ACADEMIC PAPERS ONLINE ESCalate Online Academic paper

Reflections on Teacher Education in the Four Nations of the United Kingdom

By Dr Jane McKie, University of Stirling and Alison Jackson, St. Martin’s College.

With thanks to:Robin Bundy, Chris Kynch, Andrew Slater, Dr Samantha Twiselton and Dr Sue Bloxham, St Martin’s College.

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ESCALATE ONLINE ACADEMIC PAPER 1

REFLECTIONS ON TEACHER EDUCATION IN THE FOUR NATIONS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM 1

Introduction 3

Initial Teacher Education in England 4 Background 4 Reflections on ITE in England 4 Reflections on professional identities in England 7 Future challenges envisaged in England 9

Initial Teacher Education in Wales 10 Background 10 Reflections on ITE in Wales 11 Reflections on professional identities in Wales 13 Future challenges envisaged in Wales 15

Initial Teacher Education in Scotland 17 Background 17 Reflections on ITE in Scotland 18 Reflections on professional identities in Scotland 22 Future challenges envisaged in Scotland 23

Initial Teacher Education in Northern Ireland 24 Background 24 Reflections on ITE in Northern Ireland 25 Reflections on professional identities in Northern Ireland 28 Future challenges envisaged in Northern Ireland 29 Reflections on the other countries of the UK 30 Discussion 33

Questions raised by the report 37

WEB-BASED RESOURCES 40 England 40 Wales 40 Scotland 41 Northern Ireland 41

Glossary 42

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Introduction [A]ny education system, at any given point in time, is a combination of the past, the present and the future. The past is represented through aims and values, and the mode of working and expectations of the teaching force. For many teachers, the defining years are those in which they are trained and first enter the profession. (Le Métais, 1997:4)

The aim of this ESCalate funded research was to collect some commentary on the ‘defining years’, suggested here by Le Métais, from teacher educators and other educational professionals in the UK. The study into Initial Teacher Education (ITE) was conducted in the first half of 2005, it is cross-national in that it refers to England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and intra- national in that it invites comparison between the approaches taken in these four nations. There are significant differences in national approaches to the regulation and status of teacher education and this investigation seeks to discuss the effects of these differences. Following brief background notes, comments from educational representatives of the four nations are reported. There are three sections to these comments; firstly, aspects of education policy and significant local considerations are presented; secondly, the perception of professional identities of teacher educators and teachers is investigated with some discussion of teacher educators as researchers; thirdly, future challenges as perceived by the participants are discussed. After the presentation of comments from the participants, there is a general discussion based on the report. Finally some questions and possibilities for debate, suggested by the report are presented for those involved in teacher education in the four countries of the UK.

This study is qualitative and took the form of semi-structured interviews with ITE providers and education policy-makers in the four nations of the UK. For all countries, the roles and responsibilities of participants varied; we tried to encompass expertise across primary and secondary schooling. In every case we have strived to protect the anonymity of our participants, however, for purposes of clarity in the text, coding of the participants has been used. It is hoped that this report – although necessarily a limited snapshot of thoughts about policy and practice at a particular point in time – will be of interest to those working within Initial Teacher Education in the four nations of the UK. The points of similarity and divergence provide an insight into the constraints and opportunities of policy and practice in 2005/6 that can be both a tool for reflection and a stimulus for dialogue across borders.

3 Initial Teacher Education in England

Background In contrast to the other nations of the UK, and in particular, Scotland, education in England is decentralised in nature with many functions being taken by Local Education Authorities (or churches), although overall responsibility for publicly-funded education lies with the national government and the central Department for Education and Skills (DfES). Initial Teacher Training (ITT) is usually provided in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), but there are also some school-based training schemes. In September 2005, the TTA (Teacher Training Agency) took on a wider role at the Government’s request and became the TDA (Training and Development Agency for schools). The reasons are set out in pamphlet TEA500/june051 and reflect the rapid pace of change in schools. This research took place before this change was effected and therefore the term TTA is used throughout this paper. With its new remit, the Training and Development Agency for schools (TDA) has a formative role in working with its stakeholders – schools, providers of initial teacher training, new and existing contractors and suppliers, local partners including local education authorities and government and national organisations – to bring about the effective implementation of government education policy. The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) is the inspectorate for children and learners in England and contributes to the provision of ‘better’ education and care through effective inspection and regulation. It is a non-ministerial government department which is accountable to Parliament. ITE providers are seen as having some flexibility in judging the nature of their response to policy. In England we interviewed representatives from four ITE providers - two pre- and two post- 1992 universities - in order to gain comparative perspectives. Members of staff from these institutions are quoted in the following text, coded as E2, E3, E4 and E5. We also interviewed one representative of the TTA (Teacher Training Agency) who is coded as E1.

Reflections on ITE in England

One teacher educator summed up the fundamental change for teacher education providers in England in recent years:

When I first came into teacher training it was very much the institution knew best and that your end products, as we now call them, we fashioned in the way we wished. We have now the national strategies; they have a clear focus. (E5)

This change in the ‘end product’ was seen as driven by government who are anxious to recruit more teachers:

1 www.tda.gov.uk/about/role, download ‘TTA’s extended remit’ (accessed 7.06)

4 I think everything is geared more towards the end product of maintaining a supply of teachers that will be there in the school workforce and this is why they are shaping the way we train the teachers and also trying to enable us to make sure that we retain teachers and see that there is a career pattern and a path that goes to CPD (Continuing Professional Development) so it’s like a continuous stream. (E5)

The participants from the four ITE providers acknowledged the TTA as being the main architect of the current system of teacher training in England to provide this ‘end product’. However, this was seen as a simplification of a more complex picture because the DfES is ‘behind the TTA with its agenda’. Ofsted too was mentioned as a significant factor in the current system so that the interplay between the TTA, the DfES and Ofsted were described in this way by one teacher educator:

They (the DfES, the TTA and Ofsted) shape what we do. When you look at the standards1 - that is our Bible. Therefore our courses have to ensure that they reflect those issues that they wish to raise there so in the main I would say that we are not our own masters any more and that a lot of this shaping comes from outside, external influences, particularly of the TTA. (E5)

The TTA and Ofsted were not necessarily criticised by Teacher Educators in England. They can be perceived to be at the mercy of competing demands and agendas themselves:

I think the TTA is collaborative and they are good at listening to teachers and working with us … And Ofsted, it’s an interesting one because they are largely the tool of the TTA in terms of their inspection, you know, they’re simply carrying out what the TTA tell them to carry out … (E2)

And the TTA is carrying out the DfES’ agenda. This teacher educator went on to remark how teachers in England have felt ‘put upon’ – that initiatives are done to them, rather than generated by them. She felt that this was not the whole story, however:

I think that at some levels we are more involved than perhaps we think we are, not least because a lot of the people driving the changes within the TTA and so on have been in our roles not so long ago. They have been in Teacher Education. I think that’s quite a strength of the TTA insofar as it’s true. (E2)

The government, through the TTA, has turned its attention to improving the quality of the teaching profession and, from the point of view of one of its representatives, the TTA was concerned with ensuring quality and an emphasis on ‘effective’ teaching:

1 The standards for classroom teachers set out in Qualifying to Teach (TTA, 2002)

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I suppose the spotlight has turned even more onto quality now and it’s just as important I think in political and ministerial and therefore in agency terms to improve quality of input. Other principles I suppose are to do with having teachers who are in the right kind of mindset, who are effective in being able to help children learn how to learn. (E1)

This TTA representative acknowledged the importance of a firm grasp of subject knowledge to ensure quality and commented upon three things that the TTA perceived as being off putting for people considering teaching as a career:

I suppose the three things that put people off from teaching are workload so teachers need to know as a matter of principle how to manage their workload; they need to know how to manage learning in a classroom, behaviour issues, and that’s another principle that is very important; and if they’re going to be amongst the, I suppose, minority who go on to leadership positions, they need to have notions about what good leadership is. (E1)

In the same way that, originally, the National Curriculum and Ofsted were very regulatory, this TTA representative went on to explain that so too was the TTA at its inception. However, now that the system is producing the outcomes that parliament demands, a gentler approach can be taken:

It could be argued that that was necessary at that time but that with the passage of time and the growth in standards in the system, the time has come for a much softer approach than that and that’s now being carried through; and the same would go for Ofsted for the same sorts of reasons – not just in ITT but in schools themselves and you can see that taking place as well. (E1)

A plea from one of the teacher educators suggests a good way to create a gentler approach:

Teachers are overwhelmed by initiatives and the idea that someone could just stop and think, all right, this year’s initiative is, we will have no initiatives would be really nice from time to time! (E2)

There was a feeling that the same plea could be uttered by teacher educators.

An interesting adjunct to this is the comment from one teacher educator who acknowledged the need to ‘know the government diktat, to toe the party line’ but felt that teacher educators were ‘starting to develop a philosophy of education for ourselves’ (E3), creating professionals who can reflect on practice. In the mean time, the children may well be the ones to suffer: I think we will look back in probably less than 10 years and think, what did we do to children?

6 Reflections on professional identities in England

All the teacher educator participants enjoyed many aspects of their role. This was particularly because of the joy they felt as teachers in developing their students:

When you track students from year 1 to year 4 you see the little fledglings and it’s lovely to see the end product and that’s what I like to do, see them, how they come in and how they blossom and what they take away with them at the end. (E5)

The job was challenging and rewarding:

There’s always new things, that’s why it’s such a great job because there’s always new things coming along. It’s never like it’s just a rehash of the same old thing again. And that’s partly what’s so good about teaching isn’t? Your teachers never react to the same material the same way so you’re always in a new experience. (E2)

Frustrations arose from various things; workload, inspection, lack of status and research requirements. There was a feeling that the job was very pressured:

I think my frustrations are mostly about the bottlenecks in the year when I am just horrendously overworked. (E2)

There were mixed feelings over inspection; it can be a negative experience:

I suppose at a wider level I do find the whole inspection process desperately depressing really because I don’t think it has really been supportive of improving quality. I think it’s a sort of watch your back exercise so to some extent you end up paying lip service to doing what’s expected even if you don’t believe in it. (E2)

However, despite mistrusting ‘collusion’ with policy agendas which result in feelings of inauthenticity, the following example shows, paradoxically, that such agendas can also spur a teacher educator on:

I think … this notion of doing things that are colluding with Ofsted, sorry it’s not colluding with Ofsted, but it’s colluding with agendas that you don’t believe in, this sense when there are times when you feel that you have to do it. Hugely frustrating, but in a sense I wouldn’t be without it. It sounds really perverse but I need my discomfort zone as well. (E4)

An alternative way of dealing with externally imposed agendas was to preserve your personal, more holistic, vision of education, and to try and teach with that in mind whenever possible. This seems to imply that there are different levels at which teacher educators operate, some more comfortable than others; in other words, there is a layering of identities:

7 Yes, going back to the compliance mentality of making sure you satisfy Ofsted, I guess you could say that that’s implicit in that but I think we do hold on to our beliefs about the holistic nature of Teacher Education and the kind of core things we think are important, and I think it’s only fair to say that it’s possible to do that within the TTA rules. We have found it possible to still get good inspection grades and to do what we believe so perhaps it’s about having that confidence to hold out for what you believe and do it that’s important. (E2)

A large proportion of teacher educators usually come into Teacher Education from schools and the perceived lowering of status combined with less pay was picked up by this participant:

If you just compare if you like the status and everything with teachers in school - had I known that before I started, as most of us would have said, we would have never left school. The status is more in school, the salary is more in school and for a Head of ITE to be earning less than deputies in a primary school - it makes you think. (E5)

The lack of research experience was also a problem with respect to status. One participant explained that status within a university was low because:

In this university, the people that work in this school are generally less qualified than others in different schools because most people come in mid-career, they haven’t spent their first 20 years in academia. If they had, they wouldn’t be teacher educators, so there’s this perception that we’re less qualified. (E3)

When asked how this might be overcome, this member of staff suggested that teacher educators themselves have to make the difference:

But I think the onus is on us to actually show that we are equally as good as everybody else at the university and we bring different things to the institution. And we’re actively working to do that, having seminars that invite everybody from the university. You have to fight it, I mean I think it’s something you have to be proactive [about]. You really have to prove yourself and that’s what we’re trying to do. (E3)

When it comes to helping create the identities of their students as they prepare for their work as teachers, the most important thing for all these teacher educators was to create ‘thinking’ professionals. This next participant illustrates the difficulties of ‘crossing over’ from a situation where experienced teachers would question to a situation where inexperienced student teachers mop up everything before them like sponges without critical thought:

The most difficult thing for me was that the students listened to me and believed in me and did what I told them and I was really having to back off. (E2)

8 It was important that the students saw the ‘holistic’ nature of education and were not content with ‘ticking boxes’ as this participant expressed it:

We’re obviously interested in producing people who can think for themselves, so we’re trying to give them a full picture of how complex education is politically, socially etc. (E3)

Student teachers would therefore not accept things without thought:

The ideal product would be to make sure that they have reflection. (E5)

Future challenges envisaged in England

The main feeling about the future for ITE in England was very much one of a lack of certainty about what would happen and the impression that the teacher educator’s role in the future was limited. One teacher educator referred to the restructuring of the workforce in schools and noted that the repercussions of that would create challenges in ITE institutions:

It’s very difficult to know what on earth that’s going to mean and whether it’s going to make fundamental changes to the way teachers work and therefore what we need to do with our students as they’re preparing to be teachers. (E2)

Logistical problems were also highlighted as creating insecurity:

You’re constantly at risk of courses becoming unviable or numbers shifting up and down and the difficulty of finding placements for students in schools for some subjects and not others. (E2)

I think recruiting (is a problem), I really don’t know how the top up fees will change things - I think that could have an impact. Will the older universities stick with Teacher Education or will they say that’s not our core business, that’s not the research that we’re interested in and education goes to one of the newer universities. (E3)

Inspection too created insecurity:

Seeing what that is, which is the latest framework for the inspection of initial teacher training; that’s going to be a challenge. (E5)

Inspection demands did not encourage an optimistic future, but rather a threat which unfortunately was dominating the positive work of the teacher educators and the institutions:

There’s a balancing act between holding on to our own beliefs which I think we try very strongly to feel we do, and the importance of the good grades from Ofsted that actually are what underpin the work we do here. It is important that we get good grades so we do have to play the

9 game to some extent. I think we do find some of the guidance constraining. (E2)

There seemed to be no way forward without a necessary compromising of one’s ideals for expedience:

There are no winners in this, if you don’t collude with Ofsted in a sense, if you don’t do that agenda, right or wrong, then you don’t get to do anything else, you’ve lost it. (E4)

In all a rather bleak picture with the teacher educator hanging on to his or her ideals within a difficult scenario:

Because if we’re not compliant, our jobs go but there again we want the best for our potential teachers of the future. (E5)

Initial Teacher Education in Wales

Background Since 1999 the National Assembly for Wales (NAfW) and the Welsh Assembly Government hold devolved powers over all aspects of education and training in Wales, other than teachers’ wages and conditions. Whilst the Westminster Parliament currently retains primary lawmaking powers, framework powers within education legislation have enabled Wales to develop increasingly distinctive policies. The current (April 2006) Government of Wales Bill1, when enacted, will accentuate this process by allowing the Assembly to exercise legislative powers. An organisation called Estyn2 (the office of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education and Training in Wales) inspects all levels of education. The language of instruction is either English or Welsh. All pupils in Wales are required to follow a programme of study in Welsh, either as a first or second language; furthermore, Teacher Education institutions in Wales must offer training in Welsh as a second language for primary ITE students. With regard to significant recent policy, in September 2001, the National Assembly for Wales published The Learning Country (The National Assembly for Wales, 2001). This document covers all phases of education, including new proposals for early years education, and interesting proposals relating to the development of the Welsh Baccalaureate qualification for 14- to 19-year- olds3. The Learning Country 2: Delivering the Promise has just been isued for consultation4.

There is a General Teaching Council for Wales (GTCW), established in September 2000. At the time of writing, the GTCW was developing and consulting on a code of professional conduct and practice expected of registered teachers. For Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) there is a statutory induction period to enhance their development as a classroom

1 www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmbills/121/2006121.htm (accessed 8.06) 2 www.estyn.gov.uk (accessed 8.06) 3 www.wbq.org.uk/ (accessed 7.06) 4 www.new.wales.gov.uk (accessed 7.06)

10 teacher during their first year in post (they have a reduced - 90% - teaching timetable); NQTs need to successfully complete this induction to achieve fully qualified status. Following this, since September 2004, those with qualified teacher status (QTS) in Wales are entitled to a two-year programme of early professional development.

It is a time of transition in Wales, involving new policy implementation and change. The Welsh Office Circular 13/98 1851 is being reviewed, and, as a participant comments, this process has initiated widespread consultation resulting in a ‘state of flux’. Consultation and review are required because of the issue of supply and demand of ITE places; the interviews we conducted revealed a perception that perhaps too many teachers are being trained in relation to the teaching places available. This has been borne out in the recent report on Initial Teacher Training in Wales by John Furlong2 of the University of Oxford, which recommends that Wales dispenses with undergraduate education degrees to concentrate on postgraduate qualifications to teach. This is but one of a host of Recommendations in the Furlong Report.

The Welsh Assembly Government’s response to the Furlong review sets out an ITT Change Plan covering the short to medium term which aims to tackle the following: (a) a reduction in ITT course numbers; (b) improvements to teacher workforce planning; (c) reconfiguring ITT provision; (d) retaining elements of undergraduate provision; (e) adjusting current employment based training routes into teaching; (f) reviewing Welsh medium ITT provision; (g) continued progress on modifications to ITT regulatory requirements; (h) examining options for induction placements.

In Wales we interviewed one member of the General Teaching Council for Wales (GTCW), coded in the following text as W1, and three members of staff responsible for some aspect of ITE provision working in different institutions, coded as W2, W3 and W4.

Reflections on ITE in Wales

The member of the General Teaching Council for Wales (W1) drew attention to the fact that education is very much the product of the historical events which have formed it and suggested that Wales is perhaps somewhat behind the times and that the provision for Teacher Education may not be what it could be. He considered that the main drivers had been the Welsh Office prior to devolution and it was the elected members in the Assembly Government who direct the civil servants to do their bidding. The effects of devolution were extremely important in his opinion:

1 www.wales.gov.uk/subieducationtraining/content/circulars/1398/1398-annexb-e.htm (accessed 8.06) 2 www.learning.wales.gov.uk/scripts/fe/news_details.asp?NewsID=2242 (accessed 8.06)

11 The tradition before devolution was for civil servants to look towards Westminster – look at what the DfES does and give it a Welsh tweak. Since 1999 …(there has been) this cultural dimension of a growing awareness of Wales being different and Welsh solutions for Wales’ problems and Wales’ challenges. (W1)

Despite this, he did consider that the comparability between Wales and England did tend to lead to the view that ‘if things ain’t broke, don’t fix them’. There is no TTA in Wales or National College for Leadership but he felt that the GTCW was a repository for doing some of the work, which was a good thing:

That, in my opinion, is good for the profession because it will mean that it’s the profession taking more control through its own self-regulating body for some other aspects. (W1)

One of the teacher educators from Wales felt very positive because of the fact that the ITT institutions were the architects of their own system:

Our voice is listened to and we are very much involved… we are very much consulted on the way to move forward. (W2)

This was not just for teacher training but also beyond:

Not only with Initial Teacher Education but with now the NQT year and the new system that’s being introduced which is a 2 year and early development of teachers. (W2)

Another teacher educator stressed the pride that Wales had felt in its Initial Teacher Education provision:

We’ve always been a provider of teachers for the rest of the world …I think people always say whatever part of the world you go to, there’s a teacher trained in Wales there! (W3)

This is in part due to the fact that Wales produces too many teachers for Wales. Two reactions to this were mentioned; one is to look carefully at what is needed and develop the links into induction as mentioned above and the other is to ‘train for Wales’:

We’ve always seen ourselves to some extent as providing that model (training teachers for the world) but I think that is changing, I mean the Assembly want us to have a ‘train in Wales for Wales’ model of a teacher and we’re not sure that that’s going to be the best way to do it. (W3)

The inspectorate in Wales, Estyn, inspects schools and is also employed by the Higher Education Funding Council to undertake the inspection of teacher training in Wales. One teacher educator explained that they were inspected

12 fairly heavily in Wales, but there were positive relationships with the inspectorate which applauded the teacher training provision:

Every annual report we see from the inspectorate points to a very strong, high quality provision across Wales with very few weaknesses. We have pretty good relationships with Estyn in many ways. (W3)

There was a generally positive feeling from this participant that collaboration was the key to Wales’ success:

I think collaboration has got to be the key word here - we’ve got to do it in partnership, partnership between us, the assembly, the funding council, the schools, LEAs, the whole shooting match really. (W3)

This partnership is based on the fundamental meaning of what Teacher Education is about:

I don’t get a feeling that the assembly wants to do horrible things to us by and large, I think they want to do things which improve the quality of learning. I mean we’ve got to keep going back and focussing on the learner really whenever we think of anything else, it’s all about the quality of learning for children and for young people. So the assembly ...and the inspectorate has got them and their hearts very much set on that, I mean that’s their focus, that’s their questioning line all the time; is it improving learning? And I think, you know, we’re quite happy going along with that, that’s what we want to do as well. (W3)

Reflections on professional identities in Wales

There was a suggestion that teacher educators in Wales were unclear about their professional identity:

I’m just thinking how my colleagues see themselves really – I mean they’re members of the HE Academy so they would identify with the HE Academy as their professional body and then they’d be a member of a subject association and people probably identify too closely with their subject and not their profession. (W3)

This lack of teacher educator identity was seen as ‘not particularly helping us to move forward’ (W2). Teacher educators were seen as constrained by such things as the National Curriculum and tick box targets and competencies:

Whatever happened to good teaching? I’m not holding anarchic lessons here but I would just like to see something good for a change rather than somebody getting all the boxes ticked. (W4)

A debate on systems highlighted by this teacher educator suggests a picture where teacher educator autonomy which is already limited is to be further constrained:

13 I would say in Wales there is a move away from autonomy more towards standardisation. One of the areas we’re looking at in initial teacher training across the board is to establish a Partnership Body to look at partnership across the country and all of the institutions involved in Teacher Education (in Wales), all 7 of them, are working together to put in a bid to establish such a body so in a sense that would take away individual autonomy. (W4)

On balance, however, this was seen as ‘not a bad thing’:

It would provide more clarity and more consistency for schools. Things like expectations of mentors in schools, expectations and documentation going into schools and form filling. These sorts of details which take away, will take away, from autonomy but I don’t think it’s a bad thing. (W4)

As far as the academic position of teacher educators in Wales is concerned, one teacher educator thought that the status of Teacher Education in Wales was high:

If you talk to the Higher Education Wales … they’re very supportive of Teacher Education … and it’s held in pretty good regard. (W3)

But the situation for teacher educators as researchers was not held in good regard at all:

I mean one of the frustrations is that the Assembly, you know, they will tell us this to our face, when they are looking for research evidence they very often have to go outside Wales to get it - we don’t have the research capacity in Wales to do some of this work. (W3)

This argument tends to place the burden of responsibility with the Assembly, but it is the Higher Education Funding Council in Wales and Universities who decide on the funding of educational research in HE. However, there are several possible reasons for the prevalence of this perception. It is no surprise that the lack of the embedding of education in the profile of a university’s research activities historically, as well as more pragmatic reasons like time and capacity, were alluded to in the interviews:

I think, you know, we have been too bogged down in teaching and not spent enough time bringing the status of research up, it’s something we’re having to play catch-up on a bit really, it’s certainly an aspiration. (W3)

Size is a significant factor in Wales as:

We’ve had a number of meetings recently where we’re trying to set up ways of working that allow us to collaborate on this and to joint bid for things because very often we just don’t have the capacity as individual institutions – we’re quite small and we don’t have the large research

14 capacity that perhaps some of the other English institutions have, so we have to do it together rather than separately. (W3)

The importance of the development of students in becoming effective and dedicated teachers was elaborated upon by all the teacher educators. What was seen as the re-establishment of the teacher as professional was stressed, as was the General Teaching Council’s role in promoting this:

… not just in theory but in practice and we’re currently going through a consultation period to get agreement on this professional framework which I think, if we get it, will go a long way towards establishing or re- establishing should I say, the teacher’s professional status and standing. (W3)

This participant saw teachers as having an influential role, not least through the power of the trade unions which are strong in Wales and work to ensure that teachers are fully represented in all the work they do:

If you go through the consultees you will see schools, teachers, teacher representative groups and so forth as part of the process… I think teachers are valued for their views and opinions. (W3)

Another teacher educator spoke of the type of students that were coming out of the Welsh ITT institutions to join this workforce:

We’ve got a huge number, the vast majority of students who are absolutely dedicated to teaching. (W2)

But these students are not ambitious to climb the promotion ladder, they ‘just want to teach’. They express themselves thus:

We want to be supporting children, helping them with their knowledge and understanding and their learning and their place in the world. (W2)

There was, however, a negative view from one teacher educator who thought that these high ideals were not necessarily fulfilled in practice, possibly because of the prescriptive nature of policies inspiring ‘doing the job’ rather than being adventurous:

I have to say over the years I’ve seen fewer inspiring lessons than I did at the beginning and I think it’s probably a sign of the people coming in but also of the system into which they are coming. The odd eccentrics doing exciting things and making something, I’ve seen fewer and fewer sadly. (W4)

Future challenges envisaged in Wales

In terms of future challenges, nearly all participants made reference to uncertainty about future funding and student places. As well as the issues of recruitment and the succession of policy reviews that Wales has undergone

15 over the last few years (resulting in temporary instability), this participant identifies a further challenge – revalidation of courses in the light of recent government guidance:

For example when the new review, which is called Beginning to Teach, the revamped 13/98 when it comes on board we then have to revalidate all our courses to make sure that the courses are in line with the requirements so that’s going to be a major challenge (W4)

It was agreed that education was in a state of flux and just what would be necessary for future teachers to focus on was of prime importance, but unclear:

Is it a narrow curriculum that they’re going to be teaching…or is it something wider? I don’t know where schools and education are going to but perhaps there will be a completely different system and … you’re looking 20, 30, 50 years down the road here … (W2)

In an already complex situation, further complications were on the horizon:

particularly with the workforce remodelling work now that’s going on…the number of variables creeping into this equation now is just increasing and I think we are finding it even more difficult to actually find a simple answer to a supply and demand model. (W3)

Some stability in this era of change could be retrieved from a fundamental belief in what was necessary for the individual:

So when our current 5 year olds are out there in the workplace, what are the needs that they’ll have? And it’s perhaps not just literacy, numeracy, science, but it’s thinking skills, it’s interpersonal relationships, it’s working with others, it’s teamwork and it’s notions of resilience, they’re looking after their own self-esteem. Maybe one of the things that puts my thinking like that is that a key aspect of the curriculum in Wales at the moment is global citizenship and sustainable development. (W2)

The relationship between Wales and England was seen as a future challenge:

What’s going to be more constraining in the future and isn’t really at the moment, are the differences between England and Wales and as the diversity gets wider, that’s the part that’s going to be difficult to manage because right now there are lots of similarities, but we can see them widening. (W2)

The significant difference for Wales is, of course, the Welsh language; bilingualism and multiculturalism which are not in early learning goals in England:

16 The vision of each government for the future citizens is perhaps different. So I can see that that is going to become maybe not frustrating but maybe more difficult to manage for our students. Because already they need to know both curricula, they need to know the Welsh national curriculum and the English national curriculum and there are differences. (W2)

Welsh institutions were forward-looking and taking ideas from international sources:

I think we certainly again signed up to quite a lot of the sort of fairly new ideas in terms of the teacher as being responsible for a somewhat broader remit than their subject and thinking about the whole education of the person and supporting and facilitating their needs rather than simply just worrying about their own subject. I think probably in a year’s time we’ll have a clear understanding of whether that really is going to be the future and how we need to change what we do. (W3)

Initial Teacher Education in Scotland

Background The First Minister for Scotland is responsible for the overall supervision and development of the education service. Day-to-day responsibility for education is delegated to the Minister for Education and Young People and the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning. They are served by the Scottish Executive Education Department (SEED) and the Scottish Executive Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department (SEETLLD). Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) advise SEED; the national bodies dealing with the development of the curriculum are Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS) and that for public examinations is the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA). The provision of publicly funded education is the responsibility of the 32 unitary councils, known as Scottish Local Authorities (SLAs). Gaelic-medium education is available in some Scottish schools. ‘A Curriculum for Excellence’, represents a reform and simplification of the curriculum to a single, coherent Scottish curriculum for the three to 18 age range. One very significant development for Scottish Teacher Education was the McCrone agreement (SEED, 2001): since 2002 all newly qualified teachers in Scotland have a guaranteed teaching post for one year immediately following qualification. This post has a maximum class commitment of 0.7 full-time equivalent (FTE), with the remaining 0.3 reserved for professional development The General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) is a statutory body that maintains a register of those qualified to teach in Scotland; it will be seen that the GTCS in Scotland is perceived to have a much stronger influence currently than the equivalent bodies in the other three nations of the UK.

17 In 2000 the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) published ‘The Standard for Initial Teacher Education in Scotland’1, establishing a set of benchmark statements which are the requirements for each programme of Initial Teacher Education in Scotland. The ITE curriculum is decided by University departments in consultation with the GTCS with the standards in mind. In Scotland we interviewed a representative of the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS), coded in the following text as S1. We also conducted seven interviews with members of staff across four universities offering ITE; four of these interviews are quoted in the following text, two from one university are coded as S21 and S22 and the others are coded as S3 and S4.

Reflections on ITE in Scotland

The representative of the GTCS outlined the main architects of the current system of Teacher Education in Scotland. The GTCS itself represents most of the important communities in Scottish education; there are ministerial appointments to it, as well as people from the Universities, Local Authorities, Social Workers and other groups. But the majority of members are from schools. All is underpinned by the government:

The government has been a significant aspect in education and Teacher Education. In terms of Initial Teacher Education there’s a set of guidelines from 1998 (The Scottish Office, 1998) about courses and they’ve never rescinded that. It specifies the length of programmes, the amount of school experience, the kind of things that should be in programmes. (S1)

There is also an inspection service – HMI Education – who have the legal power to inspect ITE:

What they tend to do is something called Aspect Review so they’ll come and look at one particular aspect of ITE, literacy for example … and I’ve just completed one on student placements. (S1)

The GTCS has risen in prominence over the last few years and teachers and teacher educators have ambivalent feelings about this:

They are a very powerful organisation in Scotland, increasingly because they also technically run the probationer scheme, and the chartered teacher programme2, their size and influence has extended considerably in the last three or four years, I guess this is positive, I guess the Teaching Council (QTCS) is the best body to do this, but like anybody I sometimes get frustrated at what I see as some of the pedantry. (S4)

1 www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/benchmark/iteScotland/introduction.asp (accessed 8.06) 2 www.scotland.gov.uk (accessed 8.06)

18 But, overall, the majority feel that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages:

But nobody can argue any more with the importance of having a Teaching Council. The Teacher Education institutions in Scotland have been unique and isolated and done their own thing historically, and there is more consistency now than there was before. (S4)

Similarly, teacher educators perceive there to be pros and cons to the Scottish benchmark standards:

In a small country one of the advantages of having a framework that everyone shares is that it provides a basis for discussion about what makes a good teacher… it’s been very, very helpful in that sense, but certainly there have been attacks on the competence framework and certainly the standard can be seen as hugely over-ambitious; that’s one of the problems with it, and another problem is that the competencies don’t reflect how beginners learn to do something, how beginners become experts. (S22)

Another participant commented that the benchmark standards are ‘too much, too complex, too wide-ranging’ to use in practice when assessing a student’s performance. He suggested that a viable alternative to a set of standards might be a more narrative account of what happens in the classroom:

…when I’m writing about a student’s performance I don’t do it with the benchmarks in my hand. I would have a simpler and more narrative description, it’s that narrative that leads to learning, when I describe to students what I see in their microteaching that’s when we get into discussion. (S4)

All participants remarked that the small size of Scotland has a tangible effect on the character of education. A key feature of the Scottish system is its collaborative, consensual nature:

Scotland’s a small country and education within Scotland is quite a small world. I know that’s a kind of two-edged sword. But the positive element of that is that I think in Scotland what we’ve got is quite a collaborative system where things are normally decided through discussion, through lots of consultation and then people actually subscribe to it so it’s quite consensual. The negative side of the ‘two- edged sword’ is that you maybe don’t have people breaking the mould. (S1)

Another participant referred to this as ‘easy consensus’:

Scotland’s a funny place because it’s so small everybody tends to know everybody else… the pool of so-called experts in ITE all know one another, they also know the inspectors, head teachers, it’s a wee bit of a small pond, there’s a lot of easy consensus that can be complacent. I’ve

19 never felt a breath of radicalism shooting through Teacher Education in Scotland. (S4)

As well as complacency and small ‘c’ conservatism, consensus can breed a logic that is difficult to take issue with:

There are clearly benefits to a small country such as Scotland to have a shared view of what makes a teacher. There would be advantages in any country; the fact that systems in Scotland allow us to arrive at these shared views through consensus is a great strength because it makes them, I think, more acceptable to everyone. But on the other hand there are dangers there too… it’s a bit like common sense, you know, you can’t argue against it readily. (S22)

One very tangible result of the assumption that good practice automatically proceeds from the distilling of collective experience is a lack of curricular variety, as one participant observed:

It’s also close-knit in terms of the curriculum and that is one of the major differences I’ve seen. In Scotland we have one exam authority – the SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority) – and therefore in any subject area there is one syllabus and therefore you might need only one exam book, a textbook, which basically covers the whole of that syllabus. (S3)

There are strengths to be gained from this situation as teachers ‘know exactly what they are doing’ and ‘the mobility of teachers is not necessarily very high’, but also there are significant weaknesses. This participant (S3) could see no likelihood of curriculum change; neither Learning and Teaching Scotland nor the SQA were candidates to provide the impetus for change.

One of the manifestations of great consistency across the education sector in Scotland is the relative strength of its local authorities:

Education authorities in Scotland have been valued by the government in Scotland irrespective of whether it was devolved government or a central government office… the role of local authorities has been valued, has been supported and indeed has been strengthened. (S22)

Significant changes in partnership arrangements occurred following the report produced by Deloitte and Touche (2001), which emphasised the need for a more effective partnership between the providers and the local authorities (4.1.3). The increase in accountability for local authorities meant that a degree of caution has been evident in their taking up this recommendation. Nevertheless, it has provided a platform for increased discussion of issues raised by ITE providers:

However the change that has happened because of the probation scheme I think has meant that the local authorities now are much, much more willing to get involved in Initial Teacher Education and the essence of a good partnership surely is that you’re able to talk about the difficult

20 things, that you’re able to deal with the difficult things, and I think the local authorities now are becoming more committed to partnership and the Teacher Education Institutions are beginning to raise the difficult issues with local authorities and vice versa but it’s still early days I have to say. (S1)

There are, naturally, structural problems that beset arranging student placements in any country, but potentially they are rendered more acute in Scotland because of the expectation of a guaranteed year-long probationary placement:

Put yourself in the shoes of someone in a school who is being asked to take on a one-year PGCE student and at the same time being asked by the Scottish Executive and by the local authority to take on a one year probationary student. There’s only so much teaching you can provide and some schools are going for one or the other. (S3)

The role of local authorities in arranging student placements is currently being augmented – they are taking a much more active role and money has been allocated to it. Again, participants working within Scotland have pointed out that this can be a double-edged development. On the one hand, it takes the pressure off faculties of education, but on the other it can increase the gap between ITE departments and the pool of schools with which they have a relationship:

The local authority will have some clout, they’ll be able to specify numbers and take some of the pressure off us, but it may mean that the personal touch of linking someone here with someone in school will be bypassed. (S3)

The emphasis on the education of teachers is manifest not only at the initial level but also in the standards for Chartered Teachers and Standard for Headship in Scotland. Participation in the Chartered Teacher programme is offered to any classroom teacher who is at the top of the salary scale, is fully registered with the GTCS and has kept some kind of CPD portfolio over the last year. Teachers themselves pay for each of the 12 modules but recoup this initial financial outlay in their eventual salary: successful completion of the programme leads to a salary of approximately £35,000 per year and the expectation that the teacher will take a leadership role in encouraging best practice. The qualificatory programmes demonstrate a concern for professional development in craft elements related to areas such as management as well as curriculum, but always involve modules in practitioner research:

In the past you qualified as a teacher, you worked your way up the salary scale, you went into a promoted post – that’s how you increased your salary. Here is an opportunity within the Chartered Teacher programme to qualify, do your probation, get to the top of the scale but then move on without having to go a management route. You may still have a

21 leadership route but leadership and management are not necessarily one and the same thing. (S1)

The programme has appealed to a lot of teachers who otherwise might not have taken their careers any further and the perception is that this has reinvigorated the profession, as one teacher educator who has supervisory responsibilities within the scheme comments:

Chartered Teacher Status came as a result of the McCrone Report (SEED, 2001) which revitalised the way that CPD was seen both as an entitlement and an expectation. It’s also come at the same time as the secondary qualification for headship… for those teachers who are aspiring to move ahead in their subject area, the chartered teacher offers a way of rewarding teachers financially – those teachers at masters level in scholarship but also in professional reflection and professional action. (S3)

Reflections on professional identities in Scotland

The professional status of teacher educators has undergone some changes in the last thirty years. Towards the end of the last century, Teacher Education in Scotland began to transfer from monotechnic institutions to universities. The Scottish Teacher Education Committee, superseding the previous Committee of Principals, is now comprised of the deans of education faculties and continues to function as a major voice in Teacher Education. The new location has brought the voice and power of the universities into the Teacher Education arena. Inclusion in the university sector has also brought the Scottish Council for Research in Education1 into the arena, giving research a higher profile.

Research is no longer an optional aspect of the work. Teaching competence is still an important criterion for appointment, but lecturers are required to have, or demonstrate the potential to develop, a good research pedigree. The demand for research competence as well as teaching competence has had a significant effect on the age profile of teacher educators:

Most of us had done some other degree or some little bits and pieces of research but the real reason for being there was that you were a good teacher. Now the move into the Universities has changed that. People are still being appointed who are good teachers but they may have been appointed because they’ve got the potential to get a good research pedigree as well and that has changed. It’s changed the age profile as well of Teacher Education. I think there are more younger people going into it now than there used to be. (S1)

One result of this is that the authority of teacher educators is not always taken for granted by members of the teaching profession who tend to value length of experience over research competence. Conversely, the teacher educator

1 www.scre.ac.uk (accessed 8.06)

22 who has a great deal of teaching experience but little experience of research is also potentially compromised, according to a member of staff from an ITE provider:

My kudos as a teacher educator really comes from the work I did as a teacher, school manager, national curriculum developer, it doesn’t come from the work I’ve done in research, there’s a systemic problem… it’s almost too late to develop a research portfolio by the time you become a teacher educator. (S22)

In order to counteract the view that research is taking precedence over teaching competence, some universities, such as Glasgow, are designating new posts by appointing university teachers on an equal basis with university lecturer/researchers. Thus, scales of promotion are now in operation that go from university teacher, to senior university teacher, to teacher professor in education faculties.

Scotland has a programme of Initial Teacher ‘Education’ rather than Initial Teacher ‘Training’. The stress on ‘Education’ implies that teachers take an intellectual interest in the world around them, have a commitment to their subjects, and a commitment to the field of education and the values implicit in it. This is summed up in the emphasis within the Standards for Initial Teacher Education and Full Registration of three related elements: professional values and personal commitments, professional skills and abilities, and professional knowledge and understanding. It is assumed that, once established, these qualities are central to teachers’ professional performance throughout their careers. A member of the GTCS commented:

Well to have effective teachers that should be the aim of it all. At the end of the day people are able to go into the classroom and do a good job but obviously classroom performance is absolutely central to it. Having well educated teachers seems to me to be one of the underlying principles as well. That you want people who themselves are interested in the world, interested in their own subjects, interested in how the subject or subjects are developing, interested in how education is developing and you want values as well. You want people who have appropriate professional values I suppose and have personal commitment to what is education. (S1)

Future challenges envisaged in Scotland

The second stage review of ITE in Scotland (SEED, 2005) points to the need for an increased attention to flexibility and widening participation:

We live in this wonderful world of new technology. What are we doing to make Initial Teacher Education more accessible across the country? Now Scotland is a fairly small country but there are some pretty remote areas. If you live in a really remote area – you’re in the Western Isles for example, how do you become a teacher? Do you have to go to

23 Aberdeen, do you have to come to Glasgow, do you have to come to Edinburgh? (S1)

Widening participation is not just a question of reaching geographically remote communities electronically (although, of course, this is an important part), it is also about encouraging currently under-represented groups into teaching:

Teaching is still very much middle class, female dominated is increasingly the way of it. Not enough men coming into it. Not enough people from ethnic minorities coming into it. (S1)

The structure of ITE provision may change in the future, possibly encompassing greater involvement on the part of universities in early professional development. For example, there is a new ITE programme currently being piloted at the University of Aberdeen called Scottish Teachers for a New Era (STNE)1:

We’re developing the BEd programme under Scottish Teachers for a New Era and the local authorities are signed up to it. The model proposed is a two year, more generally focussed degree study, which will widen their opportunities to take degree subjects with students from other degrees… in their first and second year a choice between what I would call a human science: psychology, anthropology, etc., as well as taking to advanced level a curricular area… and then a third course each semester with an education slant. In the first year it will be focussed very much on learning, and then there will be two years with a more general focus on the development of the primary teacher with close links to schools. They will have time based in school in the first year, but it will be different models with a different pattern. The model we proposed was 2 plus 2 plus 2: two years of a general study with a developing focus on education, two years of thorough educational training, and then two professional years - the probation year and the year beyond. (S21)

One can see how the STNE programme offers an opportunity to examine the effects of support from the ITE department further into a beginning teacher’s career. This initiative is an equal partnership between the Hunter Foundation2, SEED, and the University of Aberdeen, and is conceived as a seven-year project in the first instance so that the progress of one full cohort can be properly evaluated.

Initial Teacher Education in Northern Ireland

Background The two universities in Northern Ireland – the University of Ulster and Queens University Belfast – are responsible for training subject graduates to become secondary school teachers. Stranmillis College and St Mary’s College are

1 www.abdn.ac.uk (accessed 8.06) 2 www.thehunterfoundation.co.uk/ (accessed 8.06)

24 responsible for primary ITE; the vast majority of their courses are undergraduate degrees aimed to train teachers for early years and primary age groups. Stranmillis places students largely within the controlled sector, and St Mary’s within Catholic maintained schools.

There are five Education and Library Boards (ELBs). They operate regionally and are responsible for the controlled schools, as opposed to the Catholic maintained sector, which is managed by the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS)1. A teacher educator’s contract is always with an individual school but the administration of that process lies with these other bodies and, ultimately, with the Department for Education Northern Ireland (DENI)2.

The Curriculum Advice and Support Service (CASS) is responsible for all post-initial induction development allied to the original training unit in Northern Ireland. Another body – the Council for Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA)3 – is responsible for curriculum development.

In Northern Ireland we interviewed three members of staff within education departments offering ITE; two are quoted in the following text, coded as NI1 and NI2. We also interviewed a member of the inspectorate, coded as NI3 and three members of the General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland (GTCNI), coded as NI4, NI5 and NI6.

Reflections on ITE in Northern Ireland

The situation with respect to architects of the current system of education in Northern Ireland has changed greatly in recent years. One representative of the GTCNI explained:

I think in the past schools had great autonomy and there was a very good relationship between the schools having freedom. We didn’t have a National Curriculum in Northern Ireland up until fairly recently in our history. The schools, there was a freedom with the system and yet it was inspected, there was quality, I suppose, Quality Assurance from the Department’s Inspectorate. (NI6)

He thought that the chief influence now comes from the Department of Education. The inspector explained the historical legacy:

Well historically we have a segregated system of Teacher Education for the primary world. St. Mary’s caters for the Catholic schools and Stratherness still to a considerable extent, but less so than before, for Protestant schools. Now these are not called Catholic or Protestant as you will have gathered. Catholic Schools are called Attained Schools and Protestant Schools are called Controlled Schools so there’s that

1 www.onlineccms.vhost.tibus.com (accessed 8.06) 2 www.deni.gov.uk (accessed 8.06) 3 www.ccea.org.uk (accessed 8.06)

25 division. That’s the way society wants it really like so much else in our society. (NI3)

The situation for secondary ITE was similar but in the end the inspector suggested that ‘people go where they are most comfortable’. It was hoped to readjust the influence to bring the teaching profession back into the partnership as a strong voice.

The Protestant/Catholic division in the control of schools does not necessarily affect student placements according to one participant (although it should be noted that to teach in a Catholic school requires a special certificate):

We train all students similarly and we send all students to all schools. The training is exactly the same everywhere and there’s no restriction on that, you apply for the job and if you meet the requirements you aren’t restricted, the primary sector is just the same. There is another sector in Northern Ireland, the integrated school sector, and they are setting themselves up to try and bridge that divide. They would tend to be more comprehensive in their intake. (NI1)

The schools in Northern Ireland have no formal role in the assessment of student placements:

(We) have partnerships in schools but they have no responsibility for the student’s final assessment. We go in to supervise the fact that the school is providing the appropriate sort of support for students, we would expect our schools to support our students and there are all sorts of handbooks describing their role and our role, but we are solely responsible for assessment and examining. About ten years ago there was a move to change the system in Northern Ireland to provide money for schools to provide supervision and assessment, but schools rejected that. (NI1)

This participant believed the relationship between schools and ITE departments in Northern Ireland to be a healthy one – a relationship of partnership:

I think there’s an excellent relationship with schools in Northern Ireland and it’s one of good will, they’re not paid for either taking students or being part of advisory group… they see it as a professional issue. (NI1)

There are, however, pragmatic difficulties in maintaining and nurturing the relationships with the teachers responsible for supervising student placements. These are, one participant asserted, often the result of what could be described as a kind of ‘initiative overload’ in schools:

I find that the relationship with host teachers whatever you call them is always problematic – I’m a teacher that loves to have students or I’m not – but certainly we’ve found that the situation has become more difficult because of the pressing demands on schools. You know, we have special educational needs, we have testing assessment at the end of key

26 stages – they are called assessment units (AUs). It’s a very much more pressurised environment, which the English scene would be. The move towards removing content and focussing on skills is similar to what’s happening in England, isn’t it? (NI2)

It was felt that nurturing the relationship between tutors in HEIs and school- based mentors deserved more attention as it is through this connection that college and school-based learning can be effectively linked:

It’s infinitely better than it was but I still think it’s patchy for some understandable reasons in that not every school all the time has got a new beginning teacher or takes a student. If you get maybe a wonderful mentor one year and two years lapse and they don’t have a student teacher or they don’t employ a beginning teacher and that person may leave so it ends up being a bit of a conundrum and a bit of a difficulty for us really, attaining the standard of mentor training. (NI3)

A current preoccupation of the GTCNI is the application of a competencies model to Teacher Education. This was a review that the Department of Education asked the Council to take forward. Competencies in this context signal a move away from the view that once skills are demonstrated, boxes can be ticked and forgotten:

There’s a lot of debate and we certainly had the debate between standards and competencies and the Council came down on the side of the fence that views competencies as lifelong developmental features of Teacher Education rather than standards or attributes that once acquired are mastered at a particular point in time. (NI5)

This change of focus from measurement to a lifelong professional competencies model might have begun with the gradual separation from policy forged in Westminster initiated by the UK central government letting go a little bit and trying to engage Northern Ireland and the various partners within Northern Ireland back within the political process. After devolution, the Minister of Northern Ireland started to take political decisions tailored towards circumstances of Northern Ireland rather than simply having always to look over his shoulder to what was going on in the UK. (NI5) This participant phrased this in terms of Northern Ireland no longer having to be on the ‘fag end’ of English policy. There has been a broader cultural shift too, which has contributed to confidence in resisting excessive managerialism:

I also think there’s probably even been maybe at a UK level a bit of an ideological change occurring, you know that it’s no longer about harsh managerialism, quantification and measurement. (NI5)

There was a general feeling that competencies provide a way forward that is very different to the inspection regime experienced in England:

Our emphasis on developmental competencies rather than fixed measurable standards, our views about our philosophy of teaching and

27 teacher professionalism in terms of the development of professional communities and practice rather than simply trying to reduce teachers to instrumental technicians might be of interest to other parts of the UK. Our inspection models and our relationship with our Inspectorate are in my opinion … positive. (NI5)

Reflections on professional identities in Northern Ireland

Teacher educators enjoy high levels of respect from parents and the public. One participant remarked that there may be a few reservations on the part of teachers working within schools, however:

Teacher educators, I suppose from the public’s point of view they would have high status. I suppose the mythology there is that if you’re involved in Teacher Education you must have excelled within the profession to be promoted and to get such a post. Now whether that’s a reality is another matter. I think maybe the teachers in schools would be a wee bit sceptical about teacher educators to the extent that they’re viewed as people who are divorced from reality where their work is not grounded in experience and the day to day running of the schools. (NI5)

There is an irony here; the teacher educator is in something of an unenviable position. On the one hand practising teachers may suspect a teacher educator’s withdrawal from contact with pupils in schools – withdrawal from the ‘chalk-face’, as it were. On the other hand, academic colleagues in universities and colleges are apt to regard an attention to student practice a distraction from the business of ‘pure’ research:

I would be aware through friends of mine in the Teacher Education colleges, those who were the ‘teacher trainers’ those who provided the skills and the pedagogy would have been seen as lesser mortals than those who were the academics and pursued the academic subjects and I think that battle is probably still there. (NI6)

When a teacher educator does engage in research, the status of this research activity can be regarded as lower than research in other disciplines. One participant found an explanation for the comparatively low status of educational research within the methods and methodologies of education itself:

My own perception of it is that there is (tension in the academic position of ITE within HEIs) and that education and education faculties tend to be Cinderella faculties within HE institutions … I think part of the problem here is the nature of educational research which is bedevilled by problems in terms of methodology and in terms of the findings that educational research produces. This is particularly the case when you compare educational research with say for example research in physics. Educational research tends to be non-conclusive, non-accumulative and a lot of educational research tends to be self-cancelling… It’s also highly ideologically driven… (NI5)

28

Competition for ITE places is considerable in Northern Ireland and this is true across the province. According to one participant (N4), there are reputedly between 5 and 7 applicants for every teacher training place and no shortage of teachers. This participant felt that the academic standards to get into teaching in Northern Ireland are now comparable to other professions:

At one stage on the old A-level point system you needed 13 to 14 points to get in to Teacher Education on the UK mainland. You needed between 21 and 23 to get into teaching in Northern Ireland. I don’t necessarily think that means you get a better crop of teachers… but nonetheless it gives an indication in a sense that teachers in Northern Ireland were still regarded as a high status profession. (NI4)

Inspection regimes were not seen as being over-rigorous and had therefore, according to this participant (NI4) not had a negative impact on the status of teaching. Historical context is also important here. One participant observed that the particular recent history of Northern Ireland has influenced the way that professions are viewed, among them teaching:

Again it probably goes back to the idea of the profession being held in generally high esteem in Northern Ireland purely at the time we call euphemistically the Troubles. Many teachers worked very, very hard individually and many schools worked very hard individually to create better community relations and greater international understanding and developed a very humane curriculum as a response to what was going on. So teachers have gained a lot of credibility and respect because of the way they worked through the worst of the Troubles - as many other professions did of course… (NI5)

The majority of our participants from Northern Ireland concurred in their assessment of the high reputation of teachers. However, within the overarching feeling of respect for the teaching profession, there are gradations according to this participant:

I think that the general status of teachers in Northern Ireland is quite high but I also think that status can also be variable across different sectors. What I’m thinking here about is for example, if you teach in a grammar school, if you teach in a prestigious grammar school, that rightly or wrongly can give you a higher status than someone who teaches in a non-selective secondary school in an inner city area. (NI5)

Future challenges envisaged in Northern Ireland

One of the most important challenges for Teacher Education in Northern Ireland is to strengthen post-qualification CPD:

I think in some senses what there needs to be is a closer organisation of the post-initial [education] and there needs to be a definition as to what

29 the developmental pathways might be. That’s missing at the moment. At the moment in Initial Teacher Education, once you finish the early professional development (EPD) which is your third year of teaching, there is no structured or formal programme unless you decide you want to do an academic study, but let’s say you don’t want to do that. There’s no structured programme that allows you to actually have any other accreditation until you enter the professional qualification for head- teachers. (NI4)

There is a significant gap between what is experienced in ITE and the subsequent dearth of systematic development opportunities in schools (beyond paying for a post-graduate qualification). As one member of the GTCNI puts it, CPD is crucial because early years within the profession can have an enduring formative influence:

My own personal view is that it’s crucial that young teachers have a very positive experience of their early professional life in terms of their induction year and their EPD years. They are crucial because that’s when we shape professional identity. If we get those wrong, if people have a negative experience of early professional life, well, that can distort their view of teaching throughout the rest of their careers and that’s a big challenge for us all, given high levels of teacher unemployment in Northern Ireland … many teachers in Northern Ireland don’t have a very positive experience of early professional life; they spend significant amounts of time doing substitute cover and doing part time contracts, short term contracts, and that has to be very, very negative. (NI5)

This problem of limited full-time and permanent posts for beginning teachers will be compounded by demographic factors in the future:

The other difficulty would be demographic trends… in fact our latest survey … on induction and early professional development revealed that 51%, I think it is, of teachers graduating from BEds. are not proved to have employment in their first year. That is a serious hiccup from whatever angle you look at it and that is a trend which is likely to continue because the Protestant population of the province is dropping by - I think the last statistic I saw was 12%, and I think on the Catholic side, it’s dropping by something like 10%. Hardly a significant difference but the child population is going down. (NI3)

Reflections on the other countries of the UK

In general the teacher educators showed little knowledge of ITE or education in the other countries of the UK. Some had worked in different countries but the overall impression was of sketchy ideas and little cross-fertilisation of useful ideas. A teacher educator from England summed up the situation thus:

To be honest I’ve never considered it really so I don’t think I can comment. (E5)

30

Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all commented on their smallness and mostly saw this as giving them the advantages of a close-knit, rather ‘special’ environment. On the other hand, England came in for a fair amount of criticism from all four countries. One teacher educator from England was somewhat rueful, feeling that teacher educators in England looked enviously at other nations of the UK:

I wish we had the flexibilities and the freedoms that they do in other parts of the UK. I feel that other parts of the UK look at the expectations and constraints (of England) … and they’re saying I’m glad I don’t work in England. (E2)

One participant from Scotland commented on differences with England. In his opinion the imposition of the teaching standards was a big problem for teacher educators:

Rules and regulations have been brought in without any consultation … if you talk to teacher educators south of the border, they are preoccupied with what is being done to them rather than what they can do …. (S22)

In his opinion Teacher Education had been ‘hi-jacked’ in England:

Not by those professionals that are working in it but by others for their own reasons and clearly the government, with an agenda for raising standards in education, essentially dictated what would happen and imposed on those who were running it all sorts of targets, all sorts of conditions, and that has led to a huge amount of effort going into being accountable.(S22)

The amount of testing in English schools was criticised; one English participant felt that schools in Wales and Scotland had less rigid testing regimes:

There are fewer constraints on Welsh schools and I think Scotland has always been looked at with some degree of envy by the rest of the UK for its assessment regime which seems to be more pupil centred and learning focused. We don’t seem to be able to let go of that in England. (E2)

A teacher educator from Wales commented further:

There are similarities, it’s just a different approach and, in Wales, it seems to be a very supportive approach although I look at some of the new documentation in England and yes it does seem to be becoming more supportive but it’s much more assessment driven as I see it. (W2)

England was seen as the least supportive nation and the one where education was not held in high esteem in comparison to the other countries:

31

I think the status of education is higher in Scotland. (E3)

I think that … in Scotland … both teaching and Teacher Education is valued by society and evidenced by the perspectives the Inspectorate has for school and the way they work together. (W4)

This last participant from Wales also had some experience of Northern Ireland:

I think in Northern Ireland there’s a high degree of respect for Teacher Education … education is still highly prized and teachers are very well qualified. (W4)

In his opinion, Wales fell somewhere between the ideals evident in Scotland and Northern Ireland and what he called the situation of ‘teacher bashing’ and ‘naming and shaming’ in England. A colleague from Northern Ireland agreed that teachers and teacher educators in England, and to a certain extent Wales, had suffered a diminution of status and that Ofsted inspection was over-rigorous, aggressive and negative:

Our perception is that Ofsted carry a big stick and are a very ideologically driven organisation whereas the inspectorate in Northern Ireland are very, very professional and have a professionally ethical approach to their work, rather than the ideological. (NI15)

The inspector from Northern Ireland felt that they were ‘beginning to slip behind’ Wales and Scotland. In his opinion, Wales and Scotland had ‘steamed ahead’:

For a while Northern Ireland was in the forefront … we, and only we had the integrated initial induction and early professional development, we had defined competences … Now we’ve slipped …Wales has the emphasis on the learning country and Scotland has put masses of money behind the early development of teachers. (NI13)

But it is possibly his comment relating to the difficulties in relating to England because of its size which suggests a way forward for the four nations:

Sometimes we adopt things from England, sometimes we adapt them because our scale is different, sometimes reflect on them long and hard. (NI13)

Adopting, adapting, but particularly reflecting on the practice of other nations long and hard would seem to be beneficial to all teachers and teacher educators.

32 Discussion ‘Accountability machinery’ was widely regarded to have taken hold in England. This perception was held both within and beyond national boundaries. It was the way in which the accountability machinery was imposed as much as the character of the tests and inspections themselves that has caused widespread resentment. In other words, the lack of consultation and consequent feeling of comparative powerlessness is at least as significant in the minds of English participants as the practical entailments of inspection and testing, such as the time and effort it takes to prepare for them.

The picture to emerge from English participants was a mixed one, however. Not everyone resented the imposition of audits and inspections, or rather, their value was noted too; they are there to ensure quality, and a national body with oversight of practices within both schools and ITE provides a greater degree of consistency and coherence than would otherwise be possible across such a heterogeneous sector.

England may, historically, have borne the brunt of inspection and ‘initiative overload’. However, in the UK as a whole, there is a consonance between the ethics of teacher educators across nations: even if they are forced by law to become more mechanistic in approach, each participant found a way to resist excessive reductionism. Their concern for holism, for the development of the teacher as an individual, and their priority of care for children was in line with the educational priorities of teacher educators across the board. Many found a way of interpreting the system to encourage the development of philosophical and politically-aware students in their ITE courses. It is interesting to note that inspection in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland was much more positively viewed. Here there was talk of collaboration, suggestions of consultation and a feeling of working together towards a common goal that had not yet been reached by England.

Unlike Scotland, which has the landmark McCrone agreement (SEED, 2001) guaranteeing a year’s employment in a school following qualification for every ITE graduate, devolution did not allow Wales to do anything about the pay and conditions of teachers. But with the 2004 Higher Education Act1 there is the possibility of taking up devolution-type powers with regard to HE: these powers were used in 2005 to create a new funding system for HE and students in Wales that begins in 2007/08. Other major reviews of education have been undertaken over the last two years. For example, John Furlong’s review of ITE in Wales2 has recommended that undergraduate degrees in education be abandoned in favour of an exclusively postgraduate programme of ITE as there are currently too many teachers being trained in Wales for the number of teaching posts available.

Other parallels with Scotland do exist, however. There is a bilingual emphasis to education in Wales as there is for the teaching of Gaelic in Scottish

1 www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2004/20040008.htm (accessed 8.06) 2 www.learning.wales.gov.uk/scripts/fe/news_details.asp?NewsID=2242 (accessed 8.06)

33 Highland schools. In the case of Wales, however, Welsh is a compulsory foundation subject in English-medium schools. All primary teachers have to be able to teach to a level of Welsh in the same way that they have to teach all the subjects of the National Curriculum even though they may not have formal qualifications in some of them. As a consequence, the content and principles of ITE must reflect the Welsh curriculum. The Welsh dimension has been given a new lease of life with the Curriculum Cymreig1.

Previously, the Welsh Office looked to Westminster for the lead, but the Assembly has backed models like those outlined in The Learning Country (The National Assembly for Wales, 2001), in which there is a full commitment to comprehensive education. Furthermore, the Welsh GTC has had good funding from the Assembly government to secure a permanent entitlement to Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for teachers, including professional exchanges, networks, courses, and so on. The picture of education in Wales is an emerging one, and it is looking increasingly distinctive.

The General Teaching Council for Scotland has far greater powers than that in England (Finlay 2003), for example in the accreditation of Initial Teacher Education courses, and GTC(S) membership at all levels includes staff in university Education Departments as well as school teachers. Paterson (2002) identifies as pivotal the role played by Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Schools in every major development in Scottish education in recent years, and notes that their contribution as agents of standardisation has been effected through their roles as advisors and evaluators, rather than the narrowly inspectoral role. (Twiselton et al, 2004, 10)

Similarly, the role played by local authorities is much stronger in Scotland than in England for example, because of the relative strength and consistency of comprehensive schooling across Scotland. The Scottish Executive Education Department (SEED) is seemingly one hundred per cent behind local authorities, and ITE practitioners in Scotland also acknowledged their importance, albeit with some reservations. For the most part, their reservations could be expressed as the fear that local authorities having more involvement in administering student placements might diminish direct contact –that is, contact instrumental in forging productive relationships. On the other hand, Scottish participants recognised that local authorities taking on greater responsibility for securing student placements would alleviate their administrative burden.

In addition to – or perhaps because of – a powerful GTC and local authorities, there is an emphasis upon a language of education as opposed to training (this is also true for Northern Ireland), of enhancement as opposed to assurance, and of guidance as opposed to inspection. Is this just political rhetoric? The majority of our Scottish participants thought not, although there was some variation on the relative merits of consensus as we shall see below.

1 www.newi.ac.uk/buckleyc/cd/curriculum_cymreig.html (accessed 8.06)

34 Overall, there is concurrence with the first stages of the research undertaken by Brisard et al:

Despite the existence of Benchmark standards and national requirements for all ITE courses in Scotland, at least two Heads of education departments in Scotland acknowledge that Teacher Education Institutions are not totally constrained in Scotland and that it is nothing like in England. (Brisard et al, 2003:33)

The attempt for all stakeholders in education in Scotland to be involved in decision-making leads to equivocal views on the merits of consensus in the interviews: is consensus a tribute to the distinctiveness and democratic complexion of Scotland; or does it risk becoming a constraint? Some have remarked that Scotland is so small that everyone knows everyone in the education sector, and the mechanisms for widespread consultation actually mean that there are fewer opportunities for dissent, i.e. there is an assumption that ‘everyone has signed up to this’. The positive features of consensus identified in the interviews were; community, consistency, familiarity, goodwill, protection from unwelcome proposals and the ability to effect change relatively smoothly within national boundaries. The (perceived) negative features of consensus to emerge from the interviews were; an implicit conservatism, a lack of innovation resulting in stultification and consensus perceived as a form of ‘gentle’ coercion. Crucially, as one participant (S3) observed, when everyone ‘sings from the same hymn sheet’, it can hinder innovation – particularly curricular innovation. In contrast, the heterogeneity of practice in England – in terms of mode of ITE, variety of schooling, and choice of exam board, etc. – was regarded to be an advantage.

Overall though, we think it is fair to say that SEED and the GTCS were, in the main, respected and embraced by Scottish participants. Yes, the conservatism of the GTCS was mentioned, but any reservation was tempered by recognition that the GTCS provides an important and collegiate voice for Scottish teachers. Crucially, the people who are involved in accrediting the profession are, or were, teachers themselves. In this way ITE can be regarded as largely self-regulating in Scotland, with the guiding presence of the Executive and HMI to ensure the validity of processes and to provide a link between practice and policy.

In contrast to Scotland, Northern Irish participants noted the lack of an established GTC in Northern Ireland (although there was a perception that it is growing in strength). Despite what might be described as a ‘nascent’ GTC, the status of the profession seemed to be higher in self-reports from Northern Ireland, attributable to a complex variety of factors, including; the small size of the province, and the fact that the education sector is a significant employer in this context; the competition for university and college places and the consequent high academic quality of applicants (in terms of their school or degree level of achievement); the lack of an overly rigorous inspection regime; the resilience of schools throughout turbulent recent history in Northern Ireland leading to public goodwill. The political shift away from England has meant that new, more distinctive, educational initiatives can be

35 tried. There is current excitement about a model of Teacher Education that espouses competencies (as opposed to standards) and it is seen by the GTCNI to be a shift away from measurability and absolutes.

What could be seen as one of the strengths of education in Northern Ireland – the competition for ITE places – is mirrored in the competition for jobs upon achieving qualified status. This is naturally disheartening for newly qualified teachers, and as a consequence, there is emerging policy attention to the importance of strong early professional development that segues into equally strong ongoing CPD. Given the demography of the province, this is likely to remain high on the policy agenda.

Teacher educators across the four nations took pride in their job and were anxious to do their best for their students. In both Wales and Northern Ireland, participants noted that teacher educators were respected and held high status and education was highly rated in Scotland. All teacher educators had a vision of the type of practitioner they wanted to encourage and this vision was strongly linked to their ideals. In England there was a strong desire to create teachers who are reflective practitioners, ‘thinking professionals’; in Wales teacher educators were looking to promote effective and dedicated teachers who were ‘professionals’; in Scotland there was an aim to produce effective teachers who were ‘well educated’ and ‘interested’ people; in Northern Ireland teachers had high status within the community.

The demands experienced by teachers moving from schools to become tutors on ITE programmes in HEIs were touched upon by all our participants. The professional status of a teacher educator has traditionally rested on their career as a successful teacher, not as a researcher. When this balance shifts as they become absorbed into the research culture of an HEI with all that that entails – for example, the need for visible research output, particularly output that ‘counts’ in institutional assessment exercises – there is ground to be made up, often in a short space of time. Naturally these new demands are going to impact upon the self-image and self-belief of an individual, as they often require an ‘expert’ to become a ‘novice’, a ‘practitioner’ to become a ‘theoretician’.

Might this transition become eased by the contemporary discourse of the ‘reflective practitioner’, coupled with the new emphasis on teachers as researchers within schools? The commitment and ability demanded of teachers has always been considerable, but, particularly in the wake of teacher training colleges either becoming absorbed by universities or having university status conferred upon them, there is a growing requirement for teachers to seamlessly combine professional practice with (academic) intellectual rigour. ITE will logically become the first locus of this synthesis.

The quality and character of CPD was a priority for the majority of participants from the four nations of the UK, with many advocating the continued involvement of ITE providers throughout the induction year, and perhaps

36 beyond. STNE (Scottish Teachers for a New Era)1, the qualification being piloted at the University of Aberdeen, is perhaps an example of precisely this with the final two years of a six-year qualification taking place in school. Other interesting developments are afoot, including the reconceptualisation of schools as sites for multi-agency working. This is mentioned explicitly in the recently published (2005) second stage review of Scottish ITE:

‘It is important to distinguish between the Standard for Initial Teacher Education and the Standard for Full Registration, particularly in relation to what might be done in ITE to introduce multi-agency working. Many elements could appropriately be allocated to other phases of the professional development continuum. This suggests a greater role for local authorities than at present, and raises the need to encourage more positive relationships and cooperation between universities, local authorities and others with an interest in children and young people.’ (SEED, 2005:8).

The context is a Scottish one, but this attention to multi-agency working has resonance across the UK and emphasises the importance of solid working relationships across HEIs, schools, local authorities, and the wider community.

The future challenges for the four countries acknowledged the changing face of education. For England this changing face seemed to be concerned with worries over recruitment, compulsion and accountability through inspection. But for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, although there was some uncertainty, there was also more positive forward planning through new programmes and ideas to strengthen what was already a good basis.

Questions raised by the report This report does not suggest conclusions but does open up many avenues for debate and suggests further investigations. Its intention was simply to give a broad brushstroke picture by asking a small sample of educational professionals drawn from the four countries of the UK and concerned with teacher education to reflect upon what they saw as significant. It focused upon present trends and perceptions of professional identities and endeavoured to look towards the future. Its remit was wide and it claims no universal truths or definitive answers, nor does it concentrate on detail. Its value lies in the questions it raises and the thoughts it provokes. This final section will gather together some of those questions and thoughts.

It is clear that the four nations of the UK present differing views and practice when it comes to education. One of the most significant matters raised by this report is the fact that each nation’s representatives had only a vague and perhaps one could say sometimes opinionated view of their neighbours’ experiences. As there is a richness of experience and good ideas throughout the four nations, it would be beneficial for representatives of the four countries to become more conversant with the positive qualities embedded in each

1 www.abdn.ac.uk/stne/ (accessed 8.06)

37 system. Sharing of good practice and even of weaknesses and problems can develop an enriched approach which generates ideas for positive progress. Those that read this report have already engaged with this in three ways; firstly, by considering their own position in the country in which they work and comparing their opinions with those of the participants; secondly, by looking at the scant cross nation opinions and comparing their own knowledge of the neighbouring countries; and thirdly, by reading contributions from the other countries and gaining some insights into what is happening there.

Each country has a General Teaching Council. The participants in this report reacted in various ways; it was not mentioned by England, it was important to Wales as they had no equivalent TTA, it was seen as very powerful in Scotland and it was becoming more influential in Northern Ireland. Questions raised include; in what ways are these councils relevant to teacher educators and their students? Do the values and help they offer the practitioner differ greatly? Do they share aims and practice?

Each country has an inspection service. A positive relationship with the inspection service, backed up by collaborative and consultative practice would seem be an ideal towards which all would strive. Further investigation into comparative practices and the future of education inspection services would seem to be desirable, as would the fostering of autonomous action within accountable frameworks.

There are many commonalities across the nations. It is acknowledged that the relationships with teacher mentors in schools is vital, suggesting a need for investigation into the optimal way to integrate and benefit from the school’s contribution to training teachers. The idea of teaching as a list of ‘competencies’, often frowned upon at present, can, it would seem be approached in such a way as to maintain the ideals of the ‘thinking’ professional. Recruitment into teaching is paramount and could link to status; high status for teaching within society could raise its profile amongst would-be recruits. The notion of teacher educators as research active professionals links to teachers in schools becoming more research active and this links to professional credibility and to becoming active in one’s reflection on education. It is important that all areas of education work to enable this kind of research to be easier to accomplish and more highly valued that it seems to be at present. Standardisation of practice brings difficulties of perceived lack of autonomy but brings the positive bonuses of consistency and collaboration; how the positive elements can be developed is an avenue for further investigation.

Size is an interesting concept. There are perceived advantages and disadvantages in being small and in being large. There would not seem to be an optimum size and possibly, rather than using size as an excuse or a justification, the strengths and weaknesses occasioned by it could be distilled and adapted for comparative benefit. The role of local authorities is another interesting path for investigation so that the most can be made of the stimulating partnership this role promises.

38 In teachers and teacher educators and, indeed student teachers, there would seem to be a wealth of enthusiasm and dedication. The teaching councils all speak on their web pages1 of ‘professionalism’ and the maintenance of standards and suggest a positive image for teachers and teaching. As all (teacher educators and government agencies) appear to be ultimately wanting to produce ‘thinking’, ‘effective’, ‘dedicated’, ‘well educated’, ‘interested’ teachers with high status in the community and high self esteem, this would again suggest the promotion of collaboration within and across the nations. Thus the future, despite uncertainty, would offer promise, and purpose would be strengthened. The extension of the idea of teacher training/education beyond the student years and even beyond the induction year is particularly significant as the continuing re-development of teaching is an on-going process and the new teacher ‘professional’ will continue to evolve.

As teachers, educational professionals and teacher educators look forward, they will want to embrace a view of the role of education in children’s lives which is not static and must not be bound by borders or national, momentary policies. The preparation of the next generations of teachers remains an essential element for all societies and it is hoped that this report will stimulate an interest in learning, sharing and engaging with our neighbours’ experiences.

References Brisard, E. and Menter, I. and I. Smith (2003) Convergence or Divergence? Initial Teacher Education Policy & Practice in England and Scotland. Interim Report of a University of Paisley Funded Research Project November 2002- April 2004 (November 2003). Deloitte and Touche (2001) Report of the ‘First Stage’ Review of Initial Teacher Education, www.scotland.gov.uk/library3/education/tefs-00.asp, accessed 29.05.06. Finlay, I. (2003) Report on Research undertaken in Scotland [Escalate TEAK project: Tackling Educational Complexity across the UK] www.escalate.ac.uk Le Métais, J. (1997) Values and Aims in Curriculum and Assessment Frameworks, March 1997, International Review of Curriculum and Assessment Frameworks project. Paterson, L. (2002) ‘Scotland’ in Gearon, L. [ed.] (2002) Education in the United Kingdom London: David Fulton The Scottish Office (1998) Guidelines for Initial Teacher Education Courses in Scotland. Available online at www.scotland.gov.uk SEED (Scottish Executive Education Department) (2001) A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century: Agreement Reached Following Recommendations Made in the McCrone Report. Available online at www.scotland.gov.uk/

1 In reference section.

39 SEED (Scottish Executive Education Department) (2005) Review of initial Teacher Education stage 2: Report of the Review Group: May 2005. Available online at www.scotland.gov.uk/ Teacher Training Agency (2002) Qualifying to Teach: Professional Standards for Qualified Teacher Status London: TTA The National Assembly for Wales (2001) The Learning Country. Available online at www.wales.gov.uk/subieducationtraining/content/PDF/learningcountry-e.pdf Twiselton, S., Ewans, T. et al (2004) Beyond the Curriculum: Empowering student teachers to learn, think and act creatively within the many curricula that impact on their experience.

WEB-BASED RESOURCES

England www.dfes.gov.uk/ Department for Education and Science www.gtce.org.uk/homepage.asp General Teaching Council for England ww.tda.gove.uk/about/role The Teacher Training Agency’s extended remit’ www.inca.org.uk/index.html INCA Summary Profile – Education in England www.dfes.gov.uk/delivering-results/index.shtml www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/5yearstrategy/

Wales www.wjec.co.uk/ Welsh Joint Education Committee www.gtcw.org.uk The General Teaching Council for Wales www.inca.org.uk/index.html (INCA Summary Profile – Education in Wales) www.estyn.gov.uk Welsh Education Inspection service www.estyn.gov.uk/publications/GTP_New_Route_Teaching_ITT.pdf In 2004, Estyn produced a survey report, ‘The Graduate Teacher Programme: A New Route into Teaching’, which sets out Estyn’s findings on the standards and quality of the Graduate Teacher Programme and recommendations for its future direction and development. www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmbills/121/2006121.htm Government of Wales Bill www.wbq.org.uk/ The Welsh baccalaureat for 14-19 year olds www.new.wales.gov.uk The Learning Country 2

40 www.wales.gov.uk/subieducationtraining/content/circulars/1398/1398-annexb-e.htm Circular 13/98 www.learning.wales.gov.uk/scripts/fe/news_details.asp?NewsID=2242 The Furlong Report www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2004/20040008.htm (accessed 8.06) Higher Education Act www.newi.ac.uk/buckleyc/cd/curriculum_cymreig.html Curriculum Cymreig

Scotland www.scotland.gov.uk/ The Scottish Executive – the devolved government for Scotland www.inca.org.uk/index.html (INCA Summary Profile – Education in Scotland) www.gtcs.uk.org/ The General Teaching Council for Scotland www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/benchmark/iteScotland/introduction.asp The standards for ITE in Scotland www.scre.ac.uk The Scottish Council for Research in Education www.abdn.ac.uk Scottish Teachers for a New Era – Aberdeen University www.lts.scotland.org.uk Learning and Teaching Scotland www.hmei.gov.uk Inspectorate www.thehunterfoundation.co.uk/ The Hunter Foundation

Northern Ireland www.deni.gov.uk/ The Department of Education Northern Ireland www.gtcni.uk.org The General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland www.inca.org.uk/index.html (INCA Summary Profile – Education in Northern Ireland) www.onlineccms.com/ The Council for Catholic Maintained Schools www.ccea.org.uk The Council for Curriculum, Exams and Assessment

41 Glossary

CASS The Curriculum Advice and Support Service CCEA The Council for Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment CCMS The Council for Catholic Maintained Schools CPD Continuing Professional Development DENI The Department of Education Northern Ireland DfES The Department for Education and Skills ELB Education and Library Boards EPD Early Professional Development Estyn The Office of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education and Training in Wales GTC General Teaching Council GTCE General Teaching Council for England GTCW General Teaching Council for Wales GTCS General Teaching Council for Scotland GTCNI General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland HEI Higher Education Institution HMIE Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education ITE Initial Teacher Education ITT Initial Teacher Training LA Local Authority LEA Local Education Authority LTS Learning and Teaching Scotland NAfW The National Assembly for Wales NQT Newly Qualified Teacher Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education PGCE Post Graduate Certificate of Education QAA Quality Assurance Agency QTS Qualified Teacher Status SEED The Scottish Executive Education Department SEETLLD The Scottish Executive Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department SLA Scottish Local Authority SQA Scottish Qualifications Authority STNE Scottish Teachers for a New Era TDA Training and Development Agency for Schools TTA Teacher Training Agency

42