A national framework of CPD: continuing professional development or continuing policy dominance?

As part of an emerging national framework of continuing professional development (CPD), teachers in Scotland will soon have a series of professional standards relating to key stages of their professional lives: initial teacher education; induction; chartered teacher and headship. This paper examines the processes and procedures used to develop two of these standards - the Standard for Full Registration (SFR) and the Standard for Chartered Teacher (SCT). It focuses particularly on the consultation procedures adopted with a view to identifying where the respective power and influence lies, and the extent to which the two developments can be seen to be part of a planned and coherent framework of CPD. Data from elite interviews and critical discourse analysis of both published and unpublished documents are used in analysing official accounts of the policy process as well as the underlying power governing its development. The paper concludes that the policy focus of the CPD framework limits the opportunity for members of the education community to consider alternative conceptions of teaching and education outwith a standards-based approach. It is argued that this approach allows for greater government control of the teaching profession.