Constructing Teachers: An Investigation into the application of primary school leaders' and education policy constructions of teachers and teaching

Successive UK governments insist a 'crisis' exists within England's education system and policy
interventions associated with the School Effectiveness and Improvement agenda construct school
leadership as the solution to this 'crisis', positioning the Head Teacher as the school 'leader' and
teachers as 'followers'. School leaders adopt a corporate habitus to achieve policy targets,
requiring teachers to play the game or be disposed of (Courtney and Gunter 2015). This
modernisation agenda seeks to maintain unequal power relations within the field, changing
teacher identities, pedagogy and practices and the relationship between school leaders and
teachers, raising profound questions about school leadership, teachers and, by extension, the
purpose of education, which my research seeks to address.