Teacher Training in England and Wales - the potential impact of Curriculum 2022 on QTS
by Dr Jane Dorrian The attention of the Welsh education workforce is focussed firmly on the introduction of the new ‘Curriculum for Wales 2022’ that will replace National Curriculum. Consultations have been held, briefings have been delivered and content is being designed and scrutinised. The wholesale replacement of a curriculum impacts on every aspect of the education system, from the practicalities of recording pupil progress to philosophical considerations of the purpose of education. Discussions and debates about all aspects of the process are taking place, but the conversations connected to certain areas are louder and more urgent than others due to pressures of impending timeframes. As the date for the initial implementation of the curriculum approaches the focus currently is on the changes this will bring about in the classroom and how existing teachers and other staff will be supported to deliver the different pedagogical and professional principles underpinning it. Whilst these aspects are clearly and rightly the main priority, an issue that has not yet been given due attention is the impact that the divergence in curriculum design could have on initial teacher education (ITE) courses in England and Wales and the transferability of qualifications across the two countries. In the current system students who gain their Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) in Welsh institutions are able to teach in England with no need to undertake any additional training related to the English curriculum, and the same applies to students who qualify in England and go on to teach in Wales. This differs from students who gain their teaching qualifications in Scotland or Northern Ireland who have to complete an additional QTS qualification to teach in England or Wales, and likewise teachers that hold QTS need to complete an equivalence qualification to teach in Scotland or Northern Ireland. One of the reasons for this requirement has been that the curricula delivered in Scotland and Northern Ireland are distinctly different to that delivered in England in
Wales, but the introduction of Curriculum 2022 annuls that argument. Since devolution in 1999 there has been a quiet determination by the Welsh Assembly Government to create an education system ‘made in Wales, for Wales’. Rhodri Morgan, then First Minister of Wales, stated in 2002 that the Welsh Government would place “clear, red water between Cardiff and Westminster”, and subsequently differences have emerged. The introduction of Foundation Phase to replace Key Stage 1, the development of the Welsh Baccalaureate, the abolition of SATs and the introduction of Teacher Standards specific to Wales have meant that the educational landscape in Wales is becoming distinctly different from that in England and Curriculum 2022 can be seen as the culmination of this process. The Welsh Assembly Government website states that the overhaul is necessary because ‘since it was created, the (current) curriculum has become narrow, inflexible and crowded, limiting creative approaches in schools’. This statement refers to the National Curriculum that continues to be delivered in English schools, which returns us to the question of how the same initial teaching qualification can equip teachers to deliver curricula that are increasingly divergent, particularly when the teaching qualifications in the other home nations are deemed to be non-transferable because of the different curricula designs in those countries. It could be argued that the Northern Ireland curriculum is closer in design to the proposed structure of Curriculum 2022 than to National Curriculum as that is organised into areas of learning rather than subjects, so if teachers who trained in Wales need to gain additional qualifications to deliver the Irish curriculum then it would seem logical that the same requirement would be needed for those who come to 05
