Study title

The Practices and Partnerships Post-doctoral fellowship at King’s College London examined teacher learning and professional development in initial teacher education programmes. Original plans for the project were impacted by COVID-19 and, as such, the final scope of the research is smaller than planned. The project involved capturing data on the experience of Primary trainee teachers and Primary ITT staff in the form of online questionnaires. In addition, interviews were conducted with three early career teachers who had previously contributed to the researcher’s doctoral research as trainee teachers. The findings explore the lived experience of learning to teach and preparing teachers, with particular reflections on the impact of the global pandemic.My research is concerned with initial teacher education in England. In my PhD, I considered how the choice of learning environment impacts on the learning and development of trainee teachers. Sitting within the socio-cultural domain, the research was theoretically framed by an understanding of ethnography as 'both a process and a product' (Britzman 1995:229). The intensive yearlong immersion in three different training sites illuminated the cultures of the differing providers, demonstrating differences between routes both in terms of the structure and development of teacher learning and the effectiveness and sustainability of teacher preparation. The research resulting in the generation of rich, original data giving focused insight into what it looks and feels like to learn to teach in the increasingly marketized environment of teacher training in England. The subsequent conceptual theorising led to the formation of a framework addressing conflict, transition and agency. This conceptual framework has the capacity for analysis that transcends the specifics of individual programmes, both in the UK and internationally. Teacher education in England has seen significant changes over the past three decades (Murray &...