Teachers have to cope with deep and rapid changes in many fields that influence the environment and content of their work, expectations they have to fulfil. This has created the situation there many teachers have low commitment to their work. As part of complex research on school as developmental environment and students` academic coping the current inquiry is concentrated on mapping teachers` perceptions of students` and society`s (political) expectations and teachers` beliefs about good professional teacher and good education and finding contradictions what might exist between expectations and beliefs. The general theoretical background of research is based on assumption that school culture is influenced by and depends on how different groups of teachers perceive futures demands, students` and parents´ expectations and „top-down“ decisions. (OECD 2007, Sarv 2006?) The theoretical approach is based on previous results of research on teacher development in the situation of societal and curriculum-reforms (Ruus 2005, 2007, Krull 2002, Sarv 1999, 2005) and is based on the ecological view that person and environment (political changes, school culture) are in dynamic interaction. (K Lewin 1935, Bronfenbrenner, 1977, 1996, Lazarus 1984, 1991). Studies have established that people who feel secure in affectionate relationships are optimistic, and fully participate in life, also being creative and caring about other people. The teachers who are interested in the students' learning cannot ignore the fact, that emotional relations with others are the first source for self-perfection (Mikulinger & Shaver, 2005: 251). In the situation of big contradictions, quick or unexpected changes the imbalance between hope, commitment and frustration, inbreeding appears. Main research question: are there signs of positional and professional crisis in the body/community of teachers and if “yes” - what are the characteristics of it and its influence on school-environment. Research methodology includes combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. The basic data were gathered using questionnaires for teachers, school-leaders, parents and students from 67 compulsory and secondary schools (12% of Estonian schools) in 2004, observations in 2007. The respondent schools form the adequate representation geographically, by working language (Estonian or Russian), by results of state exams during last 3 years (best and weakest results), by participation in innovative processes. Categorisation of questions, analysis of frequencies, weight-analysis and cluster-analysis and content analysis of observational materials and media were used. Previous analysis of data has shown that only ca 13% of the Estonian schools can be categorised as having positive social climates in the eyes of the students and only 23% of schools have good academic results and at the same time also favourable social climate, including students' good relationships with teachers. (Ruus 2007) The teachers with positive attitude, who evaluate co-operation and have a progressive view on future, are in minority (Sarv, 2007). At the same time teachers communities in most schools feel quite comfortable and report to have good organisational climates (Sarv 2006). T. Oder proved in her doctoral thesis that Estonian teachers do not consider themselves autonomous professionals initialising changes in society, but specialists teaching the subject (Oder, 2007). Research revealed that 1) the students and teachers have their own communities which are distanced from each-other; 2) media, politicians, as well as parents send to teachers clearly opposing each one, divergent signals about child-centeredness, desired direction of development, characteristics of achievement and success. To generalize - the research revealed that the Estonian teachers had created their own (self-defensive?) community at schools that in general does not include students and clams up. We dare to make the following generalisation: the educational restructuring has already created and is continuously creating a new human condition in Estonia, or at least in Estonian school.

Analysis of survey (12% of Estonian schools) and observational data

1) the students and teachers have their own communities which are distanced from each- other; 2) media, politicians, parents send to teachers divergent signals about their expectations. As result the Estonian teachers had created their own (self-defensive) community at schools that in general clams up. The alienation of teachers from community and society and in many schools from students has taken place. This means, that there are needed steps from local communities, schools themselves, universities and, most of all - from government and parliament to stop the alienation process and to generate the new (self)respect of teachers.