ABSTRACT

There are numerous reasons why ‘values’ should be high on the agenda for those concerned with teacher education. One is that the worth of the enterprise is frequently called into question, not, significantly, by students or teachers, but by those with a more remote perspective. Another is that there is a reductive discourse abroad, which borrows from commerce a vocabulary of competition, and the claimed value of the disciplines of the marketplace. Teachers are to be trained rather than educated. What they need is an apprenticeship in which skills are demonstrated, practised and acquired. The standard of training can be straightforwardly described and measured, and from such measures league tables drawn up and published. Beginning teachers and schools are conceived of as customers needing information about a product or service. The response to alternative and more appropriate ways of describing the purposes and processes of teacher education is frequently one of aggressive dismissal.