Learning and Teaching at M-Level

A Guide for Student Teachers

Hazel Bryan, Chris Carpenter, Simon Hoult, SAGE Publications Ltd

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781848606166, 9781848606159
• eBook ISBN: 9781446243756
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Early Childhood Education

Your teacher training or professional development course will now probably include Masters level assessment and credits as teaching ?becomes an M-level profession? and a greater emphasis is placed on helping teachers develop deeper understandings about aspects of learning and teaching through a higher level of critical reflection.

This book will guide you through the various different aspects of doing M-level work at either primary or secondary stage, and help you to develop a deeper professional understanding.

Your ability to research and understand learning environments will form a key part of making you an inquisitive and better teacher, and engagement with research underpins the book.

Chapters include primary and secondary vignettes and examples to help link theory into practice, as well as reflective questions, activities and suggestions for further reading.

This book is relevant to all trainee and qualified teachers working across the age ranges of 7-19.

Part 1

THE IMPORTANCE OF ENQUIRY IN ENHANCING LEARNING

1	TEACHER PROFESSIONALISM TODAY

In this chapter you will explore:

• The terrain of professionalism
• Specialist knowledge
• Collective autonomy
• Civic duties and professional values
• The curriculum: what it is and who designs it
• Neo-liberalism and education
• The 21st-century school
• Modernism and education policy
• Modernism and school organisation
• Postmodernism and school organisation

INTRODUCTION

The zeitgeist of the 21st century is characterised by a focus upon education. In England, New Labour came to power in May 1997 with a mantra of ‘Education, Education, Education’. Since then the focus has, if anything, become sharper. As you progress through your PGCE year you will become socialised into the professional context of education. This socialisation will take place in school, where, as soon as you enter the grounds, you are caught up in the rich fabric of everyday life, engaging with pupils, teachers, parents and a multiplicity of other professionals who support pupils’ development in school. Your process of socialisation will also take place in the University, where you will engage with tutors who will open doors to national and international ideas around education, and who will provide channels for you to engage with the wisdom of past generations of educators whilst simultaneously introducing you to current education theories and practices. Your socialisation will induct you into a new discourse of education, a multilayered discourse that reflects the complexities of what it is to be a teacher in the politicised landscape of education in England today.

As a teacher you will engage on a daily basis with pedagogical issues and subject-specific issues – all of which have a focus upon learning. This is explored in detail in Chapters 2 and 3. You will interact in an inter-professional context with other professionals, and this is explored in Chapter 10. This first chapter, however, introduces you to the ways in which, at many levels, government policy influences, to a greater or lesser extent, all of your actions and shapes your discourse. By understanding the policy arena within which education decisions are made at national level, you will become empowered to influence what happens at a localised level, in your school and your classroom. In this way, you will enrich and enhance your professionalism. So, what do we really mean by teacher professionalism?

THE TERRAIN OF PROFESSIONALISM

The terminology of professionalism began to develop during the 1950s and 1960s, when sociologists attempted to describe the quintessential characteristics of a profession (Whitty, 2003). It is possible to understand the concept of a ‘profession’ as fluid in nature, ever shifting along a ‘hypothetical continuum’ (Hoyle, 1995). As occupations achieve increasing characteristics of socially agreed features, they move along this continuum, gradually undergoing a process of professionalisation. Professionalisation relates to the ways in which an occupational group achieves status and standing in society – it is a measure of the ‘societal strength and authority of an occupational group’ (Englund, 1996, p. 76). Englund’s focus here is on the strength of teaching as an occupational group, not a focus upon the qualities or characteristics of good teaching. Professionalisation can be understood as a political project (McCulloch et al., 2000) on the part of teachers to be recognised as professionals. An example of this is the political project the teacher unions have engaged in over the last two decades in enhancing professional status. Alternatively, professionalisation can be understood as a ‘professional project’ (Whitty, 2003), where teachers strive for status, but in professional terms rather than through political acts such as union action. An example of this is the creation of the General Teaching Council for England (GTCE). You are becoming a teacher at a time when it could be argued, ‘after a century of striving, teaching has become a bona fide profession’ (Whitty, 2003, p. 65) with a General Teaching Council to represent it.

Reflection

What is the General Teaching Council for England?

In what ways does the GTCE represent teachers?

What is the remit of the GTCE?

In what ways can the GTCE enhance your practice?

If professionalisation is the process the profession goes through to gain occupational capital, then professionalism can be understood as relating to ‘exceptional standards of behaviour, dedication and a strong service ethic’ (Helsby, 1995, p. 320). It could be said that professionalism, as distinct from professionalisation, is inward looking in that it relates to the pedagogical skills teachers need to carry out their duties satisfactorily. Lawn (1996, p. 21) offers a no-nonsense definition of teacher professionalism, stating that ‘professionalism is a highly specific, contextualised idea which is used in contemporary educational writing as a commonsense way of describing the work of the English teacher’.

It has been suggested that professionalism carries with it a moral dimension (Carr, 2000), with a concern for standards, behaviour and dedication. Professionals have been described as the ‘moral milieu’ of society (Durkheim, 1957): if industry had the overriding goal to compete, then this ‘moral milieu’ was necessary to bring ‘cohesion and stability’ to society (1957, p. 29). This sense of occupying the moral high ground and in some way being motivated by altruism and commitment are well documented. The nature of professional motivation is not personal financial gain but ‘client centredness’ and in this sense is linked to morality and community interests.

Reflection

What do you believe are the qualities of a good teacher?

Carr (2000) argues that professionalism carries a moral dimension. Do you believe teaching is a moral undertaking?

The third term to consider here is professionality. In relation to education, the term professionality refers to the knowledge and skills needed to undertake the business of teaching. Traditionally, ‘professionals’ could be characterised as enjoying specialised knowledge that set them apart from other members of society (Perkins, 1989). The specialist knowledge of professionals traditionally took many years of study in Higher Education to acquire, and would include specific skills based on that theoretical knowledge, which was certified by examination. The nature of teacher knowledge today (pedagogical, curricular and socio-educational) has shifted from being the sole preserve of the occupation to a matter for Government, and often public, debate.

Reflection

What pedagogical knowledge do you need to be a good teacher?

What curricular knowledge do you need to be a good teacher?

What socio-educational knowledge do you need to be a good teacher?

Where does this knowledge come from?

How can you update your knowledge?

What skills do you need to be a good teacher?

How do you know what skills you need?

What do you know about your Subject Association?

Teachers’ professional work, then, embodies the dimensions of professionalism, professionalisation and professionality, that comprise a body of systematic knowledge, professional values, study in Higher Education, a degree of autonomy, prestige and some control over the decoding of policy texts.

TEACHER PROFESSIONALISM

In the past, teachers’ work was regarded as the domain of the professional, and certainly not an area that would be of interest to Government. During debate in the House of Commons on the Crowther Report of 1960, the Minister of Education, Sir David Eccles, commented that the findings of the report were ‘an irresistible invitation for a sally into the secret garden of the curriculum’ (Eccles, 1960, quoted in McCulloch et al., 2000, p. 11). The Minister was swift to point out that ‘parliament would never attempt to dictate the curriculum’ but that ‘I shall, therefore, try in future to make the Ministry’s own voice heard rather more often, more positively and, no doubt, sometimes more controversially’ (p. 11). It seems extraordinary to us today to think that there was a time when there was little interest, let alone intervention, in the business of education. Then teachers enjoyed curriculum design autonomy – what Lawton termed ‘the Golden Age of teacher control (or non-control) of the curriculum’ (Lawton, 1980, p. 22). In the past, constructs of teacher professionalism would have involved the following features:

• Specialist knowledge
• Collective autonomy
• Civic duties and professional values.

Specialist knowledge

Traditionally, the occupational group known as professionals could be characterised as enjoying specialised knowledge which set them apart from other members of their respective society. This knowledge is not always necessarily a natural scarcity and as such, the members of that profession may protect it by regulating the supply of expertise. This specialised knowledge would have taken many years to build. Today, the nature of teacher knowledge has shifted from being the sole preserve of the profession to a matter for both the profession and Government. Government intervention can be seen in all stages of education, from the Standards that determine whether or not a student teacher has reached a satisfactory level of competence to move into the NQT year, through a National Curriculum for pupils, sporadic Strategies and a stratified Professional Development offer from the TDA.

Collective autonomy

Professionals regulate entry into their profession. As gatekeepers of their profession they enjoy a degree of protected collective autonomy. This collective autonomy allows them to guard and define the body of knowledge needed within the profession. Professional councils register members of their profession, thereby protecting autonomy and determining their codes of practice. In this sense, the group manipulates the market and employs a ‘strategy of closure’ (Perkins, 1989, p. 378). Today, teachers enjoy a certain level of autonomy in relation to gatekeeping the profession.

The role of the mentor in school is significant in terms of both supporting the PGCE student but also, in partnership with the Higher Education Institution (HEI), making judgements on the student against the Standards. You will have completed (or are in the process of completing) online tests, without which you cannot progress through your NQT year.

It is unlikely in contemporary society that any profession enjoys absolute autonomy and the way in which you progress through your training to qualified status is a good example. You will be supported in your learning by tutors in the HEI in partnership with mentors and class teachers in school. You will be required to meet the Standards which have been determined by Government and pass your M-level work which is assessed by the HEI. This complex relationship within which you are training is a good example of the subtleties of professional and practitioner autonomy today.

Civic duties and professional values

Professionals have for many years been regarded as the ‘moral milieu’ of society. As far back as 1957, Durkheim argued that if industry had the overriding goal to compete, then the moral milieu was necessary to bring ‘cohesion and stability’ to society (Durkheim, 1957, p. 29). This sense of professionals occupying the moral high ground and in some way being motivated by altruism and commitment is well documented. The ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• About the authors
• Introduction
• Part 1 The importance of enquiry in enhancing learning
• Part 2 Key methods and ways of doing enquiry
• Part 3 Professional development and moving from student to teacher
• Bibliography
• Index