The Long‐term Impact of Two Part‐time In‐service Degrees on Teachers and Schools in Scotland

Abstract

Abstract In the absence of similar investigations this study is hypothesis generating. Thirty‐four interviews were conducted, 19 with a sample of Scottish graduates from two in‐service degrees who had completed their programmes at least 5 years earlier and 15 with Scottish headteachers and local education authority staff responsible for In‐service Education and Training (INSET) who had observed the impact of these degrees for between 5 and 10 years. Two major hypotheses were generated, first that the influence of in‐service degrees for a significant minority of teachers is of a fundamental nature and second that some schools, as opposed to local authorities, have established effective policies for using the newly acquired skills of staff who have completed in‐service degrees. [1] This research was supported by a grant from the Scottish Office Education Department.