This chapter draws upon Carol Baachi’ (2009) influential work on policy analysis, and especially how particular issues come to be framed as ‘problems’ of a particular kind, to understand the nature of teachers’ work and learning under current policy conditions. These conditions are characterized by increased pressure for improvement on specific measures of student attainment, particularly national and international standardized literacy and numeracy tests. Increasingly, these measures reflect broader concerns and discourses about the nature of curriculum provision, the quality of teaching, and student outcomes. Understanding the nature of current curriculum, teaching and assessment provision in this policy context is a first step to fostering conditions productive of more substantive alternatives.
