Abstract

The selective use of teacher education research. Policy in the UK, evidence based or ideologically driven?

Elaine Wilson, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, UK

Once again teacher education is to be reformed in the UK. This time it will happen at great haste. The recently elected coalition government’s White Paper and The Case for Change both purport to use evidence, although both documents draw very heavily on only one recent McKinsey report (Barber & Moushad, 2007). Indeed in the UK, comparative educational study is used extensively as a political tool for creating policy, rather than remaining in the research realm of intellectual inquiry.
The net effect of the recent legislation will see a shift from university partnership teacher education courses towards schools taking on responsibility for the education of new teachers. Furthermore considerable sums of public money will  also be provided to the Teach First charity to help increase the numbers of new teachers entering the profession through this, short term, employment based route to teaching.

This paper will argue that the proposed reforms in the UK are based on a highly selective use of evidence which is ideological driven rather than based on hard evidence. Furthermore the proposed reforms may even result in a regression in capacity to develop teacher education in line with other successful worldwide education systems.