ABSTRACT
Primary initial teacher education in the late 1990s is subject to intense scrutiny and tight control. To adapt a phrase from the Plowden Report this ‘astringent scrutiny’ is the outcome of increasing political involvement in initial teacher education beginning in 1984 and accelerating through the 1990s, resulting in wide-ranging changes to the arrangements for the preparation of the next generation of teachers. Symptomatic of this increased scrutiny are the inspection, follow-up inspection and reinspection of primary ITE courses with institutional and personal futures at stake depending on the outcome. Symptomatic of ever- tightening control is the introduction of the Government’s National Curriculum for Initial Teacher Training (not Education) in which ownership of the detail of the curriculum is assumed by the Government. For the first time the fine grain of knowledge in English, mathematics, science and information technology is specified. The consequences for initial teacher education may well be as far- reaching as were those of the Education Reform Act of 1988 for primary schools.
