The training of RE teachers and the role of the Church college trusts in supporting them
<p>This article reviews the changes which have taken place in teacher education over the last 50 years, including the role of colleges of education and universities, the balance of consecutive and concurrent provision, the matter of time allocation and specialist supply, and the return to scho...
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| Format: | Book section |
| Language: | English |
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Mohr Siebeck
2016
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| Summary: | <p>This article reviews the changes which have taken place in teacher education over the last 50 years, including the role of colleges of education and universities, the balance of consecutive and concurrent provision, the matter of time allocation and specialist supply, and the return to school based training. In particular it identifies the various reports and analyses which have drawn attention to the chronic under-provision of qualified RE teachers and then highlights the various failures at government level to do anything about it. Perhaps the most sobering statistic was that of the percentage of teachers of RE in secondary schools who had no qualification or appropriate experience in the subject: this was 50% in 1993 and was still 50% twenty years later.</p>
<p>Alongside this analysis is a description of the nature and extent of dependence of RE on charitable trusts for help in both initial and continuing education and training in the subject asnd in the generation of suitable teaching resources. The prime providers of this help have been the Church college trusts formed out of the closure of eleven of the Church of England colleges of education at the end of the 1970s. At the time of writing [2016] these trusts had a combined endowment capital of £56 million generating an annual income of £2.7 million of which around £1.5 million was used in various ways for supporting RE. The work of each of the trusts is them summarised focussing on the various ways each had been supporting RE. Finally the article examines why resourcing support for RE lags behind that provided for most of the other school curriculum subjects and why so many RE lessons are taught by teachers who do not have a qualification in the subject.</p> |
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