Blog Archives

More British children are learning Mandarin Chinese – but an increase in qualified teachers is urgently needed

Posted on February 11, 2019 by Blog Editor — Leave a comment

Mandarin Chinese: coming to a school near you soon? shutterstock Katharine Carruthers. Mandarin Chinese is seen as being of increasing strategic importance, and in recent years there’s been a growing number of students taking up the language in schools across…

Tagged with: Mandarin, teacher supply, Teaching Chinese
Posted in Education policy, Teaching, learning, curriculum & assessment

Teacher supply: Government needs to take responsibility

Posted on July 4, 2016 by Blog Editor — 1 Comment

Joseph Mintz. According to a Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson, “the biggest threat to teacher recruitment is that the teaching unions and others use every opportunity to talk down teaching as a profession, continually painting a negative picture of England’s…

Tagged with: Joseph Mintz, teacher education, teacher supply
Posted in Education policy, Teachers

‘Tragedy of the commons’: how the government abandoned the pursuit of teacher quality

Posted on November 16, 2015 by Blog Editor — 2 Comments

Chris Husbands. The ‘tragedy of the commons’ is a well-known tenet of public, and especially environmental policy. The ‘commons’ refers to a resource shared by many individuals who can use a portion of it for their own benefit. The tragedy…

Tagged with: Chris Husbands, teacher supply
Posted in Education policy, Teachers and teaching assistants

Teacher supply: why deregulation is not working

Posted on December 1, 2014 by Blog Editor — 4 Comments

Chris Husbands Some weeks ago, I was working for the IOE in Chile. Chile is an object lesson in education reform: in the 1980s and 1990s, it de-regulated its education system on a grand scale. For-profit schools entered the public…

Tagged with: 2014 ITT census, Chris Husbands, initial teacher education, teacher supply
Posted in Education policy, Teachers