The name is absent

arguably

such

constraints

often

57

appear

more immediate and intractable

First

there

is

the

focus

on

subject

method

work

seen

as

centrally

defining the reality of the PGCE experience.

Throughout the duration of

the Alternative Course subject method departments established an effective

challenge to the pre-eminence of discipline based education work and both

exerted particular pressures on the Alternative Course.

Then there is

the lack of integration within the PGCE course

an accepted fragmentation

of component courses that makes any attempt to provide an integrated course

a hazardous undertaking.

Involved in attempts to reduce fragmentation,

staff as well as students became aware and subject to the pressures

Lsing from the fragmentation.

Parallel to the lack of horizontal

integration of courses which make up the PGCE is the lack of vertical

integration of Institute and school which makes it difficult to allow

the school to influence and shape the agenda of the PGCE concerns.

Alongside this is the pedagogy of the PGCE which overwhelmingly espouses

the view of teacher education as training where the university transmits

essential knowledge.

To move towards a view that sees students as both

knowledgeable and necessarily active in their learning is not easy in this

context.

In many senses the pressures that arise from developing a position

where the course

can be responsive to both schools and students are

extremely positive

but

they contradict

mainstream

practices

and