Book excerpt: Many commentators feared that the Education Reform Act of 1988 sounded the death knell for teacher professionalism in Britain. More than a decade later, however, professionalism appears to have staged a miraculous recovery: David Blunkett says that 'it is back at the very heart of teaching'. But what kind of professionalism is this? In whose interest is its recovery. and what effects will it have? And how does this development relate to changes in edict countries and other professions? The Politics of Professionalism provides authoritative answers to these questions. It does so by setting the debates in their historical context and by drawing on detailed research findings on teachers' experience of work arid education, especially the curriculum, in the current era. In the process, this book makes a major contribution to our understanding of the politics, history and sociology of teaching and the other professions.