Abstract
This chapter outlines arrangements for new teacher induction across the four nations that comprise the United Kingdom: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Arrangements for initial teacher education, induction (the first year of teaching) and early professional development (the second and third years of teaching) vary across the four jurisdictions. Following (differing degrees of) political devolution from 1998, possibilities for greater cross-nation divergence in education policy within the UK have increased.
Teacher education is undergoing a period of active development with the announcement in March 2011 of the Review of Teachers’ Standards in England, the Review of Teacher Education in Northern Ireland (consultation conducted between June and November 2010) and the publication of the Review of Teacher Education in Scotland, Teaching Scotland’s Future (Donaldson, 2011). The different ways in which issues of professional support are approached within each nation reflects an accommodation between supra-national trends and national contexts, histories and cultures.