Abstract:
This paper explores the role of research in initial teacher education building on the four ways in which research can make a difference to teacher education as outlined in the BERA/RSA report (2014). Through a systematic literature review of research reports and policy documents, this paper argues that the current context and climate of teacher education in England precludes any of these approaches to be fully enacted in a meaningful way. The findings are of international significance as the challenges facing teacher education in England, although a highly regulated context, are indicative of reforms happening globally (see Ellis et al 2019).
The first and second principles, that the content of teacher education programmes should be informed by research-based knowledge and scholarship, emanating from a range of academic disciplines and epistemological traditions, and that research can be used to inform the design and structure of teacher education programmes, has been over-ridden by two dominant influences on which knowledge(s) feature in initial teacher education programmes. One approach, illustrated through a survey issued by Ofsted, the English inspectorate, indicates a preference for certain types of knowledge around teacher education derived from an ideological framing and particular conceptions of reearch; and another, the construction of an initial teacher training curriculum by the Department for Education seeks to determine and control the knowledge about teaching that new teachers encounter on their programmes, and to influence the ways in which those programmes are designed and constructed.
The third and fourth principles focus on teachers and teacher educators being equipped to engage with and be discerning consumers of research, and to be equipped to conduct their own research into practice. Both principles are similarly undermined by trends to remove teacher education from the academy. Such a move has a direct effect on teacher educators (and indirectly then onto teachers) by actively removing them from the primary source of research engagement, production and verification. Here evidence is taken from reviews of the changing working conditions of teacher educators to show how systematically (through changes to contracts and job descriptions) and practically teacher educators are denied the opportunity to be research active in this way.
Finally, the paper concludes by exploring alternative approaches to research in teacher education and how the vision outlined in the BERA/RSA reports could become a reality within the current climate and context.
The first and second principles, that the content of teacher education programmes should be informed by research-based knowledge and scholarship, emanating from a range of academic disciplines and epistemological traditions, and that research can be used to inform the design and structure of teacher education programmes, has been over-ridden by two dominant influences on which knowledge(s) feature in initial teacher education programmes. One approach, illustrated through a survey issued by Ofsted, the English inspectorate, indicates a preference for certain types of knowledge around teacher education derived from an ideological framing and particular conceptions of reearch; and another, the construction of an initial teacher training curriculum by the Department for Education seeks to determine and control the knowledge about teaching that new teachers encounter on their programmes, and to influence the ways in which those programmes are designed and constructed.
The third and fourth principles focus on teachers and teacher educators being equipped to engage with and be discerning consumers of research, and to be equipped to conduct their own research into practice. Both principles are similarly undermined by trends to remove teacher education from the academy. Such a move has a direct effect on teacher educators (and indirectly then onto teachers) by actively removing them from the primary source of research engagement, production and verification. Here evidence is taken from reviews of the changing working conditions of teacher educators to show how systematically (through changes to contracts and job descriptions) and practically teacher educators are denied the opportunity to be research active in this way.
Finally, the paper concludes by exploring alternative approaches to research in teacher education and how the vision outlined in the BERA/RSA reports could become a reality within the current climate and context.