In the classroom, in the corridorsandin the boardroom ‐the professional place of Canada's teachers in future policy making

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Abstract
In today's context of increasing demands and diminishing resources, many teachers in Canada successfully manage the interrelated challenges in the classroom (attending to student interests, responding to student variability, maintaining productive working relationships with students, evaluating to support student learning) and in the corridors (learning on the job, cooperating with many stakeholders, building an enabling workplace, justifying ongoing decisions and actions). As signposts of their increasing professionalism they remain client‐centred and knowledge‐based in their ongoing efforts to improve classroom and school practices. Yet teachers do not have a major voice in decisions which affect their work and development. Without a senior partnership in the boardroom teachers neither achieve the professional position within their reach nor make a significant contribution to the improvement of the educational system. This article rejects the current preference for bureaucratic strategies which strive for excellence by regulating and controlling teachers. Instead it elaborates the near‐professional lives of today's teachers, and outlines strategies which enable them to assume a professional place in the formation and implementation of effective policies.

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