ABSTRACT
One of the main features in the current change in the institutional pattern of teacher training relates to its pace, comprehensiveness and range. This has been induced by reactions which vary from a determined attempt to pretend that nothing is changing at all along the continuum to what amounts to sheer panic. Teacher training - because it is the only area in education to fundamentally re-organised in the last two or three years - has been sucked into the economic crisis. Therefore, dramatic changes in institutions, talks of mergers and closures have taken place in an atmosphere where even more Draconian measures are being privately considered within the DES and within local authorities. In-service training also urgently needs teachers to be working alongside other professionals: otherwise the in-service education of teachers could be as isolated as initial training has often been.
