Where has all the teaching gone? Meeting standards in teacher education in the further education sector in England.

Author(s):

Robert LawyMichael Tedder

Conference:

ECER 2008

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 03D, Evaluation Research on (Quality in) Teacher Education; Teacher Retention and Transition from Teacher Education to Professional Praxis

Paper Session

Time:

2008-09-10

14:00-15:30

Room:

A1 332

Chair:

Marit Honerød Hoveid

Contribution

In 2007 the European Commission outlined proposals for improving the quality of teacher education within member states on the basis that: ‘High-quality teaching is a prerequisite for high-quality education and training, which are in turn a powerful determinant of Europe’s long-term competitiveness and capacity to create more jobs and growth’ (European Commission, 2007). These aspirations resonate strongly with domestic British policy making, and the belief that economic competitiveness in the future depends crucially on systems of education and training (DfES, 2006). In recent years teacher education has been refashioned as a technical-rational process in which ‘trainees’ (rather than students) are expected to model ‘best practice’, and are assessed against a lengthy set of national standards (LLUK, 2007). This move to compliance and its effects on funding, targets, initiatives, planning and inspections has been extensively critiqued (Ainley 2000; Avis 2000, 2005; Coffield et al 2007; Malcolm and Zukas, 2002). In making sense of these developments, it is important to be aware of the effect of a ‘new language of learning’ on discourses of policy and management. (Biesta, 2004, 2006). Biesta draws attention to the way such language promotes a conceptualisation of education as economic transaction in which the needs of the learner are met by a teacher, a ‘provider’, and within such a discourse education becomes a commodity, a ‘thing’ for consumption. Such thinking seriously diminishes the value and significance of essential qualities of education that have been articulated within traditions of liberal education in England and of bildung in Europe. These changes diminish the importance of ‘teaching’ in educational relationships and form part of a broader shift in power away from teachers towards a set of largely taken-for-granted learner needs (Lawy and Armstrong 2009). Our central concern in this paper is to explore the effects of these changes on the professional autonomy of practitioners in further education. We draw on empirical data to show how the imposition of the new standards and requirements have impacted on the agency of teacher educators and managers in further education and we explore some of the wider implications for teachers and researchers.

Method

The research has been supported with funds from the Centre of Excellence in Teacher Training (CETT) programme. It has involved research within four further education colleges in the South West of England. The broad aim of the research has been to evaluate a new programme of teacher education based on the newly-defined set of standards and, more specifically, to consider the efficacy of mentoring arrangements and systems of monitoring which emphasise the ‘minimum core’ curriculum and subject specific pedagogical skills. The study principally uses data collected in interviews from twelve students and twelve teacher educators and managers from the four participating colleges. The analysis has used a life history methodology in order to locate the narratives of interviewees within a wider personal and social context (Alheit, and Dausien 2002; Goodson 2001; Tedder, and Biesta 2007; West et al 2007).

Expected Outcomes

Interim conclusions from the research suggest that the introduction of new standards has made little contribution to the challenges faced by newcomers to the teaching profession in the learning and skills sector. While students tend to comply pragmatically with requirements of the new scheme, we have encountered a diversity of response among teacher educators, some of whom have expressed distress at the way processes of de-skilling have eroded their professional autonomy. However, despite the fact that the sector has been transformed by a myriad of policy directives and initiatives, we continue to see evidence of teacher educators resisting what many regard as an unwelcome intrusion on their autonomy and agency.

References

Ainley, P. (2000) Teaching in a learning society, the acquisition of professional skills. Paper presented at the ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme First Annual Conference - University of Leicester Alheit, P. and Dausien, B. (2002) ‘The double face of lifelong learning: Two analytical perspectives on a ‘silent revolution’.’ Studies in the Education of Adults, 34 (1), 3-22 Avis, J. (2000) Policy talk: reflexive modernization and the construction of teaching and learning within postcompulsory education and lifelong learning in England, Journal of Education Policy, Vol. 15, No.2, pp 185 – 199 Avis, J. (2005) Beyond performativity: reflections on activist professionalism and the labour process in further education, Journal of Education Policy, Vol. 20, No.2, pp 209 – 222. Biesta, G.J.J. (2004) Against Learning, Reclaiming a language for education in an age of learning, Nordisk Pedagogik, Vol 24, pp 70 – 82. Biesta, G.J.J. (2006) Beyond Learning, Democratic Education for a Human Future, London: Paradigm. Biesta, G.J.J. and Tedder, M. (2007) 'Agency and Learning in the Lifecourse: Towards an Ecological Perspective', Studies in the Education of Adults, Vol. 39, No. 2, pp. 132-149. Coffield, F., Edward, S., Finlay, I., Hodson, A., Spours, K., Steer, R., & Gregson, M. (2007) How policy impacts on Practice and how practice does not impact on policy, British Educational Research Journal Vol. 33, No. 5, pp 723-741. DfES (2006) Further Education: raising skills, improving life chances, September 2007 London: The Stationery Office, Cm 6768 European Commission (2007) Education: Communication on the quality of teacher education / FAQ, Accessed in February 2008 at http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/07/320 Goodson, I. (2001) ‘The story of life history.’ Identity 1(2), 129-142. Lawy, R. and Armstrong. P. (2009 forthcoming) The myth of meeting needs revisited: the case of educational research. 28(1) LLUK (2007) Teachers, tutors and trainers in the Further Education (FE) sector in England - Guidance for awarding institutions on teacher roles and initial teaching, London: Lifelong Learning UK Malcolm, J. and Zukas, M. (2002) Altered states of teacher identity: the impact of scrutiny and regulation on pedagogic thinking and practice, Paper presented at SCUTREA, 32nd Annual Conference - University of Stirling. Tedder, M. and Biesta, G. (2007) ‘Learning from life and learning for life: Exploring the opportunities for biographical learning in the lives of adults’, Paper presented at the ESREA Conference on Life History and Biography, Roskilde University, Denmark, 1-4 March 2007 West, L., Alheit, P., Andersen, A.S. and Merrill, B. (2007) Using biographical and life history approaches in the study of adult and lifelong learning: European Perspectives. Frankfurt: Peter Lang

Author Information

Robert Lawy

University of Exeter

Education

Exeter

Michael Tedder

University of Exeter

School of Education and Lifelong Learning