In Great Britain and the USA the normative basis of primary/elementary school teachers' qualification advancement is being actively developed, i. e. this issue is considered at the state level. For a long time the development of retraining and advancement training system for primary/elementary school teachers has been grounded on conceptual foundations of pedagogy that ensures the functionality of the mentioned system. The research results on conceptual foundations for forming an education system of teacher qualification advancement in Great Britain and the USA prove that their nature depends on the development of these countries' history. In particular, there is a trend towards integrating course- and school-based forms of qualification advancement on the ground of teachers' collaboration with lectures; raising the question of making the education process of primary/elementary school teachers' qualification advancement more democratic; creating a participatory style of learning that is carried out collectively (teachers actively develop the programme content and propose to include such issues that are necessary for their solving during these courses).