ABSTRACT
The early years of the 1990s have been characterized by an extension and exaggeration of attitudes and practices on all sides. The government has engaged in deeper political and ideological penetration of training through the agency of CATE and latterly has issued proposals to control training directly through the Teacher Training Agency. At the beginning of 1992, in his annual North of England Conference speech, the Secretary of State outlined and justified the government’s new proposals for training. The accompanying Consultation Document develops these themes and elaborates the role of competences in training. This series of documents and a further Consultation Document which followed in September 1993 tighten the political grip to a quite remarkable degree on a curriculum which more closely than ever reflects the central ideology. Challenging the policies and principles of any highly ideological government from the perspective of any alternative discourse is therefore like pitting a pebble against a rock.
