The training of specialist art and design teachers

Abstract

The training of specialist teachers of art and design has long held a unique position in English higher education. Until fairly recently, the Centres for Postgraduate Art and Design Teacher Education responsible for the initial teacher training courses were almost wholly separate from institutions training teachers of other subjects. This separation reflected and, to a large degree, was a consequence of the historical development of art schools and colleges as independent institutions of further and higher education. With the inclusion of many of the major art and design colleges in the establishment of polytechnics and other higher education institutions, the specialist Centres are now all part of larger multidiscipline institutions and some have become departments or sections of broader teacher education provision. Nevertheless, the Centres continue to have a large measure of philosophic, if not administrative, independence.