Making Change Happen - The Reform of Initial Teacher Education in Wales

In Wales there is a growing appetite for the country to set out a new and fundamentally different vision for what education is and should be; a vision that puts young people and their learning needs at the centre. What links many of the proposed changes is a fundamentally different conception of what it is to be a teacher in Wales. This in turn has major implications for initial teacher education (ITE). Over the last five years John Furlong has worked closely with the Welsh Government in order to help re-vision the country’s ITE provision. In this seminar he will outline the research underlying the reforms that are taking place and discuss the role of ITE in making change happen.

John Furlong, OBE is an Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Oxford’s Department of Education. He was Director of the department from 2003-2009. A former President of the British Educational Research Association, he is currently Chair of the Teacher Education Accreditation Board for Wales. His book, ‘Education – an anatomy of the discipline’, was awarded first prize by the British Society for Educational Studies for the best educational research of 2015 and his most recent book ‘Knowledge and the Study of Education – an international exploration’ was published 2017. John was awarded the OBE for services to research in education in 2017.

This seminar is number four in an eight-part public seminar series on ‘Future directions in teacher education research, practice and policy’, led by the Department of Education and convened by Diane Mayer (Professor of Education (Teacher Education)) and Alis Oancea (Professor of Philosophy of Education and Research Policy and Director of Research).