Who Should Control Teacher Education? Lessons From England.

Overview & Synopsis

This paper discusses changes in England's teacher education, using data from interviews, literature, and observation. The research examined how teachers and teacher educators responded to sweeping changes imposed on schools and education following the Education Reform Act of 1988. Both the United States and England experience significant criticism of teachers and teacher education from elected officials and the press. The British government has increased its control of teacher education over the past 2 decades. There are efforts to move teacher education responsibility from universities to schools. The National Curriculum dictates about 80 percent of the content in primary and secondary schools. Its increased emphasis on math, science, and design technology has schools of education struggling to catch up. The recent Labour government brought little change in education policies created by the Conservative government. However, it endorsed the Teacher Training Agency's role in setting benchmark standards to initial teacher training. U.S. educational policymakers can learn many lessons from England's experience, and they must reexamine several notions e.g., that they can improve teacher education by merely enacting prescriptive, restrictive laws; raise teacher quality by moving teacher training into schools; candidates will flock to teaching if it is easier to bypass university-based teacher education; and carrot-and-stick funding motivates true improvement in education. They must showcase successful grassroots efforts toward reform and collaboration, and they should realize that mandated change has repercussions on the educational system. (Contains 28 references.) (SM)