The position of teacher training in UK higher education - unification of higher education and "quality assurance"

Abstract

Government officials and policymakers in Japan are interested in England's teacher training model but how did England arrive at its current teacher training programmes? Professor Kazuko Takano, Meiji University, Japan, is working to improve understanding in this area, which will assist officials from different countries when implementing similar policies. To do this she is shedding light on the history of teacher training in England, with a specific focus on the effects of reforms introduced by the Thatcher and Major governments. A key element of this work involves an exploration of teacher training in higher education during the Thatcher-Major educational reforms when the quality assurance system was being developed. Importantly, Takano is looking at both professional and academic aspects of teacher training. The Education Reform Act 1988 was introduced under the Thatcher government and the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 was brought in by the Major government. Teacher training courses were largely provided by polytechnics and higher education colleges, which were public sector institutions and after higher education was unified by the 1992 Act, polytechnics and higher education colleges meeting the standards of scale and quality were promoted to university status. With the introduction of further acts, it started to become clear that the administration of teacher training was positioned not in the higher education series but the primary and secondary education series. This was one of the milestones in the history of teacher training in the post-war period.