Introduction

This book draws together much of the experience, thinking and research which has accumulated in recent years about the lives and work of schoolteachers in developing countries. Many millions of words have been written about contemporary educational planning and management for the age of mass education, but very few, relatively speaking, about the roles of teachers in schools and society. Compared with planners and managers in ministries of education, schoolteachers, who spend their working days in classrooms with young learners, do jobs which are almost invisible to the community at large. This invisibility may partly explain the lack of serious study and research into their work and relationships with society, despite the fact that, in contemporary societies, they are arguably the most numerous and widely dispersed occupational group paid largely from the public purse.