School Direct: a hastily constructed model or a systematically designed campaign?

Abstract

This article examines School Direct, a model of initial teacher education (ITE) in England, recently introduced by the coalition government and based on a paradigm of teaching as a craft to be learned as an apprenticeship, significantly reducing and in some cases removing the influence of higher education. The history of the move away from university-based ITE to a school-led model is examined and situated within a wider neoliberal agenda. It is argued that School Direct as one manifestation of an ideologically-based strategy for education has serious abiding consequences for the future of the teaching profession and the stability of the educational infrastructure.