In England and Wales, all Initial Teacher Education (ITE) is underpinned by the Standards for the recommendation for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), most recently revised and implemented in 2007. These Standards essentially follow and exemplify a 'competency' model of teacher education, and were in fact termed 'competencies' in an earlier (pre-2001) manifestation. The Standards form a statutory requirement as the basis for all ITE courses, and student teachers following these courses have to demonstrate that they have ‘met’ them at an appropriate level; as such, although they may be the occasion of debates about which Standard has been met and when or how, they appear to command a relatively unquestioning acceptance from ITE providers – whether in universities or in schools – and student teachers alike. To some extent, this implicit acceptance may be seen as part of a general acquiescence throughout the domain of education (certainly in England and Wales) with the contextual rules and regulations that have formed its legalistic contexts over recent years, with or without any sense of genuine consultation: an acquiescence, in my experience, all too often borne of ‘initiative fatigue’. My own experience in the field of ITE, as English in Education tutor and as Course Director for Durham University's Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) Secondary programme, has led me towards developing a critique of this competencies / standards-driven ITE paradigm, using the distinctive and helpful philosophy and practice of Paulo Freire as the theoretical basis for my developing appraisal. I draw also on some empirical evidence submitted by my group of student teachers (preparing for careers in teaching English to Secondary - ie age 11-18 - school students) based on their first-hand knowledge of the Standards during their initial teacher education. The essential research question is whether this competency model gives an adequate framework, theoretically or practically, for the intricacies of teacher education. Clearly, the secondary questions to pose follow logically: if not, what are its shortcomings, and how may teacher educators develop their practice beyond the competency model.

A theoretical appraisal of the competency model of Initial Teacher Education, using Freirian educational philosophy as the basis of a critique and drawing also upon findings based on small-scale empirical research conducted with student teachers of English in England.

The essential conclusion is that the competency model of ITE, as embedded in the Standards (England and Wales), gives an insufficient and to some extent a faulty picture of the nature of teacher education, especially when seen through the radical lens of Freirean philosophy and pedagogical practice.