Abstract
This paper examines the reform of the initial teacher education system in England and Wales since the late 1980s. There has been a transfer to school-based initial teacher education, in which the student spends at least a substantial time in schools. In addition to traditional routes into the profession, two new school-based scheme, the Licensed Teacher Scheme and the Articled Teacher Scheme, began in 1990. In order to illuminate the background of the transfer to school-based initial teacher education, the paper analyses the New Right philosophies that have influenced the Conservative government's policy in education, and its criticism of traditional initial teacher education. In the subsequent discussion, the historical context of the changes is described in terms of the involvement of the universities in the education of teachers. Within a century, initial teacher education had developed in conjunction with the universities and attained the status of an all-graduate teaching profession. However, the intimation of the reversal of government policy came with the publication of the James Report in 1972. From that time on, the initial teacher education system became more school-based. School-based teacher education is believed to be able to result in improved teaching quality and to constitute a partial solution to the teacher supply crisis. However, it is impossible to ignore the fact that there are some important political reasons for changes in relation to the control of initial teacher education. The shift of initial teacher education from a university-based to a school-based system made it easy for the central government to control initial teacher education. The system of control has also been strengthened by the changes in other educational practices, such as open enrolment, opting out and the local management of schools. The impact of these changers on teaching is significant in terms of the professional autonomy of teachers. The significance of the universities and schools in initial teacher education depends on how teaching itself is understood and on how the professional competence of teachers is defined.
