Since its election in 1997 the Labour government's policy has sought to promote a "new professionalism" amongst teachers. First mooted at the time when new performance management arrangements were introduced, the discourse of new professionalism has now become closely associated with the "workforce remodeling" agenda in which teachers' work is…

In line with other public sector provision, the English school system has been subject to modernization since the advent of the New Labour government in 1997. This article views the reform of education in the light of the movement towards new public management and traces the process of the reform of workforce remodeling that has seen the shedding…

This paper considers "convergence" as deliberate acts of will to achieve common goals within the context of the education service in general and school sector industrial relations in particular. Such language is unusual in the field of industrial relations, where assumptions are often based on notions of conflictual relationships. However, this…

The shifts in the New Zealand state formation have changed the environment within which teacher unions operate. The entire state has been reorganized into a market based model. From a position established in the 19th century as the voice of the profession in a relationship with the state, after 1989 the teacher associations were structurally…

Independent reviewer evaluations of the Ministry of Education (MoE) funded Principal Professional Learning Community (PPLC) programme for experienced principals in New Zealand (NZ) suggest a highly valued and strongly supportive programme. My own critique of the programme, against criteria for "strong" professional learning communities (PLCs),…