TEACHER-EDUCATION AND TEACHER PROFESSIONALISM IN ENGLAND - SOME EMERGING ISSUES

Changes in teacher education are part of a much broader change in the nature of educational policy-making in England and Wales. Successive C onservative Governments have increasingly attempted to regulate the su pply and differentiate the pay and conditions of the teaching force. I n relation to teacher education this has involved a process of diversi fication of routes into teacher training and to Qualified Teacher Stat us. The aims, content, structure and processes of teacher education ar e being redefined and reconstituted as is its control and location. Th is reconstitution now seems to concern the very nature of professional ism itself. This paper examines some of the key issues involved in thi s attempt to redefine the nature of teacher professionalism and explai ns the agenda of a research project designed to explore its impact on conceptions of teacher professionalism within courses of teacher educa tion.