ABSTRACT
At the current time there is widespread political debate about standards in many aspects of education. The arrangements for the induction of new teachers are a critical part of this debate. This has expression in the Government’s White Paper Excellence in Schools (DfEE, 1997a) where the notion of ‘structured support’ (p. 47) in the first year of teaching is cited. Clear implications for the development of practice are seen in the White Paper such that the experience of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) is more rigorous, focused and related to individual targets. Yet at the same time this drive to raise expectations needs to be reconciled with a professional experience which many NQTs find to be demanding, exhausting and for some overwhelming. There is little doubt that induction arrangements are coming under increasing scrutiny and this in turn leads to the importance of speculating on the consequences both for NQTs themselves and for schools and providers of initial teacher education. The current chapter provides and justifies one such speculative framework.
