Teacher Education, one of the most intriguing things about all this‘policy noise’is
the way in which many previous policy attempts for reforming the sector were
resuscitated in the expanding policy textual portfolio of the conservative coalition
(2010–2015)—The importance of teaching: The schools White Paper 2010, the
follow up paper, Training our next generation of outstanding teachers: An
improvement strategy for discussion(DfE 2011 ). These policies are being accel-
erated in England by the present Conservative government (2015 onwards).
This chapter is an attempt to‘think aloud’about the policy proposals in circu-
lation in England that address pre-service teacher education. Rather than dealing
with details of policy and points of specificity in practice, the focus is with how
propositions are justified and the overall ways in which meanings are being man-
aged; a fundamental aspect of policy analysis. What I concentrate on is the‘general
politics’of truth, and the justifications (Foucault 1980 : 131) that surround the
reforms of teacher education in England.
32.2 The Case for Reform
The recommendations contained in the English policy documents focus on the
alleged need to improve teacher quality through‘attracting and training even better
teachers’(Foreword to the White Paper by Michael Gove 2010 : 7). (Michael Gove
was Secretary of State for Education in the 2010–2015 administration and was a
key driver of policy change in education provision including teacher education
reform). This improvement is to be managed in a variety of ways; one method being
by not funding any recruits who have less than a second class honours degree (in
England, a 2.2)—the assumption being that a‘better’class of degree leads to better
teaching and that subject knowledge can be separated off from pedagogy. As an
aside, the work of Darling-Hammond ( 2000 : 167) in the US on this matter suggests
that the relationship of subject knowledge to teaching effectiveness‘is curvilinear;
that is, it exerts a positive effect up to a threshold level and then tapers off in
influence’—an example of policy not necessarily reflecting evidence. Another
method for improving teacher quality at the point of recruitment is through more
rigorous‘basic skills’testing for intending trainee teachers—even though it might
be expected that these allegedly‘better’qualified recruits would already have
command of these skills. There arefinancial incentives for graduates in shortage
subjects to encourage their recruitment into teaching. There are more diverse routes
into school teaching.
Perhaps the most‘troubling’suggestion for those of us who work in Initial
Teacher Training (ITT), or who work in Universities where this work is central to
the mission of the Department, is the call for more training to take place‘on the job’
in schools. This is despite the fact that in the main secondary route into teaching in
England, the Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE), 24 of the 36 weeks of
the programme are already based in a variety of schools, and in the Primary PGCE,
at least 18 weeks of the programme are spent in school placements. In the
484 M. Maguire