The rise and fall of the MTL: an example of European policy borrowing

Abstract

The success of Finland in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) highlights the quality of Finnish teacher education underpinning its consistently high performance in the survey. In 2010 the UK government initiated a masters in teaching and learning (MTL) in order to raise the education level of teachers, following Finland’s teacher education model. Educationists both past and present, however, warn against ‘quick fix’ political solutions and of the consequences of ‘uncritical policy transfer’. For an educational policy to be effectively borrowed, it must travel through different stages. In this article we argue that the MTL has been implemented in the hope of quick solutions to long-term difficulties; we also maintain that the MTL has applied distinctly English factors into the Finnish model and was achieving informed policy transfer. Nevertheless, the rapid introduction and withdrawal of the programme has not allowed for the MTL to reach complete policy borrowing.