Remodelling the roles, responsibilities and working practices of all school staff has been central to the government's modernisation agenda for English state schools. This is typified by a determination to review and change the distribution of tasks undertaken by teachers and teaching assistants (TAs). Whilst there has been a substantial increase…

This special edition enables an in-depth look at the process of modernization of education in England, in relation to other international developments. In particular we focus on the reform of teachers? work by examining the antecedence of the current policy of remodelling through three articles based on the Evaluation of the Department for…

load has been highlighted by recent studies, including work for the DfES by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC 2001) and by the Office for Manpower Economics (OME) for the School Teachers' Review Body (DfES 2000). The PwC report concluded that teachers and headteachers work more intensive weeks than other comparable managers and professionals. This heavy…

Teacher's work and workload have been major factors in the recruitment, retention and revitalization of the profession. In January 2003 the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) launched a major reform known as remodelling, by which the work-life balance would be improved by freeing teachers up to teach, and using other members of the…