Teacher Education in Lifelong Learning

Developing Professionalism as a Democratic Endeavour

Alison Iredale

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9783319658186
• eBook ISBN: 9783319658193
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Adult Education

This book promotes the idea that professionalism among teachers should be marked by democratic relations, rather than by managerialism and performance management. It provides a thorough investigation of issues around the participation of trainee teachers in the Lifelong Learning Sector, by reflecting on their experiences and questioning how well initial teacher education prepares teachers as professional practitioners in the sector. The reflexive nature of the book promotes a deep discussion of the nature of professionalism, drawing upon the works of John Dewey, Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu, and places initial teacher education in the Lifelong Learning Sector firmly within the policy and ideological context of regulation, audit and control. It also illuminates pertinent discussions around teacher agency through a consideration of confidence, excellence, and routinised practices. Finally, the book takes us 'through the looking glass' to reveal the tensions within the teacher education curriculum as it prepares trainee teachers for a ready-made world, whilst at the same time attempting to encourage principles of social justice, inclusive practice and education as a democratic endeavour. It will be compelling reading for students and researchers working in Education and Sociology, particularly those with an interest in lifelong learning and teacher training.

© The Author(s) 2018

Alison IredaleTeacher Education in Lifelong Learninghttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65819-3_1

Begin Abstract

1. Teacher Education in the Lifelong Learning Sector: Professionalism and the Democratic Endeavour

Alison Iredale¹

(1)

School of Education and Childhood, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK

Abstract

This chapter sets the scene, starting with the context of a professional biography , then the policy landscape and finally the context of initial teacher education (ITE) in the lifelong learning sector. These three intertwining contexts build the foundations for the rest of the book, so that this chapter can be considered as an introductory ‘primer’ that should help you to orientate and prepare for the level of understanding needed in future chapters.

In the preface I talked about reflexivity . By this I mean reflection that

typically draw attention to the complex relationship between processes of knowledge production and the various contexts of those processes as well as the involvement of the knowledge producer. (Alvesson and Sköldberg, Reflexive Methodology: New Vistas for Qualitative Research, London, 5, 2009)

During my PhD research I was ‘inserted into the social field’ (Alvesson and Sköldberg, Reflexive Methodology: New Vistas for Qualitative Research, London, 5, 2009) among my participants, who were my own students. My data were constructed as a function of the situatedness of my encounters, not isolated from them, so my interpretations were both systematic in the research conduct and free from established methodological frameworks. I am committed to the democratic endeavour, or what Alvesson and Sköldberg term as

having an interest in emancipatory knowledge and the desire to promote a social science capable of stimulating autonomy, clarification, a sense of responsibility, and the democratic process. (Alvesson and Sköldberg, Reflexive Methodology: New Vistas for Qualitative Research, London, 123, 2009)

This early position taking may appear to be dismissive of established methodological processes, and indeed they were taken to be so by my supervisors, who urged me to take a pragmatic approach within my PhD thesis writing. This I did dutifully on the whole, but in this book I have the freedom to embrace a reflexive methodology, drawing upon the writing of Alvesson and Sköldberg. This will require an early discussion about the professional and policy landscape and in particular a section where I shall define terms and terminology related to the lifelong learning sector (LLS) , and ITE in the LLS .

End Abstract

1.1 A Professional Biography

This first context relates to my own professional biography . This is not because I intend this book to be autobiographical, but that the story of my own journey as a teacher is integral to the stories that I tell of my trainee teachers. Now, at the outset it is important to say that I am not going to relate specific stories of ‘real people’. The stories are instead more like case studies, snippets and representations. I refer to them as vignettes, what Thompson (2017) calls ‘a bit of a story’. They are probably amalgamations of the individual participants in my PhD thesis, but this seems at first reading to be disrespectful. What I mean is that their stories are signifiers of the lived experiences of many of my trainee teachers of the time when I have been a teacher educator. I called them ghosts of my past once, and this was also misunderstood in relation to more traditional views of empirical research. What is important is that I am resisting the temptation of setting up pathology of the trainee teacher in the lifelong learning sector (LLS). Even my own story is a representation, as I cannot make a claim for a clear and factual memory of my journey. I can only say what stood out for me as I wandered into and through my career. So I claim poetic licence where the recollections are viewed through a reflective lens. Similarly, the stories that I tell may seem to lack an appreciation of the role of gender politics. I acknowledge this, and have struggled to reconcile this lacuna with my claim to be a conduit for transformation and social mobility through my teaching. However, I am unable to do this retrospectively, as it would not be true to the aims of the research that underpin this book.

The site of my biography is, in the main, my own classroom where trainee teachers meet to participate in an in-service teacher education programme. Although my professional journey has included training in retailing, and teaching on a range of professional development programmes (City and Guilds 7307/7407;D32/33/34; Teaching and Training Diploma in Information Technology [TTDIT]), the main programmes referred to in the book are the Certificate in Education (Cert.Ed.), the Professional Certificate in Education and the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE).

I have said that I am interested in participation , and this came about as I took responsibility for ‘teaching teachers how to teach’. I noticed differences in the ways that I had gained my own professional knowledge and practice compared to that of my trainee teachers and felt that a reflexive enquiry would shed some light on these differences.

My own personal and professional journey into teacher education began in 1979, just as the UK was emerging from an economic recession. My first job was as a staff manager in a large supermarket, responsible for the recruitment and operational training of retail staff. In addition to ‘shop floor staff’ there were a significant number of trainee managers employed by the company at that time (1979–1984). These were typically those who had made the decision to pursue a career in retailing following a period of working as a ‘Saturday’ assistant whilst still at school or college. At that time qualifications were less important than ‘know-how’ and the prospect of swift career development and a ‘good salary’ persuaded many young people to join the company rather than continuing their education. Most had failed, or were likely to fail to gain the requisite qualifications that would have propelled them into a sixth-form college. A small minority had joined the company with ‘A’ levels, or a degree, and these were generally recruited as part of a ‘graduate training programme’. It was part of my job to support their career development by providing a programme of training which involved learning ‘on the job’ (rotating around the various sections of the supermarket), and day release a local college.

Later in my career and during my time working in colleges I supported young people to find employment in retailing and allied occupations. For these young people (as they invariably were) the Youth Opportunities Programme (YOP), replaced by the Youth Training Scheme (YTS), the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative (TVEI), the Certificate in Pre-Vocational Education (CPVE) and the burgeoning Business Education Council /Business and Technician (later Technology) Education Council (BEC/BTEC ) became their base currency and the source of cultural, social and economic capital. The exchange rate for this currency was not pegged to that of the more traditional education and training programmes such as GCE A levels and large company-operated training schemes. Several interlinking points can be made with regard to the status of vocational qualifications. Firstly, as Fisher (1990) argued Higher Education Institution (HEI) admissions’ tutors and employers doubted the equivalency of vocational qualifications in terms of level and rigour. Fisher (1990: 14) charted a number of responses from admissions’ tutors to students seeking to enter higher education (HE) with a BTEC qualification. He argued that

Many of the negative views expressed are likely to be based on opposition to the BTEC student-centred approach to learning based on practical situations. In other words, there appears to be a perceived conflict between traditional highly theoretical approaches to learning and the empiricism of BTEC. (Fisher 1990: 14)

Secondly, Burns and Finnigan (2003), commenting on widening participation (WP) policies during the 1990s, noted the increase in young and mature people entering university with alternative courses to GCE A levels (such as Access to Higher Education courses); nevertheless, they too argued that substitute qualifications served to pathologise working-class non-traditional students in what was then still largely an elitist HE system. More recently Biesta (2012) raised the notion of ‘learnification’ where constructivist approaches to learning have caused, in his view, the disappearance of the teacher and teaching (Biesta 2012: 37). Finally Smith (2006), commenting on the rise of ‘knowingness’ in education, states that

In Further Education students are encouraged to identify their own personal learning style – kinaesthetic, inter-personal, linguistic, iconic – with the result that it appears to be possible for them to know themselves as learners before they have yet come to learning anything: a remarkable achievement (2006: 23)

During my career in retailing, as I managed the training and development of staff I was asked on several occasions to conduct ‘mock’ interviews at the local college. I was also given the chance to teach part-time on a unit from a level 2 Business Studies course. However, while these experiences gave me the impetus to consider a different career path, I was keen to be ‘trained to teach’ rather than enter a classroom without what Shulman (1986) refers to as pedagogic content knowledge (PCK ).

Following a career break I completed a Cert.Ed. in Further Education . The ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Teacher Education in the Lifelong Learning Sector: Professionalism and the Democratic Endeavour
• 2. Initial Teacher Education in the Lifelong Learning Sector: Developing Professional Knowledge and Practice
• 3. Learning and Becoming: Encounters with Developing Teachers
• 4. Learning and Becoming: Experiences of the Teacher Educator as a Practitioner Researcher
• 5. The Journey into Praxis: Confidence, Excellence and Routinised Practice
• 6. Professional Knowledge and Practice: Some Conclusions
• Back Matter