Practices of initial teacher education (ITE) are inevitably impacted by a range of influential discourses, including those endorsed by central government and those emerging from the values, principles and experiences of teacher educators. Publication of the Initial Teacher Training Market Review (DfE, 2021) and the Core Content Framework (CCF) (DfE, 2019) have been a catalyst for significant change in the experience offered to prospective teachers in England.
The influence of these official discourses has generated strong critique focusing on the restrictive nature of the cited evidence base and the potential limitations of a government-mandated ‘curriculum’ for ITE (Russell Group, 2021). There is palpable apprehension about the technical and prescriptive nature of the ‘minimum entitlement’ contained within the CCF (Brooks, 2021).
