The last few months have been a turbulent time for universities and many debates have been opened up about education. Students and lecturers have taken to the streets together to defend higher education and campaign against the rise in fees and cuts to funding and teaching budgets. These cuts will affect provision and access to courses and place some universities under threat.
Teacher education is also under revision and the Schools White Paper 2010 outlines a range of proposals. It is interesting to compare these proposals with the earlier ‘Green Paper on Teacher Education’ (2000) that recognises the importance of educational research and Masters Level study within initial teacher education and partnership between schools and universities.
NALDIC (National Association of Language Development in the Curriculum) has issued a response to the Schools White Paper. There is a growing fear that the expertise of academics in the field of Applied Linguistics will be lost to teachers if there is a major shift to training in schools. In the section on ‘Teaching and Leadership’ it is noted that ‘EAL is a specialist subject within the field of applied linguistics. This means that to enter the profession should require academic study and qualification at higher education level’.
There is need for education reform in England to focus on language policies and practices for EAL learners, in line with developments across many other countries in Europe.
