This volume considers how various sociological approaches to the exploration of the conditions of teachers' might be co-ordinated so as to produce a more penetrating and reliable understanding of the main dimensions of teachers' work. Three dimensions are selected for special attention: historical, institutional and interactional contexts in which teachers operate. In different way the papers in this collection explore the contribution such an investigation of these contexts can make to our understanding of wider educational concerns.

Preface. Part 1: Contemporary Concerns in Their Historical Context. Introduction. Schooling for Delinquency David H Hargreaves. Left Policy and Practice and the Sociology of Education Geoff Whitty. The Educational Worker? A Re-assessment of Teachers Martin Lawn and Jenny Ozga. Politicians Rule O.K? Implications for Teacher Careers and School Management Colin Hunter. Contradictions of Control: Elementary Education in a Mining District 1870-1977 Bill Williamson. The Double Burden of Class and Gender in the Schooling of Working-Class Girls in Nineteenth Century England, 1800-1870 June Purvis. Part 2: Contemporary Concerns and the School System Introduction. The Comprehensive Experience David Reynolds and Michael Sullivan. A Community School Colin Fletcher. The Teaching Nexus: A Case of Mixed Ability Stephen Ball. Teacher Strategies and Pupil Identities in Mixed Ability Curricula: A Note on Concepts and some examples from Maths. Peter Corbishley, John Evans, Catherine Kenrick and Brian Davies. Towards a Sociology of Assessment Patricia Broadfoot. Known and Understood: Problematics in Developing an Understanding of the Social Effects of Schooling. Paul Olson. Part 3: Contemporary Concerns and the Work of Teachers. Introduction. Classrooom Ethnography and the Definition of the Situation Robert Stebbins. Teacher-Pupil Question-Answer Sequences: Some Problems of Analysis Stephen Walker. Strategies, Commitment and Identity; Making and Breaking the Teacher Peter Woods. Contrastive Rhetoric and Extremist Talk: Teachers, Hegemony and the Educationist Context Andy Hargreaves. Ideology in the Staffroom? A Critique of False Consciousness. Martyn Hammersley. Index.