Moira Hulme

This chapter draws on research carried out during the pandemic into the responses of head teachers in diverse school and community contexts. A need for a deepening sense of shared identity with leaders binding people together and being seen “to stand with them” was needed[1] enabling a shared understanding of goals in moving forward together. In developing relationships across the school community (staff, pupils and parents), the importance of trust and fairness is highlighted, led by moral imperatives focused on the collective good of the community. A framework emerging from this work highlights dynamic elements as school leaders adapted and negotiated new ways of being part of the school imaginary while holding on to principles and values and a sense of leadership as an essential part of investment in education and education communities as vehicles for the common good.

A ‘practicum’, ‘clinical experience’ or ‘internship’ is an established component of professional preparation in education, health, social work, law, accountancy and engineering. Across diverse occupational fields, employability and work readiness are gaining prominence in college marketing strategies. The disruption to work placements during the Covid-19 pandemic in programmes linked to licensure rapidly increased the pace and scale of virtualisation and the need for systematic evaluation of curriculum re-design. This chapter presents a case study of the transition to a fully online practicum for UK university students training to be teachers during 2020/21. Drawing on interviews with students, university tutors and school partners, the chapter outlines key learning about partnership formation and innovation. The evaluation suggests that online supervision requires participants to work harder to establish a positive working alliance and sense of belonging across time–space-digital media. The study highlights the importance of iterative review to promote reciprocity, transparency and voice.

Challenges to the supply of well-prepared and effective teachers persist across diverse education systems. This chapter considers the sociopolitical and technical complexity of reconciling demand and supply in the recruitment and retention of teachers. Within finite expenditure, workforce planning must balance need across school phases, subjects, and localities, taking into account teacher mobility and turnover, changing demographics, curriculum policy, and future learning needs. As a result, it is not uncommon for teacher shortages, underrepresentation, and oversupply to coexist. This chapter outlines the impact of patterns of differential attrition on teaching quality and educational equity, and considers alternative policy strategies to secure and diversify the teacher workforce.

This chapter examines the inauguration of the university study of Education in Scotland and its relation to teacher education in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The chapter outlines moves to establish Education as a disciplinary field in higher education and the junctures at which this movement aligns with and is in tension with concurrent moves to advance teaching as a profession. Academisation and professionalisation are the twin poles of this debate. This is not a parochial or obsolete debate. The place of teacher preparation in higher education has been the focus of sustained discussion across Anglophone nations. Three examples – the inauguration of chairs and lectureships, the governance of teacher education and deliberation on the content and purpose of a degree in Education – are used to help explain the apparent paradox between the historic place of education in Scottish culture and identity and the relatively recent full involvement of Scotland's universities in the professional preparation of teachers. Investigating the activities of the first academic community of educationists in Scotland may help to understand continuing struggles over jurisdiction and authority in this contested and yet neglected field.