of teaching and learning situations and school contexts and to participate in school life in a
way that is structured and supported. It replaces the term“teaching practice”and more
accurately reflects the nature of the experience as one encompassing a range of teaching and
non-teaching activities. (Teaching Council 2013 ,p.6)TheGuidelinesare underpinned by three key assumptions concerning the benefits
of reconceptualising the school placement experience, namely
It will enhance the school placement experience for student teachers
It will enrich learning outcomes for both current and future learners
It will deepen the professional satisfaction and improve the status of teachers.
(Teaching Council 2013 ,p.7)TheGuidelines, while detailed and the result of extensive consultation, are largely
aspirational, however, with little or no mention of exactly how any sea change in
the school-university partnership model is to be realised, operationalised or
resourced—‘host schools are encouraged to be communities of good professional
practice and to engage of their own accord with ITE,’(Ibid., p. 8).
11.3 The Elephant in the Room: The Professional
Development of Cooperating Teachers
The issue of the selection and professional development of cooperating teachers in
particular is an obvious gap in current policy and provision. Currently cooperating
teachers are selected by school principals to work alongside student teachers. The
criteria for this selection may be linked to their professional and personal capacity
to undertake this role, yet it may also be linked to other variables, such as time-
tabling issues or the need to supplement an ineffective experienced teacher with a
student teacher. Also, the lack of a more formal relationship between university
personnel (tutors and supervisors who supervise school placement) and cooperating
teachers who work alongside student teachers in school is again a glaring deficit in
existing provision. The context of becoming a teacher is a critical variable in
shaping student teachers’professional identity and the absence of a universal
framework which supports a professional conversation between university and
school personnel challenges the potential of this resource to empower student
teachers to deconstruct their apprenticeship of observation and build a strong
professional identity which is central to teachers’self-efficacy, motivation and job
satisfaction. Despite the central role that cooperating teachers play in the profes-
sional formation of student teachers, they have no role in the evaluation of school
placement. Assessment of this practicum is typically undertaken by HEI personnel
and while school-based personnel play a key role in the professional formation of
student teachers, they have a largely silent role in the area of assessment. The
Sahlberg report ( 2012 ) also drew attention to the issue of assessment of students on
school placement and the lack of any real partnership approach between school
11 Initial Teacher Education in Ireland—A Case Study 171