HomeJournalCOMPARATIVE EDUCATION No.54, 2017

COMPARATIVE EDUCATION:
Bulletin of the Japan Comparative Education Society No.54, 2017

Articles

Seiko KANEKO The Rationale for Accepting International Students in Emerging Malaysian Higher Education Institutions from the Viewpoint of International Students and Staff
Noriko TAMURA The Direct Election of School Principals in Brazil: Educational Administration and Democratic Control
Hitomi TSUKUDA Duality of Citizenship Discourse in the Studies of Sub-Saharan African Education: Two Publics in Africa
Ayako TSUKADA Improving the Quality of Support for International Students by Korean Universities: The International Education Quality Assurance System
Miku OGAWA Various Conflicts Emerging in the Process of Quality Improvement in Secondary Schools in Western Kenya: Decisions by Schools and Students
Tomoko YAMAZAKI Changing Implications of School-based Initial Teacher Training in England: The Dynamics of ‘a Craft’ and ‘a Profession’

Special Papers
Strategies for Closing the Educational Achievement Gap in Schools (Based on the Research Project Report I at the 52nd Annual Meeting)

Daisuke SONOYAMA Introduction
Toshiyuki OMOMO Efforts to Close the Educational Achievement Gap in the US: The Development of Federal Education Policies and the Challenges of a Charter school
Kana HAMATANI Strategies for Closing the Educational Achievement Gap in Germany: The Case of North Rhine-Westphalia
Choon Kiat SIM Strategies for Closing the Achievement Gap in Singapore: Approaches and Challenges to Ethnic Differences
Miki INUI Regional Perspectives on the Achievement Tests and Recent Approaches to Diminishing Disparity in Lao PDR
Ken-ichi IKEDA Diagnosing Educational Achievement Gap in Educational Policy

Open Symposium at the 52nd Annual Meeting

Nobuhide SAWAMURA Discussing Education towards 2030

Research Project Report II at the 52nd Annual Meeting

Kenshi YAMANOUCHI Globalization and Education for Gifted and Talented Children

Book Reviews

Abstracts of Articles

The Rationale for Accepting International Students in Emerging Malaysian Higher Education Institutions from the Viewpoint of International Students and Staff
Seiko KANEKO
(Osaka University)
 The share of international students in countries traditionally accepting them has decreased, while that of newly accepting Asian countries is on the rise, such as China, Singapore and Malaysia. Malaysia accepted more than 100,000 international students in 2015. In recent times, the number of students from the Middle East and African countries, such as from Nigeria, Yemen, Libya, or Saudi Arabia has increased drastically.
 According to previous studies, there are four general reasons for a country to accept international students: to increase mutual understanding between countries, to generate revenue for the higher education sector, to build capacity, and to import skilled migration. Emerging countries that are developing an education hub are often considered to be looking to generate revenue rather than to increase mutual understanding. Malaysian higher education institutions impose a higher tuition fee on international students than on the local students, but the difference is not as large as that of traditional English-speaking countries. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to reveal the characteristics of the rationale adopted by Malaysian higher education institutions when compared with the more traditionally sought-after Western countries. A literature survey and interview sessions with the staff and international students in Malaysian higher education institutions were conducted for this purpose.
 In Malaysia, domestic opportunities for higher education have long been constrained by the limited capacity of its institutions and affirmative action in support of the majority Malay people. However, industrialization led to an acute shortage of skilled human resources and as studying abroad became unaffordable due to the financial crisis of the late 1990s, opportunities for higher education were necessarily widened by introducing transnational programs through collaboration with Western higher education institutions. This eventually increased the number of international students in Malaysia who were seeking cheaper Western degrees. Furthermore, Malaysian higher education institutions began not only accepting branch campuses or foreign programs from Western countries, but also entered into the least developed countries like CLMV (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam), South Asia, or African countries by establishing branch campuses or franchising their own education programs. The mobility of students, education programs, and education institutions are more rapid and dynamic now than ever before. Private higher education institutions have become prominent after being approved to confer degrees in 1996 by a legal amendment.
 This paper examines the rationale behind Malaysian higher education institutions accepting international students. It employs a framework of stakeholder perspectives on cross-border education from a previous study, namely increased access to higher education, cost/income, selection of courses and programs, language/cultural and safety aspects, quality, recognition of qualification, and reputation and profile. The specific motivation and the steps taken by Malaysian higher education institutions to accept international students were revealed as the following: (1) to offer high quality education and education in English, which are infrequently available in the countries where the international students come from; (2) to generate income by accepting international students who are attracted to low tuition fees and cost of living; (3) to offer niche education programs using comparative advantages wherein foreign students can easily apply what they have learned from Malaysian universities rather than from Western institutions to their home countries; (4) to build a multi-cultural classroom environment and provide support for international students in language and basic academic skills; (5) to secure the quality of international students by having higher entrance criteria and adaptation support; (6) to provide educational courses recognized by international qualification agencies, and (7) to improve the reputation and profile of the institutions by word of mouth.
 The above points reveal the specific position of Malaysia that offers educational opportunities mainly to the students from least developed countries. The efforts will lead to building a win-win partnership with the least developed countries, and providing religious leadership. Regarding the former idea, the Malaysian government is clearly targeting countries involved in the 'South-South Cooperation' as well as ASEAN members in recruiting international students, notably from African countries. A win-win relationship as advocated by the Smart Partnership, where there should be no dominant partner and any gains should be fairly shared between the partners, is being realized by a private education institution that has established branch campuses in African countries aiming to provide opportunities to young people to improve their skills for a better life. Concerning the latter idea, Malaysian higher education institutions are exhibiting a strong presence in the Islamic world. A considerable number of students from Islamic countries choose Malaysia after traditionally sought-after countries like the United Kingdom, United States, or Australia. Likewise, both public and private institutions play a leading role by establishing research hubs in halal or Islamic banking.
 A win-win partnership with the least developed countries can be presented as the new rationale of emerging countries for accepting international students. With regard to the strengthening of economic partnerships with countries from which the international students come, Malaysian companies have started to hire international students dispatching them to the branch office in their home countries, and higher education institutions are supportive of the students’ employment. Additionally, religious leadership is demonstrated as differentiating itself from competitors such as Singapore and Thailand and for showing a presence in the political and economic context leading to gains in the market share of education. Previous studies have discussed that to gain mutual understanding between countries is not as important as to generate revenue for emerging countries; however, this study shows the importance of mutual understanding from the perspective of religion, revealing a different viewpoint to the Western one.
 Further studies are needed to examine the achievements of international students in Malaysia and their career path according to their study program, whether it is traditional Malaysian education or transnational education, focusing on the differing perspectives of government, higher education institutions, and individual international students.
 
The Direct Election of School Principals in Brazil: Educational Administration and Democratic Control
Noriko TAMURA
(Biwako Seikei Sports College)
 In Brazil, primary and secondary public schools have a system of direct election of school principals by teachers, school staff, parents and students. This paper clarifies the relationships between educational administration and schools in Brazil which is the base of direct election of school principals, focusing on one of Brazil’s southern states, Paraná, where the first direct election of school principals in Brazil was implemented in 1983. This is done through analyzing interview data and the background of the legal system in Paraná. This paper also provides viewpoints as to the mechanism of direct election, which has been unrecognized outside of Brazil and the relationships between educational administration and democratic control in Brazilian educational systems.
 In the first section, the situation of Brazilian school principal is discussed focusing on the relationship with teachers and school boards. In Brazil, teachers often work two or three shifts a day in two or three different schools while the school principal is in charge of the school. The payment of teachers depends on the economic situation of states or cities and they often go on strike or demonstrate because of ill treatment. In regards to the authority of school principals, historically, no administrative, pedagogical or financial authority is given to schools. However, this situation has changed since the 1990s. Educational reform has led to schools being able to decide their educational plans. In addition to this, School Board (Conselho Escolar), which consist of a school principal, representatives of teachers, school staff, students and community members, has been newly created. Now, in Paraná, the school board is the highest decision-making body.
 In the third section, the direct election of school principals in the 1980s and how its legislation transpired is analyzed. Brazil has been under a military regime since 1964. However, in the latter half of the 1970s, because of an economic crisis, many social movements have been expanded for the purpose of the popularization. Diretas Já, social movements demanding the direct election of the president, is the most symbolical movement. Here, it is important to point out that the social movement in Brazil at that time has characteristics such the need for public space, the creation of communities, direct connections, and prefer direct democracy. As well as in this social situation, in the area of education, teachers demanded not only a pay increased but also a better school and a better social. At that time, school principals were mostly selected by governors, city mayors, or assembly members and such principals often have not received any teacher training, any attention to students or school community, but rather, dedicated themselves to getting votes from politicians who had the power to elect them as principal. Because of this, they were considered as the root of the whole problem. For the sake of eliminating the relationship between politics and schools, teachers demanded the direct election of school principals in the Labor Movement.
 In Paraná, there already existed the direct election of school principals, which was initiated in 1969 by the APP (Professional Teachers’ Association of Paraná), in which teachers could make a list of three candidates for a school principal through a vote, then submit it to the State Secretariat for Education to select one ultimately. Throughout the 1970s, APP and State Secretariat for Education in Paraná (SEED) have developed this system to involve parents and students as voters, which was influenced by social movements. The first election of school principals was conducted in 1983 through Decree No. 455 (April 13th, 1983) and a second one was through Law No. 7.961 (November 21st, 1984).
 Comparing the first and second regulations, the following things are different: While schools had only elected three candidates for the SEED in the first version, it became possible to elect one in the second version. In addition to this, eligible voters were extended to guardians and also to students taking supplemental courses of primary education. As a matter of vote-value in this period, every vote was treated equality, even though teachers did not accept it.
 In the fourth section, the current situation of the direct election of school principals is discussed through analyzing Law No. 14.231 (November 26th, 2003), Resolution No. 3.373 (October 19th), and interview data which was collected in Paraná. Comparing these two regulations, the following differences are highlighted: Firstly, whereas a teacher-and-staff vote had more value in the 2003 Law, every vote came to be treated equality under the 2015 Law. Secondly, the requirement for candidates became stricter. It is now required of school administrators to have a special knowledge of school management, and to make a School Action Plan. Related to this, thirdly, school boards will assess what school principals have done after their first two years in office, and decide whether he/she will continue or not. From the results of school principal interviews, it is revealed that the way for direct election is accepted, although expensive, by school communities.
 Based on the above analysis, it is concluded that the timing of the introduction of the direct election of school principals worked well as a democratic control of educational administration. On the other hand, nowadays, government control has become strong and schools’ discretionary powers have been restricted. This governmental invention nevertheless works as a mechanism to ensure the quality of school principals.
 
Duality of Citizenship Discourse in the Studies of Sub-Saharan African Education: Two Publics in Africa
Hitomi TSUKUDA
(Graduate Student, Nagoya University)
 Since the 1980s, citizenship has become a major interest among education thinkers. At the same time, citizenship education also became people's interest as means to create good citizens. Many countries have worked on citizenship education in their national curricula and in their studies and research, as well as have Sub-Saharan African countries (hereafter Africa), many of which face the issue of democratization and nation building.
 Until now, however, discourses in African education are scattered broadly in the academic field. Furthermore, much literature on African education is based on the international agenda of development. This paper aims to reinterpret the discourse of citizenship in studies of African education by reflecting thoughts and findings from the long discussion of citizenship in the field of political science in order to attain a different understanding of educational studies in Africa.
 This study focuses especially on Multiple Citizenship discussed by Heater (2002). He points out difficulties that citizens face to hold multiple and shifting identities. As for Africa, Ekeh (1975) and Ndegwa (1997) discussed duality of citizenship in the complex African society. According to these authors, there are two public realms in Africa that have different characteristics. The first is named Primordial Public, which is based on Ethnic Citizenship. It has the same moral imperatives as the private realm and is based on primordial ties such as ethnic groups, emphasizing communities. Their rights and benefits are secured by obligations and the participation of each citizen to define, establish and sustain the political community. On the other hand, the second realm, named Civic Public, is based on National Citizenship and can be described as liberal. Newly independent African countries installed liberal democracy, which bestows on a person the status of a citizen as an individual member of the modern state. Citizens are to be morally autonomous and such status does not demand citizens to perform duties to retain rights or membership in the political community. Therefore, it is said that Civic Public lacks the generalized moral imperatives operative in the private realm. In the end, Ekeh and Ndegwa explain that this duality is the cause of corruption or ethnic conflict, that citizens behave to gain profit from the Civic Public based on National Citizenship to restore the Primordial Public based on their Ethnic Citizenship. In this paper, citizenship discourse in African studies will be discussed referring to this duality.
 To start with, documents are collected through three databases: ERIC, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses and CiNee. Collected documents fulfill two conditions: The research area of Sub-Saharan Africa and the major topic of Citizenship and Education. From an overview of 39 papers from 12 different countries, three things can be pointed out: Firstly, scholars focus on various educational practices under their own interpretation of citizenship education due to the scarcity of Citizenship Education; secondly, most researchers are Africa-oriented, which could mean that the majority of the works analyzed in this paper are “African educational studies that could be attained outside of Africa written by African scholars”; and lastly, that published journals include not only educational studies but also other studies such as psychology and anthropology, which reflects the interdisciplinary nature of the concept of citizenship.
 Analyses are made on the content of the concept of citizenship and the aim/ issue of the discussion. Regarding content, discussions could be categorized into two main foci: Those that emphasize a sense of belonging, which is often explained as patriotism, responsibility and the act of participation in the public sphere; second, a concentration on so called “traditional” values that emphasize humanity, which have been described as collectivism or reciprocity in the community.
 The documents could also be categorized into two groups according to the aim and its issue of the discussion: First are those that aim to solve national issues, such as citizen's unity and nation building to prevent ethnic conflict, solve political issues and achieve economic development as a nation. These kinds of studies focus on how to create individual citizens that can work on these issues. (We may say that education had been introduced in Africa as a means to develop countries socially and economically; therefore, this type of discussion became predominant in this field.) The second is those that aim to declare Africanism, especially because words such as the “rediscovery”, “reinvention” or “renaissance” of Africa could be found in these studies. The point of discussion is how the western concept of citizenship can be localized into an African context.
 As a conclusion, this paper discusses the citizenship discourse in African educational studies from the perspective of Two Publics and Dual Citizenship. It concludes that there is duality in the discussion; that moral imperatives and norms of Ethnic Citizenship from the Primordial Public are being examined in order to solve the issues in the Civic Public. This conclusion interprets findings beyond most discussions focusing on issues about the “national” and “liberal”, assuming citizens to be autonomous individuals who should be educated under liberal education systems, On the other hand, contents approach the concept of citizenship based on ethnic values, which emphasize communities, especially those that reflect traditional African values that could be describes as Ethnic Citizenship due to their regarding humanity as the sustenance of good interpersonal relationships and communities.
 In the end, we cannot deny the fact that simplification may have dismissed profound discussion in this field. We may say that this research is able to revel another aspect of African education studies that emphasize communities and ties to others, which are often concealed by dominant development theories. This perspective may arouse further questions which could broaden the field of African studies.
 
Improving the Quality of Support for International Students by Korean Universities: The International Education Quality Assurance System
Ayako TSUKADA
(Graduate Student, University of Tokyo)
 International student mobility is expanding rapidly throughout the world, and the recruitment marketplace of international students is increasingly competitive as organizations seek foreign workers who have the skills required for a knowledge-based society. However, a lack of quality control over international students causes problems such as illegal overstaying, un-adaptability, and a bad reputation of higher education of the host country overseas. Therefore, controlling the quality of recruitment of, and support for, international students by host universities is an important task.
 Korea, a non-English speaking country in Asia, is burdened with undersubscribed universities due to a sharp decline in the nation’s college-age population, much like Japan. As a consequence, it is aggressively recruiting international students to ensure a skilled workforce. Korea has achieved the recruitment of 100,000 international students in the short term, but this rapid increase has engendered problems such as illegal overstays and anti-Korean sentiment. The Korean government has introduced the International Education Quality Assurance System (IEQAS) as a quality control system for accepting inbound international students to Korean universities. Universities evaluated as excellent by the IEQAS are accredited, and universities considered poor are sanctioned. The severest sanction is that a university is disqualified by the IEQAS. Its name is officially announced as disqualified, and restrictions are placed on visas such that the university is prohibited from accepting international students. IEQAS encourages universities to consolidate their support systems for international students by offering incentives for IEQAS-accredited universities and penalizing universities that have significant problems recruiting or supporting international students.
 In this study, the effectiveness of the IEQAS introduced by the Korean government is analyzed in light of the search for ideal policies for Korean universities. First, the author describes the characteristics of the IEQAS and the background of its introduction. Second, the author analyzes changes in data from before and after the introduction of the IEQAS using quantitative data analysis. Third, the author examines reasons and details of changes through a case study approach. Finally, the author reviews the effectiveness of the IEQAS as a countermeasure to improve the quality of accepting international students, based on the results of analyses and examines conclusions.
 Quantitative data analyses indicate that the illegal residency rate has been reduced dramatically. At each university level, the nationalities of international students have diversified, and the proportion of international students with high skills in the Korean language has increased. However, the dropout rate and housing opportunity rate have not been improved sufficiently at most universities.
 The case study, which included interviews, suggests applying the IEQAS's common national evaluation indicators to universities both in metro areas and those in rural areas, which produces conflicting results. For example, in the case of the evaluation indicator for housing opportunity, universities in rural areas improve more easily compared with universities in metro areas because the cost of real estate to build a dormitory for international students in the rural areas is lower. In contrast, the indicator concerning the dropout rate prevents universities in rural areas from being accredited as international students leave rural universities, not because the universities lack support for international students but because they are located in rural areas. As a weakness of the IEQAS, it also appears that no funds for universities to build a support system for international students have been stipulated by the IEQAS itself.
 Incentives touted as characteristics of the IEQAS are not sufficiently effective to make universities strive to gain the IEQAS accreditation because they are not attractive, and they apply to all universities except disqualified universities. Further, the effectiveness of the incentives differs depending on the location of the university. In the case of Global Korea Scholarship (GKS), the Korean government scholarship for international students, accredited universities earn a qualification to accept international students with government scholarships, but the qualification does not ensure the quota of international students. International students only apply for famous universities in metro areas, not accredited universities in rural areas. This is attributed to the fact that the IEQAS is not widely known overseas.
 The IEQAS, which aims to improve the quality of accepting international students by encouraging universities to build support systems for international students, has been partly effective; while it functions as a measure of sanction, the IEQAS retains various agendas to promote quality. It has not contributed enough to quality improvement because its evaluation indicators and incentives do not correspond to various Korean universities. Further, the IEQAS has become one of the reasons for the decrease of international students in some cases. The anti-Korean feelings of international students, which led to the introduction of the IEQAS, are still unsettled and need to be assessed. Korea's international student policy will need a balance between quantitative expansion and quality improvement in accepting international students.
 
Various Conflicts Emerging in the Process of Quality Improvement in Secondary Schools in Western Kenya: Decisions by Schools and Students
Miku OGAWA
(JSPS Research Fellow / Graduate Student, Osaka University)
 Schooling has been rapidly expanding even in sub-Saharan African countries, with many studies now paying more attention to the issue of the quality of education. In Kenya, the demand for secondary education has been increasing along with the expansion of primary education. The net enrollment rate in secondary education increased by more than 20% within ten years and the gross enrollment rate reached 68% in 2012. Public secondary schools are not equal and can be divided mainly into three categories: national, county and sub-county schools, based on their administrative levels and merits. Sub-county schools, which are at the bottom level, have been recently mushrooming and have significantly contributed to increasing access to secondary education. Although the school fees of those sub-county schools are generally lower than that of other middle- or top-level schools, the quality of education, which is understood in many ways, provided in sub-county schools is generally regarded as low. Therefore, leavers from these schools often confront difficulties in proceeding to higher education, taking up decent jobs and escaping poverty.
 Quality improvement for enhancing equality and equity has been of particular importance to eliminate this reproduction of poverty. Equality in quality improvement is to ‘allocate’ the same quality education to all schools, and equity in quality improvement is to ‘distribute’ the necessary quality required for each school or student. The necessity of quality improvement for equality and equity has been discussed, however much research assumes that some intervention must be done for quality improvement by outsiders including donor agencies and the government. Moreover, these studies do not focus on quality improvement endeavors made by individual schools. Hence it is not clear how and why quality improvement is carried out and what the impact is on students’ learning because previous research rarely employs a case study method.
 The purpose of this study is to analyze the process of quality improvement by focusing on the decision of schools and students. It reveals why each school attempts to improve its quality and what the impact is on students of changing educational quality at schools by taking a look at the case of a sub-county school (hereafter referred to as School A). School A has recently made extra efforts to improve educational quality. Field study was conducted three times, for a total period of nine weeks, from 2014 till 2016 in Busia County located in western Kenya. Participant observations and non-structured interviews were employed to clarify the efforts and intentions of quality improvement at the school level and the impact of those efforts on students. Basic school data was collected from the other neighboring six secondary schools for comparison.
 This study revealed the following three aspects, which have occurred due to the particular efforts of quality improvement in the school:
 (1) The school used to set the lowest fees among the sub-county schools in the area. It significantly increased the amount of school fees in 2016 to improve educational quality by means of employing qualified teachers and equipping new facilities. The principal considered that it is necessary to improve the quality because they have observed a steady decrease in academic performance since 2013. In addition, three low-fee sub-county schools were newly established in the neighborhood between 2013 and 2015. The school needs to compete with other schools and quality improvement is utilized as a strategic means for the survival of the school.
 (2) These increased school fees put extra financial burden on students. The number of students dropped dramatically to 202 in 2016 from 335 in 2015, because the increase fees excluded students who could not afford to pay. Most were transferred to the other three low-fee sub-county schools in the area. As a result, the school is in a dilemma between the decrease of the number of students and the improvement of educational quality by increasing school fees.
 (3) Some students are proud of being in this ‘developing’ school and know the actual differences in terms of qualified teachers and school facilities between this school and the other schools. These students well understand that increasing school fees is required to improve quality. Nevertheless, there was also still a desire for ‘better’ schools, which are the top-level national schools with boarding facilities. Many students agree that not only academic performance but also non-visible aspects such as school ethos are reasons why they think boarding schools are better than day schools. They also think that boarders are advantaged since they do not need to work at home.
 It can be stated that quality improvement at schools is affected by market mechanisms. Schools are actually competing with each other. It is not possible to manage schools without a reasonable number of students enrolled. That is why it was essential for the school to increase school fees to enhance academic performance and then to attract students regardless of the expectations and intensions of the students already at the school. Consequently vulnerable students are forced to transfer to other low-fee (and low-quality) schools and cannot benefit from quality improvement. However, the school is also in danger of a student decrease at this stage because the result of quality improvement efforts is not yet visible to students and parents. There appears to be a structure which produces school grade based on the amount of school fees charged. It is important to know that vulnerable students are often excluded in the process of quality improvement and that it has happened among public schools in the competitive market.
 Schools elaborate strategies for quality improvement and students respond accordingly. Although quality improvement aims to achieve equality among schools, it does not necessarily result in the equitable distribution of quality to individual students because vulnerable students are frequently excluded in the process of quality improvement. It can be concluded that it is important to pay attention not only to schools as a whole, but also to students as individuals in order to develop and achieve more equitable quality education for all children.
 
Changing Implications of School-based Initial Teacher Training in England: The Dynamics of ‘a Craft’ and ‘a Profession’
Tomoko YAMAZAKI
(Nanzan University)
 This study examines the changing implications of school-based initial teacher training (ITT) in England. School-based ITT has developed since the 1980s; both the Labour (1997-2010) and Coalition/Conservative governments (2010-2016) have continued to promote it. School-based alternative training programmes include School-Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT), School Direct and Teach First. Ministries under David Cameron were especially interested in teaching and insisted that teacher quality is crucial for educational reform. The expansion of school-based ITT appears to have been an ongoing policy since the 1980s; however, the contexts of school-based training have gradually changed. Although the differences in training are essential for understanding the specific contexts of the policies, previous research has not sufficiently examined this issue. In this paper, therefore, the difference between Conservative and Labour conceptions of school-based training will be considered and their dynamics will be illustrated by comparing policy and discourse.
 Both the Labour and Conservative governments have had different policies and discourses on master-level ITT and professionalization. While the Labour Party tried to promote the Master in Teaching and Learning (MTL) programme, which is a school-based master-level ITT programme with full government support, the Conservatives promptly decided to stop funding MTL after they came to power in 2010. The concept of MTL is related to that of Donald Schön’s ‘reflective practitioner’.Instead, the Coalition government at the time introduced the School Direct programme and attempted to further expand it. Conservative members such as Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Education at the time, argued that increasing the percentage of teachers with first degree grades (above second-class honours, upper division) would improve the quality of teaching. In addition, the Conservative government seemed to consider ITT unnecessary for developing professionalism, especially when one has sufficient subject knowledge. The establishment of free schools, in which teachers do not require a Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) and the legal amendment to deregulate teaching qualifications for academies are the best examples of this. In contrast, Labour emphasised the importance of both subject knowledge and pedagogy for the teaching profession and encouraged the master-level ITT, which is provided by partnerships between higher education institutions (HEIs) and schools.
 These differences changed the role of HEIs in ITT. The Conservative and Labour Parties shared the view that traditional lecture-based ITT provided by HEIs was insufficient, and a transition to school-based ITT was essential. However, the Labour Party appears to have addressed scepticism about the role of HEIs in ITT by changing their role. They intended to improve the quality of ITT in the same manner in which they provided funding for MTL, through collaborations between schools and HEIs. In contrast, the Conservatives addressed this scepticism by reducing the role of the HEIs. In other words, under this system, schools became the primary stakeholders in ITT, and the HEIs became dependent on the schools rather than becoming equal collaborators. The Conservative view, characteristically, is that higher education in itself is useful; for instance, they strongly value outstanding academic results in all disciplines and encourage the acquisition of higher-level masters or doctoral degrees. However, while they highly value subject knowledge, Conservatives disvalue professional education for QTS that includes pedagogy at HEIs and subject knowledge.
 These differences have caused conflicts regarding the ‘teaching’ component in teacher training. The Labour Party regards teaching as a profession, whereas the Conservative Party regards it as a craft. Thus, ‘profession’ indicates a position ‘where one needs a theoretical, ethical and practical background to be able to perform the task at the highest level’, whereas ‘craft’ means ‘one that can be learned by watching and following what others do’ (Townsend, 2011). Therefore, Gove’s remark that ‘teaching is a craft and it is best learnt as an apprentice observing a master Craftsman or woman’ clearly represents the Conservative view of teaching. Conservatives simultaneously seem to hold the view that good teachers are born, not made; therefore, they consider ITT to be less important than continuous professional development (CPD), which, according to them, should be promoted in every school. In the ITT stage, an apprenticeship is thus the best way to develop a teacher’s craft; leaning pedagogy is not always essential in ITT. Furlong (2013) remarked that teaching is currently considered ‘a combination of inspiration and a craft’.
 Thus, it can be said that great differences exist between Conservative and Labour views and these have major implications for teaching in England. Although both views assert the need for school-based ITT, their views on the role of HEIs in ITT, the necessity of leaning pedagogy at the ITT stage and the definition of teaching reveal significant contrasts. A tension exists between teaching as a craft and teaching as a profession. The findings of this study suggest that careful consideration of school-based’ ITT, which has been adopted in some Japanese graduate schools of education, is required.
 
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