Models of Quality in Teacher Education

Teacher education lies at the intersection of competing notions about quality and control. On the one hand, it is regulated by the Secretary of State through bureaucratic intermediaries and through inspection by HMI, with predefined quality criteria; and on the other, it is part of the mainstream UK higher education debate about self‐regulation, collegiality and professionalism, with mission‐sensitive quality criteria. The different approaches of national higher education quality bodies are analysed to expose their ideological assumptions, and their location on dimensions of communication and power are identified. The conclusions have implications for future debates about quality evaluation and improvement in UK higher education.