ABSTRACT
Throughout this book you will find many references to ‘the profession’ and ‘standards’, the latter being a level of competence which trainees must reach to enter the profession of teaching. Subsequently, the Newly Qualified Teacher (see Chapter 11) must succeed against a further and more demanding set of NQT standards. Reaching those standards is chiefly the trainee’s responsibility, but she or he will also have the support of many other professionals whose judgements will determine whether the trainee’s and NQT’s progress and performance are reaching the required level. However, these standards are very literal. They are written down and have the status of being part of a national system linked to a legal framework. Much of the time when people talk about standards-usually the media spreading some story about ‘how standards are falling’—they are referring to something rather more elusive, but also more fundamental. In this more general sense, people are alluding to some idea about what is essentially right and proper, principally, in the way that people should conduct themselves.
