"White Paper is a wide-ranging prospectus for change"

Chris Husbands, director-designate of the Institute of Education, London, said: "We welcome anything which allows us to deepen and broaden our partnership with schools. The White Paper opens exciting possibilities to extend and improve collaborations between universities and schools." He was responding to the Government's White Paper, published today.

"This White Paper is a wide-ranging prospectus for change in education," said Professor Husbands.
"The proposals on the future of the teaching profession are critical.  Few things matter more to pupils' success than the quality of teachers. However, governments in England have had serious difficulty in articulating a clear vision for the teaching profession.

"This White Paper draws explicitly on the examples of some of the  world's best education systems, such as Finland and Singapore. The challenge for education professionals is to find ways to adapt and develop such examples to the often very different contexts of English schools.
"Twenty years of excellent research have given us a solid knowledge base of what world-class teacher education looks like, and it is interesting to see how the White Paper measures up.  In the best education systems, initial teacher education is based on close partnership between schools and universities, with  both working together on developing an evidence-led, highly knowledgeable profession.  
"The proposals to enhance the role of schools in teacher education could provide a basis for building more secure partnerships between the best of our schools and our universities.  The proposals for University Training Schools – especially if combined with the proposals on Teaching Schools – could provide the basis for a step change in the quality of professional preparation.

"Debate on teacher training is too often based on a now outdated view of the distinction between 'theory' and 'practice' - in almost no other profession is this distinction seen as a sensible way of organising thinking about professional learning. The opportunity – and the challenge – of the White Paper is for education professionals in England to develop innovative ways of working which genuinely go beyond these outdated distinctions.

"Universities are already working in very close partnership with schools to train teachers of the highest calibre. At the IOE we do this in a number of ways, including Teach First and other employment-based routes, and we look forward to working even more closely with schools in future.  We have a century of experience of working with London schools to improve children's lives, and we look forward with excitement to further developing this area" said Professor Husbands.

Notes:
The Institute of Education is an autonomous graduate school of education within the University of London. During the last Research Assessment Exercise in 2008, the IOE was judged to be the best HEI in the country for education research.
Any Journalist wanting more information please contact the IOE press office: James Russell on 0207 911 5556 / j.russell@ioe.ac.uk or Emily Brewer on 0207 911 5501/ e.brewer@ioe.ac.uk