Abstract
This chapter examines the processes of change that have been under way in teacher education in England. The trends that are revealed are consistent with a centrally controlled development of a marketised approach. There has been a diversification of provision with new entry routes which have little or no higher education input, as well as a growing emphasis on performance and ‘accountability’. The overall effect has been to create a fractured system with considerable instability especially for traditional providers of teacher education. This has been accompanied by a growing sense of constraint on the nature of teaching, based on a simplistic view of the profession which assumes that teaching can be encapsulated in a list of measurable standards or competences.