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Learning to Teach in post- devolution UK

Moira Hulme, Martin Jephcote, Pat Mahony, Ian Menter, Anne

MoranUCET 2007

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Structure of the presentation

• Introduction

• Methodology

• Teacher education in the UK

• Four conceptions of teaching or one?

• Conclusions

• Open discussion

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Setting the Scene

• Prior to devolution the pattern of policy making across the four UK nations has been characterized as a mixture of leadership, autonomous policy making and reactive policy making (Raffe et al, 1999).

• We explore the ways in which the balance of interests in each nation, as well as inter-country and global influences, create the distinctive contexts which appear to be increasingly different.

• Also emerging from the analysis will be an assessment of the cultural significance of the policy processes shaping and reshaping initial teacher education in relation to varying degrees of political independence.

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Comparative Education in the 21st Century: the case of home

internationals

• ‘home-international’ comparisons

• Raffe (2006) set out what became a very influential model within our project.

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Significance of Culture and Context

• Prevailing policy discourses and underlying strategies are outcomes of local, historical and cultural traditions

• Existing structural and cultural complexities of policy contextualization should not be ignored.

• For example:In Northern Ireland…In Wales…In Scotland…

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Design and Purpose of the LtT Project

• New spaces for ‘local’ inflection of ‘trans-national’ policy agendas.

• To recognize the socially and politically constructed nature of teacher education

• Policies and practices are not inevitable but contingent on the social forces that produce them.

• Revealing the contested nature of policies and policy making

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Teacher Education in the UK: policy context

Developments in the post-1997 period:• Creation of GTC for England, renaming of TDA• McCrone Inquiry (2000) into teachers’ pay and

conditions in Scotland• Furlong Review (2006) of ITT provision in Wales• On-going review of teacher education (2004, 2005,

2007) in Northern Ireland

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Professional Standards‘professional standards’ (England and Wales)‘benchmarks’ and ‘standards’ (Scotland)‘competence statements’ (Northern Ireland)

• Professional values/attributes• Professional knowledge and understanding• Professional skills and abilities

Strong focus on the development of practical teaching skills…

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Language of Standards Statements

• ‘wider community’ (Wales)• ‘community’ (Northern Ireland)• ‘community served by the school’ (Scotland)

• Engagement with educational research (Scotland and Northern Ireland)

• England: ‘constructively critical approach towards innovation’

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Moral Values• Standard for ITE in Scotland is more explicit about

spiritual, moral, social and ethical dimensions of ITE• NI competence statements underpinned by a

Charter for Education and a Code of Values and Professional Practice

• Welsh document includes statements on equality and inclusion

• England: no statement of values in the revised Standards (2007)

[See Moran (2007) and Mahony (2007)]

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Mentoring Arrangements• England and Wales schools within partnership networks

receive payment for placement responsibilities

• Extended roles and responsibilities rejected by teachers in Scotland and Northern Ireland

• In Scotland secondary schools have a ‘regent’ who coordinates placements but formal responsibility for support and assessment remains with university

• Partnership arrangements in NI voluntary and non-contractual. No funds go to schools for ‘teacher tutors’

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Convergence or Borrowing?

• Competence framework for ITE• Similar minimum entrance qualifications, school

placement periods, Career Entry and Development Profiles

• Greater collaboration between sectors of education and between professionals in education-related work

• International movement towards integrated professional development frameworks

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Professional Development Frameworks

Northern Ireland

• ITE• Induction

• Early Professional Dev• Chartered Teacher

• Advanced Chartered Teacher

GTC Wales• QTS• Induction• Middle Leader• Chartered Teacher• Senior Leader/Headship

England• QTS• Induction• Post Threshold• Excellent Teacher• Advanced Skills Teacher

Scotland• Standard for ITE (SITE)• Standard for Full Registration

(SFR)• Chartered Teacher• SQH/SfH

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Divergence within Surface Similarities• ‘Choice’ in Scotland refers to curriculum flexibility rather

than school type• ‘Diversification’ of provision in Scotland refers to

expansion of specialisms rather than providers• Greater attention to values in NI and Scottish frameworks• Inspection regimes of Estyn (Wales) and HMIE

(Scotland) appear less interventionist than those associated with Ofsted

• Consultation with the profession has been a feature of policy making in Scotland and is becoming more evident in Wales and NI– Partnership-oriented policy process?– More democratic?

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European Influences

• EU integration and harmonisation- ‘symbolic community’ (Hall, 1992)

• Promotion of convergence: common principles for ITE

• EU Educational Governance and Social Integration and Exclusion study (Lindblad and Popkewitz, 2002)

• New agenda for Europe under globalisation

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Wider Global Influences• Emergent supranational policy bodies as

‘social brokers’, ‘knowledge mediators’, ‘catalysts for generating policy ideas’

• Inherent tensions of globalisation: ‘bureaucratic interpenetration’ (Lawn & Lingard, 2002), dominant themes of economic competitiveness, effectiveness and efficiency and accountability and/or potential for social progression through wider comparative references

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Conclusions• ‘Divergence or convergence’ not easy to establish:

high level of complexity in relationships between and within each context;

slippery nature of conceptual tools;multiple meanings within and across contexts; dynamic nature of ‘fast’ policy.

• Divergence in conceptions of teaching and teachers (values) v convergence (training, assessment ‘skills’)

• Increasing ‘peculiarity’ of the English

• Next steps

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Some questions

• If there are significant differences in definitions of teaching, does it actually matter?

• If there are significant differences in policies are these likely to be reflected in practice/experience?

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Check the website….

• www.learningtoteach.org

• Also draw your attention to TEG – two conferences:Glasgow 5 February 08

London 7 March 08