ABSTRACT
In the 1970s, higher education institutions began to introduce optional special educational needs elements into their initial teacher training (ITT) programmes. In 1998, a radical restructure of ITT saw the Teacher Training Agency (TTA) take control of pre-service training. In 2007, the successor of the TTA, the Teacher Development Agency responded to issues raised with respect to the inclusion road map predictably enough, by calling for improvements in trainees’ knowledge and skills, through which they could be helped to deliver a more inclusive learning experience for pupils. In her report, Baroness Warnock concluded that increasing the knowledge base of teachers was of the ‘upmost importance’. The Warnock Committee’s recommendations relating to teacher training were incorporated into Circular 3/84. The history of ITT shows that despite government rhetoric and purposeful intervention, little has actually changed in relation to special educational needs and disabilities training since the Warnock Report of 1978.
