Maggie Pitfield

Flexibility in initial teacher education: implications for pedagogy and practice

This paper focuses on recent and innovative moves towards flexible learning in initial teacher education programmes in England and Wales, as part of the ‘widening participation’ agenda in higher education and in response to changes in teacher recruitment patterns. We take as our perspective our own experience as two course tutors in a higher education institution that introduced flexible routes into its secondary teacher education programme at the beginning of the academic year 2002/2003. Using the universitys model for our case study, we have undertaken a small‐scale research project and reviewed the literature describing flexible learning discourses in higher education, to consider the extent to which concepts of flexibility are being translated into practice. In particular we highlight some implications for pedagogy and practice that have become apparent at this early stage in the development of flexible courses and which will have an impact upon their progress in the future.

Making a crisis out of a drama: the relationship between English and Drama within the English curriculum for ages 11–14

This paper critiques a recent initiative arising from the British Governments National Literacy Strategy for secondary schools. The initiative focuses on Drama within the English curriculum for 11–14‐year‐olds (Key Stage 3). Taking issue with the imposition on Drama of the objectives‐led curriculum model of the Key Stage 3 Framework for teaching English, I examine whether the ‘focus on Drama’ during 2003/04 has led to a higher profile for Drama within English and facilitated curriculum collaboration between English and Drama teachers, as claimed. The article draws on evidence from a small‐scale research project involving student teachers of English and Drama on teaching practice in London schools. I conclude that the KS3 Framework model of curriculum development and training does not promote collaboration in English and Drama teaching that is genuinely creative, and I identify some approaches which could offer an alternative.

How Student‐teachers Approach the Teaching of Reading: At the Interface Between Personal History, Theory and Practice

This article charts the progress of one cohort of student‐teachers (variously known as beginning teachers and pre‐service teachers) training to teach English in London secondary schools during 2008–9. The research focuses specifically on the experiences which facilitate their development as confident and creative teachers and assessors of reading at Key Stage 3 (11–14 years). Findings indicate that it is the interaction – and tensions – between their personal reading histories, engagement in theory, and practice within the social environment of the classroom which shape their burgeoning identities as teachers of literature and reading. This year‐long study demonstrates that for some a growing confidence has enabled them to look beyond approaches advocated by statutory curriculum frameworks to develop their own view of innovative practice in the teaching of reading.

Re-constructing the relationship between drama and English: Student-teachers’ perspectives at the end of an initial teacher education year

Abstract My research draws on data from focus group interviews with student‐teachers1 which took place near the end of a one‐year initial teacher education course. One group was studying to become teachers of secondary English, and the other secondary drama teachers. Both took part in a ‘diamond twelve’ activity highlighting different perspectives on the content and purpose of drama in the English curriculum. The article explores how the participants construct the relationship between their two subjects, and raises questions about the nature and relevance of the continuing association between drama and English that is enshrined in the National Curriculum for England and Wales.

The impact of curriculum hierarchies on the development of professional self in teaching: student-teachers of drama negotiating issues of subject status at the interface between drama and English

At the level of policy the relative ‘value’ of subjects is determined by their official curriculum designation, creating a hierarchy of learning within which particular subjects are categorised as optional to the educational experience of young people. This situation is well-illustrated by the marginalised position of drama in the National Curriculum for England and Wales in which drama appears as an adjunct to the ‘core’ subject English. Yet at school level drama has survived as a discrete and reasonably embedded subject. Drawing on questionnaire and interview data, I investigate the effects of this mismatch on the emergence of pedagogical content knowledge, linked to notions of professional self, in drama student-teachers at one university in the UK. Findings indicate that the student-teachers, whilst not entirely eschewing a less-regulated relationship between the two subjects, view the curriculum for English and its accompanying assessment regime as an inadequate host for drama. In addition, they regard teacher autonomy over curriculum content and pedagogy as indicative of a high degree of professional expertise. This suggests that a case can be made for re-evaluating the nature of the relationship between drama and English and its representation in policy-constructed curricula.