86
Careers
in teaching change
over time and the education of teachers
cannot operate in
vacuum
By bringing school and university
together
the
Sussex scheme created and maintained the possibility
of mutuality of influence that is
so noticeably absent in much initial
teacher education a decade later.
A final reported development shows
that staff were
prepared to modify
of their
scheme to allow
student groups to vary the pattern of their school commitment. It
is a move such as this which begins to open up the possibility that
the requirements and practices of the school might become critical
factors in shaping the students’ course experience. The Research
itself had emphasised that distinct and recognisable groupings of
students might require different patterns of experience in and rela-
tionship with schools (1973 Ch8 P28). Here the schools themselves
were enabled to generate and work within their own priorities and
concerns. The spur to this development was the developing conception
and role of the teacher-tutor.
Since the main research year the director of the
Sussex
course had moved the course away froι
the
idea
of teaching practice towards school experience. By
involving the General Supervisory Tutor, who is usual-
ly the Headmaster
to a greater extent a wider range
of activities became possible, and have developed
within the school-based part of the course. In
addition, a proposal being actively considered would
involve a university teacher in the activities of
the school for up to one day a week. It is hoped
that
this degree
of
involvement
will activate
the
school - university link in a way that it has been
impossible to achieve up to this point. (Ch8 P30
Note 5)
Such proposals
and
developments show
that it is possible
at an insti-
tutional level
to
work with structural tensions which are generated
by innovations
which span institutions. Moreover they should indeed
contain the message that no change or innovation can persist without