Challenging modernization: remodelling the education workforce

Distributed leadership and organizational change: Reviewing the evidence

“…However in many schools the 'existing hierarchy' is rapidly being dismantled. School structures are being re-designed and redefined to accommodate new ways of forms working and alternative professional practices (Butt and Gunter 2005;Clarke 2007). Fitzgerald and Gunter (2007) also suggest that teacher leadership merely cements authority and hierarchy whereby ''leaders monitor teachers and their work to ensure a set of pre-determined standards are met'' (p. 5).…”

Educational Reforms and Implications on Teachers’ World of Work: Perspectives of Fijian Primary Teachers

“…In this regard, ongoing professional development of educational staff at all levels deserves considerable attention, now more than ever before: in effect, they too must learn to learn (Schechter, Sykes, & Rosenfeld, 2004). They must sharpen their skills and acquire relevant knowledge if they are to have any chance of keeping pace with the ever-changing work demands, lest educational organisations fall far short of achieving their visions and missions (Butt, & Gunter, 2005;Cardno & House, 2005). In light of the ever-changing contextual environment and the unfolding reformative responses in education, this preliminary study reports on how primary teachers' perceive the severity of the changes in their work and workplace in Fiji, a small island developing state in the Pacific region.…”

Politics, change and compromise: restructuring the work of the Scottish teacher

“…Researchers, internationally, have consistently indexed a number of similar trends in relation to teachers' experiences of change in their labour, autonomy and professional environment. Such developments are characterized by a profound intensification of the gaze of the state on all aspects of education, a centralization of control of curricula and assessment regimes, more complex and explicit systems of quality assurance, performance management and accountability, changes in the terms and conditions of teacher service and employment, and the redesign of the role and meanings attached to the labour of teachers (Hargreaves, 1994;Harris, 1994;Apple, 1996;Goodson & Hargreaves, 1996;Popkewitz et al, 1999;Bottery & Wright, 2000;Butt & Gunter, 2005). While these are global and broad trends, they have a highly personalized and individualized impact on teachers.…”