Doing Things Differently: Responding to the 'policy problem' of Teacher Education in Wales

Responding to a clear justification for the reform of initial teacher education (ITE) in Wales (Furlong, 2015) the Welsh government has committed itself to strengthening provision through 'a truly collaborative system, where universities and schools work in robust partnership, supported by the consortia, recognising the importance of research' (Williams, 2017: 1). The publication of the national criteria for the accreditation of ITE programmes in Wales (Welsh Government, 2017) set out the requirements for all ITE programmes, emphasising the need for an integrated approach to student teacher learning within collaborative models which are research-informed at all levels. Using Vidovich's (2007) dynamic model of policy analysis, which takes into account influences on policy text production at the macro, intermediate and micro levels, the paper examines the process by which these particular reforms (covering a six-year period from 2013 to 2019) have been proposed and set in motion and the ways in which recently-accredited providers in Wales have begun to respond to the challenging agenda that they represent. The paper concludes by offering a view as to what the opportunities and challenges for ITE providers in Wales might be in terms of further developing models of research-informed clinical practice.