This book offers an original and challenging theoretical and empirical approach to mapping the changing nature of teachers' work historically and in the contemporary period. It is an attempt to understand how and in what ways teachers' work has changed following the demise of the post-war settlement and the imminent collapse of teachers' project of professionalism secured through solidaristic strategies such as unionism. Dr. Robertson argues that in order to understand these issues, a more rigorous set of conceptual tools around social class, occupational power and worker control is needed. The first two sections of the book set out to address that problem. The final section elaborates on the changing contexts and conditions for contemporary teachers more generally, and argues that structural and ideological changes within educational provision have led to differing capacities in the realization of class assets.

Introduction: Teachers and Change Chapter One: Teachers and Class - The Terrain and Stakes of Struggle Chapter Two: Teachers, The State and Social Settlements Chapter Three: Laissez Faire Liberalism, Teachers and the State Chapter Four: Fordist Keynesian State Welfarism and the Rise of Teachers as 'Professionals' Chapter Five: The New Politics of 'Fast Capitalism': From Body to Soul Chapter Six: Post-Fordist Discourses and Teachers' Work Chapter Seven: Racheting Up the 'Marketness Factor': Managing Compliance to the Competitive State Project Chapter Eight: Fast Schools: The New Politics of Production and Consumption Chapter Nine: Critical Realities Reviewed