This article was published in Teaching and Teacher Education, Vol 27 number 2,
Author(s): Courtney A. Bell, Peter Youngs, " Substance and Show: Understanding Responses to Teacher Education Programme Accreditation Processes", Pages 298-307, Copyright Elsevier (February 2011).
The current case study investigates how several universities in the state of Connecticut responded to teacher education accreditation policy between 2002 and 2006.
Using a cognitive perspective on policy implementation and a purposeful sample, the authors describe three common responses: articulation of a programme-wide conceptual framework, greater focus on teacher candidate assessment, and the creation of data collection systems.
In addition to these responses, there were also more symbolic responses that allowed for compliance without significant change.
Variation in responses was partially explained by the resources available to programmes, programme size and structure, and participants’ beliefs about professional practice.