ABSTRACT
In the last two years, schools and Higher Education Institutions have been faced with considerable political pressure to ensure that initial teacher education becomes increasingly school-based. The original proposals from the Department for Education stated that 80 per cent of the Postgraduate Certificate in Education courses (PGCE) of 36 weeks should take place in schools. This figure was later reduced to a period of 24 weeks minimum, 66 per cent (DfE 1992). Even with this reduction to the time to be spent in schools, teachers who had worked alongside universities and colleges for some time providing supervision for students shared several concerns about their new roles and the increased responsibilities required by these changes. Time for the planning of the new courses was limited, the level of resourcing for the school element of the course in some instances was unknown at the outset, and inservice training for mentor teachers was minimal to begin with. Our previous work with student teachers as supervisor teachers had prepared us in part for the task that lay ahead, but new skills were required if we were to be able to liaise with colleagues in universities and colleges to plan courses. We had to be able to encourage and support colleagues in school to adapt to their roles as subject mentors and become contributors to the whole training program. In addition, we would have to work alongside student teachers to develop their understanding of the broader professional role of teachers, allowing reflection and questioning which would support the development of their knowledge and practice.
