Silenced voices: the disappearance of the university and the student teacher in teacher education policy discourse in England

Abstract

The teacher preparation landscape in England has been subject to radical policy change. Since 2010 the policy agenda has repositioned initial teacher preparation as a craft best learnt through observation and imitation of teachers in school settings. Simultaneously a market based approach to the recruitment of pre-service teachers has led to significant changes for prospective entrants to the profession. In the enactment of policy between 2010-2015, the roles of universities and voices of prospective teachers were systematically silenced. Using critical discourse analysis we demonstrate how both actors have been positioned in, and have accommodated and resisted, the current policy discourses. These findings highlight the importance of problematizing and understanding these emerging issues at local and international levels.

Mediating ‘School Direct’: The enactment of a reform policy by university‐based teacher educators in England

“…Figures for entry to ITE in 2018 show almost one‐third (10,270 of 29,085) trained through School Direct (DfE, 2018). Our data and the national picture do not suggest the ‘categorical redefinition’ of ITE and teacher educators’ work that Brown (2018, p. 28) identified, nor the total ‘disappearance’ of the university that McIntyre et al (2017) and others suggested. Rather, School Direct co‐exists with other modes of ITE and remains heavily dependent upon universities; it appears to have been incorporated into the status quo.…”

“…For example, Jackson and Burch (2016) describe School Direct as ‘the most far‐reaching change in ITT [Initial Teacher Training] in England’ for twenty years as it ‘divert[ed] the flow of funding from universities to schools’ (p. 513). McIntyre et al (2017) suggested that School Direct saw the ‘disappearance of the university and the student teacher’ from the discourses of teacher education, arguing that ‘university voices have been systematically marginalised and, in some cases, silenced’ (p. 154). Murray and Mutton (2016) and Whiting et al (2016) endorse this point of view.…”

“…For many in teacher education, School Direct initially represented something of an existential threat to universities’ place in teacher preparation (e.g. McIntyre et al , 2017) as it sought to shift control and resources from universities to schools. However, there has been relatively little research specifically about School Direct.…”

Deschooling from above

“…60 McIntyre, Youens and Stevenson describe this as the deliberate ‘marginalization’ and ‘silencing’ of the university in state professional education policy. 61 By 2016, over half of all teacher trainee places in England were provided by school (i.e., workplace) led teacher training routes: trainees on the School Direct route typically spend only thirty days of study in a university over the course of their programme; while School-Centred Initial Teacher Training has no input from universities at all. Also in 2016, Frontline, a fast track social work training programme in the UK, likewise removed university involvement from its programme curriculum entirely.…”

Choice and diversity in English initial teacher education (ITE): trainees’ perspectives

“…According to McIntyre, et al (2017) the publication of the White Paper, 'The Importance of Teaching' in 2010, 'heralded arguably the most radical policy changes between 2010 and 2015'. These radical changes were and are part of a 'reconfiguring of the school system in ways that reflect a complex fusion of neoliberal and neoconservative policy agendas' (p. 13).…”