`This is a well written and thoroughly researched book on an issue of vital importance. It places the experiences of individual teachers under pressure into the larger UK and worldwide context. Policy makers need to wake up to its messages' - Sara Bubb, Institute of Education, University of London What is it really like to be a teacher in today's demanding classrooms? Maurice Galton and John MacBeath spoke to teachers, parents and students in England, and compared their responses to similar inquiries in Asia, America, Australia and New Zealand. Their findings were disturbing. Teacher stress and workload were persistent themes in the four studies, with teachers frequently stretched to breaking point as they endeavour to 'make a difference' to their pupils' learning and welfare. Issues examined in the book include: - frustrations facing those trying to make inclusive education work in practice - effects of constantly changing policies on the staff required to implement them - loss of status within the teaching profession - reasons for teachers choosing to leave the profession - the consequences of staying on and fighting for what one believes in This fascinating read will be of interest to anyone involved in teaching, school leadership and educational policy.
John MacBeath is Professor Emeritus at the University of Cambridge, Director of Leadership for Learning: the Cambridge Network and Projects Director for the Centre for Commonwealth Education. Until 2000 he was Director of the Quality in Education Centre at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. As well as his interest and research on leadership he has, for the last decade, worked with schools, education authorities and national governments on school self-evaluation. Five books on self-evaluation have been addressed mainly to a teacher and senior management readership. These include Schools Must Speak for Themselves, Self-Evaluation in European Schools, Self-evaluation: what's in it for schools? Self-evaluation in the Global Classroom and School Inspection and Self evaluation - all published by Routledge and now in twelve European languages. All of these books derive from collaboration with schools, with teachers and school students, the Global Classroom book being written mainly by school students from eight different countries. Issues in School Improvement, a CD-rom resource for schools in Hong Kong, contains many of these self-evaluation tools in both English and Chinese while a recent addition to self evaluation and inspection Hong Kong is an interactive website illustrating good practice in Hong Kong special, primary and secondary schools. He has acted in a consultancy role to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), UNESCO and ILO (International Labour Organisation), the Bertelsmann Foundation, the Prince's Trust, the European Commission, the Scottish Executive, the Swiss Federal Government, the Varkey Group in Dubai (Emirates) and the Hong Kong Education Department. He was a member of the Government Task Force on Standards from 1997-2001 and was awarded the OBE for services to education in 1997
Introduction Teaching Is Not What It Used To Be Balancing The Workload Equation: A Continuing Story A Life In Teaching: The Primary Teacher's Experience? Remodelling The Primary Teaching Workforce A Life In Secondary Teaching The Inclusion Enigma: The Policy Context The Inclusion Enigma Findings And Implications Of The Study Workload Agreements And The Rise Of The Teaching Assistant It's The Same The Whole World Over: What Happens In Other Countries? Remodelling: Structures Or Mindset?
'Galton and MacBeath provide a useful analysis of the 'remodelling reforms' that introduced two changes in the UK' - Teacher
