The Impact of the Inspectorate System on Initial Teacher Education in England

Abstract

This chapter fouses on how the regulatory framework for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) has reflected the wider development of a neo-liberal performative landscape of recent decades, and particularly on the complex relationship between the notionally independent inspectorate and government delivery agencies. The chapter explores the extent to which the performative ITE inspection model is deployed, sometimes overtly, but often covertly, to ensure providers align the structure, content and delivery of their programmes according to the political positioning of government rather than their own professional and academic judgement. This growth of ‘coercive compliance’ is situated in the wider debate about the extent to which ITE is positioned either as a ‘craft apprenticeship’, or as a preparation for exercising ‘theorised profession/situated judgement’.

Zusammenfassung

Die folgenden Ausführungen setzen sich mit dem Einfluss der neoliberalen, performance-orientierten Ära der letzten Jahrzehnte auf die rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen der Lehrerausbildung auseinander. Ein besonderer Fokus liegt hierbei auf dem vielschichtigen Verhältnis zwischen der theoretisch unabhängigen Aufsichtsbehörde Ofsted, welche für die Qualitätsprüfung zuständig ist, und der Teaching Agency, die als staatliche Behörde die Sicherstellung eines gut qualifizierten Lehrpersonals zu verantworten hat. Der Beitrag untersucht das Ausmaß, zu welchem das performance-orientierte Inspektionsmodell dazu dient – manchmal offenkundig, häufig jedoch in versteckter Form – zu gewährleisten, dass die Anbieter sich hinsichtlich der Struktur, der Inhalte und der Gestaltung ihrer Kursprogramme in der Lehrerausbildung im Wesentlichen an den politischen Intentionen der Regierung und weniger an ihrem eigenen professionellen und akademischen Urteilsvermögen ausrichten. Diese Entwicklung zu einer „zwangsweisen Fügsamkeit“ ist verbunden mit der umfassenden Frage nach dem Verständnis der Lehrerausbildung entweder als eine Art Ausbildung für ein Handwerk oder aber als eine Vorbereitung auf eine akademische Profession, welche ein komplexes und situationsangemessenes Urteils- und Handlungsvermögen erfordert.

Appendix A: Grade Descriptors for Assessing Quality of Provision as “Outstanding” (Grade 1): Ofsted ITE Inspection Handbook (Ofsted 2012)

• a. Outcomes for trainees

  • All primary and secondary trainees awarded QTS exceed the minimum level of practice expected of teachers as defined in the Teachers’ Standards by the end of their training. Trainees demonstrate excellent practice in some of the standards for teaching and their personal and professional conduct. Much of their teaching is outstanding and never less than consistently good.

  • Completion and employment rates are consistently high.

  • There are no significant variations in the outcomes achieved by different groups of trainees.

• b. Quality of training across the partnership

  • Much of the training, as judged through the impact on outcomes for trainees, is outstanding and never less than consistently good.

  • High-quality training prepares trainees and former trainees to teach exceptionally well, demonstrating:

    • strong subject and curriculum knowledge

    • phase expertise

    • the ability to use a range of teaching and learning strategies to great effect.

  • Trainees are well prepared to accurately assess achievement and demonstrate through their planning and teaching that their pupils, including those who are disabled and those who have special educational needs, make good progress.

  • Outstanding training in behaviour management equips trainees with the knowledge, understanding and skills to manage behaviour and discipline effectively and create an excellent climate for learning.

  • Expert mentors and trainers have consistently high expectations and work collaboratively to ensure training is coherent and highly relevant to the needs of trainees.

  • High-quality, complementary placements meet trainees’ needs very well and ensure trainees gain substantial practical experience to develop their evaluative and practical teaching skills effectively in different settings.

  • High-quality training enables trainees to teach reading, writing, communication and mathematics effectively to enhance the progress of pupils they teach.

  • Primary training in early reading, systematic synthetic phonics, communication and language development and primary mathematics is of outstanding quality and ensures trainees have gained sufficient practical experience to teach these aspects with confidence and competence by the end of their training.

  • Assessment of trainees is rigorous and precise. Consistently high-quality oral and written feedback and challenging developmental targets support trainees’ critical reflections, enabling them to analyse, evaluate and improve their practice.

• c. Leadership and Management of the partnership

  • The pursuit of excellence in all of the ITE partnership’s activities is demonstrated by an uncompromising and highly successful drive to strongly improve, or sustain, the highest levels of provision and outcomes over a sustained period of time.

  • Leaders and managers base their actions on a deep and accurate understanding of the ITE partnership’s performance and strengths.

  • Rigorous and well-embedded quality assurance systems are used extremely effectively to sustain high-quality outcomes and to continuously improve the quality of provision across the ITE partnership.

  • Improvement planning is based on the rigorous, accurate and systematic analysis of internal and externally validated data, thorough self-evaluation and is extremely responsive to satisfaction surveys from employers, trainees, former trainees and the Newly Qualified Teacher (NQT) survey (where appropriate) who attest to the high quality of the training.

  • All leaders and managers focus relentlessly on continually improving the quality of provision and outcomes for trainees.

  • Mentors and trainers are of the highest quality and benefit from high-quality and well-focused professional development. As a result, the quality of training across the partnership is likely to be outstanding or at least consistently good and improving.

  • Schools, colleges and/or other settings are influential in shaping the provision and are heavily involved in recruitment and selection and the strategic leadership and management of the ITE partnership.

  • Rigorous selection procedures ensure the best possible trainees are recruited to meet specific local and/or regional needs. Trainees selected demonstrate excellent subject and curriculum knowledge and a strong aptitude for teaching.

  • The performance of trainees and groups of trainees is monitored extremely rigorously from the point of selection to final assessment to ensure that all who are awarded qualified teacher status (QTS) become good or better teachers by the end of their training

• d. Overall effectiveness

  • The ITE partnership’s practice consistently reflects the highest aspirations for trainees and expectations of mentors and trainers are exacting.

  • The ITE partnership ensures that best practice is spread effectively in a drive for continuous improvement.

  • The quality of training across the partnership is outstanding in all aspects, including in literacy – and systematic synthetic phonics for primary trainees – and highly relevant to trainees’ needs.

  • Outstanding training contributes to outstanding outcomes for all trainees or, in exceptional circumstances, outcomes that are good and rapidly improving.

  • The leadership and management of the partnership are outstanding.

  • The ITE partnership has an outstanding reputation with its trainees, former trainees, schools, colleges and/or settings, other partners and employers and its trainees are very well prepared to join the profession as good or better teachers.