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Labour should undo ¡°destructive¡± reforms to teacher training to reignite interest in the profession, according to a new pamphlet that recommends courses be increased to two years.

University-based teacher educators have been treated so badly by central government that they have experienced ¡°physical and emotional distress¡±, the report published by Manchester Metropolitan University claims.?

Changes initiated by the previous Conservative administration since 2019?saw a ¡°core content framework¡±, which many see as a de?facto national curriculum, imposed.

Several universities also lost accreditation as part of the Department for Education¡¯s ¡°market review¡± process, which forced all providers to reapply, resulting in them having to take up expensive partnerships with other providers or close down provision entirely.

Some of the 42 educators interviewed for the first stage of the project ¨C funded by the British Academy and Leverhulme Trust ¨C were said to have become ¡°visibly upset¡± when discussing the impact of the reforms and their experiences trying to implement them.

Participants said they had always felt a ¡°sense of state imposition and control¡± but this had ¡°accelerated rapidly¡± in recent years and affected every area of their work.

¡°Participants were unanimous in their feelings that this was no accident, and the state¡¯s intricate control and prescription of university-based ITE [initial teacher education] was by intentional design.¡±

Labour, nearly a year on since winning last year¡¯s election, has so far offered little indication that it plans to undo the changes.

But the report, co-authored by Ian Cushing a senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University and Viv Ellis, a honorary professor at the UCL Institute of Education, says the government has an opportunity to signal a different approach.

It needs to reverse the ¡°massive policy blunder¡± and ¡°tragedy¡± of policymaking by re-engaging with the teacher education sector and valuing its expertise, the researchers say.

¡°After such a long period during which teacher educators¡¯ professional expertise had been derided and excluded in England, the time has surely come for a renewed sense of seriousness and pragmatism to enter ITE policy deliberations.¡±

In the second part of the project, focus groups were held?with?participants asked to imagine what changes in teacher education might look like.

One of the policy changes suggested would?be to extend courses that lead to Qualified Teacher Status, which typically take a year to complete, to become a two-year non-consecutive master¡¯s degree.

The first year would be dedicated to developing the basic knowledge and skills needed to be an effective teacher and would be followed by a period of at least three years in the classroom.

The?second year of the course would include?¡°deeper educational inquiry and may involve a focus on educational philosophy, educational sociology, critical analysis, leadership and creativity¡±.

Other suggestions include sabbaticals for teachers, the removal of schools regulator Ofsted and a ¡°significant scaling back of state-imposed prescriptions and frameworks on teacher education¡±.

The pamphlet concludes that the government needs to ¡°re-engage the experts in teacher education¡± after they were famously derided as part of the ¡°blob¡± by former education secretary Michael Gove.

¡°It¡¯s time to listen to the experts again¡±, it says after?14 years of them being ¡°insulted and systematically excluded from the policy debate¡±.

Cushing said ¡°there is an enormous opportunity for the government to both rebuild teacher education and make teaching as a profession a stronger and more attractive career¡±.

¡°Teachers around the world, and particularly in England, are still leaving the profession almost as fast as new entrants join. It¡¯s time to listen to the people who know and can help reimagine what teaching can be.¡±

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com