Workforce remodelling, teacher trade unionism and school-based industrial relations

The research aims to examine reforms that collectively comprise the government's remodelling agenda. In particular, it centres on the effects of the expansion of teaching assistants and new Teaching and Learning Responsibility payments on the construction of teachers' jobs. The former gives rise to concerns that teaching in effect will no longer be an all-graduate profession, with teachers increasing given the role of planning and supervising the delivery of lessons by assistants. The second initiative strengthens the first by redefining teachers' work through the exclusion of traditional roles, such as pastoral ones. While both initiatives are centrally driven, and have been agreed by some education unions, they place responsibility for implementation at local level. The research aims to trace the variation of outcomes and the degree to which the changes challenge traditional industrial relations and the role and nature of workplace trade unionism. The research will examine both key government policies and the response of trade unions at national level, and how these policies are mediated at local level through case studies of a number of schools in three local authorities. Data will be gathered by interviews with key personnel at national and local levels.