What Professional Responsibility Means to Teachers: national contexts and classroom constants

Summary This article discusses some of the findings pertaining to how teachers see their work which were produced by a comparative study of 360 French and 360 English primary school teachers. The sample was drawn from schools in four different types of matched catchment areas—rural, inner‐city, average suburban and affluent suburban— in Avon, UK and Bouches du Rhone, France. Four major dimensions of difference between the two national contexts are identified in terms of the range of professional activities undertaken; the ambiguity of the teacher's task; the style of pedagogy and the relative importance to teachers of the process as against the products of learning. Against a background of contemporary policy changes which seem likely to render the teaching context increasingly similar in the two countries, the article argues that attempts to change teachers' practice without due regard to those conceptions of professional responsibility which are deeply rooted in particular national traditions as well as more general classroom realities, will result in a lowering of morale and decreased effectiveness.