off in England, because teacher education has never enjoyed parity of esteem with
other disciplines or professions. Teacher education has always existed in an uneasy
alliance between the classroom and the lecture theatre; it has always existed in a
constrained relationship with the state lying somewhere between a pattern of total
domination to strong indirect influence at different moments in time.
These contemporary English reforms could be seen as an attempt to construct an
even more competitive market in the supply of different types of (and no) teaching
qualifications and perhaps a new hierarchy of teachers. What is also being advanced
is a move away from the state control of teacher education towards a less/un
regulated set of different providers; chains and clusters of schools run by sponsors
and social enterprise organisations providing teacher training. In all this rush to
reform, there are a number of dangers. One is the way in which individualism may
triumph over concerns for the common good. Will the training schools be preparing
teachers for all schools and all children, or just for their own? Will national con-
cerns about the provision of a linguistically and ethnically diverse teaching force
fall by the wayside in Schools Direct training routes? Localism may cost us dear!
And what to make of the version of the teacher and the school that is being
produced by these reforms? There are also more practical concerns; will these
reforms really drive up standards and teaching quality; will these reforms actually
produce the numbers of teachers needed; will these reforms tackle the issue of high
turbulence and early drop-out in teaching numbers? Let us see see!
References
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492 M. Maguire