Search

The global significance of teacher education has never been greater than it is today. In this world where migration, inequality, climate change, political upheavals and strife continue to be manifest in many locations around the world, governments and scholars alike are increasingly considering what role education systems can play in achieving stability and managed, sustainable economic development. With growing awareness that the quality of education is very closely related to the quality of teachers and teaching, teacher education has moved into a key strategic location in international debate and discussion. This proposition is as true and pertinent in the global south and east as it is in the northern and western worlds. All of these concerns have been amplified by the impact of the global viral pandemic. There are many moral challenges to be faced by teacher educators, policymakers and researchers.

The purpose of this paper is to scrutinise what the term quality means in the context of teaching and teacher education and to discuss how we maintain those aspects of quality that do appear to be important in the contemporary development of policy and practice in teacher education. The paper draws on some comparative studies in teacher education that have been undertaken in recent years. Initial consideration is given to the macro and meso levels of policy and practice, through looking at state institutions and at the roles of educational institutions. The focus then turns to the micro level, considering the quality of the participants in the provision and experience of teacher education. The paper identifies the anthropological significance of teacher education and the wider social insights that may be gained from such study in the twenty-first century and in conclusion some contemporary global challenges to the maintenance of quality in teacher education are considered.

Teacher education continues to be a key focus of education policy concerns around the world as the influences of neoliberalism and globalisation continue to have significant effects. But as we have...

The three main themes of this Special Issue of European Journal of Teacher Education are brought together and considered in the light of what has been said in the articles included. These themes of teacher education, professionalism and research are all dynamic in the way they have been developing over time and also demonstrate considerable geographical diversity in their manifestations. This paper considers the extent to which these temporal and spatial differences indicate a series of tensions, difficulties and paradoxes as the processes of globalisation continue to influence educational policies and practices around the world. The extent to which the outcomes represent increasing convergence or divergence is discussed and the paper concludes by suggesting a number of key questions that may be asked within a particular context in order to make an assessment of the state of health of the teaching profession within that setting., This work was financially supported by Portuguese national funds through the FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) within the framework of the CIEC (Research Center for Child Studies of the University of Minho) projects under the references UIDB/00317/2020 and UIDP/00317/2020.

This paper is based on a profile of Initial Teacher Training (ITT) provision in England, which was developed as part of a wider research programme on Diversity in Teacher Education (DiTE) based at Bath Spa University (Whiting et al, 2016). It provides a new topography of routes to qualified teacher status (QTS) in England for the academic year 2015-16, along similar lines to an exercise undertaken for an earlier research programme, the ESRC funded Modes of Teacher Education (MOTE) projects conducted in the 1990s (Barrett et al, 1992; Whiting et al, 1996; Furlong et al, 2000). The allocations and census data published by the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) provide the basis for this new topography, with additional material from a range of sources, mostly online. Reflections on further changes in policy discourse since the year of analysis hint at an acknowledgement of the role of Higher Education (HE) and a reduced emphasis on the much vaunted focus on ‘school-led’ routes. However, there is little to reassure either ITT providers, or potential candidates, of a long term plan aimed at halting the trajectory towards over-complexity and incoherence. The analysis raises important questions about the quality of such diverse teacher education provision, the nature of partnership between higher education institutions and schools, and the impact of reform on the identities of those training to teach.

Educational research in Scotland has a very distinguished history and has made a major contribution in several aspects of methodology, not least in the relationships between researchers, policymakers and practitioners. The paper considers the Scottish contribution to the development of educational research past, present and future and the significance of interactions at three levels – the UK, European and global. Against the backdrop of the forthcoming independence vote, it is argued that the historic distinctiveness of educational provision in Scotland – both before and after devolution - has been a significant benefit to the research community here. However, there are some internal dependencies that may need active nurturing, if the benefits of this independence are to be sustained. Furthermore there are critical elements of interdependence, at all three levels, which will be important in pursuing an aspiration to maintain research of the highest quality that will support learners and teachers in the years ahead.

The commitment to establishing a 'school-led' system of teacher education in England, announced by the Coalition Government in 2011 (DFE, 2011) and relentlessly pursued thereafter, represented a radical departure from previous kinds of initial teacher education partnership. While it is entirely consistent with a neo-liberal agenda, with its strong regulatory framework and appeal to market mechanisms, it is also underpinned by a particular conception of teaching as a craft - 'best learnt as an apprentice observing a master craftsman or woman' (Gove, 2010). In 2014 the Government established a Review of Initial Teacher Training, led by a primary school headteacher, Sir Andrew Carter. This signalled the recognition of teacher education as a 'policy problem', adopting Cochran-Smith's term. The ensuing report, published in early 2015, was more nuanced than might have been anticipated although a number of profound tensions emerge from a closer analytical reading; four of these tensions are similar to those previously defined by Cochran-Smith and two are newly emergent. This paper identifies and discusses these tensions as they appear in the Carter Review and relates them to wider debates about the links between teaching, teacher education, evidence and research and to policy making processes in education.

This chapter examines the history and nature of primary education in the UK, including its boundaries and links with early years and secondary education. A number of competing traditions have been seen to influence the shaping of the primary school curriculum. What emerges is a complex picture with some variation between the four nations of the UK and a number of significant political interventions, especially towards the end of the twentieth century. The role and responsibilities of teachers in relation to the school curriculum have been a matter of considerable change and we begin to see how the professional identities of primary school teachers relate as much to children as they do to knowledge.

This paper seeks to explore how we may best understand the relationship between teacher identity and national culture. Using Raymond Williams’ concept of ‘structure of feeling’ as a starting point, it is suggested that creative cultural forms of representation of teachers may complement social scientific studies to give a more complete and richer view of these matters. The paper focuses on England and Scotland, and has three substantive parts. First, consideration is given to the depictions of teachers in fictional literature from Scotland and England. Second, consideration is given to the range of methodologies that are deployed by sociologists in their consideration of teachers. Thirdly, the author draws on his own studies of teachers in both countries, to assess whether these throw any further light on questions of identity and culture. The concluding discussion argues that the complexities of the interplay between history, culture and identity are such that any single approach is unlikely to provide a...

In his inaugural Presidential Address, given to the BERA Conference 2013 at the University of Sussex, Ian Menter addresses a number of issues concerning educational policy and the contributions that educational research might make to policy development. As BERA approaches its fortieth anniversary, he also sets out some of the responsibilities that the association faces in ensuring the health and quality of education research in Britain.

This paper takes a sociocultural approach to questions around the professional identity of teacher educators in Scotland. Through an analysis of the historical trajectory of Scottish teacher education and its institutions, it is suggested that there are four distinctive groups of staff currently working in the university departments that provide all of the initial teacher education. The professional backgrounds and experiences of these four groups are illustrated by data drawn from a series of interviews with Scottish teacher educators. The members of each of the four groups tend to have different relationships both with the academy and with the teaching profession. As they develop their careers as teacher educators, the continuously changing institutional environment may create different pressures on them, some of these emerging as identity conflicts, even though they are all working within the same ‘territory’ of teacher education.

Teacher education in the UK is undergoing a period of active development. In order to identify the rationale offered for change and the direction of travel this article reports a textual analysis of two key policy texts recently published in England and Scotland: the English Schools White Paper The Importance of Teaching (Department for Education, 2010a) and Teaching Scotland’s Future (Donaldson, 2011 ). These influential documents are explicitly relevant to the study of teacher education in transition, specifically the extent to which policy formation is premised on different forms of deliberation, different models of professionalism and different visions of a socially just education system. The analysis presented here is ‘critical’ in the sense that it interrogates the claims made in policy language and explores their constitutive effect. Key themes include the construction of ‘partnership/collaboration’ and ‘professionalism’ within these texts and how the ‘re-conceptualisation’ of both is informed by different sets of interests and values. Whilst the focus here is on teacher education, this analysis raises wider questions about the relative health of the public sphere in different jurisdictions of the UK.

Currently schools in Scotland are engaged in major curriculum and assessment reform entitled Curriculum for Excellence (CfE). In common with other areas of education policy pre- and post-devolution, the CfE development process has been characterised by consultation, but additionally ‘engagement’ has been sought with stakeholders. This paper offers an account of the development of the engagement process and reports key findings to emerge from within the profession. Drawing mainly from data derived from teachers who participated in the process, the paper considers the re-professionalising claims attached to the new flexibilities within the revised curriculum. The paper initially addresses the challenges faced by the profession in working with looser curriculum structures that afford a higher degree of professional judgement to teachers and greater autonomy to school leaders to build the curriculum to meet local needs. In the discussion that follows, it emerges that those teachers who experienced fuller ‘engagement’ with the draft curriculum materials, through piloting them, tended to be more wholehearted in their disposition towards the new curriculum and its associated pedagogy, than those who had only been ‘consulted’, through completing questionnaires, for example.

The book is clearly structured, consisting of two sections. Initially, the book provides context, rationale and an articulation of the authors’ position, whilst the second section draws on the authors’ own research to provide ways in which primary student teachers and teachers might use and develop talk across some primary curriculum subjects in their practice.

Teach First is an educational charity that places graduates to teach in ‘challenging’ schools for two years. It is marketed as an opportunity to develop employability while ‘making a difference’. In this paper, I examine the process of class reproduction occurring in this graduate employment scheme through examining the discourses used in Teach First marketing and by Teach First participants. I begin by arguing that the Teach First participants interviewed as part of an evaluation were predominantly middle‐class, and possessed social and cultural capital which had facilitated their access to the Teach First scheme. I then illustrate three processes of middle‐class reproduction within Teach First. The first is the accumulation by participants of additional social and cultural capital. The second is the reproduction of middle‐class values and stereotypes of the working‐class other, and the third is the obscuring of middle‐class advantage through discourses of ‘natural ability’. I conclude that although well...

This article discusses the first stages of the work of the Teacher Education Group (TEG) in building research capacity in teacher education research and identifies the potential of the model adopted for future European initiatives in the field. The TEG work is part of the second phase of the Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP), based on an embedded social practices model of research capacity building. The article opens by outlining the broad context of research capacity building initiatives and identifying general factors which create concerns about the sustainability of teacher education research in the United Kingdom. It then describes the initial impetus, within the TEG, for the creation of an up-to-date annotated mapping of current research in teacher education and outlines the practices used to generate the model used for the mapping. In conclusion, the article discusses some of the methodological, ethical and epistemological issues raised by the mapping exercise and the challenges ahead in disseminating and embedding the initiative.

When 'New Labour' came to power in the United Kingdom in 1997, one of their first major initiatives was to establish new devolved political institutions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Drawing upon developments in education in Scotland and England, this article explores some aspects of 'regulation', 'autonomy' and 'control' in the post-devolution context. The purpose of the article is to assess the ways in which New Public Management have influenced education policy in the two countries. Aspects of the governance of education are examined in the two national contexts. The 'modernisation' of the teaching profession is examined as a particular case, as well as more general aspects of governance. A number of similarities and differences in the two countries are identified. The themes that best demonstrate these similarities and differences are privatisation, performativity and the policy process. The conclusion seeks to identify the extent to which developments in either or both countries can be attributed to the global neo-liberal agenda. Introduction: new public management and governance in post-devolution UK Recent changes to governance within the United Kingdom (UK) offer the opportunity to explore whether new forms of 'regulation', 'control' and 'autonomy' are evolving in education policy. Considering the ways in which 'New Public Management' (NPM) has evolved within the context of constitutional change raises the question of whether new forms of 'regulation' and 'control' are being developed and deployed. The analysis of education policy gives insight not only into the 'new' post-devolution Scotland but also helps towards our understanding of the complex relationship between local autonomy and central control. The complexity of the policy environment has produced tensions in the ways in which 'regulation', 'control' and autonomy' have been pursued in education policy throughout the UK. Schools, local government, national parliaments and the UK government operate within an increasingly complex policy environment in which both internal and external pressures influence policy making and implementation. 'Globalisation' has led to a blurring of boundaries between international and local policy agendas. However, the national context remains significant, 'as "embedded" policy mediated by local contextual factors may translate policy to reflect local priorities and meanings' (Ozga & Jones, 2006

This article presents the conceptual and methodological framework of a two‐year comparative research project (2002–2004), funded by the University of Paisley. The study, entitled ‘Convergence or Divergence? Initial Teacher Education in Scotland and England’, investigated initial teacher education (ITE) policy and practice in England and Scotland in order to establish whether there is evidence of convergence or divergence between the two systems. The article first sets out the rationale for such work in the dual contexts of globalization and devolution before presenting and justifying the specific comparative methodological approach selected. The second half of the article focuses particularly on the study design and some of the challenges involved with its implementation, relating the discussion to the existing methodological literature. Finally, the authors attempt to highlight the methodological potential of the study for others working in the field of comparative education.

Teacher professionalism and development are central to the study of education across the globe, and in particular, are central to concepts of educational reform and change. This article explores the centrality of teacher professionalism and development to the three substantive networks of the Applied Educational Research Scheme (AERS) in Scotland, examining how they feature within discussions about: school management and governance; schools and social capital; and teachers as learners. The article explores each of these contexts in turn concluding with consideration of how the work of the three AERS networks might help to understand and inform an agenda for change.

The Second Stage Review of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in Scotland leaves unresolved fundamental issues about ‘partnership’ within ITE. These have been sources of tension facing Scottish Higher Education (HE) providers attempting to develop models of partnership with schools and education authorities. This paper seeks to demonstrate a significant body of opinion among Scottish HE providers from the early 1990s wishing to progress innovation on partnership. It is suggested that the main barriers to innovation were the resistance of Scottish schoolteachers to accepting formalised, enhanced roles and responsibilities within partnership, and the failure of Scottish Ministers and administrations to place sustained discussion of underlying issues of partnership sufficiently high on the political agenda. The paper concludes that it will be essential to return to more fundamental discussion of the respective roles and responsibilities of HE staff and school staff within ITE partnership, and that the perspectives of research must be applied in such discussion.

This article reports on the emotional impact of Threshold Assessment on teachers and schools. Using data from an ESRC funded project, ‘The impact of Performance Threshold Assessment on teachers’ work' (ESRC R000239286), we seek to contribute to a growing literature on teachers' emotions by sharing some of the insights gained from 76 interviews undertaken in nine case study primary and secondary schools between 2001–2003. The research has revealed a number of (apparently) unintended consequences of Threshold Assessment as well as considerable variability of experience. We underline the significance of contextual factors in the way that the policy was handled in schools and in the degrees of vulnerability and exposure experienced by teachers as they struggled to come to terms with the demands of ‘performativity’. … social policy needs a subject in which mind and body, reason and passion, self and other, agent and object are held simultaneously in mind without splitting one from the other. (Hoggett, 2000a, p...

International concern to raise educational standards and improve teacher quality has directed attention to the need to sustain career-long professional learning. Teacher induction and early professional learning (during years 2-6) have been associated with patterns of attrition and improved pupil outcomes. As the economic crisis impacts on public sector employment, the rhetoric of professionalism stands in contrast to the employment experiences of many recently qualified teachers. This article draws on interviews with 20 early career teachers in Scotland who achieved full registration from 2006. Work histories drawn from this small-scale study challenge the implicit assumptions of staged models of teacher development and draw attention to the increasing fragmentation and casualisation of experience in the teacher labour market. © 2014 © 2014 Taylor and Francis.

The Scottish chartered teacher programme (2003-2011) is an important example of a national policy designed to support the development of 'accomplished teaching'. This paper provides an account of the emergence of the programme before discussing how the impact of such a scheme might be assessed and thus rendered accountable. The difficulties of developing valid and reliable methodologies for ensuring accountability are explored, including an account of a pilot research project and an indication of what the international literature may reveal about such aspirations. The paper concludes with a summary of four major challenges facing researchers who wish to offer insights that are of use to policy-makers and practitioners. © 2013 Copyright Educational Studies Association of Ireland.

Drawing on the experience of carrying out a literature review commissioned to support the Review of Teacher Education in Scotland, this paper discusses the role of literature reviews within the movement for 'evidence-based policy' making. The first part of the paper discusses the purposes of such reviews and some of the misconceptions that may be associated with them. Several critical questions that shape the work of reviewing are identified. By examining the particular case in which the authors were involved, it is demonstrated how the establishment of terms of reference and definitions of scope are critical factors in determining the outcome of such a project. But so too are the relationships established between those undertaking the project and the commissioners of the work. The conclusion is that reviewing literature is much more of a deliberative process than is commonly understood. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Is there an 'ideal' primary school curriculum? Who should decide what the curriculum is? Should teachers have autonomy over how they teach? The curriculum is the heart of what teachers teach and learners learn: Effective teaching is only possible with an effective curriculum. Yet in spite of its importance, there has been a crisis in curriculum that has been caused in large part by governments assuming direct control over the curriculum, assessment, and increasingly, pedagogy. Creating the Curriculum tackles this thorny issue head on, challenging student and practising primary school teachers to think critically about past and present issues and to engage with a new wave of curriculum thinking and development. Considering curriculum construction and its impact on teaching and learning in the four countries of the UK, key issues considered include: • Who should decide the curriculum, its aims and its values • the extent to which issues in primary education swing back and forth • Subjects versus thematic organisation, stages and phases, progression, breadth and balance • prescription versus teacher autonomy • the key features of effective classroom practice • strategies for assessing the whole curriculum • how language in the classroom influences curriculum design • understanding curricula in the context of children's social and personal circumstances • creativity, curriculum and the classroom. Illustrated throughout with strategies and case studies from the classroom, Creating the Curriculum accessibly links the latest research and evidence with concrete examples of good practice. It is a timely exploration of what makes an effective and meanginful curriculum and how teachers can bring new relevance, motivation and powerful values to what they teach. © 2013 Dominic Wyse, Vivienne Marie Baumfield, David Egan, Carmel Gallagher, Louise Hayward, Moira Hulme, Ruth Leitch, Bob Lingard, Kay Livingston and Ian Menter. All rights reserved.

Background: Teacher education in Scotland has developed its own trajectory for many years and this distinctiveness appears to have increased since the creation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. Teachers' pay and conditions were addressed in 2001 by the agreement A teaching profession for the 21st century. This agreement led to a number of innovations in teacher education and development. More recently, there has been a report of the Review of Teacher Education in Scotland by Graham Donaldson and a committee is currently reviewing teachers' pay and conditions.Purpose: This article examines the extent to which the development of teacher education in Scotland has been affected by the global financial crisis and its impact on the provision of public services. Three policy contexts are explored in turn, those of politics and economics, education and teacher education, so that the analysis moves from the wider societal perspective towards the specifics of teacher education.Sources of evidence: The article draws on a close analysis of relevant policy documents, including those produced by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Scottish Government and the General Teaching Council for Scotland. Additionally reference is made where appropriate to a wide range of published research and to reports such as the Review of Teacher Education in Scotland.Main argument: The ways in which teacher education policy in Scotland is developing is a result of the interaction between history, culture and politics played out at a national level under the wider influence of UK, European and global affairs, both economic and political. There are real tensions in the current conjunction of policies and trends, which create major challenges for all those involved. The promotion of career-long professional learning and enhanced school autonomy proceed alongside the review of teachers' professional conditions (McCormac Review), high levels of intermittent employment among new teachers, fluctuations in student numbers and staffing in university Schools of Education, and contracting resource to support school-level curriculum development and continuing professional development. The social partnership achieved between employers and practitioners is under increasing strain; and relations of partnership between universities and schools are subject to increasing critical scrutiny. Teaching in a time of crisis creates new challenges, and the need for innovative approaches to enduring challenges, in the short and longer term.Conclusions: The longstanding commitment to explicit values in Scottish culture and education is all the more important in a context where pressures for accountability and efficiency are greater than ever. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Bildungswissenschaften 32 (2010) 1, S. 121-142, This paper offers an analysis of the current state of teacher education research in the United Kingdom (UK). It commences with a brief historical overview of developments over the last century. Some recent «capacity building» initiatives designed to enhance and develop teacher education research are described. There is then a focus on a particular web-based resource that draws together a significant number of publications in UK teacher education research from 2000-2008. This database is then analysed in order to identify in which journals and by which authors this work is produced. The range of methodological approaches and substantive areas of focus that appear to predominate in teacher education research in the UK are reviewed, according to categories within the database. This demonstrates that there are some very real challenges to be faced by teacher education researchers in the years ahead, similar but not identical to those faced elsewhere. (DIPF/Orig.), Der vorliegende Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit der gegenwärtigen Situation der Forschung in der Lehrerinnen- und Lehrerbildung in Großbritannien. Einleitend geben die Autoren einen kurzen historischen Überblick über die Entwicklungen des letzten Jahrhunderts, gefolgt von der Darstellung einiger jüngster Initiativen, die auf den Kapazitätenausbau in der Lehrerinnen- und Lehrerbildungforschung abzielen. Die Basis des Artikels bildet die Analyse einer einschlägigen Online-Datenbank, die eine große Anzahl wissenschaftlicher Veröffentlichungen zur Lehrerinnen- und Lehrerbildung im Vereinigten Königreich für den Zeitraum 2000-2008 abdeckt. Durch die Analyse dieser bibliografischen Datenbank wird in einem ersten Schritt ermittelt, in welcher wissenschaftlichen Zeitschrift und von welchen Autoren ein Artikel veröffentlicht wurde. Die Untersuchung soll dann zeigen, welche methodischen Ansätze und welche thematischen Schwerpunkte in der Lehrerinnen- und Lehrerbildungsforschung in Großbritannien überwiegen. Sie soll abschließend veranschaulichen, mit welchen Herausforderungen sich Forschende in der Lehrerinnen- und Lehrerbildung in den kommenden Jahren konfrontiert sehen werden. (DIPF/Orig.)

Diversification is one of the key terms in the new discourse of teacher training in England and Wales. Increasing the range of routes opens up choice to those seeking qualified teacher status and can be seen as part of the government's commitment to the market. It can also be seen as a pragmatic response to problems of teacher shortage. This paper examines the backgrounds and experiences of mature students on two different routes of initial teacher training, and explores the relationship between diversification of provision and subsequent levels of teacher supply.

This paper is concerned with the school experience component of initial teacher education (ITE). School experience (or teaching practice, as it is more commonly known) is widely recognised as particularly influential in the professional socialisation of student teachers. I draw on recent field‐work which I have carried out in order to explore some of the tensions and contradictions which characterise both my own and others’ experiences of working in ITE. By using aspects of ‘race’ and ‘gender’ as ‘sociological indicators’ I seek to discover the extent to which school experience can play a part in the preparation of teachers who are reflective, critical and enquiring. The conclusions I reach are not encouraging. Teaching practice is characterised by ‘stasis’, a strong tendency for those most closely involved to avoid conflict or confrontation. Even mild criticism of existing classroom practices is avoided. To the extent that approaches to the appraisal of practising teachers are based on similar ‘...

The Department for Education (DfE) in England seeks to determine the actions of educationists in both the public and private sectors through the use of targeted instructive documents and white papers where broader policy intention is presented. Since 2010, as we will show, there has been a shift in the nature of such papers towards justification with ‘evidence’ and transparency through referencing in a ‘scientific’ style, with ramifications for both how policy is justified and the contestation of practices in education. This leads us to suggest that we are in an ‘evidence era’ where a dominant rationalized myth centres on the use of ‘evidence’ to justify practice. Meanwhile, how ‘evidence’ is constructed as research is undertaken, and how it is transformed as it enters a political environment, are important questions that are often overlooked. In this text, we analyse the change in ‘evidence’ practices before and after 2010, consider why the practices changed, and infer the effects the changes have had on the wider education environment.

This paper reports on a mixed methods study carried out within the Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programme at the University of Oxford on the ways that the course sought to frame and address the link between poverty and poorer educational outcomes. The study was concerned with the views held by ITE students on the effects of poverty on pupils' learning, well-being, and educational achievement. The paper initially explores why these questions are important, how they are framed internationally, and how they relate to current education policy, particularly in England.Data were collected from student teacher pre- and post PGCE course questionnaires and a focus group discussion. The findings showed a tendency for student teachers to associate low achievement more strongly with family and cultural factors than with socio-economic or school factors, although there was some evidence that the thinking of some students changed during their programme. Implications for policy and practice in ITE are discussed with a view to ensuring that the social justice commitments espoused by many such courses are actually enabled more effectively to influence the learning experiences of beginning teachers.

Twelve years after it was announced by James Callaghan, the Great Education Debate is happening. Indeed, it may already have happened. Or seen from another perspective, it may not have been a debate at all. The educational manifestation of the crisis in social democracy was marked most clearly by Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan's speech at Ruskin College, Oxford, in October 1976. His expression of concern about progressive tendencies in education and of education's poor performance in meeting the needs of industry represented the first major landmark in the move towards the dismantling of the education system created by the Education Act 1944. It represented an acceptance, if not a total endorsement, of the critique of state education which had been offered by a number of right-wing educationists in the 'Black Papers', the first of which was published in 1969.1 The main themes of Callaghan's initiative were talk of a national core curriculum and a desire for education to become more responsive to the demands of industry. A third theme was highlighted at this time by the crisis at William Tyndale Junior School in Islington, London, when a group of parents and governors lost confidence in the progressive teaching approaches employed by the staff. This affair received massive press coverage and led to a quasi-judicial inquiry which together had the effect of legitimating the notion that teachers had too much autonomy and were pursuing disruptive if not subversive ends.2 Overarching these three themes was a concern, again much promoted in the tabloid press, about supposed 'falling standards' in education.3