Initial Teacher Education and Training (ITET) Innovation Network

Successful ITET always works in partnership with school teachers and school leaders. At the same time ITET operates within a centralised regulatory system.

● How can we as an ITET partnership ensure there is space to listen to teachers at all stages and levels?
● What kinds of things do we want to listen to teachers reflecting on? (How much do we, or should we set the agenda in this regard?
● What mechanisms (formal and informal) are already available to us so that we can listen to teachers within our partnership?
● Are there new ways in which we can listen to teachers within our partnership?
● Teachers in ITET partnership are one of the best sources of knowledge about what the job is currently like and how it feels to be a teacher at different stages in the profession. How can we harness that knowledge to ensure that we are preparing new teachers in the most effective way for their immediate needs and their longer term careers?

Notions of identity in modern societies continue to shift and evolve. This question of shifting identities is as pertinent for teachers as perhaps any other profession in society given the semi-public nature of our work. Teacher identity is both personal for the individual and collective for the profession.

● As an ITET partnership what do we mean when we talk about ‘teacher identity’?
● Is the development teacher identity something that we consider part of our work and if so in what ways?
● Do we present facets of ‘teacher identity’ to our trainees? If so, in what ways?
● Do we have a sense of generational shifts in identity (in general and within teaching)? Does this matter?
● Who do we present as role models to our trainee teachers?

Teachers and school leaders have very significant levels of responsibility - for the pupils they teach, their colleagues, the communities they serve, to name just some of the significant areas. It is important for new entrants to understand the responsibilities and duties that teachers have whilst also feeling that they have a sense of agency in their work.

● What messages do we give as a partnership (implicitly and explicitly) about agency and responsibility?
● Are the messages about responsibility and agency that trainees receive consistent in the different strands of their training (e.g. centre based training sessions and school placements)? Does it matter if there is inconsistency in these messages?
● If there is ambiguity in these respects, who do, or who should our trainees gain insights from?
● What do we do to fully support trainees to build confidence as they engage increasingly with the multiple accountability aspects of the teacher’s role (e.g. safeguarding, progress of pupils, wellbeing, attendance)?

Great teachers understand the needs of their pupils and how to respond accordingly, and this should be an aspiration for all trainee teachers. Getting to this point can be a long and complicated process.

Developments within education and wider society mean that we now have a much greater understanding of the diversity of individuals in our schools and the strengths and challenges that they might have. New teachers want and need to have an enquiring mindset and a growing set of skills and strategies to support them in this respect.

● How do we as a partnership start new teachers on this complex journey whilst recognising that they are unlikely to feel fully confident and competent in all respects?
● At what stage in their training and in what ways do trainees have the opportunity to consider individuals or small groups of pupils in ways that allows a deep engagement with their needs?
● How do we promote an enquiring mindset?

All teachers need an appropriate combination of support and challenge. New teachers want to get better and typically require substantial support across a range of areas to do so. As teachers gain confidence and competence it is important that they are challenged (internally and/ or externally) to improve further - this becomes the basis for embedded self improvement and ultimately success in teaching.

● What do we mean by ‘support’ in the context of our partnership (practical and philosophical)?
● What do we mean by ‘challenge’ in the context of our partnership (practical and philosophical)?
● Where does support come from and whose responsibility is it?
● Where does challenge come from and whose responsibility is it?
● What mechanisms do we have in place for assessing whether we are getting the levels of support and challenge right?