Inspectorate, Graham Donaldson. The review, entitled ‘Teaching Scotland’s
Future: Report of a review of teacher education in Scotland’, reported in 2011
making 50 recommendations, all of which were accepted by Government in whole,
in part or in principle. Amongst other things, the recommendations called for:
greater partnership between schools, local authorities and universities in supporting
teacher education; a revised suite of professional standards, including a new
‘standard for active registration’; the establishment of a new Scottish College for
Educational Leadership; new forms of undergraduate initial teacher education
encompassing a greater focus on disciplinary study outwith education; and all
professional learning to be at Masters level (although notably, did not call for a
Masters qualified teaching profession). The Report as a whole called for what
Donaldson variously termed‘21st century professionalism’,‘extended profession-
alism’, enhanced professionalism’and a‘reconceptualised model of professional-
ism’, suggesting a radical change to teacher education and teachers’work in
Scotland. It is also worth noting that this review of teacher education was taking
place at a time of significant curriculum reform (see Priestley 2013 ) which posi-
tioned teachers as curriculum developers and encouraged much more professional
autonomy than the previous curriculum structures required.
Shortly after the Donaldson Review of teacher education was commissioned, the
Scottish Government invited Professor Gerry McCormac, Principal of the
University of Stirling, to carry out a review of teacher employment in Scotland:
‘Advancing professionalism in teaching:The report of the review of teacher
employment in Scotland’, also published in 2011. Several of the recommendations
in this report also had a bearing on teacher education policy, not least the contro-
versial recommendation to discontinue the internationally admired Chartered
Teacher scheme (for further discussion of the Chartered Teacher Scheme see
Ingvarson 2009 ; McGeer 2009 ).
While some current teacher education policy initiatives can be traced clearly to
either the Donaldson Report or the McCormac Report, other important develop-
ments are not as easily attributable to one particular policy review. For example, in
granting the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) full independent status
in 2012, the Scottish Government charged it with developing a system of‘pro-
fessional reaccreditation’whereby registered teachers would have to prove their
eligibility to remain on the register on a periodic basis. As a result of negotiations
between and among the various stakeholders, this eventually became‘Professional
Update’—a process whereby teachers are required to get their line manager to
sign-off to say that they have undertaken appropriate professional learning activities
over the pastfive years. While the genesis of Professional Update can be traced to a
Scottish Government imperative, its links to other aspects of teacher education
policy, such as the revised professional standards, locate itfirmly within the
post-Donaldson milieu of policy activity. The development of policy emanating
from the Donaldson Review and Report has been based on a network governance
approach, with multiple working groups, constituted by members drawn from all
the key stakeholder groups, with an emphasis on consensus building (Kennedy and
Doherty 2012).
38 Researching Teacher Education Policy: A Case Study from Scotland 571