The Transition Of Teacher Education In England: The Marginalisation Of University-based Teacher Educators.
Author(s):
Harriet Rowley (presenting / submitting) Tony Brown (presenting) Kim Smith
Conference:
ECER 2015
Network:
10. Teacher Education Research
Format:
Paper

Session Information

10 SES 07 C,

Paper Session

Time:
2015-09-09
17:15-18:45
Room:
209.Oktatóterem [C]
Chair:
Kari Smith

Contribution

A growing body of literature has explored how transformations in political thought are leading to changing patterns of higher education governance, academic labour and identity across universities in Europe and the Western world (Deem, 2001; Slaugher & Leslie, 1997; Clark, 1998). Neo-liberal discourses are positioning universities within a shifting global marketplace, regulated by various performative regimes characterised by competition, hierarchy and system stratification (Fitzgerald et al., 2012, Roberts & Peters, 2008; Ball, 2000).  Conversely, academic labour has shifted from a largely autonomous, self-governing profession to one where individuals are increasingly managed, held to account and re-organised (Fitzgerald et al., 2012; Henkel, 2000). Such changes are reflected in how management and governance structures are privileged over intellectual value or pursuit of knowledge. This trend is changing how academic work is valued, structured and produced whilst also shaping the identities available to academics hoping to develop their careers.

Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in England is an interesting example of a highly regulated and centralised system, subject to frequent and directive policy interventions (Menter et al., 2006). Recently, ‘School Direct’, a school-based model of training has led to teacher training being relocated and directed away from higher education control. This reflects a new emphasis on teaching being conceptualised in technicist terms where the university elements of training have been increasingly susceptible to the immediate demands of practice in particular schools (Browne et al., 2013). This policy climate has altered trainee experience in many European countries (Cosenefroy et al., 2013; Luttenberg et al., 2013; Pillen et al., 2013; Smith et al., 2013). However, much of the debate concerned with recent reforms in teacher education has tended to take place in ‘a social and ideological vacuum’ (Apple, 2001: 182) whilst teacher educators are an under-researched and poorly understood occupational group (Martinez, 2008; Zeichner, 2006). Yet, these transformations are having profound effects not only on the curriculum and how teachers are trained but more fundamentally on how the practices and purposes of education are performed and controlled (Apple, 2001).

This paper aims to explore the impact of recent policy changes in teacher education on university-based teacher educators in England. Their experiences are situated within a neo-liberal ideology that has infiltrated the governance and practices of higher education. In this sense, we take Apple’s recommendation seriously by recognising that the hidden effects of such reforms can only be understood if we ‘look inside’ teacher education reforms and the larger social fields of power in which they operate (Apple, 2001). We aim to extend the literature on how ideological transformations are changing the conditions of academic labour and apply this to the specific occupational group of teacher educators. Teacher education has traditionally suffered from a lowly status within academia (Laberee, 1996) and has been subjected to a high degree of political intervention. This group of academic workers is of particular interest in terms of understanding the impact of ideological transformations on the higher education sector more broadly. However, the intention is not to position subjects as victims of the evil demands of performativity (Lyotard, 1984) or powerless to the perils of neo-liberalist agendas but also to explore the spaces in which they act and opportunities for resistance.

Method

The paper draws upon data from a two-year longitudinal study conducted by a research team based at Manchester Metropolitan University in England. Over one hundred interviews have been conducted with university-based teacher educators, school-based mentors and trainee teachers involved in the School Direct programme. The interviews span twenty universities and twelve schools in England. The project has recently been extended to include an international perspective from interviews with teacher educators from New Zealand, Germany, Spain and Sweden. The university-based educators were interviewed across a range of sites in England and were sampled through our networks. We were able to achieve a geographical spread of institutions across the country whilst also interviewing teacher educators at a range of levels and different stages of their careers. Furthermore, the institutions also differed in terms of history, size, research capabilities and range of professional programmes. In this sense, they occupied different positions within the market and cultivated different suites of activities depending on the reputation they sought to promote. Interviews were designed to assess the impact of recent reforms on teacher educators across a range of areas including changes to job responsibilities/descriptions, influence of external apparatus upon their practice both in terms of institutional and governmental legislation, the perceived impacts of the market and competition from other providers, changes to their relationships with schools and the impact of these various factors on their academic work/identity particularly with respect to the use of theory, research and subject pedagogy. We were also concerned with broader questions about how they understood the distinctive contribution of universities to teacher education and how they sought to occupy different spaces to defend this. The interviews were transcribed and have been thematically coded using NVivo. To analyse the data, alternative theoretical lenses were applied depending upon the particular interests and expertise of the research team members. A number of scholarly activities have been undertaken including seminars and conference presentations in England and abroad, together with a number of academic publications (Brown et al., 2014; Brown et al., submitted; Rowley et al., in progress).

Expected Outcomes

Our findings indicate that recent reforms in teacher education are further marginalising the position of university-based teacher educators in England. On an institutional level, the pressure to assert practice-based skills means that they are denied the opportunity to accumulate capital within the higher education system where research activity is often valued more highly. Pressures to meet the practice-led agenda and other external performativity demands are also shaping how teacher educators are able to incorporate subject pedagogy and theoretical-based elements into their practice, which is further impacting their status. Non-specialists within the university hierarchy are making decisions on program structure and content on economic grounds, which are trumping intellectual arguments made by teacher educators, contributing to feelings of powerlessness. Teacher educators who maintain research activity tend to be in a stronger position whilst others choose to actively pursue managerial positions to gain autonomy. Others seek to occupy pedagogical spaces between them and their students. The conditions in which they labour and the activities teacher educators are able to undertake depend heavily upon the market position and type of institution where they are located due to increased competition and fluctuating student numbers. On a national level, our findings show that Initial Teacher Education is becoming an increasingly complex and fragmented system. Those in positions of power are making different strategic decisions to manage the impacts of the recent reforms. These decisions not only shape teacher educators’ identities and their labour but also the contribution that universities are able to make and the grounds on which its distinctiveness can be defended. Thus, transformations in political thought are having dramatic implications for what teacher education, and higher education is becoming but also more broadly how education is governed and practiced.

References

Apple, M (2001) Markets, Standards, Teaching and Teacher Education. Journal of Teacher Education. 52(18) Ball, S.J (2000) Performativities and fabrications in the education economy: Towards the performative society? Australian Educational Researcher. 27(2) Brown, T. Rowley, H. & Smith, K. (2014). Rethinking research in teacher education. British Journal of Educational Studies. 62(3) Brown, T, Rowley, H & Smith, K (submitted) Sliding subject positions: knowledge and teacher educators. British Educational Research Journal. Browne, L. Reid, J. (2013) Changing localities for teacher training: the potential impact on professional formation and the university sector response. Journal of Education for Teaching: International research and pedagogy. 38(4) Clark, P. (1998) Back from the brink. London: Metro Books Cosnefroy, L. Buhot, E. (2013) Workplace learning impact: an analysis of French-secondary trainee teachers’ perception of their professional development. Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice. 19(6) Deem, R. (2001) Globalisation, new managerialism, academic capitalism and entrepreneurialism in universities: Is the local dimension still important? Comparative Education. 37(1) Henkel, M. (2000) Academic identities and policy change in higher education. Buckingham: SRHE and Open University Press Fitzgerald. T, Gunter, H. (2012) Hard Labour? Academic Work and the Changing Landscape of Higher Education. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Laberee, D. F. (1996)The lowly status of Teacher Education in the United Status. In N.K. Shimahara & I.Z. Holowinsky (Eds) Teacher Education in Industrialised Nations. London: Garland Publishing Luttenberg, J. Imants, L, Van Veen, K. (2013) Reform as ongoing positioning process: the positioning of a teacher in the context of reform. Teachers and Teaching: theory and Practice. 19 (3) Lyotard, J. F. (1984) The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge. Manchester University Press. Menter, I. Brisbard, E. & Smith, I. (2006) Covergence or divergence? Initial teacher education in Scotland. Edinburgh:Dunedin Academic Press Martinez, K. (2008) Academic induction for teacher educators. Asia Pacific Journal of Teacher Education 36(1) Pillen, M, Beijaard, D, Den Brok, P. (2013) Professional identity tensions of beginning teachers. Teachers and teaching: theory and practice. 19 (6) Roberts, P & Peters, M.A (2008) Neoliberalism, higher education and research. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. Slaugher, S & Leslie, G. (1997) Academic capitalism. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press. Smith, K. Hodson, E. & Brown, T. (2013) Teacher educator changing perceptions of theory. Educational Action Research Journal. 21(2) Zeichner, K. (2006) A research agenda for teacher education. In M. Cochran-Smith & K. Zeichner (Eds.), Studying teacher education. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum and AERA.

Author Information

Harriet Rowley (presenting / submitting)
Manchester Metropolitan University
Education
Manchester
Tony Brown (presenting)
Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom
Kim Smith
Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom

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