An end to trust

The 1988 Education Act introduced radical changes to schools in England and Wales of a kind that made it plain that teachers were not to be trusted. A new teaching contract stipulated a working year of 1,265 hours of 'directed time' (much more than the daily pupil contact hours) plus the requirement to work "such additional hours as may be needed to enable them to discharge their professional duties." A minimum working year, but no maximum!

At the same time, a National Curriculum laid out in detail what should be taught and how it should be assessed. It was made clear that the new tests (SATs), taken by all 7 and 11 year olds, would actually assess the achievement of schools. The whole package gave a strong message to teachers that firm direction was needed in order to make them committed professionals.

In 1997, the new Labour government pursued this centralising strategy with a vengeance. The so called 'frameworks' for the National Literacy strategy (1998), and National Numeracy Strategy (1999), laid out for teachers, term by term, exactly what they would teach children throughout their primary years. The government also specified 'whole-class interactive' and group-based teaching methods. Although guidance referred to the importance of children's active involvement, it was clearly considered more important that a prescribed body of knowledge should be passed down to them.

Teacher autonomy and professionalism in Scotland is still comparable to that which was around in England pre Education Reform Act, 1988. The degree to which control has been taken away from teachers is greatest in England, slightly less in Wales, less still in Northern Ireland and hardly at all in Scotland. For example, teaching assistants in England and Wales have taken on many teaching-related duties and are set to take on more. This is less so in NI and very much less so in Scotland.

All primary teachers, and many teaching assistants, underwent government produced training on teaching the frameworks - which are set out as easy to teach and test 'learning objectives'. The use of test results, published in league tables, and an aggressive inspection regime (Ofsted), which penalised schools which either scored relatively low in the tests or did not teach in the prescribed way, brought a uniformity of approach to virtually every primary school in the land. The frameworks, through being so detailed, gave the impression that the objectives hardly needed a teacher to 'deliver' them. Government seems to have wanted a teacher-proof curriculum. Recent proposals that teaching assistants cover lessons to help reduce teacher workload confirm this suspicion.

By the end of the 1990s, teachers had lost the three central elements that had traditionally given them their professional integrity - the right to decide what to teach to children, the freedom to decide how best to teach it, and the ability to make judgements about how to assess learning. Was it realistic to still think of teachers as professionals at all?

Bye bye loneliness

The days when a teacher could work in isolation are over. In planning, teachers are collaborating with each other to ensure children make uniform and consistent progress, and their lessons are monitored by senior colleagues.

Within the classroom, teachers are increasingly supported by teaching assistants, a trend actively promoted by government since the introduction of the Literacy and Numeracy Strategies. For most assistants, this has meant progressing from classroom maintenance tasks to taking responsibility for children's learning, and many have revealed valuable hidden talents. However, their allocation of teaching-related duties could be seen by teachers as downgrading their own professionalism. For their part, assistants may complain that they are paid on low manual rates of pay whilst teachers get paid significantly more for doing closely related work. In promoting the employment of classroom support staff in schools, the government has set up a workforce reform which is potentially explosive.

The role of parents, too, has come a long way from the days of 'no parents beyond this point'. Successive governments have cast parents in the role of consumers (with clear rights to complain), making it easier for them to judge schools by making expectations clear and publishing test results, by increasing representation on governing bodies and by giving parents a chance to contribute to the inspection process. Schools now encourage parents to participate in helping children settle when they start school, and invite them to be partners in children's learning. Most primary schools have similarly encouraged volunteer parents to support learning in classrooms, though the increasing need for households to have two full time earners is a countervailing force. Often, where volunteer parents are subsequently appointed to teaching assistant posts, they can provide a valuable link between home and school. These are desirable developments.

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