I retired from full-time teaching at Easter 1997 with very mixed feelings. I loved the job, especially the daily interactions with staff and pupils, but had become weary of the ever-increasing political interference in schools.
Derek Gillard, headteacher

Empowered but isolated

Primary school teachers can only look back in amazement at the changes of the past 30 years. In the 60s and 70s, the prevailing educational philosophy entailed a child-centred curriculum, where the boundaries of academic subjects and timetables could be blurred by project work and the integrated day. Much store was set by children's learning through 'doing', and enjoyment was considered an important motivator. Tests for selective schools (the 11 plus) were widely rejected as unreliable and unfair and the detail of the curriculum was decided locally, by local education authorities, schools and individual teachers; education was 'a national service, locally administered' and teachers were trusted to ensure children learnt the right things at the right time. Today, the survivors from that era are teaching in schools where every hour is tightly controlled via a detailed curriculum based on traditional school subjects and driven by testing and school league tables.

However, if some teachers look back on a golden age of professional autonomy, many found the experience overwhelming, especially the recently qualified. New teachers often had insufficient practical knowledge and there was little in-service support; professional autonomy could feel lonely. The core of primary teachers' preparation was a 'scholarly' education. It was considered that if teachers were educated people, then the ability to do the job of teaching would follow. For many, however, this essential practical learning did not begin until they had been appointed as qualified teachers! The system was increasingly criticised, even by teachers.

In addition, teachers were isolated from parents. As Bob Whithead, a former pupil of one Yorkshire primary school, remembers:

. . . there was a big sign at the gate saying 'No parents beyond this point.'

It seemed that part of the teacher's professional identity lay in having special 'teacher knowledge' which parents could not share. Parents were discouraged from helping children with their school learning for fear that they would not use approved methods. A teacher's professional distance could border on arrogance. Even at a time when 'progressive' methods perplexed parents, many felt unable to ask teachers basic questions or communicate misgivings. In this context it hardly seems surprising that, in 1976, in a speech which called for a 'Great Debate', the prime minister, James Callaghan talked of the

". . . unease felt by parents and others about the new informal methods of teaching, which seem to produce excellent results when they are in well-qualified hands, but are much more dubious when they are not."