Teachers' Work in a Globalizing Economy

Abstract

Schools and their purposes are changing at a faster pace now than at any other period in the history of schooling. It is not just the pace of change that is important, the direction and the substance of these changes are also crucial. This is where the labour process of teaching becomes a vital focus. This book locates what is happening to teachers' work in the global economy. Within the dramatically changed circumstances of globalization, schools are being required to act as if they were private businesses, driven by the quest for efficiency and operating in a supposed atmosphere of marketization and competition with each other for resources, students, reputation, and public support for their continued existence. Meanwhile, this ideology of schools as cost centres has become so pervasive that there has been little public debate on its desirability or its alternatives. Teachers' Work in a Globalizing Economy addresses this imbalance and provides a major renovation of labour process theory in an educational context. Two case studies provide a tangible working expression of the labour process of teaching, showing how teachers are simultaneously experiencing significant changes to their work, as well as responding in ways that actively shape these processes.