Take Action or Do Nothing: 'The Educational Dilemma of the Teacher'

It is argued in this chapter that teachers could be regarded as being in a somewhat invidious position when it comes to the implementation, or enactment, of various education policies. Yes, teachers are agents of the state but they can have a large influence over the effectiveness or fidelity of government policies. This chapter considers the dilemmas, from a philosophical and practical point of view, that teacher (here we focus on the schooling sector) face in deciding whether to take action that may be in the interests of students or to implement policy, without question, as mandated. Of course not all policies arrive in schools directly from the minds of politicians unscathed. They pass through various other bureaucratic and political processes and mechanisms that create other policy conditions, especially related to implementation and these inflect the potential of its fidelity - how closely the policy can be made to fit the original intentions of the policy makers and how this will be measured.