Over the last 50 years, education has become one of the most important policy areas for governments across the world. The established strength of the teaching profession in Scotland, together with steps taken by successive governments to improve it further, have created a secure platform upon which to build.
The two most important and achievable ways in which outcomes can be improved in formal education is through supporting and strengthening the quality of teaching and the quality of leadership. Career-long professional learning for those involved in educating our children should be at the heart of this process, with implications for its philosophy, quality, coherence, efficiency and impact.
Graham Donaldson was asked by Scottish Ministers to review the full continuum of teacher education in Scotland including selection, initial and early career education, continuing professional development and leadership. He produced a report, Teaching Scotland's Future, containing 50 recommendations.
The Scottish Government responded, accepting all recommendations in full, in part or in principle. Recommendation 15 said that "new and strengthened models of partnership among universities, local authorities, schools and individual teachers need to be developed. These partnerships should be based on jointly agreed principles and involve shared responsibility for key areas of teacher education".
In its response the Government committed to setting up a partnership working group which would take forward this and all recommendations related to partnership. The national partnership group for teacher education in Scotland will bring together representatives of universities, local authorities, schools, individual professionals and national organisations to discuss how the recommendations in Teaching Scotland's Future can be implemented.
The outcomes that we seek are that:
- Career long professional learning is clearly focused on achieving the best possible outcomes for learners.
- Effective approaches to professional learning foster, and are sustained by, a culture of professional and collegiate responsibility.
- Professional learning makes best use of available resources and the full range of available expertise, through effective partnership working at every level.