Primary teachers’ perceptions of the impact of initial teacher training upon primary schools

Abstract

Changes in the requirements for training primary school teachers in England over the past 12 years have increasingly demanded more involvement from the schools themselves. University departments and schools have developed partnerships to implement these changes and teachers are increasingly finding themselves taking a key role in the training of the next generation of teachers. However, despite the transfer of funding to the schools, there is still often the perception that the training is the responsibility of the university and that the benefits are primarily to the university and trainees rather than the schools. This study explores primary teachers’ perceptions of the advantages of their involvement in initial teacher training (ITT). It finds that while the teachers did recognise a range of benefits to the school, teachers and children, on the whole they failed to recognise the role of ITT involvement on the continuing professional development of mentors and teacher tutors.

Acknowledgement

The research on which this article is based was supported with funding from the TTA’s National Partnership Project 2003/4.