This study arose out of a research project on teacher education in England and Wales which was funded by the Department of Education and Science and which was based at the University of Leicester School of Education from 1979 to 1982. The study aimed to explore the ambivalence and ambiguity which, the literature suggested, were inherent in the enterprise of training teachers in universities. Empirical data on university teachers of education were collected by questionnaire and interview and the findings are considered within a number ofS contexts. In university departments of education university teachers train students to become school teachers. The first context examined in the study is the sociology of occupations which is used as a framework within which to compare and contrast the two occupations of university teaching and school teaching. University teachers and school teachers are thus established as reference groups for university teachers of education. Next the study considers the role of these reference groups within the context of the history of teacher education in the universities. In the central part of the study data on the social, educational and occupational backgrounds of university teachers of education are considered in relation to the two reference groups of school teachers and university teachers. Data on the nature of the work undertaken by university teachers of education are also examined in this context. The study then explores the context of occupational constraint and control, comparing and contrasting teacher education in the universities with university teaching in other subjects and with school teaching. The role of ideology in teacher education is then analysed as a context within which to view the nature of ideology in teacher education in the universities, again drawing on empirical data from questionnaires and interviews. In the final chapter additional data are presented to bring together the findings and interpretations presented in the body of the study.