Renewed calls for greater accountability within schools have led to a rapid expansion of standards-based reforms across the Western world. Establishing and raising standards, and measuring the attainment of those standards, are intended to encourage excellence in our schools. Yet concern is increasing about the fairness of external testing and the…

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…

Workforce remodeling in England has been presented as a means to empower school staff through a restructuring process which has possibilities to dramatically shift the ways in which they operate. This initiative has also included a number of legislative requirements intended to help embed the more technocratic aspects of the remodeling process.…

The extensive literature on workplace stress, its causes, and the consequences for human health and organizational effectiveness, is being complemented by a growing, alternative emphasis on employees' well-being. However, in education (where well-being is particularly at risk) sustained examples of positive organizational approaches, rather than…

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…

In the United Kingdom, teachers' professional associations and labor organizations, notably in the form of trade unions have historically been involved in education and training in the workplace. Recently, in the United Kingdom this activity has gained greater credence and importance due to the emergence of trade union learning representatives who…

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 vocational education and training (VET) sector in Australia has undergone a prolonged period of substantial and significant restructuring. Reforms have been driven by a pressure to increase market forces within the system, and to gear "outputs" ever more closely to economic considerations and the needs of industry. This paper outlines the key…

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…

This article presents a discussion of the development of Jeongyojo or the Korean Teachers and Educational Workers Union from its emergence as a social movement in the late 1980s to its current status and prominent campaigns. The article identifies certain aspects of South Korean history and culture that have shaped the distinctive identity of this…

Since the election of the Campbell government in 2001, teachers have experienced heightened conflict with the provincial government. An analysis of the discourse and power relations between the BC Teachers' Federation (BCTF) and government reveals a neo-liberal agenda on the part of government and anti-neo-liberalism on the part of the BCTF.…

We examine the contemporary relationship between headship and leadership in England. This speaks to the current globalizing agenda promoting generic leadership within a modernizing agenda of restructuring and reculturing in public education. Thinking based on several research studies is used to stimulate perspectives on a range of complex tensions…

This article reports observations of teachers' collaboration within an inner city elementary school located in western Canada. The study traces the school's development as a learning organization, focusing on the interplay between individual--the level at which learning and action actually occur--and social learning--a conceptual tool for…

This critical review of literature on mentoring encompasses print and online books and journals from the mid-nineties on. While by no means comprehensive, the literature surveyed was adequate to indicate how the field of mentoring in education stands today. The author's particular focus, in response to her needs and goals as an educator, was on…

School classes can be conceptualized as bounded communities of practice made up of teachers and students working together to build knowledge. Teachers make design decisions about physical and virtual spaces supported by information and communications technologies, and about curriculum. Design influences how students go about their work, and their…