This book pursues empirical and qualitative inquiries about teachers and the meaning they find in their work. Data come from research conducted in 1984-1985. The study examined various themes and issues on how teachers' attitudes have remained constant or changed in the 2 decades following a similar study. Interviews with teachers as part of the National Institute of Education study were the main source of information. In the study, principals and classroom teachers from all grade levels and socioeconomic levels were surveyed and historical data were collected. The book's 9 chapters discuss the following: (1) "Teachers and a Changing Society: 1964-1984"; (2) "The New Ethos of Schooling and Strains on Teachers"; (3) "The Freedom to Teach"; (4) "Teacher's Freedom and Educational Choice"; (5) "The Authority to Teach"; (6) "Teachers' Authority in the New School Culture"; (7) "The Power to Teach"; (8) "Teachers' Power in a Negotiated Environment"; and (9) "Conclusion: Facing the Structural Strains of the Occupation." The book concludes that teaching contains constants that transcend different historical periods in important ways. For example, the fact that teaching as an occupation emphasizes psychic rather than material rewards reinforces teachers' individualistic orientations. However, teachers' ability to exercise what they regard as the freedom, authority, and power appropriate for their work has been greatly affected since the mid-1960s as the ethos of schooling has been changed and redefined. Two appendixes contain interview questions and interviewees' citations. (Contains 79 references.) (SM)