194 pages
234mm x 156mm
ISBN-10: 1 85856 363 1
ISBN-13: 978 1 85856 363 3
February 2006

Teachers Under Siege examines the current and future role of teachers in the knowledge-based economy. It argues that they are being presented with an impossible task: they are expected to educate 'youth' as the future of society within organisational structures that are outdated and frustrating. Despite the best intentions of policy makers, teachers are voting with their feet, and continue to leave the profession. This book throws light onto their motives for doing so.

The book is based on surveys, interviews and focus group discussions with serving teachers and other education professionals. It is a clarion call for teachers to galvanise their energies, and remodel the teaching profession on their own terms. This must include greater professional autonomy and a new respect for the role of vocation within teaching. Only then can education begin once again to value its human face over its organisational one.

This book will be essential reading for all students of education and teachers interested in their professional survival. It will also interest researchers and policy makers, especially those engaged in futures research.

A former teacher and education journalist, Dr Sandra Leaton Gray is a Lecturer in Education University of East Anglia.