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CHAPTER THREE
The Alternative Course
This chapter compares the Alternative Course with the Sussex scheme,
which was the subject of the previous chapter. the purpose is both
to introduce aspects of the Alternative Course, and to draw attention
to important
dimensions along
which courses which may be described
as 'school-based
may
differ.
Differences of organisation, focus
and
assessment
be expected and related to the diversity of PGCE
courses empfe)⅛sised by Patrick (1982) discussed in Chapter One.
There
it was argued that the differences were not of underlying and criti-
cal elements of approach that constitute distinct models of profes-
sional socialisation. Here the underlying model is the focus for
it will be argued that radical shifts in the practice of teacher
education and in theoretical paradigm which surrounds it are neces-
sitated by a commitment to partnership.
Without such shifts teacher
education and schools may embrace a rhetoric of partnership which
will be predicated upon continuation and extensions of forms of
practice that may themselves subvert the real possibilities for
change that presently exist.
Emphasis will be
placed upon the process of change in teacher educa-
tion for unlike most university courses where
change is constituted
by modification
in syllabus^here it involves distinct institutions,
and relationships within and between them.
Changes are not only
structural and organisational, for intimately related to these are
personal and professional orientations that
may
be more
difficult
to achieve
and
aintain
and which ultimately will be critical in