ABSTRACT
Even in 1990, it required no foresight to question whether teacher education had a future ‘in anything like its present institutional forms’ (Edwards 1990:180). In the four years since, the Conservative Government has vigorously promoted school-centred initial training; moved from encouraging more equal partnership between schools and higher education to wishing ‘the school and its teachers’ to be ‘in the lead in the whole training process’; launched pilot projects in which consortia of schools take full responsibility for training programmes and may choose not to use ‘outside expertise’ at all; and handed the over-sight and funding of all initial teacher education to a Training Agency appointed by and answerable to the Secretary of State.
