ABSTRACT
The voluntaristic provision of in-service training is also an implication of rationalism at the level of initial training. Its ideal product is the rational/ autonomous professional: the individual who regulates his/her own professional development in the light of universal educational values and principles. The New Right’s attack effectively collapses the distinction between initial training and induction and implies the removal of the former from the control of higher education. Questions about methods in education, seen as a production technology, are dissociated from educational theorizing. Reinforcing the New Right attack on rationalism in teacher education is the competency-based training movement, emphasizing the pre-specification and standardization of job-functional skills. The ‘core’ of career teachers within schools appear to be viewed by Hargreaves as technologists responsible for the planning, development and quality control strategies which enhance the efficient and effective functioning of schools as production units.
