Article Title

Teacher education for values education : is there a way forward under current constraints?


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How can teacher education best prepare teachers to contribute to values education in schools? If this was ever a question that could be asked and answered in the abstract, or with reference to some postulated ideal situation, it is not so now. I am raising and suggesting an answer to the question in the context of recent developments in education in Britain; but since those recent developments are by no means unique to Britain, the discussion may well be of broader relevance too. The context, then, in which I am raising the question is one of increasing political control, at a national level, over both the curriculum of schools, and the form and content of teacher education itself. Several developments have combined, in Britain, which make it difficult to be optimistic about the future of any serious values education in schools; but at the same time, some opportunities have been opened up which could be grasped by teacher educators. I shall set the context first in terms of the school curriculum itself; then in terms of developments in teacher education.