Teachers have yet to be convinced over the involvement of private companies in the education system, according to Britain's biggest teaching union.

Research on behalf of the NUT by Demos, the new Labour policy unit, has found that teachers want to participate fully in the government's drive to modernise the country's education system but only if they are "genuinely involved and consulted".

Staff told researchers that the most "complex" issue was that of private sector involvement in state schools.

Though the full results will not be published until the autumn researchers have warned the government that they must give a greater say to teachers on the future direction of schools to avoid a drop in interest in the profession among young people.

Demos director Tom Bentley, who is an ex-adviser to former Education Secretary David Blunkett said: "One theme, particularly from serving teachers, has been the lack of ownership they feel about educational developments. What we were anxious to do is to have more rigorous research which might identify the factors, and give the message to Government about what needs to be done to re-establish the status of teaching as a profession, in the hope that if the message gets through, we can address teacher shortages and encourage more people to come in.''

Bentley added that the government had yet to win over teaching staff. "They haven't yet convinced serving teachers of the sustainability or value of the change that they've been trying to put in place. The clear finding is that most teachers understand the need for quite widespread change in the education system as it adapts to the demands of the new socio-economic and working environment," he said.

He said that teachers wanted recognition by the government that the recruitment crisis was not only due to the economic cycle and that they should have more autonomy on education decisions - particularly what and how they teach.

Doug McAvoy, the general secretary of the NUT, said he was not opposed to private sector involvement in state education.

"We need to hold our fire a little bit on the issue of privatisation as it might develop."

McAvoy predicted that both the NUT and the TUC would be able to "make some impact on the government in respect of privatisation of public services''.