Introduction

In England and Wales in 1992 schools and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) moved to placing students in schools for 120 days out of 180 days of the Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) course —that is, two-thirds of the PGCE course is delivered in schools by school teachers, and one-third of the course is delivered in universities by teacher education staff. In June 1993 the Secretary of State published the document that outlined how the programs of primary teacher education would also become school-based over the next two years (DfE 1993). The ramifications are enormous. The staffing of some parts of universities will be affected dramatically. The distribution of each student’s grant money will be different. Even more important, the task of many teachers in schools will change. This is the focus of this book. Because student teachers are to spend most of their PGCE year with their school supervisors rather than their university tutors, teachers are having to take over much of the course content that used to be dealt

with in the university. In England and Wales, teachers are finding that they have to become teacher educators rather than supervisors in the former sense. The word being used to describe them and their new task is ‘mentor’. Teachers in schools are now entrusted with the lion’s share of educating student teachers into the teaching profession. Teachers need to know what skills and competencies should be developed by the student teachers in their care in order for them to be equipped to begin teaching in a full-time capacity, and what skills and competencies they themselves need in order to be able to mentor the student teachers appropriately and adequately. Teachers also need to study the lived experience of student teachers as they practise in schools so that they understand the feelings and fears and stresses that the students are experiencing as embryo teachers.