The Further Education and Training (FET) sector in Ireland has undergone fundamental reform (O'Leary & Rami, 2017), with the Future FET Strategy report (SOLAS, 2020) proposing an increasingly agile and responsive sector to changing societal and economic needs. Strategic priority challenges include developing structures for collaborative and innovative education and training responses, utilising pedagogical innovations (SOLAS, 2021) and developing staffing structures to deliver on the Future FET goals (SOLAS, 2020).

FET sectoral reforms in Ireland have resulted in ideological tensions, with O'Brien (2018) arguing that the commoditisation and marketisation of education resulted in FET provisions subservient to economic interests rather than being driven by emancipatory educational goals. The acceleration to align education with employability is noted by O'Neill and Fitzsimons (2020), with a top-down re-organisation that has contributed to a "contested profession" of FET teachers.

Typically, conventions evolve and account for the commonly accepted way of understanding, acting, communicating, coordinating, functions and responsibilities (Moreno da Fonseca, 2015). Compromises in conventions are achieved only when actors tackle the tension arising from their positions of power and sources of legitimation (Marhuenda-Fluixa, 2022). In the Irish context, conventions' typical evolution has been bypassed during a national financial crisis and multi-national institutional intervention (O’Sullivan & Rami, 2022) to create a FET sector detached from convention and the legitimate power of relevant stakeholders. This has negated the need for compromise during instability and reform, with an institutionalisation of a hegemonic worldview.

Reflecting these conventional shifts, an evaluation of Irish FET practitioner staffing structures is being undertaken against international comparators (Education and Training Boards Ireland [ETBI], 2024), as a more agile and cost-effective staffing structure is pursued. The recent emergence of ‘learning practitioners’ and the disappearance of ‘teachers’ from the discourse of FET (SOLAS & ETBI, 2020) is recognised as a distinct challenge for the teaching profession. 

In response to reforms, societal shifts and stakeholder tensions, this study seeks to understand the multiple perspectives of FET stakeholders to identify opportunities and challenges emerging from complex interdependent relationships. The study seeks to answer the questions:

• How do stakeholders perceive the purpose and function of FET?
• What are the FET stakeholder strategic priorities and why are these necessary?
• Where are the opportunities for collaboration and addressing of tensions?
• What is the role of teachers in FET according to stakeholders and how can this be effectively supported?

This study proposes a bottom-up analysis of social complexities integral to the FET ecosystem through the theoretical lens of Activity Theory to identify opportunities for Expansive Learning (Engestrom, 2016) across multiple professional boundaries of FET stakeholders. Through a multi-voiced process, Expansive Learning takes a "societally essential dilemma which cannot be resolved through individual actions alone – but in which joint cooperative actions can push a historically new form of activity into emergence" (Engestrom, 2015, p 165).

The interdependent activity systems of FET stakeholder organisations will be mapped to the binding object of FET across eight categories: 1) Strategy & Policy, 2) Administration and Implementation, 3) Qualifications and Certification, 4) Government Departments, 5) Employers, 6) Higher Education, 7) Students, and 8) Teachers. The interdependent activity systems will be mapped according to subject organisations, rules, community, division of labour, instruments as tools and signs, and the sense-making object that each FET stakeholder is working towards (Engestrom, 2016).

The primary aim of the research is to map the activity systems of stakeholders to understand why reforms are happening and how these affect the role of teachers. The research also seeks to identify opportunities for collaboration and expansive professional learning with FET teachers and relevant stakeholders. 

To examine how the role of teachers is changing in response to FET sector reform, this study employs an embedded single case study design (Yin, 2018). This approach allows for analysis of the FET sector as a whole, while focusing on embedded subunits of relevant stakeholders, enabling deeper exploration within the single case. The broader PhD research aims to investigate the evolving role of FET teachers and develop a responsive professional learning intervention. Burke Johnson’s (2017) dialectical pluralism paradigm highlights the value of societal dissonance to leverage divergent insights. The insights gained from the analysis of the diverse data collected will be mapped to Engström’s (2015) Activity System model. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with purposively sampled stakeholder representatives (Tashakkori & Teddlie, 2003). Participants were recruited via publicly available contacts, supplemented by snowball sampling to reach less accessible individuals through peer referrals (Heckathorn, 1997). This method provided a context-specific understanding of the FET ecosystem, enabling the researcher to interpret participants' lived experiences, with tailored questions for each interview (Cohen et al., 2018). The interview guide, informed by literature review findings, was structured around Cedefop’s (2023) Three-Perspective Model, including Socioeconomic & Labour Market, Education System, and Pedagogical & Epistemological lenses. Questions progressed from broad themes, such as socioeconomic influences on FET reform, to specific pedagogical and epistemological considerations (Lareau, 2021) most relevant to FET teachers and students. Participants were encouraged to bring an object or suggest a metaphor representing a key FET aspect, fostering sensory engagement and enriching research data complexity. This object-oriented approach disrupted traditional FET narratives and promoted participant agency in shaping interview content (Harrison et al., 2024). Interview transcripts underwent thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2022), guided by exploratory a priori coding derived from literature, the Three-Perspective Model (Cedefop, 2023), and the Activity System framework (Engestrom, 2016). The activity systems of FET stakeholders were mapped, with a focus on the sense-making object of FET that binds the sector. Overlapping strategic priorities of stakeholders were identified, with potential success criteria for the subsequent professional learning intervention framework.

Preliminary findings reveal tensions from discursive shifts in FET. The separate evolution of ‘Further Education’ and ‘Training’ has led to ideological conflicts within FET. Reform efforts to unify diverse aims under a single strategy and performance metrics risk homogenisation. One participant compared this to a choir forced into a monophonic melody, stifling the sector's polyphonic potential, with top-down reporting systems dominating FET providers' agendas, diminishing teachers' professional recognition and influence (Kyle, 2020). A key challenge for FET teachers is the introduction of tertiary degrees in Ireland, requiring them to deliver first and second-year university modules. Alongside training and employability, FET provisions were ‘neither designed nor resourced’ for this responsibility (O’Sullivan & Rami, 2022), representing both academic and vocational shifts. While this strengthens FET as a pathway option for students, it limits valuable pluralistic education approaches (Cedefop, 2020, p. 69). The increasing complexity of FET student needs—from immigration, mental health challenges, and socioeconomic factors—highlights the multifaceted role of teachers. Beyond facilitating human capital development, teachers support culturalisation, socialisation, and self-actualisation of at-risk students. Ongoing challenges include knowledge and skills obsolescence due to the evolving knowledge-based economy, automation, and artificial intelligence growth. Supporting lifelong learning demands significant advancements in curriculum development, assessment, teaching methodologies, and student engagement. The study’s findings and mapped activity systems of FET stakeholders reflect revised conceptualisations of FET and teachers’ roles, contributing to the broader narrative and understanding of FET sector challenges. As economic, sociocultural, political, and historical contexts shape leadership and teacher professional learning (Hallinger, 2018), the findings will support the evolution of teacher identity and integrate professional language and innovative practices into expansive learning exchanges among stakeholders.

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