Australian Journal of Teacher Education
Abstract
In recent years there has been a significant change in the nature of Government (as mediated by the Department of Education and Science - DES) involvement in initial teacher training 1-c9- in England and Wales. Traditionally government has rightly concerned itself with the "manpower problem" of ensuring that the numbers of teachers in training relates to the demands for new teachers by employing authorities and with the "institutional problem" of determining the types of institutions which exist to provide teacher training, how they are organised within the higher education system, and how they are financed. The content of teacher training curriculums and the validation of courses has been seen as the proper responsibility of the qualified, professional staff working in the field of education and teacher training. However, Government has now become interested in the content and quality of the teacher training programmes themselves. This critical concern has been expressed in official publications emanating from the DES such as Department of Education and Science (1982) and culminated in 1983 with the publication of a White Paper entitled "Teaching Quality" (1983). In their efforts to improve the quality of initial teacher training the Secretaries of State for England and Wales announced the White Paper that they intended to establish criteria against which all future proposed teacher training courses would be assessed and that they would review all existing courses in the light of the criteria. Without going the details of how it has been accomplished, the upshot has been that the Secretaries of State have established a Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (CATE) which has the following terms of reference: "to advise the Secretaries of State for Education and Science and for Wales on the approval of initial teacher training courses in England and Wales".
Recommended Citation
McNamara, D. R. (1985). The Move Towards the Accreditation of Teacher Education Courses in England and Wales. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.1985v10n2.7