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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.

This paper acknowledges and refers to the recent online release and updating of the Teacher Education Group (TEG) bibliography. It offers a brief summary of how and why it was felt necessary to create the resource, what it covers and how it can be used. Broader issues of what skills and prior understanding a naive user of its various search facilities might need are raised. It is suggested that additional pedagogically focused tools will need to be developed and suggests what these might be. Finally the paper argues that for the Bibliography to be used more widely, further development work will be needed, focused around the provision of user tools and support materials.

In these times of accountability and audit, it should come as no surprise that there has been a great concern – some might say obsession – with ‘capacity building’. This is a term that crops up in ...

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 paper examines the extent to which political devolution has influenced the nature of education policy‐making in Scotland, taking initial teacher education and early professional development as a case. Pre‐devolution studies of the policy community in Scotland stressed the close relationships between the various stakeholders and the inherent conservatism that sometimes appeared to ensue from this. It might be anticipated that the removal of formal responsibility for education from the UK government in London to the Scottish Executive in Edinburgh might have unsettled such ‘cosiness’ and also that the influence of New Labour approaches may be less prevalent in Scotland than in England. The processes of change in Scotland appear to have been less radical and at a slower pace than in England; however, they have been achieved through a more consensual process and so in the long term are likely to be more embedded than those in England.

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.

This paper draws from a systematic literature review carried out for the General Teaching Council for Scotland on Widening access into the teaching profession. The paper first sets out a rationale for seeking the creation of a teaching profession that is demographically representative of the wider population. It is suggested that eight dimensions of representativeness are significant and the inter-relationship between them is discussed in the context of the concept of multiple identities. Consideration is given to what is known about the composition of the teaching workforce in Scotland, before a framework for developing a strategy for improving representativeness is offered. Four areas for action are identified. Finally it is suggested that the same framework and areas for action may be applicable in any country where there is concern about the unrepresentative composition of the teaching workforce.

In discussion of policy and practice on partnership between higher education providers and other stakeholders in initial teacher education (ITE), one significant approach has been to stress the desirability of developing models which are truly collaborative. This paper first discusses the ‘collaborative’ model within a range of ‘ideal typical’ models. The authors then draw on a commissioned literature review of models of partnership in ITE to analyse the recent policy contexts for partnership developments in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, arguing that these have presented very significant barriers to the development of collaborative models. The paper concludes that, while the collaborative model may remain a very attractive ‘ideal typical’ approach to partnership, it may be necessary to consider alternatives unless the principal barriers to its progress can be addressed.

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.

The National College for School Leadership in England commissioned an evaluation and impact study of their new programme for recently appointed head teachers, the Headteacher Induction Programme (HIP). The early stages of this research study sought to elicit from new head teachers who were starting on the programme their own views of their needs and priorities. This paper draws from original quantitative (questionnaire) and qualitative (interview) data in order to examine what it is that head teachers believe they need in terms of professional development support at the time of what is arguably the most challenging professional experience of their career. What emerges is an extremely diverse picture, suggesting that there are many factors contributing to the formation and nature of headship, and that it is difficult to find a common set of needs or wishes. However, some patterns do emerge and these are reported. In addition the paper offers an exploration of the reasons for this diversity.

This article presents some of the Scottish findings of a comparative research project (2002–2004) which examined the ways initial teacher education (ITE) policy and practice take place in two of the four major components of the UK, England and Scotland. Debates about the nature of professional knowledge, where it resides and who owns it continue to play a central role in the development of initial teacher education arrangements as they currently stand in Scotland. The way university providers, schools and policy groups are positioned in the debate varies according to what their primary function is and how initial teacher education features on their agenda. In this article the authors investigate the conceptions, expectations and aspirations of a selected sample of policy actors, university‐based and school‐based ITE staff, and discuss implications for policy and practice in initial teacher education in Scotland. Cet article presente une partie des resultats Ecossais d'un projet de recherche comparatif (20...

There is an apparent contradiction between the widespread moves towards a uniform and instrumentalist standards‐based approach to teaching on the one hand and recent research‐based insights into the complexity of effective pedagogies. The former tendency reflects a politically driven agenda, the latter is more professionally driven. Tensions reflecting such a contradiction are evident in the debates over initial teacher education (ITE) policy and practice in many parts of the world. This article examines aspects of ITE policy in two contiguous parts of the United Kingdom, England and Scotland. The authors draw on a comparative study carried out during 2002–2004, particularly on an analysis of key contemporary policy documents, in order to consider some of the similarities and differences that are apparent in these two countries. It is argued that while features of national culture, tradition and institutional politics have a significant role to play in the detail of the approaches taken, there is neverthe...

Dieser Beitrag betrachtet die Veranderungsprozesse, die in der Lehrerbildung in England in den letzten Jahren angestosen wurden. Die aufgezeigten Trends zeigen sich konsistent mit dem zentral gesteuerten Ausbau eines markt-orientierten Ansatzes auch in diesem Bereich. So findet sich eine erhohte Diversifikation des Ausbildungsangebotes durch neue Qualifikations- und Berufseintrittswege, die wenige oder keine akademischen Ausbildungsanteile aufweisen, ebenso wie eine zunehmende Betonung von Leistungsergebnissen und Accountability. Insgesamt wurde durch die Veranderungen ein zersplittertes System der Lehrerbildung geschaffen, welches sich durch eine erhebliche Instabilitat insbesondere fur die traditionellen Anbieter von Lehrerbildungsprogrammen auszeichnet. Basierend auf einer grob vereinfachenden Sicht auf die Profession, wonach das Unterrichten und das hier zu vollziehende professionelle Handeln auf eine Liste messbarer Standards und Kompetenzen verkurzt werden konne, wurden diese Entwicklungen begleitet durch wachsende Vorbehalte gegenuber der Lehrtatigkeit als solcher.

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.

In the UK there have been recent policy developments in enterprise education, following the Davies Report (2002). In Scotland there has been the launch of a comprehensive enterprise education programme, the Determined to Succeed Strategy (Scottish Executive, 2003) for all schools in Scotland. This Strategy represented the Executive’s response to a working party review of education and enterprise. The review, Determined to Succeed, 2002 represented a comprehensive overview of requirements in order to provide enterprise education in all schools in Scotland. The aim stated is to “take an innovative and experimental approach in developing key themes in the initiative around the professional development of teachers, the engagement of disengaged school students and the promotion of a focused and resource-intensive approach to Enterprise in Education” (Scottish Executive, 2004). This paper reviews developments in enterprise education and the role of Head Teachers and Deputy Head Teachers (school principals and vice-principals). It reports the findings from research conducted with a Leadership Academy, delivered by the Columba 1400 organisation, with Head and Deputy Head Teachers for the Scottish Executive and assesses their critical role in enterprise education.

Over recent years increasing attention has been given to professional development for aspiring heads in the UK and elsewhere. In Scotland, the Scottish Qualification for Headship (SQH) was devised as a means of preparing for headship. This paper draws from the national evaluation of the SQH in order to assess the extent to which this programme appears to be achieving the development of the kinds of leadership qualities which have been identified as significant in recent research. However, the paper does not focus simply on the development of the qualities of the individual candidate but looks at the impact of the SQH in the wider professional setting, particularly in the schools where candidates are working. It appears that the programme has been effective in many instances in engaging with the dynamic emotional and professional dimensions of teacher development and in contributing to school improvement.

This paper describes, in the context of one highly circumscribed element of English educational policy, namely, Threshold assessment, the ways in which the boundaries between the public and the private have become increasingly porous and blurred. In this context, some consequences and implications of private sector involvement in public education are explored. Points of articulation between the specific issues we have encountered in our recent research project The impact of performance threshold assessment on teachers’ work (ESRC R000239286), and more general debates about public/private policy relationships, are discussed. The paper concludes with some general observations about the nature of those debates and the issues we have encountered.

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...

The paper reports on aspects of an ESRC project, ‘The impact of Performance Threshold Assessment on teachers' work’ (ESRC R000239286). The paper begins by explaining the nature and technology of Threshold Assessment, and its location nationally within the performance management system recently introduced into schools in England. We review the monitoring procedures adopted for Round 1 of Threshold and draw attention to the limitations of such statistical data as are available. We locate Threshold within recent international developments characterised by managerialism and the culture of performativity that have increasingly come to dominate both the nature of policy‐making and definitions of ‘professionalism’. Drawing on interview material gained from thirteen case studies carried out in primary and secondary schools and in Local Education Authorities, we analyse the ways in which Threshold Assessment carries different significance for women and men teachers, heads and threshold assessors. We conclude that ...

This article draws on data from our recent research project The Impact of Performance Threshold Assessment the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC R000239286) for two years from May 2001. Within its wider context of performance management we focused on Threshold Assessment, employing a range of methods to identify policy sources, track the processes of development and implementation and analyse the impact and significance of Threshold in relation to: individual and particular cohorts of teachers; their cultures; their work and the institutional consequences for schools (Mahony, Menter, and Hextall 2003). This article considers some of the impacts on teachers, drawing mainly on the 70 interviews with staff in nine case-study schools.

This paper considers two examples of recent policies affecting teachers' work, Performance Threshold Assessment in England and Chartered Teacher status in Scotland. Through tracing their origins and motivations, a comparative analysis is offered, which seeks to explore the extent of the influence of national contexts on developments in the restructuring process. Both policies purport to meet the professional needs of teachers who are a few years into their careers, yet the Scottish example is strongly oriented towards professional development, while the English example is oriented towards performativity and teacher assessment.

Following the 1998 Green Paper on teachers' work, the UK government introduced Threshold Assessment of teachers in England and Wales in 2000. Teachers who met the Threshold standards were rewarded with a pay rise and access to an upper pay spine. At the time ministers gave assurances that equal opportunities would be taken very seriously in the implementation of the policy. Drawing on a study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC R000239286), this article examines the extent to which these assurances were carried through, with particular regard to the monitoring of applications and success rates by the ethnicity of the candidates. Major deficiencies are identified in the manner in which Threshold Assessment has been managed. These deficiencies are thrown into stark relief by the subsequent enacting of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, which requires all public bodies to carry out systematic ethnic monitoring.

Drawing on the author's current ESRC-funded research (The Impact of Performance Threshold Assessment on Teachers' Work), this article focuses on a current policy initiative in England, namely, the establishment of a performance management regime in schools and, in particular the Threshold Assessment. They examine three aspects of these developments. First, the manner in which the policy was initially established and the current situation regarding its development and implementation. Next, drawing upon the research they are undertaking in schools, they consider what the process of Threshold Assessmenthas felt like for various actors within the school context. Finally, they place this particular initiative within a global setting by drawing upon interviews recently undertaken in Australia and connecting these discussions to more general debates around 'globalisation'.We have progressively established a kind of 'Macworld' capitalism, where product choices whether for hamburgers or computers are increasingly ...

By the 1990s, not only was attendance at school compulsory for the majority of children from the age of 5 until the age of 16 but, for much of the time spent there, the content of the curriculum had also become compulsory – at least in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. By the year 2000, the majority of children in England aged between 5 and 11 were compelled to attend school, compelled to follow a defined curriculum and compelled to be taught for part of the daythrough a centrally determined method – the literacy and numeracy strategies. Those who were not compelled to attend school were nevertheless to be educated ‘otherwise’ (see below) and those attending private schools were not required to follow the National Curriculum or the national strategies.

As from February 2001 all new entrants into teaching in England have been required to take and pass skills tests in the fields of numeracy and literacy before they are allowed to move on to the school-based induction phase of their training. These computerised tests were preceded by a paper-based numeracy test. In light of the considerable concern about the impact of the tests, we undertook a small pilot study consisting of interviews with a range of relevant people and written responses elicited by our letter to the Times Educational Supplement announcing our study and inviting contributions. Based on this data, our article focuses on: the origins and rationale of the tests; student and tutor response; institutional procedures and support for student teachers taking the test; issues of equal opportunities and social justice; technical requirements of testing; and implications for the recruitment of teachers. The conclusion that we draw is that there are major flaws in this recent example of 'fast policy'...

This chapter engages with two of the most enduring debates in teacher education—especially in pre-service teacher education—concerning respectively the sites of professional learning and the relationship between educational theory and the practice of teaching. These two debates are very closely connected and it is the interaction between them that is the central concern of this chapter. In particular, there is an examination of how the issues have developed, been contested and are currently being reconstructed in the distinctive context of Scotland. The policy context for teacher education in Scotland is reviewed and a recently developed ‘clinical model’ of teacher education is outlined. Some of the similarities and differences with contemporaneous developments in England are also discussed.

Taking as its starting point the murder of Stephen Lawrence and the failings which that case has demonstrated in justice and the judicial system in England, this article questions the extent to which current models of citizenship education address the reality of young people's lives. The critique focuses particularly on the proposed revisions to the English National Curriculum to be implemented in 2001. It is argued that unless citizenship education provides an opportunity to study the reality of contemporary experience, including the injustices and inequalities which continue to be features of that experience, it will be an ineffectual exercise. There are also severe dangers of the citizenship curriculum being overcrowded with factual knowledge at the expense of opportunities for experiencing democratic processes and playing a part in the formation of learners' identities. Some examples are given of effective work based on the principles outlined in the article. In conclusion, an agenda for research and ...

This special issue of Teaching and Teacher Education is dedicated to work undertaken as part of the Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP), a major investment in education research in the United Kingdom. The generic phase of TLRP ran from 1999 until 2009, with some additional projects on technology enhanced learning (TEL) continuing into 2012. Total funds of nearly £40 million were provided by a range of national bodies including the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) (which coordinated the programme), the Higher Education Funding Council for England, and the governments of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and, for the TEL phase, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

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.

A survey was carried out in autumn 1994 to ascertain early responses to the Government's reforms of initial teacher training. Questionnaires were sent to a sample of primary and secondary schools throughout England and Wales and to all of the higher education institutions engaged in initial teacher training. This paper examines some of the key findings of the survey and uses them to evaluate the accuracy of some of the predictions which had been made about the impact of the reforms. The conclusion reached is that predictions of collapse and major disruption have not materialized but that there is instability and fragility in the system which raise questions about quality.

The heads of twelve schools in the primary sector in an English county town were interviewed as part of a study of the influence of markets and market ideologies on the management of small‐service providers. Overall, the heads felt that their responsibilities were as great or greater than ever. There was considerable variation in the extent to which new approaches and business‐derived management discourse had been consciously adopted, but many of the practices were consistent with aspects of this discourse, although there was also a desire to retain traditional features of primary headship.

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.