Assessment and teacher professionalism

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Abstract
This paper draws from a multi‐site qualitative case‐study research project entitled From Policy to Practice funded by the University of Exeter. The research sought to identify the impact that the Key Stage 3 tests would have on the working practices of eight heads of English departments and their staff in mixed maintained comprehensive schools in different regions of England.The paper begins by presenting the way that the national assessment system has undergone change since its inception, highlighting that the function of assessment is to act as the most significant indicator of a school's performance through government policy that promotes and prioritizes the measurement of pupils’ achievements through each key stage.The English teachers’ responses to the revisions of the English National Curriculum Programmes of Study are described and the paper documents the thoughts and feelings of these teachers as they had to try to make sense of the changes in their classroom working practices. They are articulate in categorizing those aspects of their pedagogical practice that the assessment process has stifled and those that the assessment process has encouraged. The paper then offers an interpretative analysis of the impact that the externally imposed curriculum and assessment changes have had on the teachers’ sense of being professionals.