Another‘multiple form of constraint’has been the need to manage teacher
supply, recruitment and retention—the numbers game! Currently in England, there
is an attempt to break the assumption that teacher supply is a responsibility and
function of the state. However, at various times, over-supply has led to the closure
of large numbers of teacher education colleges and high numbers of unemployed
teachers, while undersupply and extreme shortages have resulted in‘quickfix’
policies. There have been various schemes, driven in part by a shortage of recruits
to teaching as well as difficulties in retention, to enlist the services of different
constituencies, such as a scheme in 1993 for a so-called Mum’s Army of primary
teachers, which eventually transmuted into Teaching Assistants. And even further
back, at the end of the Second World War, many ex-servicemen and women were
successfully drafted into becoming‘Emergency Trained Teachers’because of staff
shortages. Thus, it is evident that in England the construction of the teacher has
always been context dependent—the teacher is constructed out of local histories,
cultures and politics. The teacher is also constructed out of economics and expe-
diency too.
One of the unintended consequences of all this diversity of routes into teaching
is that it can contribute towards a loss of professional identity and a reduction in the
power of teachers and teacher educators to influence professional development
policy and practice. Hencke ( 1978 : 124), writing of the reforms in the 1970s and the
diversity of entrance routes at the time said:‘Nobody would dream of allowing
practising lawyers, doctors, dentists, or architects to run their professions with such
a variety of qualifications. It would be considered unprofessional and against the
public interest’. Now while I do not whole-heartedly agree with what he is saying in
terms of some routes into teaching, he does have a point.
One more reason why teacher education has always been relatively easy to
position as in need of reform in England is that it has regularly been demonised
since its inception in the nineteenth century and onwards, right up to the present
times. These discourses of derision are built out of a‘type of discourse which it
(society) accepts and makes function as true’(Foucault 1980 : 131). Over time in
England, the positioning of teacher education as‘flexible’, as low status in the
academy and as a (mainly) practical concern set alongside the positioning of
teachers as semi-professional state workers, has contributed towards this
susceptibility.
32.4 And Why More Reforms to Teacher Education
Again?
The reform of teachers and teacher education has always been driven by more than
pedagogical concerns about raising quality and helping children to learn, and
improving the pre-service provision for teacher education, important those these
are. While there have been persistent and long-standing concerns with supply and
32 Reforming Teacher Education in England... 487