ABSTRACT

This chapter is about opportunities students in initial training have for learning about whole schools as workplaces. It explores how, and what they might learn about active staff membership during placements. It is an issue which has been neglected in much of what has been written about school-based teacher education. So far, most attention has been concentrated, quite rightly, upon how students learn to teach in classrooms and upon approaches to mentoring and assessment. As a consequence, much has been done to improve relationships between students and individual, experienced teachers who have been designated to support and assess them. Less has been thought about the wider role of a whole-school staff in supporting students. We need to know more about what students learn informally about adult relationships and school life in the everyday events and processes of ordinary working days.