Phillips, Emma Caroline (1999) The work of teachers in small primary schools. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

A review of the literature on small primary schools identified a number of problems: a lack
of a definition of 'small', poor quality of evidence, a neglect of some important issues and the
general picture of teachers in small schools having different work patterns from other teachers. This
study was designed to test the hypothesis that the work of teachers in small schools was distinctively
different from those in larger schools.
Data were gathered which were used to portray the work of the Key Stage Two teachers in
two small Warwickshire primary schools. Of the seven individuals studied, two were headteachers
with a dual teaching and management role. Participant observation, time diaries, interviews and
systematic observation techniques were employed in order to gain a full picture of their working
lives and to allow for triangulation.
Analysis of the data suggested that for the case study teachers, their work did not differ
markedly from that reported in other studies of teachers in larger schools. This was true both in
terms of the length and distribution of their time and the means by which they delivered the
curriculum. Differences arose as a result of individual personalities and the proportion of a full-time
teaching contract which each held. It was hypothesised that teachers working in small schools may
have undergone the most intensification of their work; again, there was little to suggest that this was
true for the teachers in this study.
Despite limitations in the data collected, evidence of the headteachers' work suggested that
again school size was not the main influence upon their work School status and individual
personalities were influential in shaping their working patterns and priorities.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1501 Primary Education
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Small schools -- Great Britain -- Warwickshire -- Case studies, Primary school teachers -- Great Britain -- Warwickshire -- Case studies
Official Date:	November 1999
Dates:	Date Event November 1999 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Institute of Education
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Campbell, R. J.
Sponsors:	Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (ESRC)
Extent:	xvii, 332 leaves
Language:	eng

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