Continuing Your Professional Development in Lifelong Learning

Angela Steward

• Publisher: Continuum
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780826445872
• eBook ISBN: 9781441191137
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Higher Education

New qualifications for those teaching and training in the FE sector became effective in September 2007. The reform of initial teacher training and the professionalisation of the workforce in the sector require a commitment to engage in continuing professional development. The rational for the book is contained in the argument that improvement of quality in teaching and learning in the sector is not achieved exclusively through short-term external professional development and training activities.Moreover it requires ongoing workplace learning which is long-term in focus and practice-orientated and work-based. In order to improve future practice it needs to be embedded in critical reflection and evaluation of workloads. The purpose of the book is to introduce the notion that there is an opportunity for every teacher to develop their role through their workloads, e.g. workloads are a vehicle for professional development. Ways to achieve this are identifiedby exploring the practice of experienced and successful teachers. The author then goes on tooffersguidelines for promoting constructive practice, which is using the outcomes of reflection in the workplace to achieve role development.

Part I – Past Policies

1	Workforce Reforms

In this chapter you will find sections on:

• workforce practices and workplace culture;
• moving towards the professionalisation of the workforce;
• occupational standards and qualifications for FE teachers;
• the creation of the Learning and Skills Sector;
• reforming initial teacher training;
• teaching standards for the Lifelong Learning Sector;
• policies shaping new qualifications for teachers;
• restructuring of government departments;
• workforce strategy;
• preparing to meet the challenges ahead;
• an awareness of wider educational issues.

The chapter addresses issues relating to Domain A: AS4 Reflection and evaluation of their own practice and their CPD as teachers.

For those undertaking initial teacher training, the chapter provides opportunities to generate evidence for LLUK standards AS1, AK1.1, AP1.1, AS4, AP4.2 and elements of Domains B, C, D and E. (You will find full details of Domains A – E in Chapter 2.)

Workforce practices and workplace culture

Lincoln and Denzin point out that, although you cannot foresee what the future will hold, you can imagine it, because what happens in the future stems from what has happened in the past:

We cannot predict the future, but we can speculate about it, because the future never represents a clean break with the past. (Lincoln and Denzin, 1998: 420)

Although you cannot say exactly what will happen in the future, you can take an educated guess because events from the past influence the way things turn out in the future. In this way, policies and strategies introduced in the past have a critical impact on workforce reforms in the Lifelong Learning Sector today and influence how they are received by individuals currently working in the sector and, subsequently, how they will be implemented in the future.

• When you joined your organisation did you wonder why teaching and training sessions were done the way they were and how they came to be like that?
• If you are undertaking an initial teacher training qualification, have you thought about why certain things came to be included in the learning programme and why they are considered so important?

Check It Out 1.1

Workforce practices

Think back to the particular ways of working you wondered about when you joined your organisation or started your teaching placement. Make a note of what you found different from what you expected, or what you found difficult to understand, and try to remember what it was that struck you about these differences and difficulties at the time. For example, it could have been:

• the way teaching and learning sessions were organised;
• how teachers related to their learners;
• how teachers engaged in developing programmes;
• the way managers organised the resources.

What surprised you about these workforce practices or others that you identified?

Have you any experiences of other organisations to compare them with?

What do these ways of working convey about the ethos of the organisation you are thinking about?

Links To CPD

• Identify workforce practices in your current organisation that may have contributed to the difficulties, problems or dilemmas that you identified (in Check It Out 0.1) as possibilities for CPD activities and possible inclusion in your Action Plan.
• Make additions and edit your Action Plan appropriately.
• Analysing these issues helps you evaluate workforce practices more effectively.

Workforce practices within organisations do not usually come about by chance and those within the Lifelong Learning Sector are no exception. New policies are often instigated to rectify past problems but their introduction often imposes further challenges for you as an individual as you are required to implement the changes and, more generally, it can affect the workplace culture of organisations in the sector. Undertaking continuing personal and professional development is a way of responding positively to the challenges which changes in policy bring, with benefits both to you and to your organisation. However, being well informed so that you can take an educated guess about future practices and focus on the important issues is the secret of success.

Towards the professionalisation of the workforce

To help you understand how the present qualifications for teachers in the Lifelong Learning Sector in England came into force and why emphasis is now being placed on continuing personal and professional development beyond initial teacher training, I look back on the recent past and provide a brief historical review of the events over the last few years that played a part in the professionalisation of the workforce. I address issues about how professionalisation of the workforce developed to its position today, how qualifications for teachers developed and how there is now a requirement for professional registration and a commitment by individuals to continuing personal and professional development in the future.

To an outsider, it may seem incredible that until the first year of the twenty-first century holding a teaching qualification was not a compulsory requirement for those teaching in colleges in the Further Education Sector (FE). Teaching appointments in the sector (and in adult training and education generally) were made on the strength of an individual’s industrial experience, and their professional or craft expertise and teaching experience and teaching qualifications (or the lack of them) were not always taken into account. Teaching qualifications for the Further Education Sector had been in existence for many years, and indeed the majority of teachers in the sector held them. However, they were considered desirable for teachers in colleges and training organisations – but not a necessary requirement. Although new-style, criterion-based, occupational standards for teachers in the sector were first drafted in 1991, it took almost a decade of development, debate and disputes before they were introduced.

It was envisaged that the use of national standards – derived from analysing teachers’ work content and defining performance criteria and assessment specifications based on objectives – would provide a basis for initial teacher training and accredited staff development with clear progression routes into qualifications for teaching. However, this functional approach based on typical National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) specifications was challenged by various stakeholders, e.g. employers’ bodies, FE staff and their union representatives and teacher trainers. The period following the incorporation of the Further Education Sector in 1993, with a move away from the control of local education authorities (LEAs) as colleges became independent business corporations, saw the polarisation of these stakeholders about workforce issues into what Elliott and Crossley (1997) later called ‘oppositional cultures’. The opposing perspectives from different stakeholders were based on divergent values and principles and so no mutually acceptable solutions were readily forthcoming. The way the FE teacher’s role was defined, what their workload should be and how it was to be assessed was problematic from the outset and agreement on new occupational standards for teachers appeared insoluble for a considerable time, which meant their development and introduction took several years.

The move to incorporated status outside the control of the LEAs and the radical reforms in the Further Education Sector, which were implemented during the 1990s, were intended to put colleges on to a commercial footing. The reforms fundamentally impacted on the way FE Colleges were organised, funded and managed: there was a shift from traditional education structures to new systems derived from business and industry. A traditional ethos of public service was supplanted by one of competition, where market forces were introduced into colleges in a series of policies which gave rise to quality and accountability systems. All these measures changed the culture of colleges and the working conditions of teachers in the Further Education Sector.

Occupational standards and qualifications for FE teachers

Moving towards a qualified workforce became government strategy in 1998 (DfEE, 1998) but it was not until 1999 that the first occupational standards for the sector were launched by the Further Education National Training Organisation (FENTO, 1999) and they only became effective in 2001. The occupational standards were intended to inform the design of accredited qualifications for teachers in the Further Education Sector. Despite the protracted development period, they were generally accepted by providers and accreditors of FE teacher training qualifications by the time they were launched. However, this was achieved only after a consultation process with stakeholders in the sector after which revisions were made by the Further Education Staff Development Forum (FESDF), which was the body charged with strategic responsibility for taking the development of the occupational standards forward. Even so, after all this work and development there were still disputed elements within the FENTO standards.

Interestingly, at the same time as the first occupational standards for the Further Education Sector were launched, the National Institute for Adult and Continuing Education (NIACE, 1999) drew attention to the fact that not all qualifications need be based on national standards, e.g. National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs). NIACE considered NVQs were narrow and limiting, especially at a time when education was being increasingly aimed at the needs of the individual. The report published by NIACE also asserted that any reformed qualifications must be ‘future- proof’. NIACE demonstrated foresight in:

• identifying that it would be increasingly important to focus training on skills which might be needed by the workforce in the future;
• recognising the trend in education to meet the needs of the individual.

These two factors highlighted the emerging personalisation agenda that is today at the forefront of teaching and learning strategies. The need for personalised learning and training for future employability was not widely recognised by stakeholders and policymakers at the time. However, looking back the germ of the idea was already beginning to take hold several years before the personalisation agenda was implemented and became widespread practice. It did not just suddenly appear: looking back enables you to see where its roots lie and why the concept evolved as a widespread practice.

The creation of the Learning and Skills Sector

A new policy on qualifications and professional development for teachers was announced to coincide with the government’s plans for the new Learning and Skills Council which came into force in 2001 under the Learning and Skills Act (2000). The main elements of the Act concerned the funding of post-school education and training (excluding university education) and brought into being the Learning and Skills Sector.

The Learning and Skills Sector included not just FE Colleges, which had been the main sites of post-school learning and vocational training up to this point, but also:

• Sixth-form Colleges;
• work-based training and workforce development;
• adult and community learning;
• guidance services for adults;
• business links.

The expansion of the post-school sector was part of the government’s strategy already articulated in The Learning Age: A Renaissance for a New Britain (DfEE, 1998). The priorities for this newly expanded sector were to implement the strategy by encouraging participation in learning, improving the basic skills of adults, making a contribution to the economy through updating skills, raising standards in post-school learning and ensuring excellence in teaching and training. The strategy enshrined a commitment by government to fund learning and skills provision in the sector – but this had to be in partnership with employers and individuals.

If the purpose and main consequence of the publication of The Learning Age signalled a markedly new approach to learning and skills through lifelong learning, then the publication of Learning to Succeed: A New Framework for Post-16 Learning (DfEE, 1999) signalled a decisive shift towards policies promoting social cohesion. The government was clearly intent on changing the nature of the learners staying on in the education system after the compulsory school-leaving age and widening participation in post-school education and training. They accelerated the pace of reform with a remit to the Learning and Skills Council to build a ‘new culture of learning and aspiration’ (DfEE, 1999: 13). The responsibility of the Learning and Skills Sector was to attract and involve people in education and training who in the past would have left school at 16 and who would have had no further connection with formal education or training after that. The raising of the school-leaving age from 16 years to 18 years becomes effective in 2015 but, as can be seen, the idea was raised and introduced in policies years earlier.

The priorities for the new sector were not only widening participation in education an...

Table of contents

• Cover page
• Series
• Title page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
• Introduction – Personalisation and Constructive Practice
• Part I – Past Policies
• Part II – The Role of the Teacher
• Part III – Constructive Practice
• Part IV – Future Practice
• References
• Index