focuses on the effect of a significant policy change on teachers in two English local authorities through a mixture of 557 questionnaires and 86 semi‐structured interviews collected from five secondary and nine primary schools. The data focus on the changing roles of teachers and teaching assistants and the lessons to be learned for system changes beyond remodelling.