School Direct: A critique

This article critically evaluates School Direct, a recently introduced Initial Teacher Education pathway for English primary schools. Through doing so, power relations emerge as a key consideration, as the growing consensus within the education community suggests this new route towards Qualified Teacher Status embodies a long-held government objective to remove Initial Teacher Education from the influence of higher education. A critical inquiry approach is applied, for its utility in highlighting power relations in society and thus exposing the forces of hegemony and injustice. This sits within an interpretive perspective, which can illuminate and explore conditions that disadvantage or exclude individuals within society. As the emergent consensus echoes Foucault’s focus on, and account of, power relations in society, a Foucauldian lens is employed in this critical analysis.