‘All children deserve qualified teachers. We need teaching to be an attractive profession’
This section of the Manifesto insists on all teachers being properly qualified, with their knowledge and skills developed throughout their careers.
Long term damage is being inflicted on education by overwork due to unnecessary bureaucracy and excessive accountability measures, as well as worsening salary structures and conditions.
Briefing notes and short articles:
How did we get into this state? – Dr Jon Berry (University of Hertfordshire)
‘Feedback’, the Toolkit and teachers’ workload problems – Terry Wrigley (Visiting Professor, University of Northumbria)
English teachers wrestling with educational policy shifts – Dr Linda Hammersley-Fletcher (Manchester Metropolitan University)
A real voice for teachers: teacher professionalism and teacher unions – Professor Howard Stevenson
Initial teacher education
In parallel to the mechanisms which constrain teachers’ independence of action and judgement, the profession’s future capacity for independent thinking is being undermined by curtailing university involvement in initial teacher education / training. The importance of the universities’ involvement in professional formation is argued here:
- Standing up for teacher education – Dr Nadia Edmond (University of Brighton)
- Why we need teachers who are fully qualified – Dr Jon Berry (University of Hertfordshire)
See also
- Initial teacher education and Qualified teacher status (NUT Edufacts)
- The challenge of shaping socially responsible teachers (Carmen Mohamed)
- The BERA/RSA report Research and the teaching profession: building the capacity for a self-improving education system (with background papers)
Also of interest:
Teachers’ voice and teacher unions – Professor Howard Stevenson (University of Nottingham) and Alison Gilliland (Irish National Teachers’ Organisation)
Reclaiming Schools 