ABSTRACT
The move towards a professional status for teaching in higher education has a long and somewhat tortured history. In the past it was accepted that academic staff were appointed as experts in their subject. Student learning was seen as largely unproblematic, with terms such as ‘lecturer’ and ‘tutor’ used to denote the teaching-learning relationship rather than the role of teacher. Now academics, and others who support students, are expected to prepare for their teaching role in relation to the process of learning as well as its content. The recent English White Paper (DfES 2003a) gave a commitment for the development of professional teaching standards, with all new staff to be qualified to the standard by 2006, and a similar call was made in Scotland for competence in relation to both the content and process of teaching. However, there is still some way to go before a consensus is reached about what these standards should be and how and by whom an accreditation system should be run. Looking back over 30 years, the issue can seem simple and one wonders what all the fuss has been about, but the changes involved should not be underestimated. This chapter aims to set out some of the history and the underlying arguments along the way towards professional accreditation for teaching in higher education.
