REDEFINING PARTNERSHIP - REVOLUTION OR REFORM IN INITIAL TEACHER-EDUCATION

This paper draws on case study data from the second Modes of Teacher E ducation (MOTE) project to document the changing relationship between Higher Education Institutions (HEls) and schools in the provision of i nitial teacher education (ITE). Earlier research undertaken in 1992 (F urlong et al., 1995), suggested that after a decade of government dema nds to develop move 'practically oriented' courses, most HEls had devi sed means to 'integrate' the higher education and school-based aspects of their courses. However, prior to the introduction of revised gover nment circulars (Circulars 9/92 and 16/93: DFE, 1992, 1993) HEls retai ned considerable autonomy in how that integration was achieved. Up to 1992, our evidence suggested that most HEIs had put more effort into r eforming the higher education than the school-based parts of their pro grammes. As a result, we argued that in 1992, HEls were still the domi nant partner in initial teacher education but they had retained that d ominance at considerable cost. In the development of more practically oriented courses, we suggested that some HEls had started to lose sigh t of what their distinctive contribution to initial teacher education actually was. In addition, their strong practical orientation made the m extremely vulnerable to new regulations that passed responsibility f or practical training to schools. In this paper we draw on data from o ur second round of fieldwork undertaken in 1995 in order to consider h ow relationships between schools and higher education are currently be ing re-defined.