Making decisions is one of the main activities of the teacher’s work. Considered or apparently unconsidered, these decisions significantly affect the lives of all who work in classrooms, both children and the teachers themselves. Originally published in 1979, the aim of this collection of papers was to achieve greater understanding of classroom decision-making and its consequences, to identify and map existing knowledge, and to indicate where it might be augmented.

The contributors were researchers and teachers from schools, universities and colleges at the time, and they examine the process of teacher decision-making from sociological, psychological, economic and other perspectives. The book includes a detailed analysis of life in the classroom from a phenomenological perspective, explorations based on micro-economic techniques, and structural perspectives on the role of the teacher in the school. The concluding papers examine the possibilities for social change, given the constraints on the work of the teacher.