The concepts of‘career long teacher education’and‘accomplished teaching’are
central to a national review of teacher education in Scotland,Teaching Scotland’s
Future(Donaldson 2011 ), in which professional learning has been reconceptu-
alised. Professional development in Scottish education has long been associated
with continuing professional development,‘CPD’, largely short awareness raising
or skills based courses conducted either in school or by a local provider, frequently
the Local Authority. Such provision is often fragmented and does not lead to
sustained change in practice across a school. Nevertheless, teachers are expected to
engage in professional learning and demonstrate their ongoing development against
a professional standard through a programme of professional re-certification,
Professional Update,administered by the General Teaching Council Scotland
(GTCS). Within this process there is a tension between maintaining the required
level of performance against the professional standard which all teacher are
required to demonstrate on entry into the profession and enhancing the quality of
practice progressively across a career. There are then, a number of issues around the
relationship between the ongoing professional learning of teachers and the devel-
opment of accomplished teaching. The chapter begins with a discussion of the
development of policy in Scotland around the continuing development of serving
teachers since 1997 and critically appraises the strategies used to foster teacher
learning as part of efforts to improve attainment and achievement. Of particular note
is the Chartered Teacher Scheme in Scottish education where we consider some of
the lessons to be learned from this approach to developing accomplished teaching.
Then we turn to the question of teacher expertise. We conclude by considering the
role of professional learning and the relationship between the development of
accomplishment and the construction of a teaching career.
6.2 Teacher Development and Teacher Quality
in Scottish Policy
The question of ongoing teacher development has been an issue much debated in
Scotland over two decades and there has been a number of key milestones. Prior to
1998 there was little discussion of the need for a national approach to teacher
development. Instead there had been a substantial investment infirstly, a man-
agement development programme to support serving head teachers to implement a
wave of reforms in relation to the governance and management of schools and
secondly, a formal appraisal process for all teachers. A national framework for the
continuing development of teachers was proposed in 1998 and this idea has been
grappled with in Scottish educational policy in different ways over the intervening
period. In the proposal for a National CPD Framework a teaching career had two
broad pathways: that of teaching and that of management. The next major devel-
opment followed on from the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 and
after a period of industrial unrest in the teaching profession. A committee of enquiry
88 M.A. McMahon et al.