| Abstract: | This paper reports research into the perceived effects of educational reform among secondary school teachers in England and Wales and Portugal. While the two countries have different education histories, as in most countries across the world teachers' lives and work are being affected by increased centralised interventions in the name of raising standards of achievement. In the case of England, interventions since the late 1980s have touched every facet of school government, curriculum and assessment, whereas in Portugal, this process did not begin until the late 1990s. The paper focuses upon teachers' experiences in these two communities, which are in different transition phases. By doing so it is possible, even within the different cultures, to identify common problems experienced by teachers within the reforms and their management which challenge existing identities, values and commitments and which are creating new forms of compliant professionalism. |
