Education in Northern Ireland (NI) has been experiencing significant change following the publication of ‘TransformED NI: Transforming Teaching and Learning: A Strategy for Educational Excellence in Northern Ireland’ (DENI, 2025). This comprehensive reform programme focuses on a range of key school-based issues, all underpinned by substantial investment in teacher professional development from Initial Teacher Education (ITE) (via bursary schemes), through to an enhanced Induction programme and a Teacher Professional Learning Fund of £31 million. This holistic view suggests a well-informed understanding of the importance of teachers and the support required to foster their professional growth.

All of this is to be welcomed, particularly following a period of policy inertia, but some have suggested the key tenets of the strategy: a knowledge-rich curriculum; a move away from ‘progressive’ approaches to teaching and learning; and a strong emphasis on evidence-based, ‘best’ practice, illustrate a very close similarity with the traditionalist reforms implemented in England between 2010 and 2024 (Mansell 2025). Central to proposed changes to ITE for example, is to develop a NI variant of a Core Content Framework (CCF). Given the different educational contexts however, does ITE in NI need a CCF at this point in time?

The rationale for England's CCF (Carter, 2015; DE, 2019; 2024) was to standardise provision across a fragmented system with numerous providers; a situation not replicated in NI. With only four providers, ITE in NI is small scale, coherent, and manageable. NI already possesses a well-established career-long framework for Teacher Education in ‘Teaching: The Reflective Profession’ (General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland (GTCNI), 2007). It is grounded in the reflective practitioner model and emphasises the dynamic, developmental nature of teaching competence; a model, closely aligned with that in the TransformEd Strategy. For ITE, it is also the basis upon which quality assurance through programme accreditation and inspection is conducted.

Critics of the English CCF suggested that it de-professionalised teachers' work by promoting teaching as a decontextualised series of interventions that marginalise broader educational purposes (UCET, 2022; Hordern and Brooks, 2023). Brooks (2021) also argues that the CCF fails to acknowledge that teachers require both a ‘repertoire’ of practical knowledge but also a ‘reservoir’ of conceptual understanding, underpinned by professional judgement, acquired across their career. With this in mind, it could be argued that the English CCF does not align with the principles outlined in UCET's Intellectual Base of Teacher Education (IBTE) (UCET, 2020) which emphasises that teaching is a challenging, complex, intellectual and ethical endeavour requiring teachers to act as epistemic agents who engage critically with contested knowledge; a perspective closely aligned with the GTCNI Competence Framework (GTCNI, 2007).

Importantly, and much to the envy of teacher education colleagues elsewhere, the relationships between the NI teacher education providers and the Department of Education have historically been mutually supportive and collaborative and have enabled the quality assurance of ITE through partnership rather than prescription (Hagan and Eaton, 2020). Introducing a CCF could risk replicating the experience in England, of fracturing these vital relationships by undermining professional autonomy in curriculum design.

GTCNI governance issues also add to the difficulty of implementing change in ITE at this current time. Given that the original competence framework is almost twenty years old, a revised version was developed by the GTCNI in 2021. However, this remains unpublished, as the Council was stood down in December 2021 following an independent effectiveness review, requiring new legislation to reform its leadership structures. Until the GTCNI Bill currently progressing through the NI Assembly is resolved, making any change remains challenging.

The English experience suggests that the implementation of a CCF was highly contested and problematic. For NI therefore, a more appropriate way forward might be to return to the revised GTCNI Competence Framework and ensure its alignment with the TransformEd objectives. Working collaboratively on its further development and implementation could provide a coherent, context-sensitive alternative and help avoid the difficulties and unintended consequences encountered elsewhere.

NB: Since time of writing, The Northern Ireland Curriculum Framework for Initial Teacher Education was published by the Department of Education on 30 April 2026.