First published in 1988, Social Class, Status and Teacher Trade Unionism examines some of the causes underlying the growing resentment of public sector professionals, focusing on the teachers in the polytechnics and colleges of further and higher education and on their union, once the Association of Teachers in Technical Institutions. It looks in depth at the relationship between professional commitment and trade union activism, and at the limits employee status, within a bureaucratic control structure, can impose on professional self-management and control. The book provides both an important social history of the teachers and teaching in this sector and an incisive analysis of the nature and development of ‘professional trade unions’. This book will be of interest to students of education, sociology and history.