Teacher Education in England

Tony Brown is Professor of Mathematics Education at Manchester Metropolitan University.

• Foreword Acknowledgements About the Author Preface 1. Introduction 2. School-led Training in England (with Harriet Rowley and Kim Smith) 3. Research-in Teacher Education 4. Shifting Under-sandings of Subject Knowledge 5. Summing up Mathematics Subject Knowledge 6. Theoretical Becoming as a Teacher 7. Evolving Teacher Educator Responsiveness 8. Conclusion

'This book provides a riveting but deeply disturbing account of how initial teacher education in England has been overturned and reshaped over recent years. In spite of the huge commitment of those teachers and university staff involved in the processes of preparing future teachers, the evidence in this book reveals the unsettling and disruptive effects of many aspects of radical government intervention. Although the main focus of the book is on England, Tony Brown skilfully uses international perspectives to identify wider trends as well as to characterise the peculiarities of the English. This book adds enormously to our understanding of what has been happening in teacher education and through the judicious use of extracts from research interviews it brings to life the real world of beginning teachers and those who support them.' Ian Menter, Emeritus Professor of Teacher Education, University of Oxford, UK. 'This book records and analyses many failures of contemporary teacher education policy in England. It is evident that short-termist, marketised manipulation cannot guarantee the quality or supply of teachers which the nation needs. More stable, educationally principled approaches, based on respect for teacher expertise and constructive partnerships between schools and universities, are clearly called for. But will they be forthcoming?"Andrew Pollard, Professor of Policy and Practice in Education,University College London, Institute of Education.'One of the strengths of the book is the theoretically informed analysis of data from interviews to support the arguments. The voices of the interviewed teacher educators in Chapter 3, for example, make for particularly depressing reading: the cases of experienced, university based teacher educators, some with PhDs but having abandoned their research careers in the face of workload intensification and surveillance, are particularly well narrated. One teacher educator’s explanation for this situation – ‘principles don’t pay the bills’ – made the broader political point well but also demonstrated why Brown’s use of Lacanian psychoanalytic theory was apt...I do think this book is essential reading for anyone researching or otherwise seeking to make sense of SD [School Direct] as a significant part of the constellation of reform under the Coalition and Conservatives.' Viv Ellis, Professor of Educational Leadership and Teacher Development, King's College London, in Journal of Education for Teaching