The Making of Teachers: A study into the differing experiences of PGCE students in university and school based initial teacher training environments.

The research focuses on the experiences of secondary English beginning teachers and how the choice of PGCE environment impacts on their development as practitioners. The research project title alludes to Pam Grossman's seminal book 'The Making of a Teacher' (1990) where she suggests that, 'Teacher education can provide a framework that shapes what beginning teachers subsequently learn from experience.' p111. Inherent within this premise is the tension between learning 'from experience' and the relevance of theoretical study, an idea developed further by Grossman in later works that advocate practical methods in teacher training. National education policy in the UK has seen an increased emphasis on the practical, from the neoconservative thinking in policies in the 1990s (Furlong & Maynard, 1995) to the reforms of the 2010-15 Coalition Government. The political discourse around university teaching training has placed little value on the role of universities, emphasising a perceived separation of theoretical instruction from a more practical application in schools, 'teaching is a craft and it is best learnt as an apprentice...' (Gove 2010). This 'on the job' (Cochran-Smith 2005) approach to the development of teachers prioritises school-led systems over the traditional home of teacher education in universities. It is intended that the research will illuminate the differing approaches to learning and teaching practices in university and school-based initial teacher training. The development of in depth understanding of the cultures of both university and school based PGCE settings could help to inform future policy decisions around the nature and location of initial teacher education and the relationship between universities and schools.

Ethnography in qualitative research aims to provide an in-depth description of everyday life and practice. Sometimes termed 'thick description' (Geertz 1973) the focus is on the stories of the participants and are gathered from an emic perspective. Rampton (2007) highlights the necessity of looking in 'our own backyard to understand shifting cultural meanings, practices and variations' and it is the 'backyard' of the PGCE course that this research intends to look. Quantitative analysis of programme numbers or conversations with teacher educators does not get close enough to the actual experience of beginning teachers; a goal that is accessible through ethnography. As Heller (2008) comments, 'Ethnographies allow us to get at things we would otherwise never be able to discover.... They allow us to see complexity and connections.' (quoted in Copeland & Creece 2016). It is this complexity that the proposed research aims to access, combining interviews and participant observation of subject specific teacher education sessions with observation of classroom practice. As Britzman (1995; 2003) asserts, ethnography is not simply about 'capturing the real already out there' but is about constructing 'particular versions of truth' in which the reader has an investment and will be pulled in 'new directions.' Illuminating the nature of learning on PGCE courses has the potential to pull policy in 'new directions', developing an in-depth understanding of how the cultures of the different training environments work, rather than focusing on the politically expedient. Describing a 'vigorous period of change' internationally in teacher education, Tatto et al (2016) state, 'More research is needed that provides innovative answers to the challenging questions of who should teach, and where and how should teachers learn to teach.' p248. The research addresses this call and the choice of an ethnographic approach ensures that the focus is deep rather than shallow and grounded in the realities experienced by beginning teachers.