This paper reports on the results of a critical literature review that focusses on the classroom deployment of teaching assistants (TAs) in England between 2010 and 2020, a period marked by an upward trend in the number of these adults in school workforces internationally. The study utilises the theory of practice architectures (Kemmis, Wilkinson,…

Walking-creating was adopted to probe orientations towards communities, while early career teachers were on clinical placement in the remote South West Peninsular of England. The aim of carrying out walking-creating events was to elicit whether and if so, the extent to which, early career teachers were sensitive to the communities where they had…

It has been argued that conservatoires in England have a responsibility to train music educators. This article proposes that alumni could have an important role to play in contributing to their former institution's instrumental music teacher education provision and explores how two UK conservatoire graduates with at least three years teaching…

This paper explores the relational dynamics in 10 triads from one university-based teacher education programme in England. Positioning theory and frame analysis are integrated to understand how teacher educators, mentors, and student teachers make sense of the placement experience and distribute mutual rights and duties. Data were derived from…

School-based placements have been identified as important for personal and professional development, supporting prospective teachers to critically (re)consider and disrupt normative and ableist practices. Antonio Gramsci's concept of cultural hegemony was used in this research to explore the influence of a special school placement on prospective…

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, England's school system was facing an increasingly severe challenge of recruiting enough trainees to initial teacher training (ITT) to meet growing teacher demand. The pandemic has had a number of impacts on the ITT sector and on teacher supply more broadly. This report highlights some of the main opportunities and…

Teacher turnover is a long-standing and worsening problem for schools in England. Strategies to reduce turnover have been extensively researched; however, in England, fewer studies have engaged with how turnover affects students and staff, or how this impact can be mitigated. This article synthesises research suggesting that the negative impact of…

The deployment of Teaching Assistants (TAs) to support learning has been the subject of much critical debate, including the particular concern that TAs too often becomes a less skilled replacement for the teacher rather than acting as an additional source of support. Despite efforts to encapsulate the TA's contribution to learning within specific…

In recent years in England there has been a move away from Initial Teacher Training (ITT) taking place predominantly in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to becoming schools led. The two main routes undertaken by graduates wishing to teach are the Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) and Schools Direct (SD). Both routes offer…

We evaluate whether the placement of Teach First's inexperienced new teachers into secondary schools with recruitment difficulties in disadvantaged areas in England has raised or lowered pupil attainment at the age of 16. Our matched difference-in-difference panel estimation approach compares the experiences of 168 schools participating early on…

Schools and Initial Teacher Training/Education providers have joint responsibility for developing trainee subject knowledge. Due to the current curriculum and training emphasis placed upon the importance of subject knowledge, the relationship between it and overall teaching grades is of interest when monitoring trainee assessment data collated…

Gaps between the educational attainment of pupils from higher and lower income families are widespread and persistent. Teacher quality is amongst the most important school-based determinants of pupil attainment, making the allocation of teachers to pupils a potentially important reason for this attainment gap. We use a range of well-evidenced…

This study is an analysis of the impact on students of their experience of an alternative placement. The placement was run with Year 2 students on a three-year undergraduate initial teacher education degree programme (primary, 3-11) in England. The placement enabled students to have a practical teaching experience in any setting outside the age…

For those studying for the Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE), the teaching practice placement can be a daunting experience. Trainee teachers have to adjust into a new workplace and a complicated professional role which can be stressful; this can result in teachers leaving the profession in their early years if they do not equip…

Background: Successfully selecting students for undergraduate courses and for teaching is notoriously difficult. Traditionally, in England, A level grades and interviews have been used in conjunction with a variety of other approaches. Purpose: This paper examines the predictive validity of students' A level grades and of scores from a structured…