A tale of two national curriculums: issues in implementing the national curriculum for information and communications technology in initial teacher training

This article presents the results of a research project aimed at finding out the position of the University of Sheffield's partnership secondary schools of being able to support the National Curriculum in information and communications technology (ICT) in initial teacher training in the United Kingdom. Legislation came into force in the academic year 1998-99 regarding this curriculum innovation and this research was carried out in the year prior to this. The evidence from the research suggests that the major problems inhibiting the use of ICT (i.e. lack of resources and training) still exist and many schools are not positive about their ability to meet the new criteria. This is most evident in the area of classroom-based ICT work, a main requirement of the new legislation. In spite of this apparent weakness, the evidence also shows that students feel overall that their ICT general and subject-based knowledge does increase over the period of their training and that their teaching practices help in this way. The article concludes that with present funding initiatives for ICT resources and training, the situation should improve but that this will take several years to become apparent. During this interim period, inspection teams are cautioned about possibly being too hasty in their condemnation of ICT support proffered by schools. Failure to do so could do irreparable damage to the developing links being nurtured between schools and higher education establishments and minimise the impact of present ICT funding initiatives