Broadening our horizons

Issue 29

Photo of Tom Hamilton

Tom Hamilton,

Director of Educational Policy, GTCS

GTCS has always had an influence around the world, sharing experience and best practice with similar organisations.

In the early and mid 1960s when the General Teaching Council (GTC) was being discussed and then set up there were two points of principle which featured largely in the minds of those involved. Firstly, a main plank of the rationale for a GTC was that its formation would be a means to stop uncertificated teachers and hence improve the quality of Scottish education. A second clearly expressed principle was that the Council should have on it a majority of teachers - it was teachers regulating their own profession. This was seen as a strong element of growing professional status.

Scotland was in the van of such discussions within the UK. Indeed, you will have noticed that above I referred to the General Teaching Council rather than the General Teaching Council for Scotland because for over 30 years there was no need to add 'for Scotland', while we waited for other parts of the UK to catch up with us.

The GTC was therefore, for the first part of its history, unique. It was the only such body in the world and, while it is no longer unique, it still maintains its commitment to the principles of having only qualified, registered teachers in Scottish state schools and to having a majority of teachers on the Council. These pillars will continue to be maintained as the GTCS moves towards Independent Status rather being a Non-Departmental Public Body.

Scotland must not be isolated from developments elsewhere and we should be aware of what bodies such as the European Commission are saying about education.

The influence of the Scottish model

Over the decades, various other education systems studied, adopted and adapted our model and in 2005, when the GTCS celebrated its 40th birthday by hosting the first-ever international conference of Teaching Councils, delegates attended from England, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, various States in Australia and different Provinces in Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.

The Scottish model was influential in all these different places and, indeed, aspects of Scottish education and the GTCS's involvement in them are still of interest and influence in other countries. For example, serious consideration has been given in such diverse systems as Australia and Georgia, USA, to having a teacher induction scheme modelled on that of Scotland.

Overseas visitors

The Council also regularly hosts overseas visitors, very often visits which are arranged to Scotland after overseas educators have been reading academic literature about the Scottish education system or looking at the GTCS website. Over and above those countries that visited during the Teaching Council's Conference, in the last four years the GTCS has welcomed visitors from over 20 countries ranging from China and Japan, to Africa and the Middle East, the West Indies and various European countries. Many visitors have been teachers or educators, but we have also had academics, inspectors, civil servants, MPs and Ministers.

The Council has also hosted two successful European study visits as part of the Transversal European Study visit programme. This February we had 16 educationalists from nine different European countries come to Scotland to look at how the continuum of teacher education works here: from being a student, through the teacher induction scheme and on to making full use of the Scottish Teacher Education Standards. The Council is of course also keen to support Scottish teachers going on study visits and has in the past successfully organised such visits. While LTS now formally has the responsibility for International Education the GTCS remains keen to encourage Scottish teachers to apply for programmes such as Transversal.

Various overseas contacts have led to formal and organised visits to and from different countries. For example, both the Swedish and the Norwegian education systems have been influenced by the work of the GTCS and Scottish education.

Scotland and Europe

Of course, Scotland does not exist in a vacuum and we too look to other external sources for comparative data, so it was particularly positive to see the Scottish Government actively inviting the OECD into Scotland a couple of years ago to look separately at the Scottish education system. Previously, the OECD had only looked at the UK; Scottish differences (particularly from England) would normally only be acknowledged as a footnote.

Scotland must not be isolated from developments elsewhere and we should be aware of what bodies such as the European Commission are saying about education.

For example, how does Scotland fit in with the European Commission's (2007) report Improving the Quality of Teacher Education? Or how do Scotland's Teacher Education Standards link to the Common European Principles for Teacher Competences and Qualifications?

A conduit for information

The GTCS will play its part in acting as a conduit for information from elsewhere into Scotland but it will also continue to endeavour to spread to other parts of the world the positive message of the quality of much of what happens within Scottish education.

Interestingly, in the next few weeks, the Council welcomes an academic researcher from Finland, working on a project funded by the European Commission, specifically to look at the Scottish system of teacher education standards because of how innovative it is. Additionally, we also recently hosted a week-long visit from a group from Botswana as it has decided it wants to begin a system of registration for its teachers.

So, the General Teaching Council for Scotland was in the van when it was set up in 1965 and it continues to be of influence in other countries forty-four years later. That is something in which every Scottish teacher should take some pride.

Related articles

A global perspective

Scottish schools full of Eastern promise

Related websites

www.ltscotland.org.uk/internationaleducation

www.transversal.org.uk

http://ec.europa.eu/education

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