New teachers will find a rapidly changing school environment that has major implications for teaching and learning. New teachers will need to understand some of the forces and consequences of current policies and powerful ideological, political, and commercial interests that have shaped the way we think of the aims, methods, and contents of contemporary school experiences. The drift towards standardization of teaching and learning processes, and centralization of control, also reduces local professional and community awareness and responsibility for leadership, and becomes unconscious. New teachers can and must join the forces that recover conscious and creative leadership and control of instruction.