| Abstrakt: |
Drawing on an analysis of the state of primary education from 1987 to 1999, this paper suggests that the tightening of the regulating framework that underpins teaching has not led to the demise of variation, creativity and innovation in primary schools. Instead, we suggest that the art of mediation, of teachers transposing central initiatives to their own classrooms, has become an increasingly important professional attribute. This applies even when that involves relating the most powerful feature of central prescription — testing — to the classroom reality. It is in this way that the essence of our argument is the idea of the classroom reality contrasting sharply with the compliance culture of primary education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER] |
