Throughout the 1990s, the New Zealand education system was transformed by neo-liberal policies that promoted marketisation, school self-management, local governance and strong centralised forms of control and accountability. The election of a Labour-led "third way" government in 1999 has not only witnessed a continuation of the central thrust and direction of these neo-liberal policies but has seen them aligned to a political commitment to globalisation. This article examines the ways in which neo-liberalism has changed the context and purposes of public education in New Zealand and considers the implications of these changes for the professionalism of teachers. It argues that economic rationalism and managerialism, combined with commercialisation and globalisation, have produced an erosion of trust and a degradation of teaching as a profession. The paper claims, moreover, that the political goal of transforming New Zealand into a knowledge economy/society and the promotion of education as an export industry is changing the relationship between teachers and the nation-state.