England has been exploring and refining Teacher Capability Procedure Since 1997. As an important measure to remove unqualified teachers, the Teacher Capability Procedure has so far made remarkable achievements in improving the quality of teachers. 

  The aim of the study is to explore the governance of the dismissal of unqualified teachers in England, using the Teacher Capability Procedure as an example.

  We analyse the England Teacher Capability Procedure in the context of interactive governance theory. The theory emphasizes the overall governability of a social entity or social system composed of a governance object system, a governance subject system, and an interactive system.

  The theory focuses on the multiple orders of governance to provide a framework for governance analysis. The first order is the identification of social problems, with the purpose of solving social problems and creating new opportunities, and providing ways and means to solve the problems existing in the objects of governance. The second order focuses on the institutional arrangements for the occurrence of the first level governance activities, including the design and maintenance of governance rules and organizational structures, which provides a framework for the solution of the first order governance problems and constitutes a place for the interaction between governance subjects and governance objects. The third order is meta-governance, which is the values, norms, principles and choices followed by the governance subjects in governance activities.

Combined with the theory, the research questions include: Why did England publish the Teacher Capability Procedure? What was the governance model and operational arrangements of the Teacher Capability Procedure? What values did the Teacher Capability Procedure embody?

We collected and analysed 15 policies and 62 articles on Teacher Capability Procedure using websites and databases such as the UK Department for Education website and Web of Science as search channels.

Teacher Capability Procedure was a crucial strategy to solve the problem of supply and demand of the teachers in the late 20th century, and it was also a key means to improve the quality of school education and thus promote social mobility in the early 21st century, and it was also an assurance measure to grasp the opportunities for the development of new professionalism among teachers in the early 21st century. The Teacher Capability Procedure governance model has undergone a transformation from the "middle way" of a new type of cooperative relationship between the government and the market to the expansion of school autonomy. The operational arrangements include appraisal objectives for teacher’s performance, monitoring and confirmation of teacher’s performance at the informal and formal stages, support for underperformance teachers throughout the capability procedure, protection of teachers' right to appeal after formal warnings or notices of dismissal, and categorical dismissal measures for teachers based on different capabilities. At the same time, the Teacher Capability Procedure embodies the values of efficiency and accountability, process fairness, and teacher development.

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