The Images of Teachers

Cross‐national studies are often more illuminating by the contrasts which they offer, rather than by (often superficial) comparisons and analogies. This principle is illustrated in a three country study recently completed by the author and his colleagues. In this paper, one outcome of this investigation is explored. In France, the United States and Britain public perceptions of teachers are embedded in a context of political, social and cultural attitudes. As these attitudes change, they are reflected in the shifting images of teachers. These images have over the past 30 years changed most (albeit in quite different ways) in France and in England, and least in the United States. They are directly reflected in the training offered to teachers, and in the relationship of that activity to 'the university'.