Initial Teacher Education (ITE), in most countries, highlights the importance of practical

experience in schools at the same time as valuing the place of higher education in teacher

preparation. We therefore find a paradox, where models of practical training, which could

be justified as learning through participation in established practices, are in close alignment

with the idea that knowledge acquired in one setting can be applied in another. Attempts

at riding this paradox have included a focus on reflection as a way of bridging the ‘theory-

practice gap’ (Calderhead and Gates, 1993; Korthagen, 2004); invoking the university-led

discourses of critical pedagogy or democracy to ensure that individual beginning teachers

learn that teaching is more than becoming acculturated to local practices (Giroux, 1983;

Smyth and Shacklock, 1998; Zeichner and Liston, 1996); and asserting the particular

contributions to ITE to be made by higher education (Furlong and Smith, 1996). How

has the conceptual muddle, which so tightly aligns a participatory approach to learning with

an acquisition one, arisen? We need to locate its roots and examine its recent development,

before looking at the implications for the learning experiences of beginning teachers and an

alternative way of considering them.