The management and regulation of teachers’ work in most European countries has been revolutionised by the growth of performative models of ‘techno-bureaucratic managerialism’ (Apple, 2000). In England this model has taken the form of central government prescription of curriculum content, pedagogical approaches, student assessment and the assessment of teachers (and teacher education).  It has been enforced through a punitive inspection regime that has led to a Foucaldian self-policing of professional practice and values by teachers (Ball, 2003). In England since 1997, the imposition of institutionalised ‘corporate’ professionalism on teachers has begun to displace traditional autonomous professional cultures (Beck, 2008).   In 2007 an assessment framework for different stages of teachers’ careers introduced competency and professional attribute criteria for each stage of teachers’ careers. This strait-jacket for professional practice has been complemented by the vigorous use of marketisation (Gewirtz & Ball, 1995) to enhance parental choice of schools and penalise schools’ income if they fail to attract academically ambitious parents and children.

Schools are sites in which national policies and local perspectives intersect as people struggle to construct coherent educational policies and practices that reflect particular but contested values. It has led the EU and national governments across Europe to be increasingly interventionist in shaping the structures and processes of schooling.  However, a coherent ‘EU-wide’ dimension within national education systems is fraught with tensions and contradictions (Dale & Robertson, 2009).

Performativity has an impact on teachers’ professional identity (Wilkins, 2009). The inspection process generates disciplinary systems that create new regimes of truth in schools, which alter teachers’ professional identities (Halland Noyes, 2009).  People construct their identities and those of others in particular contexts (Paechter, 2007) including the constructions of power in institutions (Foucault, 1977) and the policy contexts that surround them (Riley et al 2000;), and their own personal life histories. In schools an important part of this context are the actions and interactions of students with themselves and with staff and parents (Fielding, 2004).

Teachers new to a school are particularly vulnerable to the impact of institutional contexts on their professional identities.   Studies often focus on novice teachers and their sense of professional autonomy, self-esteem and inter-professional relationships (Wilson & Demetriou, 2007) but not on experienced teachers transferring to new schools. Further, these studies have not generally considered the impact of students on teachers (re)construction of their professional identity nor that of policy contexts of performativity.

We aim to investigate the formal and informal learning experiences of teachers who are new to a school, whether novice or experienced, and how they co-construct their professional identities with students (Kakos, 2008, Busher, 2009) as well as with staff as they begin to join the different (small) cultures (Holliday, 1999) in schools. Therefore the study will investigate how teachers new to a school perform liminality and border activity (Pierce, 2007) as they seek to become established members of their new school’s communities (Derrida, 2000) acknowledged as skilful practitioners by students and other teachers and support staff. 

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