Teacher Education in Crisis

Viv Ellis is Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Education at Monash University, Australia.

An excellent analysis of the policy construction and rhetorical ‘crisis’ which has been used to justify the government’s ‘Market Review’ and subsequent re-accreditation process. It shows how evidence of the high quality of English ITE was ignored, so that an ideological, un-tested experiment could be imposed, complete with new ‘world-leading’ providers who have never trained a teacher, and a narrow technicist franchised curriculum. Most alarming is the outline of the limited and interconnected group of influential policy entrepreneurs who suggest, are consulted on, and then benefit from these policy changes.

• 1. Introduction: Constructing the Teacher Education Crisis in England, Viv Ellis (Monash University, Australia) and Ann Childs (Oxford University, UK)Part I: The Initial Teacher Education Reforms in Context 2. Education Reform in England: The Rise of the New Educational Establishment, Melissa Benn (writer, researcher and activist, UK)3. The State of Exception: Initial Teacher Education as the Battleground for Control of Universities in England, David Spendlove (University of Manchester, UK)4. Out of the Shadows and into the Dark: The Inside Story of Negotiating with England’s Government over their Initial Teacher Education Reforms, Jo-Anne Baird (University of Oxford, UK)5. Same Game, Same Players, Different Field: Social Work Education in Crisis, Christian Kerr (Leeds Beckett University, UK) and Joe Hanley (Open University, UK)Part II: As It Happened: Process And Consequences 6. The ‘Golden Thread’ and the ‘ITT Market Review’ in England as Coercive Control: A Personal Perspective, Jan Rowe (Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), UK)7. Out of Sight, Out of Mind: The Framing of ‘Evidence’ in What Student Teachers are Expected to Know in England, Keith Turvey (University of Brighton, UK)8. Charting New Territories in Teacher Education, Rachel Lofthouse (Leeds Beckett University, UK)9. The National Institute of Teaching and the Claim for Programme Legitimacy, Caroline Daly (University College London, UK)10. Who Is It That Can Tell Me Who I Am? What the ITE reforms in England Mean for Teacher Identity (and Why it Matters), Sarah Steadman (King’s College London, UK)11. Language Policing, Raciolinguistic Ideologies and Colonial Logics in the ITE Policy Assemblage in England, Ian Cushing (Edge Hill University, UK)Part III: International Perspectives 12. A View from Australia, Martin Mills (Queensland University of Technology, Australia)13. A View from the United States, Lauren Gatti (University of Nebraska, Lincoln, USA)14. A View from Europe, Maria Campbell (St. Angela’s College, Sligo Ireland) and Fiona Crowe (St. Angela’s College, Sligo Ireland)