This volume explores the contemporary situation of teachers' careers and teachers' lives in the context of falling roles, educational cuts and government demands for fundamental change in educational processes.

Introduction; Understanding Teachers: Concepts and Contexts; The Life Cycle of the Teacher; Critical Incidents in the Classroom: Identities, Choices and Careers; Teacher Status Panic: Moving Up the Down Escalator; ‘The Tender Trap?’ Commitment and Consciousness in Entrants to Teaching; Reference Groups in Primary Teaching: Talking, Listening and Identity; Paints, Pots or Promotion: Art Teachers’ Attitudes Towards their Careers; Concord Sixth Form College: The Possibility of Schooling Without Conflict; Institutional Change and Career Histories in a Comprehensive School; Educational Innovators: A Decade and a Half Later; Pupils, Teachers’ Careers and Schooling: An Empirical Study