Teacher Educators in Vocational and Further Education (SpringerBriefs in Education) 3030905012, 9783030905019

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SPRINGER BRIEFS IN EDUC ATION

Sai Loo   Editor

Teacher Educators in Vocational and Further Education 123

SpringerBriefs in Education

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Sai Loo Editor

Teacher Educators in Vocational and Further Education

Editor Sai Loo UCL Institute of Education University College London London, UK

ISSN 2211-1921 ISSN 2211-193X (electronic) SpringerBriefs in Education ISBN 978-3-030-90501-9 ISBN 978-3-030-90502-6 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90502-6 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

As ever to my father, who set me on this path with his generous commitment to education. To Caroline and Anna for their continuing patience and encouragement. And not forgetting the venerable, Tosca.

Acknowledgements

My special thanks to the willing and patient contributors for offering their time and efforts to share their research findings during the COVID-19 global pandemic. I find their generosities and openness to such a project humbling and gratifying as an editor. Also, I would like to thank Astrid Noordermeer, the editor at Springer, for taking on this under-researched area of education and having the trust and vision to enable me to bring this book to completion. Lastly, the unsung heroes—the book proposal reviewers—kindly reviewed the initial book proposal and the submitted manuscript with insightful and supportive comments.

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Contents

1

Sweetest Taboo? Further Education and Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sai Loo

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VET Teachers and Teacher Trainers in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Matthias Pilz, Anja Schlöglmann, and Uma Gengaiah

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Is It Us or Them? Teacher Education as Act of Resistance to a Neo-liberal Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Howard Scott, Julie Wilde, and Pete Bennett

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A Foundation for Practitioner Based Research in TVET: The New Postgraduate Diploma: TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joy Papier

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Stakeholder Perspectives on Vocational Teacher Education and Teacher Educators Role in Supporting Coherence . . . . . . . . . . . . Henriette Duch and Birgitte Lund Nielsen

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A Teacher Education Framework for Fostering Further Education Teachers’ Culturally Responsive Questioning Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Niki Hannan Further Education Teacher Educators’ Initial Disciplines, Journeys and Titles: From Their Perspectives in Higher Education Institutions, Further Education Colleges and Private Providers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sai Loo

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Reflexivity for Whom? The Ethics of a Craft Identity and the Know-How of Supporting Reflexivity on Teacher Education Programmes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Warren Kidd, Sheeba Viswarajan, and Andrea McMahon

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Towards a More Radical, Meaningful and Dynamic Teacher Training and Mentoring Scheme for Teachers and Learners of the Future: A Personalised Approach to Pedagogy and Curriculum Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Ian Duckett

10 Future Development of Teacher Educators in the FE Sector: Challenges and Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Sai Loo

Editor and Contributors

About the Editor Dr. Sai Loo is an academic at UCL Institute of Education, University College London, and an author and editor of research monographs. Before joining UCL, he taught accounting and finance at higher education institutions on undergraduate, postgraduate and professional programmes and vocational areas in further education. Before becoming a teacher, Sai worked in the industry as a Chartered Accountant. Occupational education is his main area of research interest. He takes an interdisciplinary epistemological approach to work, teaching and learning settings. His research projects and publications have focused on the further and higher education sectors and professional education, especially around teacher education (teacher educators and teachers) and professional practices in work-related settings of the digital economy and clinical disciplines. He has published widely in over 140 publications, conference papers and keynotes (83 percent are single-authored). Teacher Educators in Vocational and Further Education, published by Springer, is his eighth research monograph.

Contributors Pete Bennett University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK Henriette Duch VIA University College, Aarhus, Denmark Ian Duckett Learning and Skills Research Network East Anglia, Norwich, UK Uma Gengaiah Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi, India Niki Hannan Ara Institute of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand Warren Kidd University of East London, London, UK

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Editor and Contributors

Sai Loo UCL Institute of Education, University College London, London, UK Andrea McMahon University of East London, London, UK Birgitte Lund Nielsen VIA University College, Aarhus, Denmark Joy Papier University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa Matthias Pilz University of Cologne, Köln, Germany Anja Schlöglmann University of Cologne, Köln, Germany Howard Scott University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK Sheeba Viswarajan University of East London, London, UK Julie Wilde University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK

List of Figures

Fig. 2.1

Fig. 5.1 Fig. 6.1

Presentation of the connections in the training of prospective teachers, the trainer instructors and the ministerial responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Policy perspectives on coherence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Framework for fostering culturally responsive questioning strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

24 69 88

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List of Tables

Table 6.1 Table 7.1 Table 7.2 Table 7.3 Table 9.1 Table 10.1

Teaching context and tertiary teaching experience . . . . . . . . . . . Initial disciplines and teaching institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Journeys and teaching institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Job titles and teaching institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inventory of initiatives and conceptual framework references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mapping the Call for Papers themes to the chapter contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

84 97 99 101 129 143

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Chapter 1

Sweetest Taboo? Further Education and Research Sai Loo

Abstract The opening chapter of this edited monograph, Teacher Educators in Vocational and Further Education, covers the topic for investigation on teacher educators and the delivery and design of teacher education facilitation in vocational and further education. The chapter also covers this education sector across five locations: Denmark, England, India, New Zealand and South Africa. Each chapter contribution is introduced, and finally, a discussion of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the topic. Keywords Introduction · Further education · Research · Structure · Covid-19 · Summary

Introduction The idea of this edited research monograph was conceived after the publication of Professional Development of Teacher Educators in Further Education: Pathways, knowledge, identities and vocationalism (Loo, 2020a). This edited monograph aims to follow up on my monograph and ascertain the extent to which this research area is being carried out internationally. A Call for Papers was sent out to connected international networks, and the result was the collection of contributions in this monograph. This collection aims to understand how teacher educators internationally perform as trainers in the Further Education (FE) sector. Loo (2007, p. 426) defined teacher educators as “those who are educating prospective teachers…in all education sectors irrespective of national boundaries”. The FE sector is viewed as ‘significantly different’ to the compulsory, higher education sectors and professional education. Contributors may come from academics, researchers, practitioners, managers and associated stakeholders. In the Call for Papers, the related areas may include: S. Loo (B) UCL Institute of Education, University College London, London, UK e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 S. Loo (ed.), Teacher Educators in Vocational and Further Education, SpringerBriefs in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90502-6_1

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1. 2.

3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

S. Loo

Perspectives of teacher educators who are involved in teacher training programmes. Views of policymakers, professional/occupational bodies and other related stakeholders. They might include researchers from academic and professional institutions and socio-development change agencies, think tanks and transnational organisations (e.g., the OECD). The impact of information, communication, and electronic technologies (ICET) on teacher educators’ pedagogic delivery. Training or education, including professional development of novice and experienced teacher educators. Professional identities of teacher educators. Teacher educators’ teaching know-how and its application (pedagogy). The professionalisation of teacher educators. Opportunities and issues of teacher educators. International comparisons and perspectives of teacher educators. Ethical, gender and social justice dimensions of teacher educators.

The inspiration for the chapter name came from several sources. The first part resulted purely by chance a publishing editor who accidentally sent me a book proposal reviewer’s comments with a similar title! As a fan of Sade, the singer, I have fond memories of listening to her song ‘Sweetest taboo’ when Promise came out in 1985. The rest of the title results from years of research in the sector. This introduction chapter is structured into five sections. Following the introduction section, the second section provides overviews of vocational education and training systems of the countries included in this edited monograph on teacher educators. The countries cover Denmark, England, India, New Zealand and South Africa. In the next section, readers are given an overview of the contributing chapters. The penultimate section covers the impact of the Covid-19 global pandemic on the TVET systems and teacher educators and teacher education. The fifth and final section includes the conclusion to this first chapter.

Further Education The FE sector in England occupies a porous landscape situated between the (secondary) compulsory education sector and the higher education sector. Porous in the sense that the sector’s pedagogic activities overlap those of the two surrounding sectors. The Department for Business and Skills (BIS, 2016, p. 4) defines the English FE sector as “any study taken after the age of 16 that is not part of higher education (that is, not taken as part of an undergraduate or a postgraduate degree). It is delivered by a range of public, private, and voluntary sector providers and, in general, equips a learner for further learning, including Higher Education or employment. It also plays an important role in reaching out to disadvantaged groups to encourage their participation in learning when they otherwise might not. “It is the last sentence

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that characterises the sector’s porosity. FE is also a sector that provides additional learning opportunities for learners from the compulsory education sector. As with the secondary sector, FE institutions also offer the two qualifications: General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and General Certificate Advanced level (A-Level). FE institutions collaborate with higher education institutions in their offers of workrelated/higher vocational courses and teacher training/education programmes, which can be at Level 3 or 4 or higher, base on the European qualifications framework (EQF) (where the university level begins at Level 5). The diversity of its institutions matches the porosity of the sector. These institutions cover FE colleges, voluntary and community organisations, commercial organisations, independent training providers, adult and community learning providers, industry, specialist colleges, armed and uniformed services, prisons and offender learning institutions, and other public-sector organisations (Education and Training Foundation, 2014). Of its 2.2 million learners (in February 2019), 1.4 million are adults, 685,000 are 16- to 18-yearolds, and 76,000 are 16- to 18-year-olds undertaking apprenticeships (Association of Colleges, 2019). The apprenticeship programmes start at Level 3 of European qualifications framework) and end at Level 8. These offers are classroom and work-based. These vocational programmes also include technical qualifications (T levels) from 2020 and new apprenticeship standards (Trailblazers). This ‘streamlined’ vocational pathway offers 15 pathways to employment. The Trailblazers are two-year college apprenticeship courses, and the T programmes are at Level 4, including Technical Baccalaureate, developed by employee-led consortia, are classroom-base.1 However, the main characteristic of FE is that 71.3% of its teaching staff teach occupational/vocational programmes (Loo, 2020a), commonly known as vocational education and training (VET). The most extensive five subjects, based on the estimated number of deliverers, are visual and performing arts and media; foundation programmes; health and social care, and public services; business administration, management, and professional; and hospitality, sports, leisure, and travel (Frontier Economics Limited, 2016, Table 17). The above description merely illustrates the porosity and diversity of the sector. Perhaps, the education sector has been neglected and the least understood in England’s education sectors due to the two dimensions. The other significant societal-cultural dimension relates to the academic-vocational division where VET is perceived as second best to academic qualifications like the Advanced level qualification. Loo (2019, Chap. 4) critiques this phenomenon and therefore does not warrant another delineation. However, this ‘English context’ (Loo and Jameson, 2017) is helpful to bear in mind when discussing the FE sector and VET system in England. This Cinderella image has affected the sector regarding policymaking (and funding) and, perhaps, the quality of research (as discussed in the next section). As illustrated in Chap. 3 by Scott, Wilde and Bennett, they mentioned the broader socio-political-economic contexts. The Thatcher government in the 1980s brought in changes in the UK. These included a push for a more business-centred approach and 1

https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/tools/vet-in-europe/systems/united-kingdom. Accessed @ 1 April 2021.

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away from the unionisation of the labour force. This ‘entrepreneurial approach’ (Parker, 2019) also affected the sector by opening up provision, greater private involvement and loss of public ownership. Under the cloak of managerial practices, greater accountability, monitoring, competition, performative measurements, and reduction in funding led to ‘culture and mode of regulation’ (Ball, 1994, p. 216). The last four decades of neoliberalism have affected teacher education in the sector, perhaps more so than the compulsory sector in the UK. Indeed, Tuck (2013) argues these neoliberal ideas are contradictory to the training of teachers as neoliberalism requires conformity and adherence to specific perspectives. In contrast, trainee teachers need space and freedom to think and try different approaches to offer their learners a supportive environment to explore and reflect on new knowledge. This dissonance in the two methods is delineated in Chap. 3. Is this English example (as it provides the most significant number of chapter contributions to this edited monograph) a fair reflection of similar FE sectors in other countries? In a sense, this edited monograph serves as a litmus test in the capture of the contributions. The concluding chapter will offer comments and reflections concerning this aspect. This monograph offers overviews of the sector in the other countries included here, covering Denmark, India, New Zealand, and South Africa. The VET system in Denmark provides a significant role in the country’s strategy for lifelong learning. The Ministry of Education is responsible for the VET system with close dialogue with stakeholders to reflect labour market demands. The VET system before the university level has four entry routes. These are care, health and pedagogy; office, trade and business services; food, agriculture and ‘experiences’ that includes tourism and recreation; and technology, construction and transportation (European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop), 2019). Like in England, the dual-principled programmes include college-based and workbased learning (apprenticeships) in work organisations. These VET courses usually last three-and-a-half years with a 2:1 split between workplace and college-based education. These qualifications would enable completers to join relevant areas in the academy profession (KVU) and professional first-degree programmes at the university level. There are also alternative routes to VET qualifications: combined vocational and general upper secondary education (EUX) of four years; ‘new apprenticeship’ (Ny Mesterlaere) programmes with the work organisation; combined postcompulsory education for those aged 15–24 without the relevant vocational skills; and primary VET (EGU) for lower secondary graduates (Cedefop, 2019). In India, like in the earlier two nations, the government attempted to improve the vocational system to raise its skilled labour force from 2% in 2007 to 50% in 2022 (Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, 2018). In this country, there is a distinction between vocational education and vocational training. Vocational education starts from the upper secondary school system to higher education offering vocational diplomas. These institutions also provide vocational diplomas (British Council, 2019). Polytechnics usually offer technical programmes, which represent a significant part of the country’s vocational education. These courses, located in the upper and post-secondary sectors, provide tertiary education on diverse

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subjects. These subjects may be classified under three types of occupational areas: engineering and technology, other vocational fields and applied crafts (Ministry of Human Resource Development, 2018), and are administered by the MHRD. The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship is responsible for vocational training (Pilz & Regel, 2020) and other authorities at the regional levels. Vocational training begins from grade 9 and covers post-secondary education but is not associated with higher education institutions. This certificate-level training relates to craft skills with two significant schemes: Craftsman Training Scheme (CTS) and apprenticeship training. Governmental or private Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) offer CTS programmes between 6 and 24 months with more demand than supply. The activity appeared to be better in governmental offers than in the private sector (Wessels & Pilz, 2018). Delivery issues such as teacher qualification and provision, learning content and curricula design exist (Dar, 2008). Like other countries, apprenticeship training provides training in institutions and at the workplace, i.e., a dual training approach. These offers cover occupations designated by the government or ‘optional trades’ as suggested by employers to involve employers and use industrial workplace settings to support practical skills acquisition. There are two primary schemes: Trade Apprenticeship (TA) and the National Scheme of Apprenticeship Training (NSAT), alongside other ones such as the National Employability Enhancement Mission (NEEM) and the National Employability through Apprenticeship Programme (NETAP) (Pilz & Regel, 2020). TA courses last between six months to four years, covering 259 occupations like weaving, tailoring and welding. The NSAT scheme provides programmes for qualified HE students in 137 subjects for a year (Pilz & Regel, 2020). In New Zealand, vocational education is offered in the tertiary sector. The providing institutions include private training establishments (PTEs), institutes of technology and polytechnics (ITPs), w¯ananga (publicly owned tertiary institutions providing education in a Maori cultural perspective), universities and workplace training. The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) approves these programmes except for those offered by the universities. Vocational education or training for a specific trade or job is available at secondary schools, usually part of an apprenticeship. These training qualifications are developed and managed by the Industry Training Organisations (ITOs). The qualifications cover manufacturing, primary sectors (e.g., agriculture) and trades (e.g., building/construction). The apprenticeship courses are approved by the New Zealand Apprenticeships at Level 4 and have a dual training approach as in the above countries.2 Over in South Africa, the White Paper for Post-School Education and Training (Department of Higher Education & Training, 2013) prioritises strengthening and expanding the 50 public TVET colleges. These colleges were known previously as further education and training (FET) colleges, and they cater mainly for school leavers who wish to enrol on vocational training or complete their schooling. The TVET colleges provide the skills, knowledge and attitudes required for employment 2

https://www.newzealandnow.govt.nz/living-in-nz/education/tertiary-education-training. Accessed @ 3 April 2.

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in the job market at the mid-level skills in occupations such as the engineering and construction industries, tourism and hospitality, and general business and management studies (DHET, 2013). The South African government intends to increase these qualifications towards the National Qualification Framework Level 5 offers. Also, the government plans to offer foundation programmes in these colleges for graduates of secondary school. After a series of policy changes in the last two decades, there are currently five vocational qualifications: Nated (or N) programmes, National Curriculum (Vocational) (NCV), occupational programmes, Higher Certificates and the National Senior Certificate (NSC) with technical subjects (DHET, 2013). The DHET intends to establish the South African Institute for Vocational and Continuing Education and Training (SAIVET) to support the development of the TVET colleges and the skills development system. SAIVET aims to a. develop innovative curricula for TVET colleges, b. upgrade technical knowledge and pedagogical skills, and c. professionalise existing TVET colleges’ staff. It advises the government in TVET matters and establishes an autonomous monitoring and evaluation unit to oversee the selection of related staff in the colleges (DHET, 2013). The terminology employed in the four countries is interesting in itself. England and Denmark use VET to refer to work-related/occupational education. However, the emphasis is different. England’s VET system is bounded within the socio-cultural division with a complex array of 15 pathways to employment alongside a diverse offer of apprenticeships and technical qualifications. Denmark’s initial VET qualification offers four apprenticeships (EUD) pathways with a further four alternative routes to VET qualification of EUX, ‘new apprenticeship’, combined post-compulsory education for those aged 15–24 EGU. India’s vocational system is more complicated, with a clear distinction between vocational education and vocational training with different providers. It also, like its English counterpart, has a socio-cultural perspective to vocational. The education pathway appears to be more prestigious with its links to universities, and the training pathway is geared towards crafts and trades. Perhaps New Zealand offers a streamlined approach to vocational education or training via its apprenticeship programmes because of its small population size. TVET is employed in South Africa in common with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) adoption of the word in 20123 It has five types of vocational qualifications, and the government has ambitions to improve its vocational system. The above section provided overviews of the TVET systems in England, Denmark, India, New Zealand and South Africa. These perspectives will help us to engage more fully with the contributing chapters in this edited research monograph.

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www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/education-building-blocks/technical-vocational-edu cation-and-training-tvet/third-international-congress-on-tvet/). Accessed @ 30 April 2017.

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Structure of the Research Monograph The monograph subscribes to a rigorous stance concerning using empirical research data sets in the chapters alongside the literature sources that exclude blogs, think pieces, and other less academically credible sources where possible. Following this chapter, Pilz, Schlöglmann and Gengaiah open with the first contribution on VET teacher training in India, focus on the significant VET provider, the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs). In addition to investigating VET deliverers’ issues, the contributors also examine the teacher educators’ external and internal factors and reflect on their future perspectives. Moving from teacher educators’ professional developmental needs in India to the English contexts. Scott, Wilde and Bennett centre on the recent marketization of the FE sector to argue that post-compulsory or FE teacher educators should create and safeguard an intellectual space for training teachers to critique and reflect on the recent policy changes of education. In so doing, they argue that Initial Teacher Education should be the centrality of the profession where trainee teachers had space and time to examine the education terrain they would be inhabiting. Staying with teacher educators’ central role to train teachers and using empirical research data sets, Papier in South Africa investigates the new postgraduate diploma in a higher education institution. This professional development is part of the country’s major push to professionalize its teaching staff, especially in the TVET area. In so doing, the teacher educators hope to provide a post-professional qualification that would steer vocational teachers into curriculum leadership and researcher pathways and hopefully creating a community of practitioners of TVET. In our fourth contribution in Chap. 5, Duch and Nielsen study the stakeholders’ role in vocational teacher education and teacher educators’ role in supporting coherence amongst the stakeholders in Denmark. They draw on an empirical study from three vocational schools and the Danish education policies from 2014 to 2018. This socio-political investigation by Duch and Nielsen offers intuitive comparisons with the three previous contributions. Moving away from the macro concerns of the topic from four national perspectives and the meso perspectives of teacher educators on teacher education, we now turn our attention to teacher educators’ micro concerns. In Chap. 6, Hannan studies inclusive questioning strategies. It uses supporting qualitative data set from six experienced educators in New Zealand to understand the pedagogical potential of questions. The rationale for this study is to have a deeper understanding of how inclusive questioning strategies can be developed. This investigation enhances teacher education expertise by providing a framework that could be used to critique the delivery and design of teacher education facilitation. The subsequent two contributions continue with the micro teacher education practices in England. In Chap. 7, Loo examines the initial disciplines, pathways of becoming teacher educators, and their related job titles. He uses empirical data from 33 participants using a mixed-method approach of a questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, and Talking Heads (a narrative method). The participants are drawn from

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the FE colleges, universities and private providers. This investigation provides a perspective that has not been researched before. Like in Chap. 3, Kidd, Viswarajan and McMahon use the neo-liberal discourse as a backdrop to study the craft of teacher educators and, in so doing, discuss how these educators support novice/trainee teachers to develop their skills. This doublehermeneutic (of the art of teacher educators and teachers) uses a reflective approach in delineating the topic. The data set is drawn from a pan-European professional development project. The last contribution in Chap. 9 is from Duckett. This chapter comes full circle as it focuses on professional development needs. Like Loo in Chap. 7, he starts from the standpoint of an absence of pedagogy in England, and Duckett seeks to offer a radical teacher education/training and mentoring scheme. Using a qualitative methodological approach, he relates the five phases of development to a teacher training and mentoring system’s skills-based vocational curriculum. The final chapter—Chap. 10—concludes this monograph with a literature review, a summary and the themes arising from the contributions and the topic’s challenges and opportunities. The above chapters are the result of the Call for Papers. One may observe that some chapters may not relate to teacher educators per se, but as Hannan, in Chap. 6, argues that her investigation enhances teacher education expertise by offering a framework for critiquing the delivery and design of teacher education facilitation. This collection of chapters/articles, resulting from the Call for Papers, illustrates the current research on the topic. The reader may not focus entirely on teacher educators but more on teacher training/education by teacher educators. Also, as an editor of this Call, one cannot have contributions made to order. In short, like in Hannan’s chapter, this monograph critiques the delivery and design of teacher education facilitation and not firmly on teacher educators themselves but their roles as educators of teachers in the sector. The final chapter—Chap. 10—will discuss the contributions in greater detail.

Covid-19 A section on the Covid-19 global pandemic, its impact on teacher educators and their roles would not go amiss as the severity of this pandemic has blighted the world since its outbreak in more ways than one. There have been copious publications about this virus. Unsurprisingly, some of these on clinical education include nursing educators and nursing students (Dewart et al., 2020) and others on the impact on clinical learning and research (Singal et al., 2020). Part of the concerns of the pandemic relates to online education, its pros and cons. Xie et al. (2020) went further to incorporate artificial intelligence and mobile education to offer more education options, promote education equity and enhance education innovation. Others choose to study the negative impact of the pandemic, such as psychiatric symptoms of depression, anxiety and

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their comorbidity between low and high-risk people (Palgi et al., 2020). Other publications focus on supporting and guiding stakeholders such as teachers, institutional heads and officials to prepare, address students’ needs, formulate assessments, and repair the damage caused by the pandemic to students’ learning trajectories (Daniel, 2020). The above overviews refer to global and national issues, which provide a backdrop for our specific educators and their sector. Here are the relevant empirically focused publications and statements from our contributors. I hope these testaments offer a degree of insight. The publication by Kidd and Murray (2020) is timely as it deals with the implications of Covid-19 and teacher education in the compulsory sector in England. The qualitative-based findings have resonances for this sector too. The authors acknowledge the initial trepidation and inevitability of delivering online, which result from this global pandemic. Overcoming the initial experience, Kidd and Murray (2020) found that the teacher educators used their ‘pedagogic agility’ of converting the digital learning spaces into meaningful ones with some positive innovations. Perhaps, deeper delineations of the innovations would be helpful, which inferred a different sort of pedagogy. Loo (2020b) argues that a fully online delivery creates different pedagogy types to a face-to-face one, which he terms activity-based pedagogy (ABP). Perhaps, the pandemic has caught everyone, including educationists, unaware. The pace and urgency to deliver fully online programmes from compulsory education, higher education to professional education, and informal activities have prevented our space and time from thinking about the possibility of new pedagogies. However, Loo (2020b) suggested the in-betweenness of the face-to-face and fully online deliveries as ‘more of the same using digital technologies’ and ‘moves towards fully online provision’. From our chapter contributors, we see a more positive picture as highlighted. Here are some of their quotations: Although we have been purely teaching online since March, the impact on our PGCE provision has been mostly seamless. We have a strong team who are innovative and researchinformed, and adaptable to disruption; we have planned and prepared well and changed the programme in real-time according to our students and partner colleges’ needs without much friction or tension. Collaboration and co-operation, alongside anticipation of what may come, have been integral. I would say…we went immediately online and resumed our teacher education programmes. We were able to do this because we were in a blended learning environment already set up, and we were all given access to zoom with the ability to record at the beginning of lockdown. We were well prepared as a team and had been modelling how to provide an interactive, inclusive teaching environment online for some time. However, the new teachers we were working with naturally did not have the same experience and were stressed and overwhelmed. Eventually, I found that the new teachers enjoyed working online with us because we provided a time-out from the pressure of dealing with children, family, learning how to teach online, seeing the needs of learners, the uncertainty and the fear that Covid-19 generated.

However, the above insights relate mainly to the world of education. Perhaps, a generic commentary about the impact of this pandemic on people’s lives would not go amiss. It is evident that no living person on earth has experienced this

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global phenomenon before, and we are still grappling with this, with large swathes of the world still in various forms of lockdown. Overnight, if one is privileged enough, one’s home is suddenly transformed into not just a living space but also for working, teaching, and learning. This reconfiguration of our private and public habitat affects our physical and mental wellbeing that may accentuate and debilitate our pre-pandemic values within our current highly bounded spaces.

Summary This opening chapter mapped out the topic for investigation, delineated the related education sector across five countries, introduced the chapter contributions, and referenced the impact of Covid-19 on this edited monograph.

References Ball, S. (1994). Education reform: A critical and post-structural approach. Open University Press. British Council. (2019). The school education system in India. An overview. https://www.britishco uncil.in/sites/default/files/school_education_system_in_india_report_2019_final_web.pdf. Daniel, J. (2020). Education and the COVID-19 pandemic. Prospects, 49, 91–96. https://doi.org/ 10.1007/s11125-020-09464-3 Dar, A. (2008). Skill development in India. The vocational education and training system [report no. 22]. http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/pressrelease/2017/12/13/government-india-worldbank-sign-agreement-give-impetus-indias-skills-agenda. Department of Higher Education and Training. (2013). White Paper for Post-School Education and Training: Building an expanded, effective and integrated post-school system. Pretoria, DHET. Dewart, G., Corcoran, L., Thirsk, L., & Petrovic, K. (2020). Nurse education in a pandemic: Academic challenges in response to COVID-19. Nurse Education Today, 92. https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.nedt.2020.104471 European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop). (2019). Spotlight on VET— 2018 compilation: Vocational education and training systems in Europe. Publications Office. http://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2801/009. Frontier Economics. (2016). Further Education workforce data for England: Analysis of the 2014– 2015 Staff Individualised Record (SIR) data. Frontier Economics. Kidd, W., & Murray, J. (2020). The Covid-19 pandemic and its effects on teacher education in England: How teacher educators moved practicum learning online. European Journal of Teacher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2020.1820480 Loo, S. (2007). Learning to be teachers of adult numeracy. Journal of Education for Teaching, 33(4), 425–440. Loo, S. (2019). Further education, professional and occupational pedagogy: Knowledge and experiences. Routledge. Loo, S. (2020a). Professional development of teacher educators in further education: Pathways, knowledge, identities and vocationalism. Routledge. Loo, S. (2020b). Fully online deliveries: ‘More of the same’ or a new pedagogy? FE News. Accessed: https://www.fenews.co.uk/featured-article/49891-fully-online-learning-delive ries-more-of-the-same-or-a-new-pedagogy @ 1 July 2020.

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Loo, S., & Jameson, J. (2017). Introduction: Vocationalism in the English context. In S. Loo, J. Jameson (Eds.), Vocationalism in further and higher education: Policy, programmes and pedagogy. Routledge. Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of School Education and Literacy. (2018). Educational statistics at a glance. https://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/statisticsnew/ESAG-2018.pdf. Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. (2018). Annual report 2017–2018: Progressing towards and empowered India. https://www.msde.gov.in/assets/images/annual%20r eport/Annual%20Report%202017-2018%20(English).pdf. Palgi, Y., Shrira, A., Ring, L., Bodner, E., Avidor, S., Bergman, Y., Cohen-Fridel, S., Keisari, S., & Hoffman, Y. (2020). The loneliness pandemic: Loneliness and other concomitants of depression, anxiety and their comorbidity during the COVID-19 outbreak. Journal of Affective Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.06.036 Parker, S. (2019). The leaving of Liverpool: Managed decline and the enduring legacy of Thatcherism’s urban policy. Available online at https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/the-lea ving-of-liverpool/. Pilz, M., & Regel, J. (2020). Vocational education and training in India: Prospects and challenges from an outside perspective. Margin-the Journal of Applied Economic Research, 15(1), 1–21. Singal, A., Bansal, A., & Chaudhary, P. (2020). Cadaverless anatomy: Darkness in the times of pandemic Covid-19. Morphologie. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.morpho.2020.05.003. (This article envisions the present and the future impact of Covid-19 on anatomy learning and research). Tuck, E. (2013). Neoliberalism as Nihilism? A commentary on educational accountability, teacher education, and school reform. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 11(2), 324–347. Wessels, A., & Pilz, M. (2018). India: International handbook of vocational education and training (BIBB, Ed.). Barbara Budrich. Xie, X., Siau, K., & Nah, F. F.-H. (2020). COVID-19 pandemic—Online education in the new normal and the next normal. Journal of Information Technology Case and Application Research, 22(3), 175–187. https://doi.org/10.1080/15228053.2020.1824884

Dr. Sai Loo is an academic at UCL Institute of Education, University College London, and an author and editor of research monographs. Before joining UCL, he taught accounting and finance at higher education institutions on undergraduate, postgraduate and professional programmes and vocational areas in further education. Before becoming a teacher, Sai worked in the industry as a Chartered Accountant. Occupational education is his main area of research interest. He takes an interdisciplinary epistemological approach to work, teaching and learning settings. His research projects and publications have focused on the further and higher education sectors and professional education, especially around teacher education (teacher educators and teachers) and professional practices in work-related settings of the digital economy and clinical disciplines. He has published widely in over 140 publications, conference papers and keynotes (83 per cent are singleauthored). Teacher Educators in Vocational and Further Education, published by Springer, is his eighth research monograph.

Chapter 2

VET Teachers and Teacher Trainers in India Matthias Pilz, Anja Schlöglmann, and Uma Gengaiah

Abstract The chapter gives a short overview of the linkage situation between vocational/VET teachers and teacher training in India, focusing on the teacher educators most significant VET provider, the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs). Furthermore, we will discuss the qualitative and quantitative problems concerning the situation of VET teachers in India by analysing the existing research literature in the field. Finally, we will present our field-based qualitative data by examining the case of teacher training staff trainers concerning their external and internal conditioning factors. Keywords Indian VET system · Teachers · Trainers · Teacher training

Introduction India is the second-most populous country after China and one of the ‘youngest’ nations on this planet (Statista, 2021; MSDE, 2015; Statista, 2021). Due to its growing economy and population, India faces high demand for skilled workers, especially technical fields labour, due to its rising economy and population (Jambo & Pilz, 2018; Jaylath, 2018). Vocational Education and Training (VET) mainly takes place in Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) (UNESCO-UNEVOC & PSSCIVE India, 2018). However, VET is underutilized, resulting in the current quantitative shortage of skilled workers. There are several reasons for this. One frequently cited reason is the poor image that VETs has, particularly in terms of future career opportunities

M. Pilz (B) · A. Schlöglmann University of Cologne, Köln, Germany e-mail: [email protected] A. Schlöglmann e-mail: [email protected] U. Gengaiah Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi, India

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 S. Loo (ed.), Teacher Educators in Vocational and Further Education, SpringerBriefs in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90502-6_2

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and the job security it offers, which in turn is based on the fact that the quality of VET is rated as inadequate (Jambo & Pilz, 2018; Mehrotra, 2017). To improve quality and address the associated quantity problem (Mehrotra, 2017), besides other initiatives, the Indian government is currently undergoing the National Skill Development Mission (NSDM), whose goal is to train 300 million skilled workers by 2022. One of the sub-missions to achieve this goal focuses on the professional group of teacher trainers (MSDE, 2015). This goal includes developing concepts for so-called master trainers responsible for training future ITI teachers (MSDE, 2015). With the above background, the present paper addresses particular aspects of this complicated situation. The focus is on teachers in India’s most critical formal VET institutions, the so-called Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and teacher training (Kumar, 2016; Wessels & Pilz, 2018).

VET Teachers and Teacher Trainers in the System In India, there are currently about 15,000 ITIs, of which 2,700 are governmental and 12,300 private institutions, offering 138 different formal craft training courses, all of which comply with the Craftsmen Training Scheme (CTS) (DGT, 2017; DGT, 2020c; Wessels & Pilz, 2018). The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) is centrally responsible for the financing and administration of CTS programmes. The Directorate General of Training (DGT) is subordinate to the MSDE and accountable for the formulation of standards and norms, the distribution of financial resources and the monitoring of training programmes, the associated examinations and certification processes at the national level (Wessels & Pilz, 2018). Since November 2019, the National Council for Vocational Education and Training (NCVET) has also been responsible for functioning all institutions related to vocational training. It also sets the minimum standards for these institutions (NCVET, n.d. 2020). The CTS courses at ITIs are taught by instructors holding an Instructor Training Certificate (ITC) (Wessels & Pilz, 2018). The instructors acquire this by being trained according to the Craftsmen Instructor Training Scheme (CITS) at one of the 33 National Skill Training Institutes1 (NSTIs) in India (DGT, 2020b). 19 of the 33 NSTIs also offer special training for women (NSTI-W) (DGT, 2017). In addition, six state-approved Institutes for Training of Trainers (IToT) and 12 Private Institutes of Training of Trainers (PIToT) will be granted the right to offer these instructor training courses (DGT & MSDE, 2015; Pilz & Gengaiah, 2019). Together, the government and private teacher training institutes have a total annual capacity of 11,556 places for prospective ITI teachers (DGT, 2017). 1

Former Advanced Training Institutes (ATIs).

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A total of 36 different courses are offered for prospective instructors. They are taught comprehensive skills and training methods that enable them to conduct appropriate CTS courses (DGT, 2020a; DGT, 2020b). A prerequisite for participation in training as an ITI Instructor is the possession of a National Trade Certificate (NTC) or a National Apprenticeship Certificate (NAC) (Wessels & Pilz, 2018). In addition, a diploma or degree from a recognized Board of Technical Education, university or equivalent institution enables participation (DGT & MSDE, 2019). Furthermore, VET lecturers are expected to have at least one year of professional experience. However, there is no binding regulation for this (UNESCO-UNEVOC & PSSCIVE India, 2018). There are also refresher courses for teachers who want to expand their knowledge and skills or incorporate the latest technologies into the classroom. This flagship program can train up to 1200 per year (NSDC & MART, 2011). In addition to the CITS, the Hi-Tech Training Scheme (HTS) also exists (Ajithkumar, 2016). The HTS was envisioned as a scheme of the World-Bank financed Vocational Training Project and funded by the Government of India. The HTS aims to impart skills in applying electronics, computer and production systems required by industry, commerce and domestic consumers (Ajithkumar, 2016). Today, some NSTIs teach specialized courses in CAD/CAM, CNC, Control Technology, and other programmes (DGT, 2020d). Under the HTS, high technology training is provided for two- or three-week courses in the NSTIs specialized in Electronics and Process Instrumentation (EPI). These courses cater for trainers in both private industries and the public sector (Ajithkumar, 2016). The so-called Training of the Trainers (ToTs), i.e., the training of the prospective ITI teachers, is carried out by teacher trainers who are also called master trainers. Depending on whether they are government or private training institutes, there are different ministerial responsibilities and specifications. The training of trainers at government training institutes is administered by the DGT, whose institutional framework includes the ITIs and the NSTIs and which is linked to the MSDE (DGT, 2020a; MSDE, 2015; MSDE, 2020c). In addition, the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) is also involved in training future instructors. The NSDC was established as a public–private partnership company (MSDE, 2020a; MSDE, 2020c) and will support the National Skill Development Mission, mentioned in the introduction, with initiatives to build capacity, support private training partners, and promote centres of excellence for the training of trainers in coordination with states and Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) (MSDE, 2015; MSDE, 2020c). The SSCs are established as autonomous sector-led bodies by the NSDC. They are responsible for the delivery, implementation, and certification of train the trainer programs and designated centres, respectively, to ensure the need for trained trainers (British Council, 2020; MSDE, 2020b; MSDE, 2020c; NSDC, 2017, British Council, 2020). In the National Skill Development Mission context, the NSDC also published draft guidelines on training master trainers, trainers, and assessors to improve quality and achieve goals through standardized specifications (NSDC, 2017). According to these

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guidelines, a ToT program may only be delivered by an SSC-trained and certified master trainer (NSDC, 2017). In order to participate in this training and to become a teacher trainer, specific minimum requirements must be met in terms of school qualifications, training experience and relevant work experience. Regardless of their educational background, every potential master trainer must have five years of teaching experience. The amount of work experience depends on the educational qualification (NSDC, 2017). The duration of a master trainer course is at least four days. Future teacher trainers are taught so-called domain and platform knowledge (NSDC, 2017). Domain knowledge includes industry-specific skills, technical knowledge and the know-how necessary to perform a specific job. Platform knowledge has, in particular, presentation skills that teacher educators need to convey knowledge (NSDC, 2017) successfully. Both categories will be evaluated after the training course has been completed (NSDC, 2017). In addition to official training programmes for teachers and teacher trainers in India, there are also other, often regionally based, programmes for training staff. One example is the Additional Skill Acquisition Programme (ASAP) in Kerala, India, which was also recently taken up in connection with the trends mapping study on the future of TVET teaching by UNESCO and UNEVOC. ASAP is sponsored by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and is now located at 1,052 educational institutions throughout the state. ASAP offers 83 courses from 24 different sectors (ASAP, 2020a; UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2020; ASAP, 2020a). In addition to regular training, the ADB offers summer skill courses, English courses for trainers and special training programmes, such as career orientation courses for school leavers and language courses (ASAP, 2020b). The special feature of the ASAP program is that the trainers undergo similar training as their potential trainees. This programme prepares them for their future work. ASAP’s ToT program is aimed at graduates and postgraduate students and encourages them to become teachers (UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2020). Figure 2.1 illustrates the described relationships between teachers and teacher educators and their education system.

Quantitative and Qualitative Problems Concerning VET Teach Based on the total capacity of government and private ITIs in India, there were 95,000 instructor positions in 2019, but only 15% of them were trained according to the CITs (DGT, 2017). The vacancy of teaching positions is high, especially in

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rural and less attractive areas (Pilz & Wilmshöfer, 2015). One of the major problems is the low availability of places in the teacher training institutes. Currently, an insufficient number of places are available for teacher training in VET institutes. Some of the places are even not filled due to planning difficulties, administrative aspects or personal reasons of applicants. Together with the IToTs and PIToTs, the NSTIs have an annual training capacity of 11,556. Of which only 81% were filled in 2019 (DGT, 2017). Considering the demographic change, job changes of existing instructors and the growing number of vocational training institutes, this leads to a quantitative deficit of trained trainers in ITIs (Joshi et al., 2014). Another problem with VET teacher training is the limited availability of financial resources due to the government’s low investment in vocational education (Venkatram, 2012). The jobs at ITIs are not attractive to qualified trainers because of the low payment (Pathak, 2017). Moreover, vocational education is seen as low status and, thus, does not attract many qualified teachers (Sharma, 2014). As a result, most ITIs suffer due to the lack of instructors. As half of the posts remain vacant, ITIs are forced to employ “ad hoc instructors” and instructors on short-term contracts (Joshi et al., 2014; Pathak, 2017). According to a survey conducted in 2010, contractual and ad hoc instructors consisted of 55.3% of the faculty (Joshi et al., 2014). Besides the problems already mentioned, there is only minimal research on ITI teachers and teacher trainers in India. For example, in 2014, Tara et al. (2016) interviewed principals at government ITIs in Karnataka, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and New Delhi. They found that about 50% of respondents had difficulty finding qualified trainers and were forced to employ temporary instructors without the required skills. Consequently, ITIs are often criticized for their poor teaching quality. The comparative study between India and China by Mehrotra, Devi and Gandhi et al. (2013) shows that in India, 32% of the trainers in vocational institutes do not possess formal certificates. Further 67% of the teachers in ITIs and 53% of the teachers in private ITIs are only ITI graduates. Only less than 10% of the degree holders are part of the ITIs and private ITIs. Ajithkumar (2016) focuses on vocational training because of the influence of teacher quality on the overall quality of VET. She gives an overview of training programmes, training institutions and ministerial responsibilities (Ajithkumar, 2016). A survey of teachers revealed that only 27% are certified according to the requirements. This is because of the low number of training institutions for teachers and poor accessibility (Ajithkumar, 2016). In their study on the attractiveness of vocational education and training, Jambo and Pilz (2018) take an in-depth look at the teachers’ perspective (p. 6). In the process, they identify a deficit in their pedagogical training. They also emphasize that teachers play a vital role at the base of the VET system (Jambo & Pilz, 2018). Joshi et al. (2014) compare government and private VET providers, highlighting the lack of well-trained instructors in both government and private ITIs. In addition to academic training, they also relate the instructors’ motivation to the quality of the training and emphasize that the low qualification of the instructors has a significant impact on the lack of quality of the activity (Joshi et al., 2014).

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In 2011, the National Skill Development Corporation conducted a needs assessment with MART to assess the skills development needs of trainers in terms of their employability. It was found that the shortage of qualified teachers is one of the major challenges facing ITIs (NSDC & MART, 2011). It was also found that the overall capacity of public and private teacher training institutions was insufficient to provide the required number of trained instructors (NSDC & MART, 2011). Therefore, the study recommended that teacher training be conducted in a structured manner. There is a need to introduce a national certification of instructors, and that special training institutions be selected to prepare master trainers for the implementation of the Training of Trainers (ToTs) (NSDC & MART, 2011). It should be noted that this recommendation has been implemented in the meantime, as can be seen from the previous section. Pilz and Gengaiah (2019) deal with teachers’ career choices and their efforts to acquire, maintain and expand their knowledge. In this context, the observed quantitative deficit of qualified instructors is particularly noteworthy due to the insufficient number of available training places in ToT courses, low salaries, and low social standing (Pilz & Gengaiah, 2019). They point out that further improvement of teacher training is of great importance to advance the desired education of the young population (Pilz & Gengaiah, 2019). Besides the findings in research, it is also vital to describe the latest governmental activities. As mentioned in the introduction, India is currently undergoing the National Skill India Development Mission (or National Skill India Mission), aiming to train 300 million skilled workers by 2022. One of the sub-missions focuses on Teacher Trainers (MSDE, 2015). They play an essential role in achieving the set quantity and quality targets because the training of the teaching staff is of high importance (Pilz & Gengaiah, 2019), as its quality, in turn, has a significant influence on the overall quality of the VETs (Ajithkumar, 2016). The sub-mission aims to improve the quality of training across the country, meet the training needs of trainers, ensure their availability and provide them with long-term career paths (MSDE, 2015). With the help of high-quality instructors and training centres, the aim is to ensure that a network of high-quality teachers and trainers is established in India (MSDE, 2015). To better understand the group of teacher trainers and gain insight into their situation and ecosystem and gain a deeper understanding of this group of people, a small-scale study was conducted in which the teacher trainers were asked about their conditioning factors in the education and training of teachers.

The Teachers-Trainers Perspective: Findings from a Small-Scale Study Although the studies conducted so far and their results are helpful, none of them focuses directly on teacher trainers in India. For this reason, a theoretical model was developed to answer the research questions posed here. It has been developed

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based on earlier previous studies and other international studies with related research interests (Berger & D’Ascoli, 2012; Berger & Girardet, 2015; Hargreaves et al., 2007; Hoyle, 2001; Loo, 2020; Noel, 2006; Berger & Girardet, 2015; Murali & Mohan, 2014; Noel, 2006; Berger & D’Ascoli, 2012; Watt & Richardson, 2007; Hargreaves et al., 2007; Hoyle, 2001). This model is divided into two main parts: the socio-demographic characteristics of the teacher trainers and their conditioning factors. The latter is, in turn, divided into external and internal conditioning factors (Ryan & Deci, 2000). The external conditioning factors include the salary, duration of training and equipment, working conditions and reputation of teacher training institutions. The internal condition factors include the teacher’s teaching ability, time for the family, job security, the opportunity to train the next generation and make a social contribution, the teacher educators status, the relationship between teacher and students, the option of a fallback career, previous teaching and learning experiences, and social discouragement or encouragement from their social environment. A selected group was questioned in detail about their situation and perception of their external and internal conditioning factors (Loo, 2020; Groll et al., 2018). A semi-structured interview schedule was developed for data collection based on the theoretical model presented. The one-on-one form of the individual oral interview formats also allows concrete and subject-oriented questions, which in turn provides an in-depth insight into teacher trainers’ perceptions and situations while maintaining flexibility (Berg, 2009; Bortz & Döring, 2006; Choak, 2012; Flick, 2009; Berg, 2009; Silverman, 2011). The interviews were conducted in English. Online communication platforms were used to conduct interviews, as the prevailing pandemic situation made on-site research impossible. The participants were selected using written inquiries via e-mail and the help of contacts from Indian researchers in the field. All conducted interviews are included in the evaluation. The analysis and the results are based on the generated data, which were evaluated using a content-structuring qualitative analysis and subsequent hermeneutic-analytical interpretation method (Lueger & Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik, 1994; Mayring, 2000; Bock, 1992a; Bock 1992b). The approach can be classified as an exploratory study. In terms of the socio-demographic profile of the teacher trainers, they are middleaged, with bachelor’s degrees. Most of the respondents are trained for their job with many years of teaching experience but little professional experience in the industry. Thus, they meet the minimum requirements of the NSDC outlined in the previous section. However, only a few of them possess the required professional experience. Although most of the respondents in the sample considered here are certified as master trainers, there are not enough instructors available in the entire system, which shows the insufficient capacities of teacher training institutes. The teacher trainers interviewed perceive their external and internal condition factors partly very differently or very similar. The most critical factor in their work in the training and continuing education of teaching staff is the social benefit: making a social contribution to society, which one of the interviewees described as follows:

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“But also [the NSTI] is the place where you can solve [problems] for society. Compared to my previous job where I got money and worked for them, whereas it’s not like that now. Here the government has allowed us to work with minimum educated and low skilled. We not only give qualification to the people but also work with the unregulated sector. It is satisfying.” (I2). The fact to train the next generation is also essential for the teacher trainers, because “(…) the way you talk in the class, the same way the [future] instructor will talk to his students, also.“ (I2). In the eyes of the teacher trainers, “(…) almost everything (…) lies in the hands of the instructor who is training (…) the person.” (I3). Together with the social contribution, educating the next generation represents the essential factor of social benefit. This factor could also be called the core or the peak of their work. The fundamental basis or the prerequisite for access to the activity of teacher trainers and the resulting social benefit is their teaching ability, coupled with the opportunity that arises and the dominant socialization influences. Previous teaching and learning experiences of one’s own are to be mentioned here, which can provide the impetus towards one’s activity in the training and further education of teaching staff. Thus, interviewee I2 sums up: “the three months [of training at the NSTI] changed a lot in my life (…)”. There is also access to the profession of teacher trainer in the form of an alternative or fallback career. Based on the explanations of the interviewees, this factor is included as an existing neutral point in the framework of the access creating elements. Between the pure access and the possibility to become a teacher educator and the intended social benefit of this activity, there are further conditional factors of varying intensity in the perception of teacher educators. In this context, the first factor to be mentioned is that of the institute, whose equipment is another essential requirement. All training institutes must meet the criteria set by the state, “otherwise they won’t be given the registration to run the institute.” (I3). The duration of training for a teacher trainer is favourably dependent on the institute or its working conditions because they cannot take part in the necessary training and education without the opportunity to do so. From their point of view, “it’s important to take part in a training” (I1) and that “a workshop or training should be done for five working days minimum, not only one or two days.” (I1). They also recommend “to keep updating yourself” (I3) to stay up to date with state of the art and the industry. As they can only teach their students accordingly through their continuous learning, the duration of the training is very important here. The equipment of the facilities, the institutional working conditions, and the training duration for the teacher trainer job form a further supporting framework around the core of the activity in terms of social benefits. Here, the significance of the duration of the training and that of one’s teaching ability stand out in the teacher educator’s perception. The interviewees also see their salary and personal benefit in the form of job security as supporting but at the same time motivating.

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“Job security provides more motivation for trainers (…). They get motivated. Otherwise, they have a fear of losing a job. Job security influences the performance of the trainer. To keep them motivated, good salary and job security are a must.” (I3). They describe both factors as good in their employment at a state-run NSTI. There are two decisive factors in their work in the training and further education of teaching staff for the teacher trainers. One is the learners, and two are the profession’s appreciation in the relationship between teachers and learners. I2 says the following about the learner groups: “It’s a real challenge for our instructors, our trainers, because, it means the knowledge for the instructors, who conduct the training, are good, but it is low with future instructors. A real challenge for my instructor is to work with their level and bring them to the level of the teacher’s expectation. If he or she is talking about some subject in the class, and the student is not able to understand, they can’t proceed further.” (I2). In addition to their previous professional knowledge, the teacher trainers activities are influenced by other characteristics of their students, including their regional and cultural background. Moreover, the learner’s language skills of the teacher trainers are an essential factor in the work. Interviewee I2 says that the English language “(…) [is the] language we use to teach. That is a real challenge”. Due to the influence that the group of learners with their various described facets exerts in the work of the teacher trainer, the theoretical model was supplemented by the external condition factor of “learners”, which was inductively derived from the collected data. Despite these difficulties, there is a friendly relationship between teachers and students with mutual respect. After the time spent together at the institute, they keep in touch. I3 describes this connection as “the final joy and happy moment, the final thing for a teacher. [This] gives you more happiness, which cannot be expressed.” The relationship between teachers and students is an essential link between the group of their students and their successful education. This deep and intensive connection between the actors motivates the teacher trainers to undertake elaborate actions that help the learners and thus contribute to social benefit. In their motivating role, the excellent relationship bridges the challenges that heterogeneity among students poses for the work of teacher trainers. The relationship between them and their learners turns out to be the most crucial factor in achieving social benefit. Thus, the learner factor forms the closest and most influential circle around the core, the most critical conditional factor of social use. In addition to the factors already described, there are other points in the perception of teacher educators. One of these is the reputation of the institutions, about which the teacher educators have not made any explicit statements. Another is their status, which they describe as “entirely different to any [other] person” (I2), at the same time as reasonable and respectful, and their time for the family. Unlike the points considered so far, however, these three do not condition their work as teacher trainers but are influenced by it. The reputation of the institutes and the trainers’ status are related to their work. The time they spend with their family depends mainly on how their working hours at the institute are organized.

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To summarise, the teacher trainers’ perception of their internal and external conditioning factors depends upon multi-faceted factors like interdependencies and stakeholders in the training and continuing education of teaching staff, which they perceive with varying intensity and importance. Due to their mutual influences and dependencies, they cannot be considered as separate entities. However, their top priority always is the social contribution and training of the next generation. The social benefit motivates and influences them in all their work and partly also in their private lives. The condition factors, derived from theory and similar research projects, largely reflect the influences of teacher trainers in the education and training of teaching staff in India. The only factor that had not previously emerged as significant to the extent that it ultimately appeared in the interviews is the group of learners. In contrast to Murali and Mohan (2014), who examined teachers’ career choice and motivation at university engineering institutions in India, the teacher trainers teach students with different social and educational backgrounds, as they explained in the interviews. The heterogeneity accompanies this among students and the strong influence of this stakeholder group. Similar to Murali and Mohan (2014), on the other hand, the significance of the factors of one’s teaching ability, the appreciation of the profession, and the social benefits, which indicates that the results presented are close to reality. Further, parallels to related studies in the Indian context can be found compared to Pilz and Gengaiah (2019). They found that an improvement in teacher training is needed to advance the desired education of the young population. Those interviewed here share the opinion about the importance of the courses for the future work of the prospective teachers and clearly show that the teacher trainers themselves must continuously update their knowledge and skills to ensure adequate training of the future teachers. However, the results of this study require cautious interpretation because of the low sample size. On the one hand, the number of teacher trainers interviewed here is minimal, so the results may not be universal or even different assessments of individual factors, such as fallback careers or the characteristic of the institutes’ reputation. At the same time, the consistent statements across all respondents and the sample size must be viewed critically. However, since all people interviewed are employed at different NSTIs in different regions of India, the group can certainly be classified as heterogeneous, suggesting a potential general validity of their statements. Nevertheless, it is impossible to conclude solely from their accounts about the entire group of teacher trainers in India. Therefore, the generalizability of the findings is only very limited, although it must be emphasized that the present study does not claim to be comprehensively representative of this professional group. For future studies, it would be advantageous to generate a larger sample on-site and to use a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, which would allow for triangulation and thus increased the generalizability of the results.

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Conclusion: Future Perspectives/Needs of VET Trainers The present study and the previous studies point out that teachers and teacher trainers significantly impact the quality of VET. At the same time, the lack of necessary infrastructure affects the quality of training of teachers in ITIs and their trainers. Secondly, the number of skill training institutes in India is still limited, concentrated only in metropolitan cities. The government must give priority to develop new training institutes in every state. It is vital to start a teacher training institute in each state by considering their economic growth, trade concentration, and human resources availability. A qualification achieved in VET is regarded as a low profession in society due to socio-cultural factors. To counter the same, the government must take the sensitization programme in the entire country. The National Education Policy 2020 (NEP) has introduced vocational education at the secondary level, consisting of 14–18 years from class 9. It also proposes providing learners with choice by integrating vocational skills with a regular stream (MHRD, 2020). NEP may consider a significant policy direction to sensitize more children about VET education at the early stage of their lives. Apart from the above suggestions, our field-based data made us conclude the following. The stated interest of our small-scale study was to find out what makes the teacher trainers a key figure in the quality debate about VET in India, gain a comprehensive insight into their situation and ecosystem, and a deeper understanding of this group of people. There are differences concerning teacher training and the socio-economic environment of teaching between different states in India (Terway & Steiner-Khamsi, 2017). Based on the results of this research, the following can be said: VET teachers trainers in India are highly motivated by the social contribution and support they can provide to the prospective teachers. The social benefits are at the heart of their work, and they are fully committed to working towards these benefits. Various factors, which can be of both a professional and private nature, affect them to varying degrees. However, the focus is always on the big picture— educating students and thereby contributing to the well-being of society. Based on this knowledge, it can be concluded that the group of teacher educators in India is rightly considered to have a strong influence and a vital role in the quality debate about VET. Also, in the context of the Skill India Mission, it seems to make sense to treat the teacher trainers as a supporting pillar. In connection with the national education mission currently being pursued, it should be discussed to what extent the planned changes in teacher training content and a national certification system for trainers are appropriate. However, before further research is pursued about this professional group, it remains to be clarified whether the results obtained here actually reflect the perceptions and situation of all teacher trainers. A similar study would have to be conducted on a much larger scale. In conclusion, the perceptions and situation of the teacher trainers generated here provide essential and helpful insights about teacher trainers in India on which to build in the future.

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MSDE

NCVET

NSDC

DGT

SSC

ITIs

NSTIs/IToTs/PIToTs

-

95,000 instructors

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Capacity of 11,556 places in total

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Trained according to CITS/HTS

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Offering 36 different CITS courses

Prospective ITI teachers – getting trained by master trainers in NSTIs/IToTs/PIToTs or other programmes (e.g. ASAP)

Teacher educators – Master trainer getting - Training certified prospecƟve by SSCs to ITI be teachers able to conduct ToT courses for prospective - Are also trained and ITI teachers cerƟfied for this acƟvity

Fig. 2.1 Presentation of the connections in the training of prospective teachers, the trainer instructors and the ministerial responsibilities

References Additional Skill Acquisition Programme (ASAP). (2020a). About Us. Retrieved October 07, 2020, from http://asapkerala.gov.in/?q=about-us. ASAP. (2020b). Training Programmes. Retrieved October 07, 2020, from https://asapkerala.gov. in/?q=training-programs. Ajithkumar, M. U. (2016). Training of teachers: Institutionalizing training and development of f academic faculty of TVET institutions for realising excellence. In M. Pilz (Ed.), India: Preparation for the world of work (pp. 183–210). Springer. Berg, B. (2009). Qualitative research methods for the social sciences. Pearson. Berger, J.-K., & D’Ascoli, Y. (2012). Motivations to become vocational education and training educators: A-person-oriented approach. Vocations and Learning, 5, 225–249. Berger, J.-K., & Girardet, C. (2015). The determinants of VET educators’ occupational choice. Education + Training, 57(1), 108–126.

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British Council. (2020). Research study: Trainer effectiveness in the Indian skills ecosystem. https:// www.britishcouncil.in/sites/default/files/research_study_on_trainer_effectiveness_in_the_ind ian_skills_ecosystem.pdf. Choak, C. (2012). Asking question: Interviews and evaluations. In S. Bradford & F. Cullen (Eds.), Research and research methods for youth practitioners (pp. 90–112). Routledge. Directorate General of Training (DGT). (2017). Craft Instructor Training Scheme (CITS). Retrieved August 30, 2021, from https://msde.gov.in/en/schemes-initiatives/schemes-initiatives-throughDGT/crafts-instructor-training-scheme-CITS. DGT. (2020a). About DGT. Retrieved April 27, 2020, from https://dgt.gov.in/About_DGT. DGT. (2020b). Craftsmen Instructor Training Scheme (CITS). Retrieved April 27, 2020, from https:// dgt.gov.in/CITS. DGT. (2020c). List of CTS Courses. Retrieved April 21, 2020, from https://dgt.gov.in/cts_details. DGT. (2020d). Advanced Vocational Training Scheme (AVTS). Schemes for training. Retrieved October 06, 2020, from https://dgt.gov.in/AVTS. DGT, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE). (2019). CITS 2019 Prospecuts. https://nimionlineadmission.in/2019/Prospectus2019Aug.pdf. Flick, U. (2009). An introduction to qualitative research. SAGE. Groll, A., Bates, S., Saunders, C., & Smith, R. (2018).. The teacher educator experience ‘Guardians of the pedagogy?’ In P. Bennett, R. Smith (Eds.), Identity and resistance in further education (pp. 28–37). Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. Hargreaves, L., Cunningham, M., Hansen, A., McIntyre, D., & Oliver, C. (2007). The status of teacher and the teaching profession in England: Views from inside and outside the profession (Synthesis for the final report of the Teacher Status Project). University of Cambridge Faculty of Education & Department of Media and Communication, University of Leicester. https://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/teacherstatus/Summaryreport_25Ja n07_print_ready_version.pdf. Hoyle, E. (2001). Teaching: Presitge, status and esteem. Educational Management & Administration, 29(2), 139–152. Jambo, S., & Pilz, M. (2018). Perceptions of teachers in industrial training institutes: An exploratory study of the attractiveness of vocational education in India. International Journal of Training Research, 16(1), 4–18. Jaylath, J. (2018). A synthesis of best practices in TVET quality assurance: In selected South Asian countries. TVEC Sri Lanka. https://unevoc.unesco.org/up/Quality%20assurance%20S outh%20Asia.pdf. Joshi, S., Pandey, G., & Sahoo, B. K. (2014). Comparing public and private vocational training providers. In S. Mehrotra (Ed.), India’s skills challenge: Reforming vocational education and training to harness the demographic dividend (pp. 86–128). Oxford University Press. Kumar, K. (2016). ITIs/ITCs: Industrial training institutes/industrial training centres. In M. Pilz (Ed.), India: Preparation for the world of work: Education system and school to work transition (pp. 65–80). Springer. Loo, S. (2020). Professional development of teacher educators in further education: Pathways, knowledge, identities, and vocationalism. Routledge. Lueger, M., & Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik, J. H. P. (1994). Hermeneutic interpretation in qualitative research: Between art and rules. In I. Borg & P. P. Mohler (Eds.), Trends and perspectives in empirical social research (pp. 294–307). De Gruyter. Mayring, P. (2000). Qualitative content analysis. Forum Qualitative Social Research, 1(2), Art. 20. http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1089/2385. Mehrotra, S., Devi, K., & Gandhi, A. (2013). Understanding skill development and training in China: Lessons for India (A report by the Institute of Applied Manpower Research to the Planning Commission). New Delhi Institute of Applied Manpower. http://iamrindia.gov.in/writereaddata/ UploadFile/MediaBrief202014_1087.pdf. Mehrotra, V. S. (2017). Vocational education and training in India: Challenges and critical issues. IASSI Quarterly, 36(2/3), 290–303.

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Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). (2020). National Education Policy 2020. Government of India, MHRD. https://www.mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/ NEP_Final_English_0.pdf. Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE). (2015). National Skill Development Mission. Retrieved August 30, 2021, from https://msde.gov.in/en/reports-documents/pol icies/NSDM. MSDE. (2020a). Organizations- NSDC. Retrieved August 30, 2021, from https://msde.gov.in/en/ organizations/nsdc. MSDE. (2020b). Organizations- SSCs. Retrieved August 30, 2021, from https://msde.gov.in/index. php/en/organizations/ssc. MSDE. (2020c). Annual Report 2019–2020. MSDE, Government of India. https://www.msde.gov. in/sites/default/files/2020-12/Annual%20Report%202019-20%20English.pdf. Murali, S., & Mohan, S. (2014). An exploratory study on what motivates people to choose a teaching career in engineering institutions. International Journal of Research in Commerce & Management, 5(9), 1–5. National Council for Vocational Education and Training (NCVET). (n.d.). About NCVET. Retrieved April 23, 2020, from https://www.nsda.gov.in/NCVET/nsda-about-us.html. National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). (2017). Draft guidelines on training of master trainers, trainers and assessors. https://nsdcindia.org/sites/default/files/files/Draft-Guidelineson-ToT-and-ToA-V3.1-NQAF-compliant-20072017-04-08-2017.pdf. NSDC, MART. (2011). Need assessment report on building trainers’ skills in vocational employability. NSDC. https://vital.voced.edu.au/vital/access/services/Download/ngv: 48404/SOURCE201. Noel, P. (2006). The secret life of teacher educators: Becoming a teacher educator in the learning and skills sector. Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 58(2), 151–170. Pathak, G. (2017, April 29). Skill India mission is failing to achieve its objective. Millennium Post. http://www.millenniumpost.in/sundaypost/in-retrospect/skill-india-mission-is-failtoachieve-its-objective-239196. Pilz, M., & Gengaiah, U. (2019). Teacher training education for VET teachers in India. In S. McGrath, M. Mulder, J. Papier, & R. Suart (Eds.), Handbook of vocational education and training: Developments in the changing world of work (pp. 1–15). Springer. Pilz, M., & Wilmshöfer, S. (2015). The challenges of formal, non-formal and informal learning in rural India: The case of fishing families on the Chilika Lagoon, Orissa. Prospects: Quarterly Review of Comparative Education, 45(2), 231–243. Ryan, R., & Deci, E. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78. Sharma, N. (2014). Private sector in vocational education. Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, 49(3), 409–421. Silverman, D. (2011). Interpreting qualitative data. SAGE. Statista. (2021). Twenty countries with the largest population in mid 2021. Retrieved August 30, 2021 from https://www.statista.com/statistics/262879/countries-with-the-largest-population/. Tara, N., Kumar, S., & Pilz, M. (2016). Quality of VET in India: The case of Industrial training institutes. TVET@Asia, 7, 1–17. Terway, A., & Steiner-Khamsi, G. (2017). Comparing contract teacher policies in two states of India reception and translation of the global teacher accountability reform. In M. Akiba & G. K. LeTendre (Eds.), International handbook of teacher quality and policy (pp. 204–217). Routledge. UNESCO-UNEVOC. (2020). Future of TVET teaching. Trends mapping studies. https://unevoc. unesco.org/pub/trendsmapping_futureoftvetteaching.pdf. UNESCO-UNEVOC, PSSCIVE India. (2018). TVET Country Profile INDIA. UNESCO-UNEVOC. https://unevoc.unesco.org/wtdb/worldtvetdatabase_ind_en.pdf. Venkatram, R. (2012). Vocational Education and Training System (VET) in India. In M. Pilz (Ed.), The future of vocational education and training in a changing world (pp. 171–178). Springer.

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Watt, H., & Richardson, P. (2007). Motivational factors influencing teaching as a career choice: Development and validation of the FIT-choice scale. The Journal of Experimental Education, 75(3), 167–202. Wessels, A., & Pilz, M. (2018). India. In P. Grollmann, D. Frommberger, U. Clement, T. Deißinger, U. Lauterbach, M. Pilz, & G. Spöttl (Eds.), International handbook of vocational education and training (Issue 50, Vol. 24). Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training.

Prof. Matthias Pilz is Full Professor of Economics and Business Education at the University of Cologne and Director of the German Research Center for Comparative Vocational Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.). Prior to becoming an academic, he worked as a teacher at a Business College in Hannover and was an advisor for European Union education projects at the district government of Hannover. His research interests are in international comparative research in VET, transitions from education to employment, and teaching and learning. Anja Schlöglmann, M.Sc., is a scientific associate and Ph.D. candidate at the Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training in the Crafts Sector at the University of Cologne (FBH). Her research interests include in-company training and further education as well as the training and further education of teaching staff. Asst. Prof. Uma Gengaiah currently serves as Assistant Professor in the School of Gender and Development Studies, Indira Gandhi National Open University. Her primary focus areas are Grassroots Governance, Gender and Development, focusing on agriculture, Public Policy and Social Capital. She is part of the Programme Development team of the Master Programme in Gender and Development Studies in IGNOU. She is also Programme Coordinator for the Certificate Programme ‘Gender, Agriculture and Sustainable Development’ and Bachelor Development Programme (BDP) Elective Course ‘Gender Sensitization: Culture, Society and Change’.

Chapter 3

Is It Us or Them? Teacher Education as Act of Resistance to a Neo-liberal Age Howard Scott, Julie Wilde, and Pete Bennett

Abstract This empirical study examines the role of teacher educators’ in developing the profession and professionalization of Initial Teacher Educators entering Post-Compulsory Education (PCE also referred to as FE for Further Education). Its writers—all post-compulsory teacher educators—explore the changes in the sector to confront a central ontological question of their work: is initial teacher education (ITE) out of step with the direction of a neoliberal education system? We draw from the narratives of teacher students to explore the tensions between the values located in their initial education experiences and the realities of the sector to reflect on our purpose as a teacher education team. The chapter traces changes in recent PCE history to show how a tilt towards marketization has transformed the sector and challenged the paradigm, values and perspectives of Initial Teacher Education professionals in HE. Arguments that ‘neoliberalism, because of its nihilism, is an unworkable logic for teacher education’ (Tuck in J Critical Educ Policy Stud 11:324– 347, 2013) highlight the diminishing esteem of the teacher’s role, from educator to ‘classroom manager’ and ‘instructional designer’. Unrealistic measures and compliance agendas de-professionalizes teachers by inhibiting teacher thinking and acting (Priestley et al. in Teacher agency: An ecological approach. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017). Against this instrumentalist shift, we hold that teaching and education are philosophically, politically and artistically situated actions, requiring socially and politically informed teachers who reject performativity and the continual need to justify education. What PCE calls for is educators who will know when and how to initiate change within the human condition of teaching in FE. Teacher’s reflexive world views can equip them in deciding their terms of being, their virtue and their coming into presence (Arendt in The Human Condition, University of Chicago Press, H. Scott (B) · J. Wilde · P. Bennett University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK e-mail: [email protected] J. Wilde e-mail: [email protected] P. Bennett e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 S. Loo (ed.), Teacher Educators in Vocational and Further Education, SpringerBriefs in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90502-6_3

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1958). We argue that PCE Teacher Educators must create and safeguard an intellectual space where teachers can contest the ‘dangerous distortion of perceived reality and challenge the external powers that deprive of thinking and acting space’ (Allen in Int J Philos Stud 10:131–149, 2002). The study highlights that it is through the irrationality of neoliberalism that teachers locate space to appear as moral thinking and acting subjects. A purpose of Initial Teacher Education is to support teachers to have the courage to tell the truth within risky situations and in dark times (Tamboukou in J Educ Policy 27:849–865, 2012). In PCE, social and human interaction persists among policies and practices that involve a constant, complex and dynamic mix of power, challenge, confusion and choice. Where “policy as practice is ‘created’ in a trialectic of dominance, resistance and chaos/freedom” (Ball in Education Reform: A Critical and Post-structural Approach, Open University Press, vol 11, 1994), we assert that Initial Teacher Education must remain a focal point for the profession and an imperative pause and critical space for viewing the terrain that newly qualified teachers enter. Initial Teacher Education has to support BTs to navigate the shifting landscapes of FE environments to find their place, to safeguard reflexive judgements so that they can come into presence through word and deed (Topper in Political Theory 39:352–377, 2011). Keywords Teacher educator’s role · England · Teachers · Neo-Liberalism · Critical space

Introduction This chapter is grounded in our work as teacher educators for post-compulsory education (PCE), and the tensions that arise with beginning teachers (BTs) between Initial Teacher Education (ITE), college placements and early socialisation processes. This has led us to confront a central existential question about our purpose: is initial teacher education (ITE) out of step with the direction of a neoliberal education system? The case study for this research has been designed to excavate, elaborate and theorise beginning teachers’ experiences of becoming a teacher in PCE, whilst undertaking an ITE course in Higher Education.

Background Context The ITE course is offered by a university that works in partnership with PCE colleges around the West Midlands—a region that is literally the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, but which has, like much of the UK, fallen behind with employers moving bases abroad in a new era of competition and cost-cutting, while successive Governments have prevaricated across years of neglect and managed decline. This contextual backdrop is significant to explain neoliberalism, a term we deploy here

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from Smith (2017) as the replacement of political judgment with economic rationale. In another industrial British city, Liverpool, civil unrest in the 1980s and mass unemployment led the Thatcher-government to plan for ‘strategic abandonment’, although the Minister in charge of the city—Michael Heseltine—favoured ‘…replacing democratically elected urban governance by business-led, centrally appointed urban development corporations with the view of breathing new entrepreneurial life into Britain’s declining post-industrial metropolitan cities’ (Parker, 2019). Equivalence may be suggested between the feckless manner in which central Government has handled urban policy, industrial decay and their treatment of English post-compulsory education. For the former, the proposal was to handle regeneration by transforming working class communities through ‘entrepreneurial life’—sometimes called gentrification. PCE has seen similar manoeuvres, with private investment opening up provision and colleges falling out of public ownership. In these new, usually mirrored, buildings, transparency is paramount with glass walls, CCTV, and open-plan offices ensuring total visibility and surveillance is inherent to the working culture. Arendt (1958) witnessed how oppressive regimes attempt to normalise human behaviour through the destruction of space, including thinking space. These working conditions impede the kind of educational process needed to sustain human creativity and flourish in intellectual and ethical development’ (Hayden, 2013, 240). Smith theorises on the ‘Building Colleges for the Future’ project through the work of Lefebvre and explored how transparent features of modern architecture give spaces a “veneer of innocence and neutrality” (Smith, 2017, 14). Trust is diminished at the expense of monitoring and just about everything must be accounted for. Smith concludes that the ‘abstract space’ of FE, articulated in and by these glazed façades feeds into and off ideological tropes of neoliberalism that subordinate the agency of students and staff, instrumentalising them for economic ends.” (Smith, 2017, 18). It is into this environment that Beginning Teachers (BTs) are emerging. Here, we present the views of those who are crossing a threshold into the context as new teachers and seeking to make sense of it. ITE is a space for early socialisation into the political realms of FE and must safeguard each persons’ capacity for critical reflexive judgment. It should be explained that in the UK the Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) for PCE prepares teachers for a range of academic, professional and vocational courses. In England, PCE is fragmented and consists of a variety of courses and levels, with BTs entering colleges from HE undergraduate courses to work alongside colleagues who teach often without undergraduate training. This contextual background is included firstly for readers to understand the landscape of PCE and secondly because we are writing here about the neoliberal shaping of PCE that as teacher educators we resist and oppose. The language around PCE has increasingly become market-driven—performance measurement indicators, standardisation, privatisation, precarious labour conditions, audits, accountability, target-setting, inspections, and competition and ever reduced funding: terms that set a tone, direction and agenda which has shaped performativity as ‘a culture and a mode of regulation’ (Ball, 2003, 216).

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It is both within and against this outside environment that the ITE team works to prepare its Beginning Teachers (BTs), via an immersion in reflective practice and developing criticality. Arendt’s work on judgement provides a meaningful addition to discussions about reflection and reflective practice in education. This is not reflective practice for self-governance, but an engaged and embodied awareness of ourselves within political worlds. Contemporary criticism sees teacher education in the UK as conforming to formats in easily packaged theories of instruction conforming to purported ‘evidence-bases’ (Biesta, 2015). Simultaneously, ITE in HE is becoming ever more portrayed as suspicious, woolly, failing and responsible for both poor recruitment into the profession and poor retention of teachers once qualified. We perceive this as the removal of ITE provision from HE and into private training providers’ control, where teaching becomes less philosophically situated and more a training package for ‘instructional designers’ whose aim is to deliver learning units as commodities. Tuck (2013) argues that neoliberal ideas are incompatible with teacher education as the freedom to think differently collides with the need to conform. In this tension is the basis for our existential question of our own relevance and value and what we now move on to qualify. The significance of reflexivity and personal positionality within ITE encourages BTs to find well-being in the chaotic and uncertain world of FE. The ITE course employed in this study has been designed to support storying and BTs are encouraged to write reflectively in first person terms. The storied approach resonates with Arendt’s (1958) theorised political stance, which argues that stories about shared experiences bring forth new and existing knowledge about such experiences. The scope and purpose of case study research means that shared experiences can surface and be made visible for further political and social engagement (Thomas, 2011). The case study utilises BTs narrative texts to explore, theorise and analyse meaningmaking experiences about becoming a teacher within the political and human context of PCE.

The PGCE Course in Question The PGCE is designed to encourage BTs to engage with reflexive storying about their experience. Our reflexive internal dialogues can inform our moral principles and Arendt argues for us to use our capacity for judgment wisely. The ITE course values the human capacity for reflective judgements, initiative and action. While reflective practice itself may have its criticisms and limitations, we promote it as an asset through the thresholds of becoming a teacher, since exploring ourselves is inherent to taking ownership of our own judgements and transformation. The course modules are interwoven to connect with each other as opposed to stand alone modules and assessments. Each module supports a BT to craft and construct an overall portfolio of their learning through a collection of text, artefacts, activities and supporting documentation (reflective journals RJs, and Final story extended learning

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autobiographies (ExLA). BTs are encouraged to engage with collective and critical dialogue, research and theory about their emergent pedagogic praxis. The PGCE course includes placement experience, where BTs teach in a local college over two full days per week and undertake two longer, full-time block placements in January–February and again in May. For this case study, six BTs gave access to their yearlong reflective journals and ExLAs. We reiterate that the philosophy underpinning the narrative text is of criticality and reflexivity as significant for preparing beginning teachers (Thomas, 2011). The storied approach combines a model of learning advocated by Dixon et al. (2010) where theories, research and experience inform teachers as reflective practitioners in the political world of PCE. Against our educational methods, values and principles, we survey the world of PCE that our teachers enter. As teacher educators, we recognise that external influences inhibit teacher’s agency, but teacher’s agency and emancipation contravene the direction of travel of an education system that has become characteristically subject to political whim. We do not dispute that a teacher education course would prepare its students for a professional role, but we also argue that teacher education is also about socialisation into the political space of PCE. The emphasis in our work is on nurturing professional judgment over commodified lists of competences (Biesta, 2015). The nurturing of BTs is personal, local and value-laden, entirely removed in essence from ‘good, best and excellent practice’, where ‘all provision must be consistently good and continuously improving’ (DfE, 1999, cited in Coffield & Edward, 2009, 373). It is this realm of continual monitoring and constant measuring that BTs move into. We share a definition of neoliberalism, illustrated as “epistemology, economic strategy, and moral code rolled into one, neoliberalism refers to the reliance on market-based relationships to explain how the world works, or how it should work. It treasures both individual self-responsibility and social efficiency, aligning the purposes of public institutions to the primacy of the market.” (Tuck, 2013, 325). With its crazed fixation on everything being marketable, neoliberalism cannot understand ‘public good’ and asks of the public sector the same questions directed at the private one: ‘am I getting good value for my money?’ because while it counts the cost of everything it recognises the value of nothing except expansive capital. Where neoliberalism commodifies learning, it perceives staff distrustfully to handle its product. So many teachers feel this sense of disenfranchisement predicated squarely on an absence of professional agency, that this becomes the essence of our ITE work: a right to belong in a community of honesty where propinquity, shared repertoires and stories enable openness and opportunities. The philosophical underpinning of the PGCE course values supporting BTs to engage with ‘craft knowledge, or tacit knowledge: the ability to see the right thing to do in the circumstances’ (Thomas, 2011, 23). ITE has to prepare BTs to navigate the shifting landscapes of FE environments to find their place, to safeguard judgements so that they can come into presence through word and deed (Topper, 2011, 357). The aim is to foster enquiring practitioners who question the directives that shape their professional lives and a politicised dogma in order to reclaim ‘critical professionality in the processes of civic renewal and social justice that seek to move beyond the limits of market reform and call into question the so-called efficiency of marketisation’

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(Gleeson et al, 2015, 79). It is imperative that BTs can take up initiative, to begin anew and be somebody (Arendt, 1958).

Research Design The aim of the research and creating a narrative case study called for a particular sample of participants who were on the PGCE course and early into full time employment. The case study is contextualised by ITE and PCE/FE and is about the lived and meaning-making experiences of six BTs. The context for the study is a fulltime pre-service PGCE in PCE award offered through a post-1992 university in the West Midlands, England. The purposive case study is contextualised by ITE and the first year of teaching in PCE and attempts to analyse, synthesise and theorise (Thomas, 2013) BTs’ meaning-making experience of becoming a teacher in PCE during their PGCE and first year of teaching. The case study outlines the uncertainty, complexity and conflict of the situated lives of BTs (Thomas, 2013) as they prepare to become qualified. According to interpretivist paradigms the potential for case study research outweighs the limitations by offering richly detailed accounts of lived experiences pertinent to research objectives. Thus, case study research has the scope to explore how social worlds are understood and experienced, with their multiple and richly textured layers (Mason, 2002). This study was guided by the main research question: ‘What is the relationship between socialisation into PCE and beginning teachers’ judgements about their emerging pedagogical praxis? The case study consists of a collection of stories from six beginning teachers about their lived experience during the PGCE and first year of teaching in PCE over an eighteen-month period. Merriam (1998, 6) defends the scope for using case study methodology by arguing that ‘reality is constructed by individuals interacting with their social worlds and that there are multiple interpretations of reality’. Although case study research does not have well-defined and well-structured protocols, it does have the potential to illustrate what it is like to be in a particular situation (Yin, 2009). We anticipate that this study will provide readers a connective understanding (Thomas, 2013) about the early experiences of PGCE BTs as they prepare for the political uncertainty of a neoliberal terrain. Our data and discussion is complemented throughout by references to develop an argument and self-reflection of our own ontology as an ITE team. We round the discussion of these accounts off by arguing that these reflective experiences equip students with a critical foresight of PCE to promote a position from which their professional lives are grounded in personal and shared values. We urge that the critical space of ITE is an imperative pause for those becoming teachers to share and build a collective experience of resistance against neoliberalism, to reclaim agency and trust for the profession.

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Thematic Analysis Themes emerged from exploring the participants’ stories through the analytical framework of Biesta’s (2013) three domains for the purpose of education (qualification [PGCE], socialisation [placement] and subjectification [BTs’ reflective stories]. The themes surfaced from re-reading the data within the table formats. Highlighted patterns emerged through the participants’ shared experiences, with recurrent words and phrases extrapolated from the tables and re-crafted into themes.

Theme 1: The Subjected Subject (Socialisation and the Teaching Conditions Within PCE) The BTs’ narratives explain some noteworthy concerns about their early placement experiences of being socialised into PCE’s existing professional orders (Biesta, 2015). It seems a quandary exists and thus a critical examination is needed into how socialisation, as a process, is managed within ITE. Beginning Teacher Declan, like the other participants, experiences ‘pressure, strain and stress’—common amongst the six participants. The unrelenting dilemmas encountered during ITE in socialising BTs into PCE’s existing professional orders is not only problematized by perpetual change and uncertainty, but also by unyielding expectations placed upon them to perform neoliberal ideals (Ball, 2003). Declan states that: PCE is a challenging environment. There is pressure, strain and stress due to ambiguity of expectations. Working in the ‘unknown’ is time-consuming and ridiculous. I’m constantly working with change’ and constantly feeling foolish. How can I learn to be a teacher when I am a nervous wreck and struggling?

Ball’s (2003) warning of how political conditions within education underpin uncertainty and contradiction are echoed in Declan’s words—the ‘ambiguity of expectation’ and ‘working in the unknown’ evokes Ball’s ‘terrors of performativity’. For BTs transitioning into the profession, Declan’s utterance of ‘ambiguities’ indicates that it is not the newly qualified alone that deal with uncertainty, but also hints at the department he enters. This is a significant insight, when coupled with our own doubts around the identity and direction of the sector. It suggests that as guardians of this transitional phase, teacher educators cannot anticipate nor second guess the latest trappings of professional roles and responsibilities in an unstable, ever-shifting environment (this capricious landscape can be exemplified by any qualification change or professional body you care to choose, but may best be shown for the political football it is in the sea changes between the early 20th Century moves for deregulation of the sector reverting to ‘micromanaged’ (Hodgson et al., 2015, 17) centralisation by Government and more recently deregulation, all over again. Greg describes his first impressions of placement as ‘constantly being torn because of the relentless changing goal posts’. The myriad criteria imposed on educators makes it ‘inevitable that teachers become uncertain and self-questioning’ (Ball, 2003,

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221). Labelling a journal entry ‘One hell of year’, Greg discloses feeling ‘stressed, torn, choked, tired and just about functioning’. Like Declan, he attributes these sensations to concerns about ‘unfair expectations and unrealistic goals’ Where Hodgson et al. cited micromanagement, it may be more accurate to propose that PCE has been mismanaged for generations—and within these teachers anecdotes, we see the results of political disarray on the profession, for every centralised decision made far from the classroom ripples: ‘I’m fighting the workload and most of it stems from admin and filling in forms. I’m putting the same information on three different forms and then having to change it to suit whichever way the management wind blows’ (Greg). From Greg’s and Declan’s perspective, socialisation into existing professional orders is not conducive to fostering teachers’ moral professionalism within pedagogical praxis. It seems that the denial of human factors and judgment creates conflict between the scope of political discursive practices and teachers’ autonomy in thinking and acting. For Shain and Gleeson (1999) compliance replaces judgment, for Biesta (2015) it is tick-box lists of competences that supersede professional judgment, while Orr (2012) argues that teachers simply learn to cope. Our existential complex challenges us to ask how teacher educators can prepare someone for the intensity of a fluid and unstable environment, where: Planning isn’t easy. I was planning 4 topics, 4 extensions and 4 worksheets. I live the frenzy of panic planning. What I recognise is that I am tired and my battery needs recharging. I am like a hamster on a wheel - planning, planning and more planning – I’m losing sleep!! (Greg).

We cannot depend on the vocational generosity of the teacher, not when the dignity of their dedication is stripped away by the toil of ‘bullshit jobs’—or ‘busy work’, which Avis and Reynolds (2018, 16) outline as ‘the requirement for on-going accountability as well as the preparation for Ofsted inspection, processes of selfassessment and the like’ for ‘those who work in education at a time of austerity, intensification and cost cutting, putative non-work time is frequently used to get the job done’.

Theme 2: Game Play, Mediated Judgments and the Thinking Actor Greg’s ‘frenzy of planning’ is, as Simmons and Thompson (2008, 613) state that ‘heavy workloads, scant resources and a culture of anxiety produced by hierarchical organisational ethos were found to thwart creativity’. Again, we cannot merely insist on resilience and must confront the extent to which ITE is complicit in socialisation processes detrimental to others (Taylor, 2016). Shain and Gleeson (1999) assert that managerialism aims to create monopolised professionals. For Greg it is about becoming worn down by work that makes him too tired to think or sleep, so that teacher judgment may be reduced to a competence, as beginning teachers learn to cope with the socialised conditions of PCE (Dixon et al., 2010; Orr, 2012), where

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everything becomes faster and ever more efficient, so that there is no time to pause, to reflect, to process or to question, and where there is little time to stop and think (Arendt, 1958). The conditions of PCE are a reminder of how we submit to those conditions. Hattie says she ‘literally lives at placement’. Annie explains ‘although I am tired, due to the extremely long days, placement has shown me what working in a college will be like. It is completely mental!!’ Declan writes about managing his workload in ‘confusing and contradictory conditions’—but he manages it nonetheless, even as he questions bureaucratic principles: ‘who actually reads the information and what do they do with it anyway? I’m sure they see it is an endurance test!’ There is a process of becoming engrained, relinquishing to the contours and rhythms of unnatural practices, even as the BTs emerging pedagogical praxis become governed by uncertainty, pressure and stress. Lottie, as with so many teachers who are recruited to the vocation, feels the workload as attrition even just as she begins her professional life: Why do I feel like I’m jumping through hoops? I’ve been teaching for 3 h this morning, worked through my lunch and then another 3-h session THIS IS SOUL DESTROYING, AARRGGHHH!!!!!!! I feel like I can’t breathe at times with everything going on. AARRGGHHHH changing goal posts and workload – don’t tell me this is it. I think I will cry. I feel so bad that I can’t keep up.

The extract above contains multiple layers of meaning. Still new to teaching, Lottie is in the process of becoming fatigued as she adjusts to the speed of the profession, and she is experiencing conflict between what is expected and what she is experiencing. Once again, we see an acquiescence and convergence to the climate in the descriptor of conditions that are ‘soul-destroying.’ Although ITE is a retreat into a space where sense can be made of the frenetic teaching life, it is little more than a holding space or critical pause, where teachers can contest the ‘dangerous distortion of perceived reality and challenge the external powers that deprive of thinking and acting space’ (Allen, 2002), and ‘where we can rail in a safe place against the inequities of neo-liberalism’ (Avis and Reynolds, 2018, 16). In this transition to the lived world of PCE, BTs need time to become, but are exposed to the realities ‘necessitated by performative regimes of dubious value that keeps us busy and saps our energy’ (Ibid). Thereafter, who can say if they will be retained in a professional life? Arendt (1958) claims that in certain conditions human action has less chance to flourish and implications arise from creating false behaviours, where human deeds are inhibited in that their capacity to illuminate. By moulding teachers’ behaviours through ideas around performativity and surveillance, teachers are discouraged to think for themselves. In the narratives we can identify that the political landscape operating in FE creates situations where workload and performativity undermines FE teachers’ values (Ball, 2003). To prepare teachers for such demoralisation and emasculation, we bestow student-focused values and provoke a natural tendency to enquire: ‘is this right?’ And yet that is at odds with contemporary thinking that teacher education—teacher training—must eradicate from its programmes any semblance of critique. Teacher education must compromise on contesting the reality of that world in order to focus on behaviour, on quelling the

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instinct of difficult individuals, or on instilling British Values as germane in every lesson.

Theme 3: The PGCE Classroom as a Deliberative Space The BTs share how they try to manage the excessive workload, uncertainty and chaos across their college placements. Their experience initially becomes internalised to how they see themselves as the problem (Lottie says she is ‘expected to do so much whilst often being criticised’). The determinism of performativity is weakened by human action whereas the implication is that beginning teachers merely learn to cope (Orr, 2012). This is where ITE courses support further—to divert from the ‘feelings of self-blame’ which Annie internalises, as we strive to stem the attrition in the system by critically reflecting on responses. Annie feels the pressure to do as she is ‘told’ and she questions ‘how somethings are rendered more professional than others’ but is able to resist an assimilation of poor practice in order to ‘get by and comply’ (Dixon et al., 2010, 391). Orr (2012, 60–61) argues that managerialist cultures work to alienate people so that they may experience alienation from humanity. From the BTs’ perspectives, conditions within PCE are an almost continual stress test threatening teacher dignity and student humanity. Annie echoes this, describing how some teachers in her department accused her of being ‘too soft on her students’. Though motivated, Annie writes ‘there were times I could have just given in her keys and walked out the door’. What is the proper response in ITE to such disclosure? Welcomed back to the critical pause of ITE, to process and reflect on such experiences, we cannot assure Annie that sacrifice is not normal, because it has become the standard for teachers to accept their lot without complaint until either their mental and physical health perishe or they tolerate it all with the ghostly memory of an ideal. ITE is a source of hope, because it champions the individual practitioner’s subjectivity in a critical pause between placement and professional life.

The Place of ITE in a Neoliberal Sector The contrast between the placement environment and the educative environment provided by the university setting illustrates the potential for new contexts through meaning-making opportunities in a political world. The potential for ITE is to protect and ensure the conditions for the quality of human thinking and acting (Levinson, 2001) and thus provide scope within placement socialisation processes. These six narratives show that the existing professional orders within PCE teaching can limit the opportunities to engage with their emergent pedagogical praxis. The chronology of their experiences suggests that the value of collective and dialogic storytelling during their PGCE supports their critical reflection in becoming teachers.

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This helps with meaning-making, as Hattie writes how ‘sharing with others helps make sense of her placement experience’ and Declan finds it relieves tension: ‘it is great to be with peers at uni. We get in the classroom and off load!’ For Arendt (1958) collective space and dialogue are facilitators of agency and freedom and thus a deliberative space is crucial to enable subjects to be visible through their words and actions. Writing about the PGCE classroom shows how the space supports them ‘being in tune’ (Greg) or simply ‘being able to be who I need to be’ (Denny), while Annie writes: ‘when I hear my peers view different opinions it helps me decide what to do. I feel more informed’. There were disparities divulged between safe spaces and hostile environments. Arendt (1958) argues for a shared democratic political space which encourages individual growth, wellbeing and freedom. Together the BTs explored what resonated with them, what offered a healthy challenge and what did not: ‘I can finally say that I am now feeling a sense of settlement and a sense of belonging I can come along to Uni and vent! I can say what I want, how I feel and just be me’. Here, Lottie’s disclosure reflects Arendt’s (1958) argument that ‘conditions’ provide the scope for human action. The collective and dialogic interactions within the PGCE classroom provide an arena for BTs to share experience and become a critical collective. For Lottie, as with the other participants, the PGCE classroom became a space of meaning-making and deliberation, where each participant took some responsibility for their desired emergent pedagogical praxis. Every human being possesses the promise of a ‘new beginning’ where engaging in action means to capture and conquer an initiative. Lottie continues as she reflects on her experience: Throughout this course I have learnt so much about how my biography has shaped me and my beliefs as an individual. Now I see that if I am not open to welcoming certain new experiences then I restrict myself of opportunities. Not that I am uncomfortable with what I believe, but on this course, I’ve met people that I wouldn’t normally go out of my way to communicate with, and I’ve endured things I wouldn’t normally put myself up for.

The BTs felt that the PGCE classroom offered a ‘healthy and safe space’ where they were encouraged to reclaim power as thinking and acting subjects (Allen, 2002; Arendt, 1958). Their collaborative and dialogic interactions were influential for their informed and emergent pedagogical praxis, as Greg explains: ‘The PGCE is encouraging me to reflect on how I am received in the classroom… this is important to me in that I want to represent all those things that are important to me such as calmness and commitment to my students…not everything needs to be a performance.’ The purpose of ITE is more than a socialisation process for beginning teachers and offers space and scope to commit to Biesta’s (2013) ‘balancing’ of the domains for the purpose of education including socialisation and subjectification. The BTs experience of ITE offered space and opportunity to explore their own subjectivities as a teacher and critically examine assumptions about both pedagogical and political practices (Brookfield, 1995). The PGCE classroom was experienced as a space where collectively BTs could become political actors within PCE. Earlier narrative text illustrate how neoliberal conditions in PCE were experienced and disclosed, whereas the deliberative

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space of the PGCE classroom enabled the beginning teachers to share experiences and examine a variety of perspectives and understandings of the contexts. In the PGCE classroom and through teaching in colleges, the student teachers explore their own subjectivities in making sense of their teaching experiences and emerging pedagogical praxis. Annie adds: Coming back to Uni after a four-week block placement enabled me to feel like myself again. There was a time during placement where I could have just thrown it all in and said it’s too difficult. I think having inside information about how education policy and practice works has informed me on how to respond. I think I can do this.

Similarly, Hattie writes: Each week I’m seeing and experiencing FE to its true extent. Both the positive and negative of placement has had an impact on me. The PGCE has helped me to develop my teacher ethos by sharing with my peers and understanding that I matter too.

This statement and its indication to a ‘true’ picture is disconcerting: it reveals the power play of neoliberalist policies in framing a perceived reality as the singular, ‘true’ reality, understood by Ball who described educational policy as being about ‘dominance’. Our BTs may start with an idealised version of teaching and education, but become attrite by the positives and negatives, whether this is the intense workload, the economic insecurity of colleges or the encroachment on classroom teaching time to embed problematic, ideological concepts like British Values. Neoliberalism refers to a hegemonic ideology or as Ball (2003) claims an ideology that constructs new meanings around a performativity that undermine PCE teachers’ values in a ‘fight for their soul’. Performativity derives from the definition of regulation of professional life in relation to bureaucratic targets, measures and sanctions (Ball, 2003). As everything is counted, quantified and fiscally stringent and austere, more is demanded from less. Not only is there less job security, less time and less teaching hours, less funding for resources, less support staff (and etc.…), but teaching staff are expected to continually improve targeted averages, while all the time they are rated on their capability at performing in such marketisation conditions. The extent to which neoliberalist and managerialist practices impact on a monopolistic PCE professional is contested and disrupted, we argue, through teachers’ ability to cope and/or make sense of their situated contexts. In this way, PCE teachers’ capabilities of shifting landscapes of professionalism through judgment, mediation and action continue to be debated. It is also conceivable that in collective and deliberative spaces and with ‘the more human perspectives we can bring to bear upon our understanding of a situation, all the more likely are we to recognise the moral relevance or salience’ (Benhabib, 1988, 43). The BTs write that the PGCE classroom offers a space to challenge performative practices as compared to their socialised experiences in placement. Declan talks about ‘unpicking practices’ and how sharing makes some ‘unseen practices become seen’. What emerges from these narratives is an awareness of BTs subjectivities within the political context of PCE. They begin to show how they engage in a constant negotiation between being a subjected subject through a variety of normalised practices and a subject of action by challenging such

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practices. Similarly, Greg claims that during a PGCE group task his ‘blinkers were removed’ and that he could ‘see the blind spots’. Through their shared experiences in ITE, Beginning Teachers come to see for themselves how things are and who they choose to be.

Conclusion The study makes some recommendations around policy and practice: Research: The authors intend to revisit the participants five years on. The longitudinal aspect of the study will add richness and depth to understanding PCE teachers’ experiences over time. Their stories would offer insight into how ITE can continue to prepare and support beginning teachers for the political and human contexts of FE, while potentially offering insight into continued teacher retention issues. College Policy: The themes from this study illustrate some of the implications of the working conditions in FE. There are heavy teaching workloads and uncertain, yet, excessive administration duties. These working conditions impact on teachers’ health and wellbeing. College policies must be considered fit for purpose, beginning with teacher wellbeing. Likewise we urge college senior management teams (SMTs) to engage with collective and collaborative practices, to listen and support those on the frontline of teaching. The beginning teachers valued the safe and deliberative space of their PGCE classroom. There has been a demise of space in FE thus limiting opportunities for teachers to engage in critically reflective conversations about diversity and difference in teaching practice. Often staffrooms have been replaced by offices and teachers have little time to share their storied experiences about teaching and learning. Perhaps now is the time for SMTs to agree the significance of creating meaningful space and precious time for their teachers to share their experiences, ideas and practices - a space to bring about change. Practice: This study was rooted in practice. The teachers’ subjectivities remained powerful throughout and illustrate that human deeds, in care and kindness, are personal and political acts. Teachers are reminded that their moral and ethical praxis makes a difference to the lives of others. In challenging and uncertain times it important for teachers to know who they are and what they stand for. In this way teachers can nurture and reclaim their agency through the power of their subjectivities and by enacting their world views. Furthermore by coming together in plurality teachers can collectively challenge those in PCE whose words are empty and whose deeds are brutal (Arendt, 1958). In the deliberative space, of the PGCE classroom, the beginning teachers were able to explore and story their emergent pedagogical praxis within the political context of education. In this study, the BTs experienced PCE as ‘the good’, the bad and ‘the ugly’ (Denny). These experiences had an impact on their judgment making and recorded how managerial tactics where used to coerce them to conform to policy initiatives and to comply with heavy and unrealistic workloads. The outcome was

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that some FE teachers often cautiously and carefully partake in ‘game play’. Here the relationship between socialisation and subjectification is problematic and can impact on the teachers’ mediatory judgments and indeed their well-being. The implication between managerialist practices and game play is that teaching could become an illusionary practice of banalness in a fabricated existence. This study illustrated that a key purpose of ITE is to safeguard the ‘space of appearance’ (Arendt, 1958) between socialisation and subjectification. By safeguarding the scope of ITE, the PGCE classroom becomes an active and political space to support beginning teachers to become socialised into an existing world of PCE and to also initiate change.

References Allen, A. (2002). Power, subjectivity, and agency: Between Arendt and Foucault. International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 10(2), 131–149. Arendt, H. (1958). The human condition. University of Chicago Press. Avis, J., & Reynolds, C. (2018). The digitalization of work and social justice: Reflections on the labour process of English further education teachers. In The impact of digitalization in the workplace. Springer. Ball, S. (1994). Education reform: A critical and post-structural approach. Open University Press. Ball, S. (2003). The teacher’s soul and the terrors of performativity. Journal of Education Policy, 18(2), 215–228. Biesta, G. (2013). The beautiful risk of education. Paradigm Publishers. Biesta, G. (2015). How does a competent teacher become a good teacher? On judgement, wisdom and virtuosity. In R. Heilbronn & L. Foreman-Peck (Eds.), Philosophical perspectives on the future of teacher education (pp. 3–22). Oxford Wiley Blackwell. Benhabib, S. I. (1988). Judgment and the moral foundations of politics in Arendt’s thought. Political Theory, 16(1), 29–51. Brookfield, S. (1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. University of Michigan. Coffield, F., & Edward, S. (2009). Rolling out ‘good’,‘best’and ‘excellent’practice. What next? Perfect practice? British Educational Research Journal, 35(3), 371–390. Dixon, L., Jennings, A., Orr, K., & Tummons, J. (2010). Dominant discourses of pre service teacher education and the exigencies of the workplace: An ethnographic study from English further education. Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 62(4), 381–393. Gleeson, D., Hughes, J., O’Leary, M., & Smith, R. (2015). The state of professional practice and policy in the English further education system: A view from below. Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 20(1), 78–95. Levinson, N. (2001). Learning to live together: Hannah Arendt on the political conditions of ethical life. Merriam, S. B. (1998). Qualitative case study research. Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, CA. Mason, J. (2002). Qualitative researching (2nd ed.). London. Orr, K. (2012). Coping, confidence and alienation: The early experience of trainee teachers in English further education. Journal of Education for Teaching, 38(1), 51–65. Parker, S. (2019). The Leaving of Liverpool: managed decline and the enduring legacy of Thatcherism’s urban policy. Available online at https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/the-lea ving-of-liverpool/. Priestley, M., Biesta, G., Robinson, S. (2017). Teacher agency: An ecological approach. Bloomsbury Publishing.

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Shain, F., & Gleeson, D. (1999). Under new management: Changing conceptions of teacher professionalism and policy in the further education sector. Journal of Education Policy, 14(4), 445–462. Simmons, R., & Thompson, R. (2008). Creativity and performativity: The case of further education. British Educational Research Journal, 34(5), 601–618. Smith, R. (2017). Building colleges for the future: Pedagogical and ideological spaces. Journal of Education Policy, 32(6), 855–870. Tamboukou, M. (2012). Truth telling in Foucault and Arendt: Parrhesia, the Pariah and academics in dark times. Journal of Education Policy, 27(6), 849–865. Taylor, C. A. (2016). Ethically important moments in the higher education space of appearance: Renewing educative praxis with Arendt. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 49(3), 231–241. Thomas, G. (2011). The case: Generalisation, theory and phronesis in case study. Oxford Review of Education, 37(1), 21–35. Thomas, G. (2013). From question to inquiry: Operationalising the case study for research in teaching. Journal of Education for Teaching, 39(5), 590–601. Topper, K. (2011). Arendt and Bourdieu between word and deed. Political Theory, 39(3), 352–377. Tuck, E. (2013). Neoliberalism as Nihilism? A commentary on educational accountability, teacher education, and school reform. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 11(2), 324–347.

Dr. Howard Scott is a Senior Lecturer in post-compulsory education (PCE) at the University of Wolverhampton. He holds a Ph.D. in Technology Enhanced Learning from the University of Hull, which explored the uses of online social networks to support teaching and learning among Further Education English re-sit students and their experiences of peripherality, divergence and convergence. His FE background was in teaching English and Media and his interests are in teacher education, literacies, adult learning, and how digital technologies support, shape and transform teaching and learning experiences. Dr. Julie Wilde is a Senior Lecturer in post-compulsory education (PCE). She completed her MA in sociology of education at the University of Worcester and is a qualified teacher in further, adult and higher education (PGCE FAHE). Her doctoral work centred on a research study into the lived experiences of beginning teachers in further education (FE) colleges in England. The theoretical concepts underpinning the study derive from Hannah Arendt’s (1958) theory of human action. Her research interests include exploring the dynamic relationships between politics, policy, and teachers’ negotiated pedagogic praxis in PCE. Pete Bennett is Senior Lecturer in Post Compulsory Education at the University of Wolverhampton, where he runs a top-up degree the MA in Professional Practice and Lifelong Education. He taught English for more than twenty years, largely at GCSE and A level and has also been involved in the development of English teachers in the Post-compulsory sector. He writes textbooks and is involved as writer and editor in the fields of media, education and culture including Barthes’ Mythologies Today: Readings of Contemporary Culture (Routledge 2013), Doing Text: Media after the Subject (2016) and Identity and Resistance in Further Education (2018). He is co-editor of the new Routledge Research in Media Education and Literacy research series (with Julian McDougall).

Chapter 4

A Foundation for Practitioner Based Research in TVET: The New Postgraduate Diploma: TVET Joy Papier

Abstract In South Africa, official policy on initial and continuing professional development of vocational teachers only became a feature of the teacher training landscape in 2013. Prior to this date there were few nationally recognised teacher education programmes aimed specifically at technical and vocational teachers. The new Policy on Professional Qualifications for Lecturers in TVET (2013) aimed to regulate employment of educators in the vocational sector, but also to raise the profile of vocational teachers who enjoyed considerably lower esteem among university and school based educators. Inter alia the policy proposed that new educator programmes for this sector focus on building ‘reflective practitioners’, and training lecturers in a ‘vocational pedagogy’. At the University of the Western Cape, which had established a vocational research niche through the establishment of an Institute for Post-School Studies (IPSS) in 2013, the findings of an initial college lecturer survey showed a considerable number of vocational educators who held cognate degrees as well as initial teaching qualifications, but who had no coherent development pathway into postgraduate studies in vocational teaching (McBride et al. FET College Lecturers in the Western Cape, Unpublished report, 2009). These findings prompted the conceptualisation of a ‘post-professional’ qualification in 2016, which it was hoped would steer vocational teachers into curriculum leadership and researcher pathways, and at the same time foster a community of practice in which relevant issues and scholarship in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) could be explored. This chapter reflects on the development and implementation journey of the postgraduate diploma TVET which was rolled out in 2017 as a part-time blended learning programme, and had its first college lecturer graduates in 2019. Keywords TVET · South Africa · Professional development · Postgraduate diploma

J. Papier (B) University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 S. Loo (ed.), Teacher Educators in Vocational and Further Education, SpringerBriefs in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90502-6_4

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Introduction South Africa adopted in 2013 its first official suite of qualifications for vocational college lecturers (teachers/instructors in other contexts). Prior to this legislation, named the Policy on Professional Qualifications for Lecturers in TVET (2013), those teaching in vocational colleges occupied an uncomfortable professional space situated between the well–organised and regulated school-teaching profession, and the less regulated but more esteemed university lecturer corps. Many vocational lecturers had entered TVET colleges via the route of high school teaching, or having been practitioners in the occupational fields in which they subsequently became teachers. Few of these teachers had undertaken dedicated vocational teaching qualifications aimed at specific norms and standards for vocational teachers. Very few universities offered such specialist qualifications, but one or two universities of technology had over time adapted school-teacher training programmes for vocational contexts. These programmes were phased out in the last two decades, and are currently referred to as ‘legacy qualifications’. The new qualifications policy of 2013 published by the Ministry of Higher Education and Training within whose ambit TVET colleges reside, aimed at ‘professionalising’ TVET college lecturers by acknowledging a knowledge base of teaching and learning different in some respects from general school teaching. In particular, the new qualifications intended to recognise the proposed destinations of vocational students as oriented towards the workplace and particular occupations, rather than the more general foundational outcomes of academic school education. Two main areas of development were set out in the policy document, that of initial (vocational) teacher development, and of continuing professional development (CPD) which includes post-professional qualifications such as honours/postgraduate diplomas, masters, and doctoral degrees. The new suite of qualifications had been in development (and still is) for about 5 years since the publication of the policy, and the first initial vocational teacher education programme under the new policy, the Advanced Diploma in TVET Teaching was only implemented in 2018 by one university in the country, although there are indications that more institutions are preparing to do so. University faculties of education have to date focused largely on teacher education for educators in general schooling (Papier, 2015), thus a critical mass of ‘vocational teacher educators’ across university faculties of education has yet to be achieved. Such a critical mass is however growing incrementally as more TVET specialists achieve postgraduate qualifications that may enable them to teach in university faculties of education and broaden the pool of university TVET teacher educators. This chapter could therefore not adhere strictly to the ‘teacher educators’ theme of this book—it offers instead a window onto an evolving teacher educator cadre that may ultimately comprise current university lecturers as well as members of the TVET college cohort who become new graduates in TVET studies. In this chapter, reflections by both university teacher educators and TVET college lecturers on the receiving end of a piloted postgraduate qualification highlight the complexities involved in developing TVET teaching and research capacity.

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The focus here is on the postgraduate diploma in TVET (PGDip TVET), an honours level equivalent in terms of the South African 10 Level National Qualifications Framework in terms of which the honours degree and postgraduate diploma are at Level 8, the masters degree at Level 9 and the doctoral degree at Level 10, the highest NQF level. What distinguishes the honours qualification from the postgraduate diploma in the South African system is that the latter is aimed at professional practitioners being developed in a particular field, rather than the more general research orientation of the honours degree. However, this chapter will explain that our choice of the PGDip TVET had a deliberately dual intent for reasons largely related to decades of neglect of the field of vocational education. What follows is a chapter composed of two major sections. In the first section, a snapshot of the TVET college lecturer profile in South Africa sketches the context for educator development in the sector at the time, explains the development rationale for the postgraduate diploma TVET, and provides a closer look at the intended outcomes that created a basis for programme construction. In addition, a brief conceptual framing indicates some the discourses that were to underpin the programme and give direction to its structure and pedagogy. The second half of the chapter delves into a case study of the pilot roll-out of the programme and the first cohort of TVET college lecturers who became its students. Through facilitator reports and a few personal student vignettes we are afforded an account of both the challenges, and the perceived successes of the learning journey, in participants’ own words. Finally, there are learnings concluded from the chapter, specifically with regard to the foundations that the programme has laid for its graduates. A more extensive review is yet to take place, which will no doubt take forward this first tentative investigation. I turn now to a brief contextualisation of TVET lecturers in South Africa.

TVET College Lecturers in South Africa TVET college lecturers in South Africa have two main modes of employment. Permanently employed lecturers are paid by the national Department of Higher Education and Training according to budgets related to size of college and number of enrolled students in various programmes. Additional lecturer staff may be employed out of college income acquired in terms of specific projects or programmes supported by industry. Historically employment of part-time and temporary lecturers had been generally unregulated and ad-hoc, but more recently there have been official attempts to establish proper norms and standards for funding of colleges and employment practices, to protect the interests of both employer and employee. There were 12, 431 lecturers permanently employed in public TVET colleges according to an official report in 2016 (DHET, 2016). However, it would be safe to say that in addition to the staff paid for through fiscal funding, there is an almost equal number of short to medium-term contract staff teaching across various vocational programmes and paid out of college-generated income. For illustrative purposes though, of the lecturing staff surveyed at the time of the report, around one third

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were shown to have obtained school teaching qualifications, while another third had cognate academic qualifications but had no national teaching qualification. The majority of college lecturers currently are therefore in need of initial teacher education or some form of upgrading to make their existing qualifications more relevant to a vocational teaching context. The uneven picture of vocational teaching qualifications across the teaching cohort shows the impact of neglect of this education sector over many years prior to the transformative attempts of the new democratic government which came into power in 1994. The legacy of marginalisation and a fragmented vocational education and training sub-sector will however take sustained effort to overcome, especially with regard to building a new cadre of vocational lecturers to replace expertise lost through natural attrition and staff turnaround.

Why a Post-Professional TVET Educator Qualification? The national policy containing the new qualifications for lecturers in TVET (DHET, 2013) states in relation to the PG Dip TVET that the qualification is aimed at ‘strengthening professional practice in a teaching specialisation, role or practice to the extent that the graduate is positioned to take on a leadership role in the TVET environment’ (p.33). Our university Institute for Post-School Studies comprising a small core group of teacher educators with some 20 years’ experience in capacity building of vocational college lecturers in the absence of formal teaching qualifications, took the decision to develop the postgraduate diploma, which would be the first formal national qualification delivered for TVET college educators. Our choice was a pragmatic one, since the new PGDip TVET could be aimed at those vocational teachers who already had a cognate degree plus some form of teacher training certification, which our initial scoping research had suggested was the case across TVET colleges. On the other hand, the national Department of Higher Education and Training needed to undertake considerable work on the recognition structures needed for new initial vocational teaching qualifications, which was likely to be a protracted process. Furthermore, as a university institute our mandate is postgraduate teaching and research, hence a postgraduate diploma would have a natural alignment with our mission which was strongly concerned with building the cohort of researchers in TVET. The dual intent of the PGDip TVET as we perceived it was to provide a solid specialisation in TVET teaching so that graduates from the programme would be able to practise as expert teachers in their fields and become curriculum leaders, thus taking seriously the aims of the qualifications as stated above. Second and equally important in our view, was the need to create a foundation for reflective practice that could evolve into practitioner-based research for contributing to the local knowledge base on TVET teaching and learning so sorely lacking in our context. We envisioned that graduates from the PGDip TVET would acquire a solid theoretical foundation in vocational discourse and understanding, and would be equipped to proceed to masters and later to doctoral studies, thus creating an appropriately specialised pipeline.

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From our initial survey many college lecturers had been in the TVET system for years, were well qualified to teach their subjects, and had acquired formal teaching qualifications offered by various providers—lecturers who would be well-placed to become academic leaders in the college as envisaged by the national policy. TVET is an under-researched field in South Africa and on the African continent, and there is still much to be learned and shared. Given the historical dearth of postgraduate research into TVET (Wedekind, 2008) as well as the relatively small pool of university academics able to supervise masters and doctoral candidates in this field (Papier & McGrath, 2020), we believed in the necessity for growing a larger pool of TVET scholars and researchers.

Envisaged Outcomes of the Postgraduate Diploma TVET In view of the purpose articulated above, our curriculum team after some deliberation and research among international comparatives arrived at the following outcomes for graduates of the PGDip TVET. We set out that successful candidates should be able to: • Demonstrate an understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of vocational learning and the constructions of knowledge espoused by theories and theorists in the field; • Analyse and evaluate conceptions of vocational education and training within modern and modernising economies; • Provide leadership for some of the implementation challenges of vocational policy in vocational and continuing education contexts eg. in curriculum and in student support; • Undertake reflective practice in vocational settings and contribute to the growing knowledge base in the field of vocational and post school education and training; • Develop specialised skills in particular areas of focus relevant to vocational and post school environments eg. curriculum, assessment, RPL (recognition of prior learning). As entrants into the programme were all likely to be TVET college lecturers in full-time employment, the programme was structured as a two-year, part-time, modular course delivered in a blended learning format. Modalities for delivery of the programme include interactive contact sessions; context specific readings; structured reflections on TVET practice; face-to-face and remote teaching and discussion. Our PGDip TVET maintained a strong focus on all aspects of curriculum development but especially teaching, learning and assessment in the TVET domain. Subject specialisations prioritised for the first phase of the PG Dip TVET rollout were Language and Mathematics development, since these critical subjects are compulsory for students in all vocational programmes, and competent curriculum leaders in these subjects could potentially strengthen other programme offerings. The modular

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design of the PG Dip TVET enabled additional specialist subject areas to be developed over time as additional electives. In order to give form and content to the outcomes articulated above, theorisation of vocational education, and appropriate epistemologies and pedagogies were necessary, as the following section reflects.

Conceptual Framing of Vocational Teacher Development In this section I refer briefly to some of the theoretical underpinnings that directed our thinking about vocational educator development. As there had not previously been qualifications specifically designed with vocational teachers in mind, and TVET development did not generally fall within the purview of university faculties of education, the discourses in this area of scholarship were somewhat opaque and had to be opened to scrutiny. With regard to theorising around the course participants as education practitioners and postgraduate students, we drew on Engestrom’s (2001) conceptualisation of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT): A member of our curriculum team explains that, We needed to build a bridge between ‘theory’ at university, as one activity system, and college educators’ experience as another activity system, since these educators’ knowledge existed somewhat outside of theoretical debates and were arrived at intuitively, or via dominant discourses with limited theoretical engagement. On the other hand, knowledge production at the university, especially in relation to TVET studies, existed outside of embedded researcher knowledge and the insights they were able to bring from their practice’—there was thus a range of ‘boundary crossings’ that were required of both the university activity system and the TVET activity system, both for the knowledge diffusion (at colleges) and the knowledge production (at university). In terms of reflecting on pedagogy for vocational teachers and their theorisation of vocational practice we were strongly influenced by the idea of a ‘vocational pedagogy’ (see Lucas, 2015) which encompasses teaching methodology, understandings of teaching and learning theory, as well as a recognition of context with regard to future work trajectories of vocational students. Shulman’s (1987, p. 8) typology of a knowledge base for teaching resonated with what might be relevant to a vocational pedagogy, covering general pedagogical knowledge (strategies for teaching); pedagogical content knowledge (the ‘why’ of such strategies); educational context knowledge (the where and the what of the institutions involved); knowledge of who the learners are, and how they learn; and the values that inform teaching and learning. These aspects could all be usefully applied to understanding what a knowledge base for vocational teacher education might encompass. In particular we were keen to build participant skills to acquire the ‘wisdom of practice’ (ibid, 12), through engaging in relevant research into practice.

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Lucas et al. (2012, p. 9) offer a useful summary that characterises vocational education as ‘…practical, experiential…and when required, theoretical models and explanations’—pointing to the incorrect assumptions made about vocational education being concerned mainly with hand rather than head. Furthermore on pedagogy, the agency of the vocational teacher is emphasised when the authors hold that: ‘…Pedagogy also fundamentally includes the decisions which are taken in the creation of the broader learning culture in which the teaching takes place, and the values which inform all interactions’(ibid, p.14). This view is expanded on by Moody and Wheelahan (2012: 324) who distinguish between academic and vocational teachers, where the latter “have a greater role in mediating the social context of vocational education than they have in school and higher education.” In a technical report on vocational pedagogy Lucas (2015, p. 7) explains as follows: ‘Vocational pedagogy encompasses the science, art and craft of teaching and learning vocational education. More simply, vocational pedagogy is the sum total of the many decisions which vocational teachers take as they teach, adjusting their approaches to meet the needs of learners and to match the context in which they find themselves. Once grasped more comprehensively, vocational pedagogy enables us to develop models and tools which can help teachers more effectively match teaching and learning methods to the needs of their students and the contexts in which they are working.’ Later in the same publication, Lucas (2015, p. 8) refers to Shulman’s (2005) idea of ‘signature pedagogy’, whereby particular pedagogies might be categorised in terms of the type of subject matter, for instance, subjects that deal with physical materials like hairdressing or bricklaying; subjects that deal with ‘symbols’ like graphic design; and subjects that deal with ‘people’, such as nursing or retail. These various subject groupings could suggest particular learning methods and approaches, in short, signature pedagogies. The PGDip TVET drew on a number of conceptual models relating to teaching and learning within the vocational field, and attempted to highlight contestations and similarities so that students would be exposed to a variety of ways of thinking. For instance, a CEDEFOP report (2015) on comparative case studies of vocational teaching and learning across 15 European countries, interrogates the idea of ‘learnercentredness’ in relation to a vocational pedagogy, contrasting learner-centredness with traditional didactic approaches which are teacher directed. However, even though learner-centred approaches appear to be closer to the notion of vocational pedagogy, the report holds that it falls short of aspects such as ‘authenticity, vocational identity and the reconciliation of theory and practice, which are of critical importance in the successful delivery of VET curricula’. Traditional teacher-centred approaches, it is maintained, ‘give undue emphasis to ‘inert’ or cognate knowledge not relevant to competencies required by VET graduates’ (p. 23). We considered the construct of teachers creating ‘powerful learning environments’ (Biemans et al. 2013) that enable a pedagogy beneficial to vocational learners, and the implications this might have for the kind of teaching and learning capacities required by vocational lecturers.

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As stated earlier, TVET college lecturers have by and large not been schooled in the debates and discourses around vocational education and vocational pedagogy in the course of their qualifications acquired for teaching. A substantive body of this literature was therefore compiled within compulsory modules in the postgraduate diploma to support reflection and theorisation of existing vocational curriculum content and teaching practices. A second pillar of the programme was that of establishing a research foundation and orientation as a precursor for masters study. As course participants were all practising college lecturers, practitioner-based research and action research approaches seemed relevant and appropriate methodologies to be presented as part of a research module, in addition to the broader, more generally applied research strategies. It may be helpful at this stage to list the modules within the PGDip TVET in order to illustrate the intent of the programme. Year One: Core Modules: • • • •

TVET, the Economy and Society Theorists and Theories in TVET and Post-Schooling Teaching and Learning in Post-School Contexts Traditions of Reflective Practice in TVET settings. Year Two: Elective Modules:

• • • • • •

Assessment and Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) in Post-School Settings Mathematics Education in TVET Language Education in TVET Student Support and Counselling in TVET contexts Curriculum Development in TVET Contexts Technology and innovation in TVET teaching.

Having sketched the development background and motivation for the postgraduate programme, I now proceed to an abridged case study of the first piloted rollout of the Postgraduate Diploma TVET.

A Case Study of the First Pilot Cohort of the PGDIP TVET After a short period of advocacy and advertisement, the first small group of TVET college lecturers were selected for the pilot rollout of the postgraduate diploma TVET and commenced studies in 2017 with the first four compulsory modules. As a brand new qualification for TVET educators in the university space, and with stringent entry requirements set out by the national Department of Higher Education and Training, a group of college lecturers became the pilot student cohort of the new programme. The 15 students, all in full-time employment as college teachers, were located across four provinces of the country, hence the blended learning approach was suitable to enable them to study at a distance. External sponsorship was obtained to allow the students to attend a ‘block’ contact-teaching week each semester for the two year duration of the programme. This was a critical part of their induction into

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the university systems, and for becoming part of a vocational teacher cohort in which they could interact and support one another. A core team of two university lecturers provided face-to-face and online facilitation to the new cohort, who completed their second year of study in 2018 and graduated in early 2019. Where required, part-time specialist staff taught the elective modules in the second year. The aggregated lessons learned which follow have been distilled from reflective academic progress reports by the programme facilitators on the implementation challenges of the programme. Thereafter I turn to vignettes constructed from the reflections of five of the first cohort graduates approximately 18 months after having completed their studies.1 A formal review of the postgraduate diploma TVET in line with university policy on programmes delivered is still forthcoming.

Implementation Challenges Reports on implementation of the programme revealed the following issues that had surfaced among the pilot cohort of students.

Timetabling Difficulties The course participants all taught on various TVET college programmes of differing durations, for instance some taught semester courses, or trimester courses or full year courses. This presented scheduling difficulties for the PGDip TVET contact weeks, since all participants were not on vacation at the same time, or had the same examination schedules. College principals in some cases were reluctant to release lecturers during teaching time as they would have to find replacement lecturers out of college budgets, which they could not afford. Trying to accommodate participant schedules within the university calendar led to additional logistical problems, since the university timetabling of examinations and uploading of marks have to operate across the university and are not easily adapted for individual groups. These logistical constraints had to be systematically addressed and adjustments made for subsequent intakes. College lecturer conditions of service are still under consideration by the national department under whose authority they reside, hence matters such as study leave, time off for university assessments and so on were dealt with differently by each college 1

I am indebted to the facilitators and the PGDip TVET graduates who so freely shared their reflections of the pilot programme. Research for this article was made possible through the support of the National Research Foundation (NRF) Chair: Post-School TVET Teaching and Learning at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), however views expressed are the author’s own and are not attributable to either the NRF or the UWC.

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involved. Official policy discussions on lecturer continuing professional development and the needs of lecturers and colleges in this regard remains ongoing.

Stringent Entry Requirements in the Absence of Pipeline Qualifications The stringent requirements for entry into the postgraduate diploma TVET resulted in our Institute having to turn away many potential participants in the first iteration of the programme. In particular, participants needed to have taught in the college for at least 3 years, in the subject areas in which they intended to undertake elective modules. The range of initial teaching qualifications that college lecturers might have achieved historically also excluded many, since initially only a first cognate degree and a NQF Level 7 teaching qualification was accepted. However, the entry criteria has since been adjusted to cater also for qualifications that were undertaken in the pre-NQF era, where many vocational lecturers obtained qualifications offered at the former Technikons (now Universities of Technology).

Academic Readiness of PG Dip TVET Entrants We had assumed that students accepted on the programme were ‘academically ready’ since they held an undergraduate degree and an initial teaching qualification. However many of the college lecturers were returning to study after some time since their last qualification, attracted by the new TVET-specific postgraduate programme. We found that additional support courses were needed to assist participants to cope with university studies, and considerable academic support with academic writing, academic reading and technical aspects such as formatting and referencing was necessary. It seemed students were somewhat shocked by the demands of the programme, and had not anticipated the levels of commitment that would be required of them, especially with regard to submission of assignments and extended reading necessary to participate in online discussions. Formative tasks intended to assist with improving academic writing were often not submitted, students having budgeted insufficient time for these learning activities. ‘The issue of epistemic access loomed large,’ according to one of the course developers, as he reflects: ‘We were trying to get them to operate within our activity system (of university knowledge) with its requisite ‘recognition and realisation rules’ (see Bernstein…) for engaging with text and producing text. But the reciprocal dealing with their activity systems was more challenging with the minimal information on the TVET ‘black box’ of practice. We attempted to elicit examples from the students, and in their assignments tried to get them to identify examples and apply theory to problems

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identified by them—but bridging theory and practice seemed to be pretty difficult. They tended to think very separately about these two elements’. What tended to exacerbate participants questioning of their own practice, we discovered, was that in TVET colleges the opportunities to try new things or develop alternatives are not routinely available, thus the space to problematise issues or to engage more critically seemed threatening to some students, and they were not always willing to test the boundaries by seeming to challenge authority.

Digital Literacy and Access Many of our college lecturer participants who were older students, found coping with digital environments both technically and culturally difficult. Students generally found it difficult to adapt to a culture of working online, using electronic databases, bibliographic tools and the like. Students tended to revert to familiar means of communication such as email and telephones, and were hesitant to engage on the online platform that had been created. In some cases, students living in rural areas in provinces further afield, did not have access to the internet from home due to limited connectivity and access to data, or they were not technologically confident. These students therefore viewed the online learning environment as disadvantageous to them. Despite video-taped online resources, and guideline packages physically distributed, some students were reluctant, even resistant to moving beyond the face-to-face learning situation. These implementation challenges signalled the need for constant monitoring of programme delivery, and cautioned the university about taking too much for granted. But what were the experiences and perceptions of participants as they navigated their way through the new terrain of the PGDip TVET?

Vignettes: Participant Experiences The following are shortened vignettes of the narratives taken from a convenient sample of TVET college lecturers who continued with their studies at the university after having completed the PGDip TVET. The PGDip TVET qualification had launched them into masters degree study two years after they embarked on their first post-professional qualification, and they could thus provide key insights into the experiences of the pilot cohort. These current candidates in the masters programme were invited to share their reflections of the postgraduate diploma, how they had experienced that learning curve, and what had been key moments for them during the programme. They were assured that the exercise was completely voluntary and that they were free to participate without any pressure to do so. Five responses (out of 6 continuing students at the time of writing) were received and are reported on

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here as Pamela, Mohamed, Glenda, Soraya, and Sifiso’s stories. Pseudonyms have been used in each of the vignettes to protect anonymity.

Pamela’s Story Pamela is a 56 year old woman who has been a lecturer in a TVET college for about 10 years, having been a high school English teacher for over 15 years prior to entering college teaching. After a period working in industry, she says ‘the classroom called me back’, and she returned to teaching at a vocational college where she is still currently a lecturer. Shortly after her return to teaching she learned of the new postgraduate qualification for college lecturers, which she says was hugely exciting: ‘returning to teaching was the best decision I ever made, or I would never have had this opportunity’. Pamela reveals her study aspiration when she shares that ‘it was always a lifelong dream to eventually have a masters’ degee…I ventured into the PGDip with apprehension but excitement’. Pamela’s response to the questions about how she experienced the PGDip TVET programme are best conveyed in her own words: ‘The first four modules were gruelling yet exhilarating. It taught me so much in terms of teaching… It gave me understanding of how teaching should be applicable to the pathways within TVET…which I was completely unaware of. I was spellbound in spite of the difficult content to grasp at times’. With regard to her academic struggles she has the following to say: The writing of the essays were quite tough…applying the knowledge to argue your point was a difficult skill to acquire…due to the volume of information to be contained in the essay within a minimum amount of words. Getting the gist of theory in relation to how it’s implemented at college, or our attempts at it, was my biggest “aha” moment. My biggest achievement was getting to write coherently using the most appropriate readings to motivate or substantiate’. Finally, Pamela adds, ‘I found myself in the TVET sphere not actually knowing what it entails, its historical background, its origins…and what I needed to make learning a success. I feel empowered by this course and understand my role as a TVET lecturer much better’.

Mohamed’s Story Mohamed is a relatively young, unmarried man who has been teaching at the college for five years. After completing his three-year national diploma in Mechanical Engineering, and a teaching certificate he decided to include vocational colleges in his job search, and managed to secure a position teaching mathematics. He says ‘It was not part of the initial plan, however, I was granted a secure job in which I find much

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enjoyment’. He heard about the PGDip TVET from a colleague and decided to ‘take the opportunity to further my knowledge in TVET education’. What he enjoyed about the programme, he says, was that ‘the topics covered were very contextual, about the TVET sector, which made the studies interesting’. Getting into study mode again demanded ‘a lot of reading…which was highly informative’. Mohamed relates that he found it challenging ‘to balance work life with study life. This was the first time I had studied and worked simultaneously. Other than that, hard work and dedication was all that was needed’. He adds that although it did not always apply to him, some of his fellow students struggled with working on the online platform and needed assistance with technology. Mohamed regards as his biggest achievement ‘completing the programme and gaining to ability to multitask in the fast-paced world we find ourselves in’. Finally, he says, what really helped his studies was ‘sharing of knowledge and experiences among the students’.

Glenda’s Story Glenda is a married woman in her 50’s and has been a college lecturer for five years, teaching students whose home language is not English. She has a school teaching qualification, the bachelor of education honours, and decided to do the PGDip TVET as she hoped it would assist her with teaching English as an additional language, which is a compulsory course for students at the TVET college. Also, she says, ‘having the opportunity to learn about TVET as an alternate educational stream seemed interesting’. About her experience as a student in a postgraduate course, she had this to say: ‘The first four modules were interesting as well as informative, but also very intense. It took a while to get back into ‘study-mode. I really enjoyed the elective English module’. ‘TVET Economy and Society as well as Theory and Theorists modules were particularly informative and enjoyable…they gave me a greater insight into TVET systems’. With regard to challenges of the course she shares that: ‘Completing numerous tasks was very hard and time consuming. Each task in Year 1 was structured like a mini assignment’. Glenda notes that her biggest learning curve was in: ‘Realising that all the frustration we experience as college lecturers is a universal problem. That most things that we question have already been researched and debated, encourages one to think of solutions rather than perpetuate problems that we experience. The course gave me greater insight and helped me realise the valuable role that TVET could play in society, especially in emerging economies like South Africa’. She regards as her biggest achievement to be, ‘Completing the course…and being afforded the opportunity to continue with my studies!’.

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Soraya’s Story Soraya has been a college lecturer for 12 years. She majored in English and psychology in her first university degree 20 years ago, and then did a school teaching qualification. She was attracted to the PGDip TVET due to the prospect of a focus on curriculum development and the subject of Lifeskills/Life Orientation through the elective module on Student Counselling. As she maintains: ‘I can see that there is a need for a program where lecturers can focus specifically on TVET and not use general classroom practices in the TVET sector’. What stood out for her in the postgraduate diploma, was being able to relate her current practices to what she was learning. She says: ‘It allowed me to get a better understanding… I changed a lot of my teaching practices in my class as well as my interactions with other staff…I enjoyed learning to use new research strategies…(the programme) changed me and my perspective on education in general’. Soraya found that she initially struggled with the section on theories and theorists and how that impacted one’s point of view. Her advice to new students in the programme would be: ‘Go with an open mind, as our perception changes when we read more…and work with peers, as that makes this journey less challenging’. She found juggling work, personal and other activities particularly hard, as she says: ‘The need to accommodate another activity into an already hectic daily schedule proved a challenge. This meant setting time aside at 3 am in the morning for studies’. With regard to the content of the programme she found that ‘the two years of study was new, interesting and informative—it required going back into my brain archives…’. She takes pride in achieving the Dean’s Merit award for excellence ‘…as it was a tough two years… I had 20 years of ‘not studying’ habits to unlearn’. What was particularly useful for her was the ‘network with like-minded individuals and getting a better understanding of what the sector is about’.

Sifiso’s Story Sifiso has been a TVET college lecturer in mathematics for 14 years and holds a bachelors degree in education. He started out teaching in an adult education programme which was being run at a high school and offered early school leavers the opportunity to acquire a qualification. He entered vocational college teaching because he had ‘a passion to contribute to TVET meaningfully’. Sifiso enrolled in the PGDip TVET in order to ‘uplift my qualifications and to pursue my dream of studying to PHD in TVET’. He recalls his first modules in year one of the programme as follows: ‘The first modules were a nightmare…there were too many readings. Initially, I was overwhelmed because I did not have wifi and I struggled to access some materials. Personally, I enjoyed the readings but did not have enough time due to

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work commitments. A number of students were on the verge of withdrawing and I remember persuading some of them to soldier on and finish the course’. About the contents of the course he says that ‘some of the topics had a valuable link to our work and we could relate to it easily…I enjoyed the lectures because it gave me new insights about TVET’. He found the second year somewhat easier as the course facilitators reduced some of the required submissions, but due to his difficulties with connectivity, he struggle to participate in the mandatory online discussions. He says of this: ‘there wasn’t enough data to go online all the time, let alone the laptop freezing and needing to be repaired… those who solely relied on their laptops were generally affected’. Sifiso felt that he benefited from the programme since he ‘learnt how to write professionally, with citing and referencing as well as how to use Google Scholar. Theoretical frameworks (the module) was a bit confusing…I did not know why we were doing it and only realise now that at masters you need to have some of these basics’. An ‘aha’ moment he shares is about the change in his attitude towards other college programmes like student support: ‘In all my teaching career I did not see the value of student support services…thinking that only mathematics (his subject) is important in life. I now have a new mind-set that student support is the pillar for any TVET subject’. About the value of the PGDip as he sees it, he says: ‘lecturers can professionally engage with issues that affect their job by doing the PGDip TVET… in addition, it helps us to find ways to teach differently as well as finding possible solutions to problems facing lecturers. Sifiso regards his greatest achievement as ‘being able to (in mathematics) apply both theory and experience… I learnt very good techniques and I am now applying that to my students…my college recommended me as a national curriculum team member and we are currently busy changing the syllabus.’

Conclusions from the Pilot PGdip TVET Rollout There is much to be learned from the pilot rollout of the postgraduate diploma TVET, both from the trials and errors that inevitably accompany a new programme, but more so from the vantage point of college lecturer participants themselves. Loo, in his study of vocational teachers (2018, p.18), draws attention to Clandinin’s (1985) and Banks et al., (1999) conceptualisations of the teacher as also being shaped by their biographies and personal experiences. As stated earlier, the vignettes were derived from a convenient sample of pilot cohort members who had completed the part-time programme over two years and then immediately enrolled in a TVET focused masters programme. As can be seen from each of the five vignettes herein, entering postgraduate study was daunting at first—the volume of readings, an unfamiliar scholarly discourse, academic assessment demands, juggling work, home, and study responsibilities, all created pressures in the lives of these dedicated professionals. By all accounts the

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course material and content was new to them, and opened vistas of education and training that they had not encountered in their previous qualifications. For each of these college educators what they learned impacted on their thinking about vocational teaching and learning, and their classroom practice, and in some cases enabled them to influence and encourage others. This was by no means an easy feat, and reflection among our course facilitators acknowledges that too much may have been expected of students from the outset, particularly with regard to asking them to apply theories from among the prevailing discourses. In one assessment for instance, students were asked to select an appropriate theoretical model to apply to a college problem they had identified. This proved to be a difficult exercise for the students, and the facilitator subsequently reflected that ‘I think the scaffolding needed for the task requires some work…the students are right, it is a lot to take on’. But there is a discernible pride among all respondents at having achieved the postgraduate qualification, and gaining the skills to pursue further study in the masters programme. Pamela, Soraya, and Sifiso’s stories refer to their ‘dream’ of advancing their studies. As programme facilitators, we regard the programme as having achieved its two principal aims, that is, to build vocational curriculum leadership through enhanced understanding of teaching and learning in the college context, and building a new cadre of researchers able to reflect both on their own practice but also on the practices of others in the vocational setting. Undertaking masters’ studies in this field opens up the possibility of developing research expertise so that these practitioners can go on to create knowledge in their field and contribute more especially to the knowledge base on classroom and wider vocational pedagogic practices. As initiators of the programme we are keenly aware of the systemic and other logistical challenges that are yet to be resolved, and that ongoing scrutiny and introspection in line with a constantly evolving domain is critical. I believe that this chapter allows a glimmer of light to shine through a tiny crack in the door, and points to the need for deeper and wider analysis of continuing professional development in the vocational sphere going forward. Acknowledgments The support of the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector Education and Training Authority (merSETA) for the PGDip TVET pilot is acknowledged, as well as the support for curriculum development of the PGDip TVET provided by the Teaching and Learning Development Capacity Improvement Programme implemented through a partnership between the Department of Higher Education and Training and the European Union.

References Banks, F., Leach, J., & Moon, B. (1999). New understandings of teachers’ pedagogic knowledge. In: Leach, J., & Moon, B. (Eds.), Learners and pedagogy (pp. 89–110). London: Paul Chapman Publishing. Biemans, H. J. A., de Bruijn, E., den Boer, P. R., & Teurlings, C. C. J. (2013). Differences in design format and powerful learning environment characteristics of continuing pathways in vocational

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education as related to student performance and satisfaction. Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 65(1), 108–126. CEDEFOP. (2015). Vocational pedagogies and benefits for learners: Practices and challenges in Europe. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union Cedefop research paper; No 47 Clandinin J (1985) Personal practical knowledge: A study of teachers’ classroom images. Curriculum Inquiry, 15(4), 361–385. Department of Higher Education and Training 2013 Policy on Professional Qualifications for Lecturers in Technical and Vocational Education and Training. Government Printers, Pretoria. Department of Higher Education and Training. (2016). Annual report 2016/2017.Pretoria: DHET. Engestrom, Y. (2001). Expansive Learning at Work: Toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization. Journal of Education and Work, 14(1), 133–156. https://doi.org/10.1080/136390800200 28747 Loo, S. (2018). Teachers and teaching in vocational and professional education. Routledge. Lucas, B., Spencer, E., & Claxton, G. (2012). How to teach vocational education: A theory of vocational pedagogy. City and Guilds. Lucas, B. (2015). Vocational pedagogy: What it is and why it matters. Technical Report. https:// doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.2375.6563 McBride, T., Papier, J., & Needham, S. (2009). FET College Lecturers in the Western Cape. Unpublished report. Moody, G., & Wheelahan, L. (2012). Integration and fragmentation of postcompulsory teacher education. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 64(3), 317–331. Papier, J. (2015). The notion of vocational pedagogy and implications for the training of vocational teachers—examining the field. https://www.ejournal.upi.edu/index.php/ije/article/ download/5294/pdf Papier, J., & McGrath, S. (2020). Growing the TVET Knowledge base in the South: South African postgraduate outputs, 2008–2018. Journal of Vocational, Adult and Continuing Education and Training, 3(1), 126–142. Shulman, L. S. (1987). Knowledge and teaching; Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57(1), 1–22. Shulman, L. S. (2005). The signature pedagogies of the professions of law, medicine, engineering and the clergy: Potential lessons for the education of teachers. The Math Science Partnerships Workshop: Teacher Education for Effective Teaching and Learning. National Research Council’s Centre for Education, Irvine, California, USA, 6–8 February. Wedekind, V. (2008) Report on the research on further education and training (FET) Colleges in South Africa. England-Africa Partnerships in Higher Education, DIUS, UK.

Prof. Joy Papier is the Director of the Institute for Post-School Studies (IPSS) in the Faculty of Education at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), Cape Town, South Africa. She is also the South African National Research Chair in Post-School Studies: TVET Teaching and Learning. Joy has been active in vocational education, policy and development for about 25 years. Her current research interests include TVET teacher education, TVET policy and development, vocational curricula policy, workplace and institutional cultures. She has served as Co-Chair of the African Union Commission Expert Group on TVET, and is on the Consultative Advisory Group on TVET, an Africa-led initiative launched in 2013 with facilitation by the World Bank. She was instrumental in establishing the new Journal of Vocational, Adult and Continuing Education and Training (JOVACET) in 2017, of which she is Editor-in-Chief.

Chapter 5

Stakeholder Perspectives on Vocational Teacher Education and Teacher Educators Role in Supporting Coherence Henriette Duch and Birgitte Lund Nielsen

Abstract In Denmark new and experienced teachers at vocational schools are obliged to attend teacher training at university colleges. There are many stakeholders involved in these teacher training courses, with different and sometimes conflicting perspectives on the implementation. The aim of the chapter is to examine how teacher educators can balance the different perspectives and support a sense of coherence among the participating teachers from vocational schools. The design of the research is sequential, building on data from a range of qualitative studies, examining stakeholder perspectives on how teacher educators can support a coherent education for vocational teachers. One study includes policy-analyses covering the period from 2014 and 2018. The findings show extensive political interests in how teacher trainers ought to practice to ensure the usefulness of the training at the vocational schools. There are, however, tensions when comparing the findings from the policy-analyses with the intended learning outcomes and competence description of a teacher training course at level 6 at the European Qualification Framework. These tensions accentuate the complex systemic context the teacher educators operate in. In other studies (2014–2017) the different expectations from the participating vocational teachers and the managers from their institutions have been examined. The methodology includes multiple qualitative methods with individual interviews, focus-group interviews and observations. Finally, a new (2019–2021) comparative study including stakeholders from three different vocational schools contributes with a deeper insight into the different expectations from the different groups of stakeholders. The findings are presented under the headings of three main assertions. First of all, there appears to be an extended interest from policy level in the so-called programme-fieldwork coherence. This interest is framing the teacher educators’ practice and influencing the space for action. Secondly, conflicts of interests between the vocational teachers and their managers are discussed. Since the vocational schools are paying for the teacher training, there is a kind of marketisation and the managers’ satisfaction with H. Duch (B) · B. L. Nielsen VIA University College, Aarhus, Denmark e-mail: [email protected] B. L. Nielsen e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 S. Loo (ed.), Teacher Educators in Vocational and Further Education, SpringerBriefs in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90502-6_5

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the teacher training course can create tensions for teacher educators. The third and final assertion addresses tensions related to the very different kinds of Research and Development projects teacher educators are involved in. Keywords VET teacher educators · Denmark · Teacher education · Stakeholder perspectives

Introduction There are many different stakeholders involved in vocational education, in general, which also have interests in teacher education for the staff (Jørgensen, 2016). The state and the cooperative partners (trade unions and employer organisations) from the labour market are central stakeholders in Danish vocational education, and vocational education is highly prioritised to ensure the recruitment of youth in the future labour force. As part of political agreements (Government et al., 2014), new and experienced teachers at vocational schools are obliged to attend teacher training at university colleges. Teachers and managers from vocational schools, however, have different perspectives and logics about the implementation of these teacher training courses (Duch, 2018). The teacher educators play a crucial role in balancing the sometimes contrasting demands with the regulations from the policy level and the expectations from the participating teachers and managers from vocational schools. Furthermore, there is in Denmark, like in the rest of the world, expectations and pressures for teacher educators to engage in scholarship and publish research (Boyd et al., 2011). Teacher educators are at least expected to include findings from international research and experiences from their own research & development (R&D) in the teacher training. In this very complex context with contrasting demands the teacher educators, nevertheless, have to facilitate coherence between programme elements and across learning arenas, acknowledging that coherence is crucially emphasised for the participating teachers’ professional learning (Canrinus, 2019; Heggen et al., 2015). Hence, both in Denmark and internationally there is a call for more knowledge about how teacher educators can support the experience of meaningful coherence among the participating teachers from vocational schools (Hatlevik & Havnes, 2017; Lund & Nielsen, 2019). The overall aim of the present paper is to examine how teacher educators, as key agents, can support coherence. Thereby, this chapter contributes to a deeper understanding of the complexity of coherence from the perspective of teacher educators training vocational teachers. The chapter starts with a review of the literature focusing on vocational teachers and coherence in teacher education. Then we present the research question and the methods used. The following findings are structured around three main assertions.

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Review of Literature The literature review is organised in three sections focusing first on vocational teachers and their enrolment in teacher education. Then we focus on the notion of coherence and how this conceptualisation is used in the literature on teacher education. Finally, the particular role of teacher educators is approached.

Teacher Education and Vocational Teachers Educating vocational teachers teaching at vocational schools has a long history in Denmark, being formalised and prolonged until 2010 where Diploma of Vocational Pedagogy (DVP) was introduced (Andreasen & Duch, 2017; Duch & Rasmussen, 2016). This teacher education, DVP, is a further education, but because of the Danish educational system, it is connected to adult experiences at the labour marked (Ministry of Higher Education and Science, 2018). Hence, teacher education is, like other diplomas, part of the Danish strategy for lifelong learning. This history implies different institutional anchorage, but presently DVP is anchored at university colleges. The stakeholders at the policy level, such as the Ministry of Education, have emphasised the close connection between theory and practice inherent in DVP (Duch & Rasmussen, 2016). Hence, the relationship between teaching in practice at a vocational school and the structure, content, and relevance in teacher education appears to be preconditioned. This background is important because historically there have been discussions about theory and practice and continuous initiatives to improve this relation by changes in the structure of and content in the course (Duch, 2017; Duch & Andreasen, 2017). Internationally, research approaches the connection between theory and practice in vocational teacher education from various angles, emphasising different dimensions. One dimension targets the need for continuingly updating approaches because of speedy technological development in vocations (Andersson & Köpsén, 2015; Williams, 2010). Others issues relate to the curriculum (Avis, 2019), teacher identity moving between higher education and teaching at lower levels (Avis & Bathmaker, 2006) and adult learning in general (Illeris, 2003). Across these discussions, coherence in teacher education programmes is referred to, and more knowledge about how to understand and approach coherence appears to be needed (Duch, 2018). In the research, coherence is, in particular, addressed referring to higher education, e.g. professional education (Laursen, 2015). Furthermore, there are studies which look into the challenges for the young students at vocational schools and their teachers. This research concludes that there is need for more coherence (Jørgensen, 2015). Summing up, the notion of coherence is closely connected to the epistemological discussion of theory and practice in educational settings (Carr, 1986; Jorgensen, 2005; Schön, 2013), but the notion adds to further perspectives elaborated in the next section.

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Coherence and Teacher Education The concept of coherence in teacher education is discussed in the literature from a range of perspectives (Hatlevik & Havnes, 2017; Lund & Nielsen, 2019). A first distinction is made between conceptual coherence and structural coherence. Conceptual coherence relates to visions, ideas, and values (Hammerness, 2006; Tatoo, 1996), while structural coherence is about the relationships among subjects, practical training, and progression (Hammerness, 2006). Hatlevik and Havnes (2017) elaborate further on various perspectives on coherence, referring to conceptual and structural coherence from a programme-design perspective together with programmefieldwork coherence. They add two other main perspectives, namely a longitudinal qualification perspective and a perspective on student learning and mastery (Hatlevik & Havnes, 2017). Furthermore a longitudinal perspective focuses on students’ biography and experiences, biographical coherence, and on the transition to a future job in the profession, transitional coherence (Heggen & Smeby, 2012). With the learning/mastery perspective coherence is connected to student experiences’ and meaning-making during the education, emphasising, in particular, their sense of coherence (Hatlevik & Havnes, 2017). Importantly, the policy defines the context for teacher educators’ work, e.g. in discussions about structural coherence. However, teacher educators themselves emphasise slightly different elements of coherence than what is highlighted from a policy perspective. Lund and Nielsen (2019) emphasise that teacher educators frequently refer to their long-term deep collegial collaborations which support coherence for themselves and the students. Managers and teachers at vocational schools can also be expected to have different perspectives on teacher education, including how to support coherence (Duch, 2018). Before moving on to the empirical material, we will shortly argue about the particular role of being a teacher educator.

Being a Teacher Educator in Vocational Teacher Training Teacher educators teach about teaching—teaching is so to say ‘both a mean and an end’ in teacher education, a double pedagogical perspective. Teacher educators need to address three perspectives: the teacher education, the teaching practice for the student teachers and the relation between those (Lund, 2018). The new teacher educators have to attend an in-service qualification programme to teach and participate in research and development activities (R&D). It is also required that the teacher educators teaching at diplomas have working experiences from a vocation or a profession. The intended learning outcomes in the curriculum of DVP are broad and cover, e.g. the structure in vocational educations, the policy in this area and insights about the target group: young people and adults including adult education related to the labour market, called TVET. Furthermore, perspectives related to education in general,

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inclusion in lifelong learning, labour marked and equality by work and education are included (Andreasen et al., 2017).

Research Question Our research explores the mentioned structures and preconditions, asking how teacher educators can support coherence in a teacher education programme for vocational teachers. We ask, what challenges and tensions can be condensed across research-studies focusing on various stakeholder perspectives on teacher education for vocational teachers?

Methods This research is re-analysing data from a range of previously published qualitative studies (Duch, 2017, 2018; Duch et al., 2018). Data in these studies have been analysed from an inductive approach inspired by grounded theory (Charmaz, 2009). One study starting in 2014 included policy-analyses based on documents and interviews (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009; Prior, 2000). Two studies (2014–2017, 2019– 2021) from five vocational colleges are based on focus group interviews, interviews and observations (Barbour, 2007; Gold, 1958) showing the different expectations from the participating vocational teachers and the managers from the institutions. Finally, one study is using Engeström’s methods to study teacher educators’ different experiences and results from participating in R&D (Engeström, 2001). The new layer of analyses added with the research presented in this chapter referred to the approach of thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006), focusing on the concept of coherence and contrasting perspectives from different groups of stakeholders. These perspectives are drawn as condensates from the previous analyses already published. New policy perspectives are integrated by the latest initiatives stated, and the latest data from vocational schools supplement the earlier findings, including perspectives from managers and teachers. The findings from the new level of analysis are presented transparently as assertions constructed when re-analysing the data. For transparency concerning the original studies, we refer to the previous publications.

Findings/Discussion The findings are presented as an interpretative discussion organised under the headings of three main assertions. The first assertion is about coherence in policy, the

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next section addresses coherence at vocational colleges, and the last section contains an assertion about teacher educators’ knowledge from R&D.

Coherence in Policy–Framing Teacher Educators’ Space for Action Assertion 1: There appears to be an extended interest from policy level in programmefieldwork coherence. This interest is framing the teacher educators’ practice and influencing the space for action. Thereby this interest can create tensions for teacher educators being professionally committed to addressing a broader range of intended learning outcomes from the curriculum, but having to react to repeated new policy demands. Teacher education is at level six at European qualification framework, EQF. This standard frames the choices of the teacher educator, but the policy does not address all the implications at this level. Instead, the interpretation of and communication about the level changes over time. In 2010, the Ministry of Education announced DVP in a letter as the main teacher education for vocational teachers (Ministry of Education, 2010). In this letter, it is argued, “the focal point in a diploma (…) is a close interaction between practice and theory”. This can be understood as if there per se is coherence in this teacher education. However, in the letter, this quote is followed by an interpretation, “This means that (…) teaching and examinations papers (…) is based on experiences and challenges at vocational schools”. Thus, there is a demand from the policy level for structural coherence in the programme, focusing on the programme-fieldwork coherence. This understanding seems to change slightly in 2014 when a political majority agrees about the reform of vocational education (Government et al., 2014). In this agreement, teacher education gets a permanent status and experienced vocational teachers also have to participate in a part of this process. For teacher educators, this approach to reform means a more diverse target group. Furthermore, a new obligation is that it has to be “practice-oriented”. This label is not explained in any details, leaving interpretation to the teacher educators. The development of competences still has to “build on pedagogical and professional challenges at the vocational schools”. Nevertheless, there is an additional demand that this is also applied in the schools. Thereby, teacher training and practical use are connected, and the teacher educators have to implement this practicality into the pedagogical practice. The teacher educators are, referring to the curriculum, obliged to teach theories of pedagogy and learning in a practice-oriented way, and they now additionally have to include the very different practice at vocational schools as a starting point. These points can be labelled as a demand for more programme-fieldwork coherence. The political attention to vocational teacher education continues in 2018 when a political majority agrees on a paper (Government et al., 2018). The paper emphasises the need to increase the focus on teaching skills. This need can be interpreted

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Document from year 2010

2014 2018

Perspective Theory and practice Teaching and examinations paper based on experiences and challenges Expanding the target group Practice-oriented education Increase the focus on the teaching skills

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Coherence Structural coherence

Programme-fieldwork coherence Programme-fieldwork coherence

Fig. 5.1 Policy perspectives on coherence

as an indirect critique of the existing practice of the programme (DVP), focusing too little on training the vocational teachers’ practical skills. These last demands from the policy level also refer to programme-fieldwork coherence and signal a somewhat simple understanding of a one-to-one relationship between teacher education and teaching students at vocational schools. All in all, teacher educators are left to implement these repeated changes from policy level in the complex content of a teacher education programme still keeping the EQF level. Figure 5.1 sums up the policy perspectives on coherence from 2010 to 2018. Remembering the level of education, there seems to be a lack of interest in more theoretical perspectives in education, the ability to reflect on a profession as a teacher and the perspectives of lifelong learning for the student teachers. This perspective points out all that the teacher educators have to consider in the teaching. These perspectives can be characterised as included in biographical coherence and transitional coherence. The challenge in the role of the teacher educator is to integrate such perspectives into the teaching. The findings show an extensive political interest in how teacher educators ought to practice to ensure the usefulness of the training at the vocational college. This perspective is explored in the next paragraph.

Coherence at Vocational Schools—Managers and Student Teachers’ Perspectives Assertion 2: Managers at vocational schools are key stakeholders paying for teacher education. Their striving to improve and direct the learning processes for student teachers from their school can create challenges and dilemmas both for the student teachers and in particular tensions for the teacher educators. The managers’ interest might be different from the student teachers’ interest. Student teachers emphasise a sense of coherence from peer-collaboration and refer to biographical and transitional coherence while the managers are focusing on conceptual, structural and programme-fieldwork coherence. Vocational schools differ in size and geographic location, but they also differ in their organisational structure (Duch, 2017). This difference implies a variation in

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managers’ visions and strategies. At one vocational school, the student teachers, who are employed as teaching staff at the school, are seen as important actors in implementing the visions and strategies in the organisation. At another vocational school, the student teachers are expected to use the DVP training to design and participate in development projects in general. At a third vocational school, the managers stress the importance of student teachers’ changing their teaching practice. From the managers’ point of view, the student teachers tend to make theoretical analyses, but they do not improve their teaching. At a fourth vocational school, the main strategy of the manager is to support the studying process, to ensure that the student teachers pass. Since the vocational schools are paying for the teacher training, there is a kind of marketisation and the managers’ satisfaction with the teacher training course is at stake for teacher educators to ensure their future job opportunities (Duch, 2018). However, the student teachers are not aware of the managers’ visions and strategies. Instead, the student teachers are concerned about teamwork, social relations, joint planning, and the possibilities to engage in social learning (Duch, 2018). Observations and interviews show that such possibilities differ very much among the student teachers, but they all express the need for this. Differences are also seen among student teachers from the same vocational school. Summing up, the sense of coherence among the student teachers depend very much on possibilities for collaboration, and they are focusing on biographical coherence and transitional coherence. The managers are, however, focusing on conceptual coherence, structural coherence and programme-fieldwork coherence. For the teacher educators, these different perspectives on coherence have to be considered in the pedagogical planning. A new study is initiated trying to reduce this complexity and coordinate managers and teachers’ perspectives. As an initial phase the perspectives of managers and student teachers are explored using interviews and focus group interviews. These data are used to find a common understanding of needed improvements and implement them. The three participating vocational schools are striving to improve the implementation of teacher education in each organisation respecting the differences across schools. We will show three analytical examples from this study. The first example is concerning transitional coherence. A manager explains in an online interview during the corona crisis how knowledge from the teacher education is used to plan the teaching while the vocational college is closed down for the crisis. The traditional teaching is transformed into online teaching: “A student teacher has used a matrix planning his teaching. All teachers at the department are encouraged to apply this matrix” (interview, 2020). In our understanding, what is called a matrix is referring to a pedagogical model building on research introduced at the teacher training course (Hiim & Hippe, 2007). This approach seems to have been transformed to systematise planning in the whole department at the vocational school. The model is now called a matrix. However, this transition might also change the content for what can be important knowledge for teacher educators. How can they address differences between the theoretically based model and the matrix? In one way, practical use of an approach can imply

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a transition of academic knowledge, for which the policy asks. On the other hand, it can devalue the use of academic knowledge because a theoretical and complex model is transformed into a simple technical approach. The challenge for the teacher educators can be to support both the practical use and to sustain the validity referring to the background theory. The second example addresses biographical coherence. In a focus group interview, a student–teacher explains how managers and teachers’ common initiatives are reducing student teachers’ stress as a result of the process at the vocational school. Formalising the integration of teacher education at team meetings at the school qualifies dialogues about problems related to being a student at the teacher training. Some of the problems include issues such as reading and understanding new theories and coping with learning processes. For the teacher educator, we assume that knowing this can influence the pedagogy of teacher education to support coherence. However, this example is from one vocational college, and integration varies between those. In the role as teacher educator, a tension of the context seems to be relevant. The last example from this study is from the third vocational school. It addresses biographical coherence. At a focus group interview, the student teachers talk about a dilemma. They say they want to learn and are motivated by learning experiences from the teacher education. That is, from the teacher educators’ opinions, opposed to a manager telling them not to spend too much working time on the study—they just have to pass. At the same time, they are adults who have to cope with a family life, work and teacher education. This point can be interpreted as if the student teachers are experiencing a sense of coherence, but on the other hand, prioritising time and worklife balance upsets them. Such dilemmas can influence learning in teacher education and thereby impose the role of the teacher educators. The example indicates that the teacher educators need to pay attention to the sense of coherence and biographical coherence. Summing up, even when managers and student teachers at vocational colleges are striving to improve the processes for student teachers the teacher educator can meet different tensions and challenges in supporting transitional coherence, sense of coherence and biographical coherence. The next paragraph focuses on the content for the teacher education based on knowledge from studying teacher educators’ involvement in R&D.

Diverse Knowledge from R&D—The Content for Teaching Assertion 3: Teacher educators are involved in very different kinds of Research & Development (R&D). Hence, the implementation of the teacher training courses is based on different knowledge. Tensions appear when teacher educators try to negotiate meanings about these matters. Furthermore, the diverse implementation in the course can create challenges for student teachers’ sense of coherence. There is a variation of educational background and working experiences among teacher educators at university colleges in Denmark. This variation is expanded by the fact that the teacher educators participate in very different kinds of R&D. They

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are expected to integrate the results from R&D in the teacher training course, and this can increase the variation in content even in the same subject. A group of teacher educators in this study used Engeström’s activity theory to analyse and approach these challenges (Duch et al., 2018). Looking at the R&D projects as a potentially shared or jointly constructed and negotiated object, the group have analysed three projects using Engeström’s five principles (Engeström, 2001 s. 136). The analyses support what he calls knotworking, meaning that the teacher educators’ different perspectives are presented, analysed and thereby discussed. The analyses of different projects show differences in the content, methods and theory grounded in anchoring the theory of science. Some teachers are working with innovation and entrepreneurship and develop a new module at the teacher education: “In this module, planning uses another way to organise, a different content (..) than other modules” (Duch et al., 2018, p. 8) [our translation]. Other teacher educators are involved in R&D related to integrating ICT in the modules. They, e.g. use portfolio and blended learning (Duch et al., 2018, p. 9). These examples make teacher educators suggest different ways of practical training integrated into the course. Furthermore, one R&D project inspired by sociological theory focuses on the students’ educational background and development during teacher education. The teacher educators analyse differences by using Engeström’s approach, but they do not develop teaching in this project. They conclude that: “The process can be moved from reflections and discussions towards specific actions that can be realised having the purpose of collaborative development of teaching.“ [our translation] (Duch et al., 2018, p. 15). This realisation of development could be interpreted as a challenge since different perspectives on the sense of coherence is at stake. Summing up, the teacher educators’ biographies, participation in projects and interpretation of results from R&D is linked to preferences, in theory, scientific approach etc. Therefore, this influences the sense of coherence for the teacher educators. However, through knotworking, the teacher educators in this study discuss the different perspectives and disagreements. That opportunity might allow for innovation and improvements in the development of vocational teacher education. The role of the teacher educators is, from this perspective, to show a willingness to share results as an object of analyses. However, the challenge is acting on the next step in Engeström’s theoretical model. Focusing on coherence, we cannot conclude if the teacher educators as a group can unite the different perspectives on that issue.

Summary Summing up, the overall aim of the present paper is to examine how teacher educators can support coherence in vocational teacher education. The analyses reveal that different aspects of coherence are at stake. We have pointed at conceptual coherence, structural coherence, sense of coherence, biographical coherence, programme-fieldwork coherence and transitional coherence. The policy is defining structures framing the conceptual coherence, and structural coherence and teacher educators’ role seems from this perspective to be a matter of developing the pedagogy asked for at the policy level.

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At the vocational colleges, managers and teachers have different perspectives on teacher education. Since there is a fee on diplomas, there is a marketisation and teacher educators’ job depends on the sale. Therefore, the managers’ perspectives seem important, but still, the perspectives of the student teachers also must be addressed to support their learning. Since vocational schools differ very much, the teacher educator also acts in a field of tension when addressing student teachers’ work-context. Handling these perspectives require agency to take professionally reflected choices. They have to argue for these choices, not just being an implementer of new policies or selling a specific product asked for at each vocational school. The teacher educators themselves take part in different R&D projects, and one suggestion looking forward is that teacher educators, when collaborating professionally, might inquire into structures hindering coherence. Thereby they can address and negotiate tensions and challenges. We are not, however, sure if coherence can and should be obtained totally. Student teachers need to experience a sense of coherence, but at the same time, embrace the inevitable complexity of practising as a teacher and in teacher education (Lund and Nielsen, 2019). Teacher educators nevertheless have a very important role as mediators to support coherence and professional quality of teacher education and professional collaborative inquiry might help then in this endeavour. The implications for practice must be that discussions about coherence are crucial among all stakeholders in teacher education, but in particular among teacher educators. Ongoing professional discussions could preferable be established at an organisational level. Implications for research likewise concern the various perspectives on coherence which can be further exploited in future research.

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Charmaz, K. (2009). Shifting the grounds. Constructivist grounded theory methods. In J. M. Morse, P. N. Stern, J. Corbin, B. Bowers, K. Charmaz, & A. E. Clarke (Eds.) Developing grounded theory: The second generation. Walnut Creek: Left coast Press. Duch, H. (2017). Uddannelse til erhvervsskolelærer. En diplomuddannelse i et spændingsfelt mellem erhvervsrettet efteruddannelse, voksenuddannelse og professionsrettet videreuddannelse [Vocational teacher education in between vocational education, adult educationa and higher education]. Aalborg: Aalborg Universitetsforlag. Duch. H. (2018). Training for a Profession: Transition from course to workplace. Professions and Professionalism, 8(3), 1–17. Available online at https://journals.hioa.no/index.php/pp/art icle/view/2021 Duch, H., & Andreasen, K. E. (2017). Uddannelse til erhvervslærer inden for de tekniske uddannelsesområder [Education to vocational teacher in the technical area]. Uddannelseshistorie 2017 årbog Selskabet for Skole- og Uddannelseshistorie. 51, 111–129. Duch, H., & Rasmussen, P. (2016) Ind i rammen: Beslutningsprocessen om at omlægge erhvervsskoler-nes pædagogikum til en diplomuddannelse [Into the framework. Making decisions to restructure vocational teachers´ pedagogical education]. Praktiske grunde 1–2, 37–56. Available online at http://praktiskegrunde.dk/pg(2016-1+2).html Duch, H., Egendal, J., Højlund, C., Marcussen, B., Nistrup, U. (2018). Udvikling af Diplomuddannelse i Erhvervspædagogik på baggrund af resultater fra projekter [Development of the Diploma of Vocational Education based on results from projects]. Nordic Journal of Vocational Education and Training 8(3), 1–18. Available online at http://www.njvet.ep.liu.se/issues/2018/v8/i3/ 02/njvet_18v8i3a2.pdf Engeström, Y. (2001). Expansive learning at work: Toward an activity theoretical reconceptualisation. Journal of Education and Work, 14(1), 133–156. Gold, R. L. (1958). Roles in sociological field observations. Social Forces, 36(3), 217–223. Government et al. [Regeringen] (2014). Aftale om Bedre og mere attraktive erhvervsuddannelser. Aftaletekst mellem Regeringen (Socialdemokraterne og Radikale Venstre), Venstre, Dansk Folkeparti, Socialistisk Folkeparti, Konservative Folkeparti og Liberal Alliance. Available online at https://www.regeringen.dk/media/5958/fra-folkeskole-til-faglaert-erhvervsuddannelser-til-fre mtiden.pdf Government et al. [Regeringen] (2018). Fra folkeskole til faglært - Erhvervsuddannelser til fremtiden. Aftale mellem regeringen, Socialdemokratiet, Dansk Folkeparti, Radikale, Venstre og Socialistisk Folkeparti Available online at https://www.regeringen.dk/media/5958/fra-folkes kole-til-faglaert-erhvervsuddannelser-til-fremtiden.pdf Hammerness, K. (2006). From coherence in theory to coherence in practice. Teachers College Record, 108(7), 1241–1265. Hatlevik, I. K. R., & Havnes, A. (2017). Perspektiv på læring i profesjonsutdanninger—frugtbare spenninger og meningsfulle sammenhenger. In: Kvalifisering til profesjonell yrkesutøvelse. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. Heggen, K., Smeby, J.-C., Vägen, A. (2015). Coherence: A longitudinal approach. In J.-C. Smeby, & M. Sutphen (Eds.) From vocational to professional education. London, New York: Routledge. Heggen, K., & Smeby, J.-C. (2012). Gir mest mulig samanheng også den beste profesjonsutdanninga? Norsk Pedagogisk Tidsskrift, 1, 4–14. Hiim, H., & Hippe, E. (2007). Læring gennem oplevelse, forståelse og handling: En studiebog i didaktik. København: Gyldendal. Illeris, K. (2003). Voksenuddannelse og voksenlæring. [Adult education and adult leaning]. Roskilde Universitetsforlag: Learning Lab Denmark. Jorgensen, E. R. (2005). Four philosophical models of the relation between theory and practice. Philosophy of Music Education Rewiew, 13(1), 21–36. Jørgensen, C. H. (2015). Challenges for work-based learning in vocational education and training in the NordicCountries. In S. Bohlinger, U. Haake, C. H. Jørgensen, H. Toiviainen, A. Wallo (Ed.), Work-based Learningand professional development in times of globalisation. Brill | sense. Research on the Educationand Learning of Adults, Vol. 4. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6300244-8_12

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Jørgensen, C. H. (2016). Shifting problems and shifting policies to reduce student drop-out: the case of vocational education policy in Denmark. In S. Bohlinger, T. K. A. Dang, & M. Klatt (Eds.), Education policy: Mapping the landscape and scope. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Kvale, S. & Brinkmann, S. (2009). Interview: Introduktion til et håndværk. Latvia: Hans Reitzel. Laursen, P. F. (2015). Multiple bridges between theory and practice. In: J.-C. Smeby, M. Sutphen (Eds.), From vocational to professional education. Oxon: Routledge. Lund, J. H. (2018). Uddannelsesforståelser i læreruddannelsen − belyst gennem litteraturstudier og empiriske undersøgelser blandt undervisere. Studier i Læreruddannelse Og -Profession, 3(1), 8–31. Lund, J., & Nielsen, B. L. (2019). Sammenhæng i læreruddannelse [Coherence in Teacher Education], Tidsskrift for Professionsstudier, 15(28), 96–107. Available online at https://tidsskrift.dk/ tipro/article/view/113104 Ministry of Children and Education [Undervisningsministeriet] (2018). Lifelong learning Available online at https://eng.uvm.dk/general-overview/lifelong-learning Ministry of Higher Education and Science. [Uddannelses- og Forskningsministeriet] (2018). Bekendtgørelse om diplomuddannelser. Available online at https://www.retsinformation.dk/eli/ lta/2018/1012 Prior, L. (2000). Using documents in social research. SAGE Publications. Schön, D. A. (2013). Uddannelse af den reflekterende praktiker: Tiltag til en ny udformning af undervisning og læring for professionelle. Aarhus: Klim. Tatoo, M. T. (1996). Examining values and beliefs about teaching diverse students: Understanding the challenges for teacher education. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analyses, 18(2), 155– 180. Ministry of Education. [Undervisningsministeriet] (2010). Undersøgelse af løft af den grundlæggende pædagogiske kompetence til diplomniveau. Informationsbrev om den pædagogiske diplomuddannelse i erhvervspædagogik. Williams, K. (2010). Exploring professional development practices for vocational education and training practitioners. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 34(4), 1–15.

Assoc. Prof. Henriette Duch is associate professor at VIA University College, Aarhus, Denmark. Her Ph.D. thesis Vocational teacher education in between vocational education, adult education and higher education is a study of vocational teacher education using sociological theory. She has published articles e.g., about the history of vocational teacher education, professional identity and the assessment system. Furthermore, she is working with organizational perspectives of the teacher education. Her research interests also include professional learning and students’ perspective on learning. She has taught at high schools and is now teaching at the vocational teacher education at VIA University College. She is at member of the program of professional learning at VIA and the European Research Network on Vocational Education and Training (VETNET). Assoc. Prof. Birgitte Lund Nielsen is senior associate professor and research leader in the program for professional learning at VIA University College, Aarhus, Denmark. She has a background teaching in lower secondary school, and later at teacher education and at the university. She has supervised many BA and master-projects in the field of education and is also supervising in Ph.D. projects. Her own Ph.D. research addressed science teachers’ meaning-making in collaborative professional development mediated by video-artefacts. Research interests in her current research are continuingly focused on teachers’ professional learning, professional learning communities, professional agency and teachers’ professional inquiry projects. Furthermore, she has been working with student research and inquiry as part of higher education, dialogic teaching both in school and higher education, in particular addressing video, and learning technology in a broader term, as a mediating factor in professional dialogues.

Chapter 6

A Teacher Education Framework for Fostering Further Education Teachers’ Culturally Responsive Questioning Strategies Niki Hannan Abstract In the New Zealand Institute of Technology and Polytechnic (ITP) sector, teachers come from diverse backgrounds, have high expertise in their fields, and are mostly new to the pedagogies of teaching. Inclusive questioning strategies that support student learning is a skill that develops over time. Therefore, Teacher Educators (TE) need to be informed by the experiences of teachers who have shifted from being novice teachers to becoming effective teacher practitioners (Chan in Asia Pacific Journal of Teacher Education 40:409–421, 2012). There is research on the use of questioning in compulsory educational (Wragg and Brown in Questioning in the secondary school, Routledge Falmer, 2001), some research from higher education (Davoudi and Sadeghi in English Language Teaching 8:76–90, 2015) and almost none from the ITP in New Zealand. Many of the studies found that teachers were generally unaware of the pedagogical potential of questions to enhance the student learning experience. The qualitative study was framed by a constructivistinterpretivist approach in terms of the collection and analysis of data. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather perspectives from six experienced ITP teachers on how they used and adapted questions to support student learning. Thematic analysis was used to code the transcripts and derive themes from the interviews. The codes were established by drawing from constructivism, learner-centered and culturally inclusive educational theory (Gay Culturally responsive teaching, Teachers College Press, 2010, Race in Making learning happen, Sage, 2010). Findings include the following: Firstly, three major themes contributed to a framework for using questions that supported student learning. These were the establishment of a trusting learning environment, planning the use of questions within interactive learning activities, and facilitating learning in a culturally inclusive manner. Secondly, it became evident the teachers developed their questioning strategies by reflecting on their teaching, feedback from learners, and observing learner responses. The framework developed has been a useful observation tool for interpreting what was happening in classrooms and providing feedback. The framework has guided professional development, as a way of conceptualising questioning strategies within culturally inclusive teaching. It N. Hannan (B) Ara Institute of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 S. Loo (ed.), Teacher Educators in Vocational and Further Education, SpringerBriefs in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90502-6_6

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has also been used as a self-checking tool for Teacher Educators to ensure that sound education practice is being modelled. Keywords New Zealand · Teacher educators · Teacher education framework · Questioning strategies · Cultural responsive teaching practice

Introduction In Aotearoa New Zealand, Institutes of Technology and Polytechnic (ITPs) are government-owned tertiary education organisations providing technical and occupational education from foundation to post-graduate levels of study. The mandate from the funding body, the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), is to provide inclusive learning environments fostering parity of outcomes for all learners including M¯aori (the indigenous peoples) and Pacific peoples. ITPs have an obligation to implement teaching practices honouring the bicultural relationship with M¯aori and fostering multi-cultural understandings (Chauvel & Rean, 2012). Teacher education supports this imperative by embedding culturally inclusive pedagogies in teaching programmes. ITP teacher education involves national teaching certificates and diplomas. Teacher Educators design and deliver the teacher education programmes as on-the-job training for teachers who are generally newly appointed to teaching positions. Teacher Educators operate on many levels when designing teacher education, namely the requirements of the TEC, the ITP quality processes, and the needs of new teachers and their learners. New teachers face many challenges when first hired in an ITP. They are employed for their occupational expertise; however, many have not worked in an educational institution and mostly they do not have a teacher’s qualification (Chan, 2019). It can be overwhelming for new teachers coming to terms with teaching and the learning needs of students (Viskovic, 2009). At ITPs learners come from diverse backgrounds including cultural, educational, and socio-economic. The percentage of learners that completed tertiary qualifications in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2018 identified their ethnicities as European 50%, Asian 27%, M¯aori 21%, International students 18%, Pacific 8%, and other 5%1 (Statistics 2020). Many youth have left school without a qualification and many adults are coming back into education after a long break, which adds to the multiplicity of learning needs. It is important teacher education supports new teachers as they navigate the complexities and transition from being experts in their field to becoming skilful educators within their specialist discipline. Among the various teaching strategies requiring development, questioning is a fundamental core skill for effective teaching practice. Questioning has the potential to initiate and sustain the learning process when utilized effectively across all types of educational contexts (Davoudi & Sadeghi, 2015; Wragg & Brown, 2001). In addition, learners need to feel included and valued to engage in learning activities (Gay, 2010). Communication protocols including the 1

Students could choose more than one ethnicity—note international students are not an ethnicity.

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use of questions are culturally mediated (Metge, 1984). By implication, establishing a culturally responsive learning environment is desirable for questioning strategies to be effective. However, effective questioning strategies are highly nuanced, and the related teacher attributes, skills and knowledge develop over time (Viskovic, 2009). Therefore, teacher educators need to be informed by the experiences of tertiary teachers who have shifted from being novice teachers to becoming effective teacher practitioners (Chan, 2012), when designing learning that fosters culturally respectful questioning practices. There is limited research on the use of questioning in compulsory education (Wragg & Brown, 2001), some research from higher education (Davoudi & Sadeghi, 2015) but almost none from the ITP sector in New Zealand. Therefore, this chapter firstly provides a review of literature, secondly a description of the research undertaken, thirdly the findings and discussion on how inclusive questioning skills were developed. Lastly, a framework is offered to enhance teacher expertise and support the provision of culturally responsive teacher education and conclusions are given.

Review of Literature The following draws from literature and research projects regarding Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) and the use of questioning strategies in tertiary learning environments. CRT is a teaching and learning approach whereas questioning strategies are micro teaching skills. It will be argued that to support student learning effectively, questioning strategies need to be embedded within CRT and this has implications for how teacher education is designed.

Culturally Responsive Teaching Practice Culturally responsive teaching practice in the context of this paper means creating a learning environment that acknowledges the understandings of all learners and in particular the experience and knowledge of M¯aori and Pacific learners (Jahnke & Graham, 2014). Ladson-Billings (1994) wrote about teaching and learning of African American students in the United States, describing CRT as a teaching practice drawing on cultural reference points to create teaching and learning interactions that were relevant and therefore more effective in terms of learning. Gay (2010) expanded the concept explaining culturally relevant teaching as an approach that empowered diverse learners by fostering their cultural identity in the learning process. Similarly, in Aotearoa New Zealand, CRT practice is where the teaching strategies, resources, learning environment and curriculum reflect the cultural values and experiences of the learners (Jahnke & Graham, 2014). CRT has been found to raise M¯aori learners’ self perceptions and shows they are valued within the learning process (Greenhalgh et al., 2011).

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In Aotearoa New Zealand, CRT includes the M¯aori concepts of whanaungatanga and manaakitanga. In the online M¯aori dictionary (Moorfield, 2019), manaakitanga is the process of showing respect, generosity, and care for others. Manaakitanga, in educational terms, means recognising the uniqueness of each person by validating their experiences and world views. Diversity is valued and relationships are built on trust, respect, and kindness (Pere, 1982). In addition, whanaungatanga is where relationships provide people with a sense of belonging through shared experiences and working together. In education this includes using teaching approaches and strategies that develop positive social interactions that promote connection and learning. A culturally appropriate and relevant learning environment is consistently identified in the literature as fundamental to M¯aori doing well in tertiary settings (Chauvel & Rean, 2012). Similarly, research on Pasifika student achievement in tertiary education shows Pasifika learners’ success is connected to strong relationships in the learning environment based on respecting and valuing Pasifika cultural perspectives (Luafutu-Simpson et al., 2018). A teacher’s respect for diverse ways of being needs to be cultivated deliberately by getting to know the learners’ aspirations, experience, cultural values, and beliefs about learning (Greenhalgh et al., 2011; Tomoana, 2012). Many cultures emphasise observation and listening regarding the learning process, rather than focussing on speaking and questioning (Stucki, 2012). A time to allow processing of thoughts and silence is highly valued and found to be important to the learning process and therefore comes before discussion (Gay, 2010; Hofstede & Minkov, 2010). Over time, learners are invited to question once they have the foundation to base their thinking on. In addition, some students’ personal learning tendencies include quiet pondering over group discussions and some students experience trepidation in terms of speaking or asking questions in a big group (Frambach et al., 2014). Therefore, teacher education needs to emphasise the importance of being aware of diverse learners’ needs and ensure that questioning practices enhance and not hinder the learning process. A culturally responsive learning environment for all learners in tertiary education in Aotearoa New Zealand can be developed through manaakitanga and whanaungatanga and supported by social constructivist teaching methodologies (Stucki, 2012). In other words, CRT becomes the lens by which learner-centred interactive teaching strategies building on learners’ knowledge and experience are designed. The culturally responsive educator tries to get to know the students and includes them in the teaching and learning process so that effective relationships are developed between the learners and with the teacher. Therefore, using a culturally responsive/respectful perspective is also vital when designing questioning strategies which are part of constructivist pedagogy.

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Questioning Strategies that Support Student Learning Eight recent studies from the global tertiary sector (including teacher education), using observations of classroom practice and interviewing teachers, have described how questions can be used well to support student learning (Albergaria-Almeida, 2010; Farrell & Mom, 2015; Gul et al., 2014; Jiang, 2014; Murcia & Sheffield, 2010; Ozuem & Lancaster, 2015; Stevens & Huddy, 2016; Wasserman & Walkington, 2014). These studies focussed on the micro skills of questioning. Regarding constructivist learning processes, questions have been found to foster learner engagement by arousing curiosity in a topic and helping learners to connect their prior knowledge to new information (Davoudi & Sadeghi, 2015; Farrell & Mom, 2015; Ozuem & Lancaster, 2015). When exploring new ideas, questions were reported to stimulate thinking, develop concepts, initiate discussion, and to set up and to debrief activities (Murcia & Sheffield, 2010; Stevens & Huddy, 2016). Similarly, in relation to making sense and consolidating new learning, questions have been shown to be useful formative assessment tools to check that learning had occurred and to direct reflection onto what had been achieved and the learning process used (Jiang, 2014; Ozuem & Lancaster, 2015; Stevens & Huddy, 2016). The studies reported questions, when well designed, guided interactive teaching approaches and focussed on what students needed to do to construct their learning. Some questions initiated discussions, framed group activities, and have been shown to develop critical thinking. Furthermore, Murcia and Sheffield (2010) argued that learner-centred teaching practice was sustained by planned questioning. However, the eight studies showed many teachers did not have the time to think about or plan how to use questions in their teaching practice.

Inclusive Use of Questioning Strategies There is evidence that a trusting learning environment needs to be established early in the learning process to encourage learners to ask and answer questions (Jiang, 2014; Ozuem & Lancaster, 2015). Ozuem and Lancaster (2015) found learners needed to be invited to ask questions rather than assuming students will volunteer questions. Jiang (2014) also observed that learners asked and answered more questions when there was an inclusive and welcoming tone, and where there was rapport and a high level of trust between the teacher and students. Another way of encouraging learners to contribute was for teachers to show that all learners’ responses were valuable by referring to student answers when developing concepts. As a result, students’ confidence was increased and learners kept asking and responding to questions (Gul et al., 2014; Jiang, 2014). Increasing the amount of time given to allow students to answer a question was also found to improve student participation in the learning process. Albergaria-Almeida (2010) observed that if teachers waited for more than five seconds then learners

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were more engaged and thoughtful in their interactions. The need for more waittime to support student learning was endorsed by other studies, some of which also found that, generally, teachers were unaware of how long they waited for answers (Jiang, 2014; Murcia & Sheffield, 2010; Ozuem & Lancaster, 2015; Wasserman & Walkington, 2014). A further study reviewed for this project, specifically referred to the culture of the learners in regard to the practice of asking and responding to questioning. Frambach et al. (2014) compared learner behaviour regarding answering questions of students from various cultures. This study found that some learners who refrained from asking and answering questions were from cultures where there was a formal hierarchy between teachers and learners, a need to be sure of an answer before speaking out loud, and where there was a tradition of not questioning the teachers. However, there was little mention of the importance of establishing a trusting, inclusive learning environment or teacher awareness of cultural differences in relation to questioning in the Frambach et al. study (2014) or the other eight studies focussed on teaching practice cited in this chapter. This is surprising given the cultural diversity of the sample populations in the studies and the similarity of the findings regarding the use of questions. Hence, there was a need for further research drawing upon both the approach of CRT practice and the micro skills of questioning techniques.

Teachers Awareness of How Questions Are Used Using questions effectively within a culturally responsive learning environment is complex with many contributing factors. The eight studies accessed for the review have shown that teachers, when interviewed, seemed generally unaware of the way they used questions in the classroom. Some teachers were not aware of the cultural implications, what questions they asked, how long they waited for students to answer, or how they used student responses to adapt the learning process. These findings were also consistent with research cited within each of the respective literature reviews. While research has shown that an effective use of questions is pivotal to enhancing student learning, it is also evident that if teachers are not aware of this then questions may not be planned or used to their full potential in their teaching practice. Given the findings that, generally, tertiary teachers were not aware of comprehensive questioning strategies, few studies explored teachers’ perspectives on what they do know about their use of questions. This study, therefore, sought to identify which aspects of effective questioning ITP experienced teachers knew about and how questioning and answering (Q & A) strategies were developed.

Research Method The research questions of the project were:

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How do ITP teachers use questions to support student learning? How ITP teachers adapt questioning so learners from different cultures feel able to participate in the learning?

In 2017, experienced teachers from one ITP were invited to participate in the project. The participants were chosen using criteria established in relation to the aim of the research. This is in line with purposeful sampling which is appropriate for qualitative research (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011). The selection criteria were the completion of a diploma in tertiary teaching and to be currently teaching. Using these criteria ensured firstly, the participants, as part of their previous training, had demonstrated inclusive learner-centred teaching approaches, including the use of questions. Secondly, these teachers had teaching experience to draw from when being interviewed, because it typically took at least four to five years on-the-job to complete a diploma. Qualitative data was collected by six individual semi-structured interviews allowing exploration of participants’ experience and perceptions (Cirocki, 2010). A sequence of key open questions with follow-up ones enabled in-depth answers. The interviews were between 25 and 40 min long, were audio taped and transcribed. Each transcript was checked by the respective teacher for accuracy.

Data Analysis A thematic analysis approach (Boyatzis, 1998) was used to induct the main themes arising from the interviews. This process included using key words to analyse the data. Codes and categories became self-evident and were worded in relation to concepts from the literature review (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011). Links between the categories formed sub-themes and eventually overarching themes were developed. There was also a constant moving back and forward between all responses of questions, key words, codes, and categories making additions and refinements (Boyatzis, 1998).

Teacher Profiles The six teachers brought considerable teaching experience ranging from 7 to 14 years in tertiary education. They all started teacher education early in their careers. Another commonality is that they all taught in a classroom setting. In terms of cultural contexts, two teachers said, during the interviews, that English was their second language, while the other four teachers had English as their first language. Regarding the learners, two teachers had homogenous groups and the other four teachers had students from many different ethnicities. See Table 6.1 for further teacher profile details (pseudonyms used).

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Table 6.1 Teaching context and tertiary teaching experience Gender

Years tertiaray teaching

Numbers of students

Cultures of students

Teaching Type of subject level of teaching subject room

Barb

F

12.5

20–50

E, M, P, C, I, many

Project management L5, 6, 7

Classroom

Ann

F

14

Up to 38

Mostly E

Radiography L5, 6, 7

Classroom

Lee

F

11

9

I, P, E, many Work skills L1, 2, 3

Classroom

Carl

M

7

10–60

E, C, G, I, Many

Computer programming L5, 6, 7

Cumputer room, classroom

John

M

12

Up to 70

Mostly E

Broadcasting L5, 6, 7

Studio classroom

Sue

F

10

Up to 16

I, M, P, many

Wallpapering L3, 4

Workshop, classroom

Abbreviation: M M¯aori, P Pacifica, E European descent, I Indian, C Chinese, G German, many many cultures present

Findings The reporting of findings focuses on the themes that emerged from the thematic analysis of the interview data. The study revealed two common themes, despite the teachers coming from a range of discipline areas and teaching students at different levels2 : (1) A trusting learning environment was fostered so that learners willingly participated in Q & A, and (2) Q & A strategies were embedded in planned learnercentred activities.

Fostering a Trusting Learning Environment All teachers talked about the need for a trusting environment where learners felt comfortable and safe as part of their teaching approach. They were aware that some learners experienced initial discomfort when first asked questions in a group and that learners needed to get to know and trust the teacher. Three examples follow: Sue

2

I try to include everybody; I am big on respect. I try to model and practice what I preach. They confide in me. I try to create an environment that is safe where they can ask a lot of questions and learn. I try not to just give them all the information, I try to get it out of them by using questions. Some people

Levels 1–4 are Certificates, levels 5,6 Diplomas and level 7 Degrees and Graduate Diplomas.

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just don’t like, especially in that first part, to ask questions, so I just make them comfortable and say there is no silly question. As a teacher my job is to get learners to reflect on their practice. I am on this journey with them. We are very much collegial. I am one of the team. I prefer a relatively smaller classroom and smaller number of students. The reason is I feel everyone is more relaxed, and easy to talk to and give feedback to each other. At the beginning of the course, they are very shy. I try to make small talk sometimes after class to get the students to know me and for me to get to know them.

To encourage the learners to participate in Q & A the teachers had different ways to show that learners’ responses were valued. For example: Ann

Barb

Eventually I will start asking questions, they understand and will start trusting me that there isn’t a catch somewhere…they will start responding quicker and will start having more confidence, you can see it in their faces. I say “you are on fire you’ve got it brilliant” so they start trusting me. l will draw a mind map, and on each leg, I will write the answer from a specific group… I try to relate the theory I am trying to teach them back to the answers that they have given me, so they can hook onto their own thoughts.

Q & A Strategies Embedded in Learner-Centred Activities All teachers described the approaches they used when planning learning activities using constructivist pedagogies (Race, 2010). For example: working with what students already knew, meeting diverse learner needs, and using active learning and group work. The teachers reported many interactive learner-centred practices that supported learners to use Q & A as a learning tool. The type of activities used enabled learners to work out answers to questions on their own and with others. John

Carl

It is about me questioning and finding out and letting them find the answers …there will be moments when we need to stop and question each other. I ask them to talk to someone next to them about this, and we come back together. I have been practicing learner-centred approaches when designing learning activities…I use questions to get feedback on what they feel and know about a topic… I also ask, “Can you explain what happens if I change an effect?” or I say, “Yes, thanks, you indicated one possibility, is there another way?”

In addition, the teachers provided evidence of adapting their questions and teaching strategies when they saw that students were struggling to answer and needed more time to think. For example: Barb

I learned that if I ask a question and no one answers, I will say, “Think about it and discuss it with your friends and each group give me feedback.” I also

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encourage them to speak in their own language if their English is not so good... The students like this because they get to know each other as well. Some students will answer completely on a different tangent. So, my brain kicks in, do I need to rephrase that? What are the actual concepts within the question? Often, I need to break this down further or take it back to an even simpler level. A big thing is relating it to what we know about the student.

The teachers reported by fostering an inclusive learning environment, learners willingly participated in Q & A: Sue

Lee

This class has been good with supporting each other and made it a really nice environment where they are happy to ask each other for help. I see them start to ask questions which is good, and I see them start to ask each other questions, and they get more confident talking in front of people. At the start we do a lot of stuff around whakapapa3 …we see them think more deeply and take responsibility for their own learning.

When asked about the impact of questions on student learning, the teachers talked about increased learner confidence which led to increased engagement. The teachers reported learners were sharing ideas with each other, making sense of information, and gauging their own learning as a result of the type of Q & A strategies used within the learning activities. These findings are consistent with relevant literature on effective use of Q & A strategies (Davoudi & Sadeghi, 2015). The teachers in this inquiry reflected on a number of ways of developing their Q & A strategies, namely: adapting their use of questions based on learner responses, trial and error, feedback from observers and taking part in teacher education. In addition, the teachers showed evidence of reflective practice when responding to the interview questions.

Discussion The experienced teachers in this project showed a high awareness in terms of establishing a trusting learning environment and embedding Q & A strategies into learning activities that supported and enhanced the learning process. There was strong alignment between learning approaches, learning activities, Q & A strategies. This is in contrast to the findings of previous studies (Albergaria-Almeida, 2010; Farrell & Mom, 2015; Gul et al., 2014; Jiang, 2014; Murcia & Sheffield, 2010; Ozuem & Lancaster, 2015; Stevens & Huddy, 2016; Wasserman & Walkington, 2014). However, the teachers’ responses focussed on fostering their relationship with the learners, rather than developing the learners’ relationships with each other. Aspects of whanaungatanga and manaakitanga were evident, however, they were not overtly mentioned and there were not many considerations of culturally responsive 3

Genealogy.

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teaching in terms of incorporating cultural identity, world views and cultural reference points (Luafutu-Simpson et al., 2018). For example, only one teacher used M¯aori language in the interviews. Bishop et al. (2012) argue that to become a culturally responsive educator, in terms of teaching M¯aori learners, requires teacher mentoring that is focussed on use of te reo, tikanga4 and M¯aori related content. By implication, this means the establishment of deeper CRT requires teacher education in Aotearoa New Zealand to be infused with M¯atauranga M¯aori5 in a similar way. Arguably, using CRT practice as a lens to design activities with embedded Q & A strategies, thus allowing all learners to participate fully in the learning process, is multifaceted and complicated. This project showed that establishing reflective practice early in a tertiary teacher’s career provides strategies that enable teachers to continue to develop their practice beyond initial teacher training. It is possible that constructivist inclusive practice could be a foundation from which CRT practice can grow.

A Framework for Fostering Culturally Responsive Questioning Strategies Teaching teachers is another level of complexity which requires the teacher educator to effectively model what they want learnt (Gist et al., 2019). Thus, in order to support teacher education a framework was developed, from this project, to show visually the relationships between establishing a trusting learning environment, planning learnercentred activities and facilitation supporting learners to interact with Q & A (see Fig. 6.1). CRT practice needs to be infused into all aspects. Notably, the intersection of all three circles would be the optimal teaching and learning space where all are fully engaged, and effective learning is happening. The framework, from a teacher educator perspective, could be a useful tool for providing feedback on classroom observations. For instance, an observer may notice a teacher using activities that could be strengthened by including the cultural perspectives and prior experience of their learners. Similarly, further education teachers could use the framework to identify their own strengths and weaknesses. For example, a teacher may realise they plan well but they need to align their questions more with the type of thinking they want their learners to develop or that they need to find more ways to value learner responses. The framework could also guide professional development, as a way of conceptualising questioning strategies within culturally inclusive teaching. In the same way, it could be used for teacher educators to critique the delivery and design of teacher education programmes. It is further anticipated that teacher educators globally may adapt the Q & A framework to their own cultural contexts. 4 5

Te Reo means M¯aori language; tikanga means cultural protocols. M¯aori knowledge.

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Fig. 6.1 Framework for fostering culturally responsive questioning strategies

Conclusion Literature and previous studies have shown that questioning plays an important part in facilitating student learning. This research adds to the teacher education field by showing questioning strategies need to be embedded within constructivist inclusive teaching practice. In addition, inclusive questioning strategies would be further enhanced by culturally responsive teaching practice. The implication for further teacher education is the design of qualifications needs to be infused with culturally responsive teaching principles and practices and be responsive to minority and indigenous peoples’ cultures. The research also implies that if reflective practice is established early in tertiary teachers’ careers then it will support the further development of teaching pedagogy. This would be enhanced by professional learning opportunities beyond preliminary teaching qualifications for teachers to extend their culturally responsive practices. In terms of designing future teacher education research, interviewing experienced tertiary teachers is recommended, because of the in-depth insights gained. This type of research needs to be extended by including more tertiary education providers

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and bigger cohorts. There also needs to be more research on combining culturally responsive teaching and microteaching skills in other global contexts. The framework that emerged from this inquiry could also prove useful for enhancing teacher education expertise by fostering culturally responsive questioning practice designed to situate the learner at the heart of the learning process. Acknowledgements The author wishes to acknowledge the mentoring provided by Charmaine Tukua, Teacher Educator M¯atauranga M¯aori, in particular the development of the Framework for fostering culturally responsive questioning strategies.

References Albergaria-Almeida, P. (2010). Classroom questioning: Teachers’ perceptions and practices. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2, 305–309. Bishop, R., Berryman, M., Wearmouth, J., Peter, M., & Clapham, S. (2012). Professional development, changes in teacher practice and improvements in indigenous students’ educational performance: A case study from New Zealand. Teaching and Teacher Education, 28, 694–705. Boyatzis, R. (1998). Transforming qualitative information: Thematic analysis and code development. Sage. Chan, S. (2012). Perspectives of new trades tutors: Boundary crossing between vocational identities. Asia Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 40, 409–421. Chan, S. (2019). Perspectives of beginning trades tutors on teaching and learning. In S. Loo (Ed.), Multiple dimensions of teaching and learning for occupational practice (pp. 56–71). Routledge. Chauvel, F., & Rean, J. (2012). Doing better for M¯aori in Tertiary setting: A review of Literature. Wellington, New Zealand, Tertiary Education Commission. Cirocki, A. (2010). Classroom ethnographies: Doing teacher research. In G. Park, H. Widodo, A. Cirocki (Eds.) Observation of teaching: Bridging theory and practice through research on teaching. Munich, Lincom Europa, pp. 63–81. Creswell, J., & Plano Clark, V. (2011). Designing and conducting mixed methods research. Sage. Davoudi, M., & Sadeghi, N. (2015). A systematic review of research on questioning as a high-level cognitive strategy. English Language Teaching, 8, 76–90. Farrell, T., & Mom, V. (2015). Exploring teacher questions through reflective practice. Reflective Practice, 16, 849–865. Frambach, J., Driessen, E., Beh, P., & van der Vleuten, C. (2014). Quiet or questioning? Students’ discussion behaviors in student-centered education across cultures. Studies in Higher Education, 39, 1001–1021. Gay, G. (2010). Culturally responsive teaching. Teachers College Press. Gist, C., Jackson, I., Nightengale-Lee, B., & Allen, K. (2019) Culturally responsive pedagogy in ssteacher edication. Oxford Research Encyclopaedia, Education. Available online at https://www. academia.edu/40214467/Culturally_Responsive_Pedagogy_in_Teacher_Education Greenhalgh, A., Walker, S., Tipa-Rogers, K., & Hunter, R. (2011). Tutor practices that increase completion for M¯aori PTE students. Available online at https://ako.ac.nz/Search?term=Greenh algh Gul, R., Khan, S., Ahmed, A., Cassum, S., Saeed, T., Parpio, Y., & Profetto-McGrath, J. (2014). Enhancing educators’ skills for promoting critical thinking in their classroom discourses. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 26, 37–54. Hofstede, G., & Minkov, M. (2010). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind. Intercultural cooperation and its importance for survival. New York, McGraw-Hill.

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Jahnke, T., & Graham, J. (2014). Te Pae Huarewa: Tribal perspectives on M¯aori education. In A. St. George, S. Brown, J. O’Neill (Eds.) Facing the big questions in teaching: Purpose, power and learning (pp. 44–54) New Zealand: Cengage Learning, . Jiang, Y. (2014). Exploring teacher questioning as a formative assessment strategy. A Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 45, 287–304. Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African American children. Jossey-Bass. Luafutu-Simpson, P., Noa, A., Uta’i, S., & Petelo, L. (2018). Pasifika success indicators. Available online at https://ako.ac.nz/assets/Knowledge-centre/NPF-15-009-Evaluating-the-PasifikaSuccess-Toolkit/676e3bb3b0/TOOL-Pasifika-Success-Indicators.pdf Metge, J. (1984). Talking past each other: Problems of cross cultural communication. Victoria University Press. Moorfield, J. (2019) Te Aka Online M¯aori Dictionary. Available online at https://maoridictionary. co.nz/ Murcia, K., & Sheffield, R. (2010). Talking about science in interactive whiteboard classrooms. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 26, 417–431. Ozuem, W., & Lancaster, G. (2015). Questioning: A path to student learning experience. Education + Training, 57, 474–491. Pere, R. (1982). Ako concepts and learning in the M¯aori tradition. Department of Sociology, Waikato University. Race, P. (2010). Making learning happen. Sage. Statistics. (2020). Education counts: Tertiary education. Available online at https://www.education counts.govt.nz/statistics/tertiary-participation. Stevens, K., & Huddy, A. (2016). The performance in context model: A 21st century tertiary dance teaching pedagogy. Research in Dance Education, 17, 67–85. Stucki, P. (2012). A m¯aori pedagogy: Weaving the strands together. Available online at https://files. eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ976653.pdf. Tomoana, R. (2012). Sharing successful teaching and learning strategies for M¯aori, Pacific, and youth learners. Available online at https://ako.ac.nz/knowledge-centre/effective-teaching-maoripacific-youth/ Viskovic, A. (2009). Survey of literature relating to tertiary teacher development and qualifications. New Zealand: Ako Aotearoa National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence. Wasserman, N., & Walkington, C. (2014). Exploring links between beginning teachers’ beliefs and observed classroom practices. Teacher Education and Practice, 27, 376–401. Wragg, E., & Brown, G. (2001). Questioning in the secondary school. Routledge Falmer.

Niki Hannan has over 20 years of experience as a teacher educator in the community and tertiary environments. This includes developing assessment processes and designing teaching and learning in both the online and face-to-face environments. Part of her current role is team-teaching Te Tiriti o Waitangi Workshops for the Certificate and Graduate Diploma in Teaching Tertiary, at Ara Institute of Canterbury Limited, New Zealand. Having recently completed her Masters in Education, she is enjoying being part of collaborative research projects focussing on M¯aori pedagogy and the transformation of student lives through education and the learner journey. She believes in Ara rau, taumata rau—The many pathways of learning and the many opportunities learning provides.

Chapter 7

Further Education Teacher Educators’ Initial Disciplines, Journeys and Titles: From Their Perspectives in Higher Education Institutions, Further Education Colleges and Private Providers Sai Loo Abstract This chapter relates to the ‘professionalisation of teacher educators’ theme in the Call for Papers. The specific topics examined here are the initial disciplines, pathways of becoming these educationists, and the related titles. The empirical data that is used relates to an investigation of English further education (FE) teacher educators (Loo in Professional development of teacher educators in further education: pathways, knowledge, identities, and vocationalism. Abingdon, Routledge, 2020), which draws on 33 participants using a mixed-method approach of a questionnaire, semi-structured interviews and Talking Heads (a narrative method). The teacher educators-participants were from higher education institutions, FE colleges and private providers. The data is analysed to seek out the similarities and differences on the three themes of the participants’ initial disciplines, pathways/journeys to becoming educators and their current role titles from the perspectives of their work settings of higher education institutions, FE colleges and private providers. The reason to approach this chapter based on institutions is to ascertain a nuanced picture that has not been researched before. The literature review is structured into three themes: initial disciplines, pathways of becoming teacher educators, and related job titles. Some of the salient sources regarding the initial disciplines include Becher (The significance of disciplinary differences. Studies in Higher Education, 19:151– 161, 1994) and Smeby (Disciplinary differences in university teaching. Studies in Higher Education, 21:69–79, 1996) to facilitate the classifications of disciplinary areas. With the pathways theme, publications by Noel (The secret life of teacher educators: Becoming a teacher educator in the learning and skills sector. Journal of Vocational Education and Training 58(2):151–170) and Mayer, Mitchell, Santoro and White (Teacher educators and ‘accidental’ careers in academe: An Australian perspective. Journal of Education for Teaching 37(3):247–260, 2011) are used to typologies the journeys of these educationists. In the last theme on titles, the reference to job titles in the ‘Training to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector’ document S. Loo (B) UCL Institute of Education, University College London, London, UK e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 S. Loo (ed.), Teacher Educators in Vocational and Further Education, SpringerBriefs in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90502-6_7

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by the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (Training to teach in the lifelong learning sector, LSIS, 2011) is used. The findings from this empirical data centre on the similarities and differences of the three themes: initial disciplines, journeys and job titles, as viewed from the perspectives of the three different sectors: FE colleges, higher education institutions and private providers. The commonalities may be explained by the collective educational contexts of working in the FE sector, and the differences, by the differing priorities of these educationists working in their diverse organisations. Finally, the findings are reviewed regarding their implications to the related stakeholders and their contributions to the sector. Keywords England · Further education · Teacher educators · Initial disciplines · Journeys · Titles

Introduction This chapter refers to the ‘professionalisation of teacher educators’ theme in the Call for Papers. The specific topics examined here are the initial disciplines, pathways of becoming these educationists, and the related titles. The empirical data used relates to a project in England of 33 teacher educators from three parts of the further education sector (Loo, 2020). These are educators working in higher education institutions, FE colleges and private providers. The research question from the project that is pertinent to this chapter relates to the routes to becoming teacher educators in the FE sector (Loo, 2020). The researchers included Sai Loo (Principal Investigator (PI), University College London), Gordon Ade-Ojo (University of Greenwich), Heather Booth-Martin (Craven College), John Bostock (Edge Hill University), Jim Crawley (Bath Spa University), Baiba Eberte (Carlton Training), Nicola Sowe (NBS Teacher Training), and Sonia Spencer (North Herefordshire College). A mixed-method approach of a survey, one-to-one semistructured interviews, Talking Heads and documentary research was employed. The questionnaire provided data regarding the gender, age group, academic and professional qualifications, teaching experiences and role titles of the participants. Part of the interview questions focused on the educators’ journeys, and the Talking Heads were audio recordings of these educators on their journey-making. The rationale for using Talking Heads was to offer the participants ownership and freedom to reflect on their roles as educators. Supporting documents, such as curriculum and government reports, were also amassed. A pilot study was done before the actual data capture. The researchers managed methodological activities such as ethics, interviews and audio transcriptions, and analysis. The PI’s institution approved the project (Loo, 2020). For this chapter, the updated data is analysed to seek out the similarities and differences on the three themes of the participants’ initial disciplines, pathways/journeys to becoming educators and their current role titles from the perspectives of their work settings of higher education institutions, FE colleges and private providers.

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The reason to approach this chapter based on institutions is to ascertain a more nuanced picture that has not been researched before. A short description would be helpful for international readers who may not be au fait with the English FE system. The education sector is defined as “any study taken after the age of 16 that is not part of higher education (that is, not taken as part of an undergraduate or a postgraduate degree). It is delivered by a range of public, private, and voluntary sector providers and, in general, equips a learner for further learning, including Higher Education or employment. It also plays an important role in reaching out to disadvantaged groups to encourage their participation in learning when they otherwise might not” (Department for Business and Skills, 2016, p. 4). This sector offers additional learning opportunities for learners who may not have achieved the necessary academic qualifications from compulsory education. The range of teaching institutions includes adult and community learning providers, armed and uniformed services, commercial organisations, FE colleges, independent training providers, prisons and offender learning institutions, public-sector organisations, specialist colleges, and voluntary and community organisations (Education and Training Foundation, 2014). In terms of statistics, the FE colleges have 2.2 million students, and there are 257 colleges (as in February 2019). Of these, 174 are in further education, 57 in sixth form colleges, 14 in land-based colleges, 10 in specialists designated, and 2 in art, design, and performing art colleges. The average age of these learners is 29 years. The 2.2 million learners comprised 1.4 million adults, 685,000 16- to 18-year-olds, and 76,000 16- to 18-year-olds in apprenticeship courses (Association of Colleges, 2019). Furthermore, 35,438 teachers in the FE colleges, and 71.3% teach in work-related programmes. Of these occupational/vocational courses, the largest five subject areas were in the visual and performing arts; foundation courses; health, social care and public services; business administration, management and professional; and hospitality, sports, leisure, and travel, which accounted for 45% of the occupational programmes (Frontier Economics Limited, 2016, Table 17). This chapter should be viewed from the above FE sector characteristics. The related teacher educators/trainers would need to cover vast ranges of teaching organisations, programme offers, and learners where those with learning issues might feature significantly. Finally, the chapter is organised into four sections. Following the introduction, the next section provides a literature review of the three themes. The third section uses the relevant empirical data from the quantitative and qualitative research methods to delineate the three proposed themes of initial disciplines of the teacher educators, pathways and current job titles of the participants. This discussion is structured by the educators working in the higher education institutions, FE colleges and private providers. The final section includes a summary of the contributions and implications of the research.

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Literature Sources This section is structured into three themes: initial disciplines, the pathways of becoming these educationists, and the related titles.

Initial Disciplines The initial disciplines refer to those subject areas that the teacher educators started within their academic qualifications. Biglan (1973), Kolb (1981), Becher (1994), Smeby (1996), and Neumann et al. (2002) provide classifications of disciplinary areas in higher education. In particular, Biglan (1973), Becher (1994) and Smeby (1996) use a typology of four regions, namely: ‘hard-pure’, ‘soft-pure’, ‘hard-applied’ and ‘soft-applied’. These classifications enable us to think about the initial disciplines of the teacher educators in the project and how these might inform their eventual pathways and roles they play as educators. I will draw on Becher’s (1994) classification, which was focused on the UK higher education institutions, for valid comparisons to this chapter. He defined the ‘hard-pure’ subject areas as those in the pure/natural sciences. These areas include physics, mathematics and chemistry, which have common characteristics that are concerned with universals and resulted in discovery/explanations. He argued that these disciplines were competitive, gregarious, politically organised and task-oriented (Becher, 1994, Table II). The ‘soft-pure’ subject area has characteristics associated with reiterative and holistic activities that require understanding and interpretation. Examples of these subjects are archaeology and anthropology. Regarding the third discipline type in this classification, ‘hard-applied’ is seen as purposive, pragmatic, and are associated with products or techniques that are entrepreneurial. An example of this discipline is engineering with professional values and is goal-oriented. The last type is ‘soft-applied’, and education is such an example where the required knowledge is functional and practical (its knowledge is ‘soft-pure’). This group’s related occupational/professional practices are supposed to be outward-looking, uncertain in status, and dominated by intellectual fashion and power-oriented (Becher, 1994). However, this classification has its critics. For example, Klein (1996) argued that there might be overlaps between the four types of subject areas, which she termed ‘permeation’. She offered six types of permeation. These types relate to the epistemological structure, relations with near disciplines; the attraction of fashionable ideas; and the pull of problem-solving over disciplinary focus. Also, they include the complexity of research on disciplinary areas; and the redefinitions of the characteristics of the disciplines (Klein, 1996). From the perspective of this project, the initial disciplinary regions of Communication Studies, Drama and Fine Art might not be so distinct. In a later study by Tight (2015), a more occupational focus was chosen where engineering, law and pharmacy were selected for further investigation.

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This occupational centred approach is more in keeping with this investigation of this chapter. The salient point of Becher’s study is it is a relevant starting point to think about the initial disciplines of the 33 teacher educators in the English FE sector. There may be subject areas that are not clear cut, and Klein’s and Tight’s development of Becher’s typology can offer additional insights.

Pathways of Becoming These Educationists Regarding the journeys of FE teacher educators, there are lamentably few publications. Noel (2006) attempted to investigate the pathways of these educators in the English FE sector but not in any great depth. But, Noel (2006, p. 162) indicates that “becoming a teacher educator is unlikely to be an initial choice”. In Australian research by Mayer, Mitchell, Santoro and White (2011) with 19 participants, the terms such as ‘fell into’ and ‘chance meeting with’ suggest an unintentional element of becoming teacher educators. The notion of intentionality is studied as a starting basis. From a linguistic perspective, in the hope that this approach provides insights into the educators’ journeys. Following a Google search of this term, the websites like Cambridge English Dictionary, Merriam-Webster and Oxford Dictionaries), intent, intention or intentionality are nouns associated with an aim or plan alongside the action. A teacher educator’s intended activity may be perceived as a deliberate, planned and conscious action, whereas ‘unintended action’ is unplanned, not calculated or unconscious. The dichotomy of intended and unintended activities/actions offers a starting basis for understanding the possible pathways of the teacher educators, and there may be a mixture of these two actions. Also, one should not view these actions as immutable and might be connections between the types of pathways/journeys.

Related Titles Regarding the job titles of the teacher educators, there appear to be no FE publications in this area. However, the ‘Training to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector’ (Learning and Skills Improvement Service, 2011) document offered some job titles like ‘teacher, trainer, lecturer, tutor, instructor’. At least these essential titles provide a starting basis for studying the job titles of FE teacher educators in England. From the above literature reviews, the following section offers discussions of the empirical data with the sources.

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Findings and Discussion This section is structured into the same three themes as in the previous section. In each of the topics, delineations of perspectives from higher education institutions, further education and private providers are offered.

Initial Disciplines The data from the 33 participants are derived from the Questionnaire, Section B, Question 6—Academic and Professional Qualifications. The updated data from the survey was analysed into the three sectors of higher education institutions (HEI), further education colleges (FE) and private providers (PP). From these, the academic qualifications of the participants were classified into the four Becher’s (1994) typology of subject areas, namely: ‘hard pure’, ‘soft-pure’, ‘hard-applied’ and ‘soft-applied’. Both the analysis and classification were carried out to ascertain a more detailed and nuanced picture of the initial empirical evidence for this chapter (from the perspectives of teacher educators in the three sectors). Table 7.1 provides an overview of the 23 disciplinary areas from the 33 teacher educators. In total, 33 participants accounted for 77 instances of the 23 disciplinary areas. For example, there are 29 participants with qualifications in education studies (as a disciplinary type of ‘soft-applied’). So, some teacher educators had more than one initial qualification (including academic and professional), and not surprisingly, education studies are the most frequently recorded. The educations studies included related first degree and postgraduate programmes (e.g. Masters, EdDs and PhDs) but excluded related teacher education/training qualifications. However, referring to teaching education qualifications, all the participants had either such qualifications or, if not, education qualifications at the first-degree or postgraduate levels, as one would expect from this particular group of educationists. These teacher education qualifications included a Postgraduate Certificate in Education, Certificate in Education/Teaching and Awards in Preparing to Teach in the Life Long Learning Sector (PTLLS). Higher education institutions usually accredited the first two qualifications. Awarding bodies such as The City and Guilds and Royal Society of Arts awarded the PTLLS courses, which were at Levels 3 or 4. The second most popular discipline was English/ESL/Applied linguistics, with nine instances. The classification in Table 7.1 is based on Chikoore et al. (2016) categories. They developed further the four types of subjects propounded by Becher (1994). Table 7.1, of the 13 participants from the HEIs, accounted for 41 academic and professional qualifications. From the 15 participants teaching in the FE colleges, 28 academic and professional qualifications were found. From the five participants in the PP sector, there were eight academic and professional qualifications. Viewed as a proportion of qualifications to participants, the HEI participants had a higher

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Table 7.1 Initial disciplines and teaching institutions Subject classification

HEI

FE

PP

Total

‘Hard’

Zoology (1) 1

Mathematics (1) 1

‘Soft’

English/ESL/applied linguistics (3) Modern languages (3) Art (4) Economics (2) History (1) Archaeology (1) Drama (1) English literature (1) Politics (1) Psychology (1) 18

English/ESL/applied linguistics (6) Modern languages (1) Art (1) History (1) English literature (1) 10

Modern languages (1) Anthropology (1) Islamic studies (1) 3

31

‘Hard-applied’

Health studies (1) 1

Health studies (1) Nursing (1) 2

Nursing (1) 1

4

‘Soft-applied’

Education (13) Personnel and Management (3) Business studies (2) Leisure and hotel management (2) Accountancy (1) 21

Education (12) Personnel and Management (2) Leisure and hotel management (1) 15

Education (4) 4

40

Total

41

28

8

77

2

ratio of 3.1, the FE, 1.9, and the PP, 1.6. Perhaps, one may deduce that the teacher educators from those teaching in the higher education sector require more qualifications, mostly postgraduate degrees, than those teaching in the FE and private sectors. Using doctoral qualifications (i.e. EdDs and PhDs) as a simple measure, those in HEIs numbered 10, FE, 3, and none in the PP sector. This measure seemed logical as one would expect higher education educators to be more academically qualified than those in FE and, perhaps, least so with the private providers. The other possible reason is related to teacher education/training courses offered by the three teaching providers. The teacher education courses offered in the private sector appeared to be from awarding bodies such as City and Guilds and Edexcel at various academic levels. In comparison, the FE colleges use a mixture of courses from awarding bodies and university accredited ones. The teacher education programmes from higher education institutions were accredited within their institutions and were mainly at the postgraduate level. From the perspectives of the subject classification (Table 7.1), there appeared to be a broader range of disciplines (19) from 13 participants, i.e., a ratio of 1.5. There were 13 disciplines from 15 teacher educators in the FE sector, i.e. a ratio of 0.9, and

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from the private sector, five subjects from 5 participants or a ratio of 1.0. It appeared that there was a more extensive range of disciplinary experiences by the participants in the HE sector. The difference in the FE and the private sector ratios might not be viewed as significant due to the small sample size. From work-related areas such as accountancy, health studies, leisure and hotel management, nursing, and personnel and management studies, both the teacher educators in the FE and HE sectors had representations. Perhaps, one would expect a higher concentration in the FE sector as this sector offered a higher concentration of vocation/work-related programmes. One would expect to reflect this in their teacher educators’ experiences. One pertinent question related to why there was no more significant representation of educators with occupational/vocational experiences? Might the reasons include the undervaluing of such incidents in teaching and thus teacher training? Loo (2019), in his systematic review of literature on FE teacher identities, concluded that research studies had primarily ignored the relevance of vocational elements in the sector even though over 70% of the sector’s offers were work-related (Frontier Economics Limited, 2016). The researchers’ lamentable lack of acknowledgement of this significant dimension in the sector’s activities needs addressing. This finding has implications in the experiences of teacher educators, recruitment and impact on the education of teachers in the FE sector. Perhaps, one needs to draw the readers’ attention to the classification of the subject areas as suggested by Becher (1994) and Chikoore et al. (2016). Klein (1996) and Tight (2015) indicated that the four-type typology had its complexities where some disciplines might overlap, which Klein termed ‘permeation’. The possible ‘permeation’ areas might include applied linguistics, which might have a more decisive work element than others, such as anthropology in the same ‘soft’ category. Perhaps, the relationship between the two ‘applied’ types to work/occupational areas is missing in the research on the subject classification. A greater understanding of the connections would move the knowledge of occupational education further.

Journeys Tentative findings regarding the pathways/journeys to becoming teacher educators were attempted by Noel (2006) on the English FE sector and Mayer et al. (2011) in an Australian study. Noel’s study sample size was 130 teacher educators and Mayer et al.’s, 19. The pathways findings were tangential in Noel’s research, as the survey did not provide sufficient data. Half of the handful of those interviewed mentioned that the journeys were accidental, and the other half wanted to be teacher educators. Mayer et al.’s findings based on teacher educators in universities suggested that their journeys were unplanned. A typology of pathways of activities: unintended, intended and miscellaneous was used by Loo (2020). Of the three empirical studies, Loo’s typology appears to be the most complete, so this typology is used. He used linguistic definitions of

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Table 7.2 Journeys and teaching institutions Journey classification

HEI

FE

PP

Total

Unintented activity

4

6

1

11

Intended activity

3

5

2

10

Miscellaneous activity

1

1

0

2

Total

8

12

3

23

intent, intention and intentionality (as discussed earlier) to anchor and categorise this typology. Table 7.2 on the teacher educators’ journeys and teaching institutions provide a tabular format. Twenty-three participants were interviewed: 8 from the HE institutions, 12 from the FE colleges and three from the private providers. Overall, there were 11 journeys of unintended activity, ten intended and two miscellaneous. Looking at each sector, of the eight teacher educators in the HE sector, four came through the unintended route, three intended and one miscellaneous. The four unintended pathways offered quotes. These included: “I accidentally became a teacher educator as a result of a previous teaching position drying up” (TE9), “I started teaching graduates [at university] and was asked to do some teacher training” (TE12), “I never planned to be the teacher, let alone a teacher educator.” (TE 18), and “My journey to becoming a teacher educator was accidental and not planned. I was teaching at an FE college at the time…” (TE21). The three intended examples included quotes like, “I thought this [teacher education] could be something that I could do in years to come” (TE7), and “As a biology teacher, it was very different from what I had experienced. I got the job [as a teacher educator] because I had the academic clout to teach on the Certificate of Education, which the local universitymanaged at that time” (TE15). Regarding the various example, TE27 recalled his journey “Reluctantly, and an accidental teacher educator…and I had a growing belief that I could do it”. All the HE teacher educators had teaching or teacher education experiences in the FE sector, not unsurprisingly. These experiences of the FE sector would be relevant in training teachers for that sector. Those participants from the FE sector numbered 12, and like their HE counterparts, half or six became teacher educators via the unintended pathway, five intended and one miscellaneous. Thus, there appear to be no significant differences with those in the HE sector. A caveat to this is the unrepresentativeness of the project sample. For the unintended pathways, typical phrases included: “I fell into it because there was no-one else to do it” (TE1), “My College Vice-Principal rang to ask if I would be interested” (TE6), and “They were struggling to find anyone, and my name popped up. So, I think I got it really before I got asked” (TE25). The five candidates intended to become teacher educators through different inspirational experiences. Some pertinent examples included: TE17 felt passionate about training after her staff development, TE19 felt teacher training was a natural move from her job as an assessor, and TE26 thought he had something to offer. With the miscellaneous pathway, TE23 was

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already teaching a pre-university level teacher-training course before completing her PGCE! Unsurprisingly, all these FE teacher educators had years of teaching experience in the sector before becoming teacher educators. The split between the three pathways appeared similar to those teaching in the HE sector. Of the three participants working in private providers, one became an educator unintentionally and two intentionally. With the former route, TE7 applied for the job by accident and got appointed. With the latter pathway, TE24 came from a family of teachers and becoming a teacher educator was a natural progression from her teaching. For TE31, she became a teacher educator through years of teaching experiences in the FE sector and being a home tutor. For all the participants, bar two in the private sector cut their teeth as teachers in the FE sector. Eight of them moved to be teacher educators in the HE institutions, 12 to the FE sector, and one moved into the private sector. Both in the private sector were from overseas and teaching on accredited programmes from awarding bodies.

Titles This section focuses on the job titles given to teacher educators in the HE, FE and PP sectors. There is a lamentable lack of research on this topic. LSIS (2011) offered the nearest indicator in its ‘Training to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector’ document with examples of titles such as teacher, trainer, tutor, and instructor. From the data, Teacher Educator Lead/Trainer is the most used title with a frequency of seven (Table 7.3). Tutor appeared twice and Associate/Assistant Tutor also twice. Interestingly, the titles, teacher and instructor, did not appear in this project sample. Though one may argue that this sample of 33 teacher educators in the three sectors is unrepresentative, however, the data set does offer indications of job titles from a known and significantly large selection of FE teacher educators relative to other available data sets. In total, there were 14 titles from the sample, and the total frequency of the title featured in the three sectors was 37. From the perspectives of the three sectors, which the educators operate, there are standard job titles such as Lead/Trainer. This title is the only one featured in the three sectors of HE, FE, and PP with frequencies of one, four, and two. Other titles such as Programme Leader are featured twice in each of the HE and FE sectors, and Associate/Assistant Tutor and Coordinator/Pathway Leader (one in each of the HE and FE sectors (Table 7.3). But, the differences are more attractive. In the HE sector, there is a hierarchy of terms relating to lectureships. Six teacher educators were given the title Senior Lecturer, one as a Lecturer, and another, Principle Lecturer. The title, Lecturer, appeared three times in the FE sector and none with the private providers. Another title distinct to the HE sector for this group of educators is Director (which appears three times). Perhaps, the ‘lectureship’ titles in the HE sector relates more than just the roles and activities of the teacher educators. They might also refer to other academic

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Table 7.3 Job titles and teaching institutions Job titles

HEI

FE

PP 4

Total

Lead/trainer

1

2

7

Senior lecturer

6

Lecturer

1

3

4

Programme leader

2

2

4

6

Director

3

Associate/assistant

1

1

2

3

1

1

2

2

2

Tutor Coordinator/pathway Leader Quality/compliance Manager Tutor

1

Advance learner

1

1

2 1

Practitioner deputy head

1

Learning support

1

1

1

1

1

1

Officer Minister of religion Principle lecturer

1

Total

16

1 16

5

37

activities associated with the industry such as research, publications and external activities such as conference appearances, fellowships, knowledge transfer, editorial roles, external examining, contributions to policy, etc. Whereas, these activities may not be actively sought and rewarded in the other two sectors, where the roles of the teacher educators are to educate trainee teachers for the FE sector. The titles, Quality/Compliance Manager and Advance Learner Practitioner, are distinct to the FE sector, which is, perhaps, relevant to teacher education. As one might expect, the FE sector is focused more on teaching and learning, unlike a broader range of academic activities in the HE sector. The other title distinct to the FE sector from this sample is Deputy Head. Perhaps, here it provides a picture of the management hierarchy in the industry. Less so with the private sector as such managerial titles were not apparent. Instead, the foci appeared to be the training of teachers either on short or longer teacher training programmes. So, titles like Lead/Trainer, Tutor, Learning Support Officer and Minister of Religion were featured, though the last title might be an anomaly. There appeared to be distinctive titles used in each of the three sectors. HE titles focused more on the broader academic activities in addition to teacher education. FE teacher educators were more the training, quality control and managerial aspects.

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Perhaps, an emphasis on quality control was not surprising as some of the teacher education courses were accredited by external awarding bodies, unlike those internally approved HE offers. The private providers would expect to feature quality compliance titles as their programmes were mainly from awarding bodies. There might be two possible reasons for these titles not being featured in the sample: one might be the small sample size. Two, private providers were usually smaller organisations than those in the FE and HE institutions.

Conclusion This chapter focused on the ‘professionalisation of teacher educators’ theme in this monograph. The examined areas included disciplinary expertise, pathways/journey and job titles. The contexts of these findings are the English FE sector teaching in HE, FE and private institutions. Lamentably, empirical-evidenced publications were lacking, and thus the conclusions of this chapter laid the groundwork for others to build on. From the findings of each of the three teaching sectors, there appeared to be some emerging patterns. Focusing on the first theme—disciplinary expertise—the teacher educators working in the HE institutions seemed to have more qualifications. Of the 13 participants, they covered 19 disciplines (a ratio of 1.5). Of the 15 participants teaching in the FE sector, 13 subjects were found (ratio of 0.9), and of the five teacher educators in the private sector, there were five disciplines (ratio of 1.0). Thus, there was a more extensive range of expertise by educators in the HE sector. The doctoral qualifications also supported the findings: 10 in the HE sector compared to 3 in FE and none in PP. However, there was no discernible difference amongst the teacher educators in the HE and FE institutions regarding work-related or occupational expertise, though one might expect a higher representation in the work-oriented FE institutions. Unsurprisingly, all the teacher educators had teaching qualifications, and the six educators without all had education qualifications at the Masters level or higher. Regarding journeys/pathways, the participants became teacher educators in the three sectors, either unintentionally or intentionally, with no observable difference in the allocation of the two categories. Of the 23 participants, all but two had teaching experiences in the FE sector. The titles relating to managerial posts were found in the sectors. However, greater emphasis was given to academic titles in the HE institutions, such as principal Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, and Lecturer, probably because of the sector’s focus on broader educational activities involving research, publications, and knowledge transfer. The FE titles emphasised quality control, and in the private providers, learner support. Taking the three themes together, the more extensive disciplinary and academic qualifications of teacher educators in the HE sector, compared to the other two sectors, meant that these institutions could, more likely, offer a broader teacher education

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experience to trainees. Further research and knowledge transfer activities might also be possible to embed into trainee teachers’ experiences. These advantages might provide trainees with richer educational experiences, ceteris paribus with the other two sectors. The findings offer a starting basis for other researchers to build on concerning initial disciplinary know-how, pathways and job titles. These potentially fertile aspects of a forgotten group of educationists need a reassessment. The limitations of the findings include sample size, more diverse participants regarding ethnicity, geographical locations (transnational and international studies) and types of teaching institutions within the English FE sector (e.g., adult and community providers, armed and uniformed services, prisons, etc.). The findings have implications for teacher educators and teaching staff in understanding the possible pathways, qualifications, and positions within teaching institutions. Management in the sectors also needs to realise that this group of educationists have distinct needs and requirements in continuous professional development and time and space for related activities such as research in this area. For policymakers, there might be implications regarding recruitment, training and workload allocations, etc.

References Association of Colleges (AoC). (2019).College Key Facts 2018/19. London, AoC. Becher, T. (1994). The significance of disciplinary differences. Studies in Higher Education, 19, 151–161. Biglan, A. (1973). The characteristics of subject matter in different academic areas. Journal of Applied Psychology, 57(3), 195–203. Chikoore, L., Probets, S., Fry, J., & Creaser, C. (2016). How are UK academics engaging the public with their research? A cross-disciplinary perspective. Higher Education Quarterly, 70(2), 145–169. Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) (2016) Understanding the further education market in England: Executive summary. BIS. Education and Training Foundation (ETF). (2014). Professional standards for teachers and trainers in England: Initial guidance for users. ETF. Frontier Economics Limited. (2016). Further education workforce data for England: Analysis of the 2014–2015 staff individualised record (SIR) data. Frontier Economics. Klein, J. (1996). Crossing boundaries: Knowledge disciplinarities and interdisciplinarities. University Press of Virginia. Kolb, D. A. (1981) Learning styles and disciplinary differences. In A. Chickering (Ed.), The Modern American College. San Francisco, Jossey Bass. Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS). (2011). Training to teach in the lifelong learning sector, LSIS. Available online at: http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/media/Qualifications% 20and%20Skills/001Training-_teach-lifelonglearning-England.pdf. Loo, S. (2020). Professional development of teacher educators in further education: Pathways, knowledge, identities, and vocationalism. Routledge. Mayer, D., Mitchell, J., Santoro, N., & White, S. (2011). Teacher educators and ‘accidental’ careers in academe: An Australian perspective. Journal of Education for Teaching, 37(3), 247–260.

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Neumann, R., Parry, S., & Becher, T. (2002). Teaching and learning in their disciplinary contexts: A conceptual analysis. Studies in Higher Education, 27(4), 405–417. Noel, P. (2006). The secret life of teacher educators: Becoming a teacher educator in the learning and skills sector. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 58(2), 151–170. Smeby, J.-C. (1996). Disciplinary differences in university teaching. Studies in Higher Education, 21, 69–79. Tight, M. (2015). Theory development and application in higher education research: Tribes and territories. Higher Education Policy, 28(3), 277–293.

Dr. Sai Loo is an academic at UCL Institute of Education, University College London, and an author and editor of research monographs. Before joining UCL, he taught accounting and finance at higher education institutions on undergraduate, postgraduate and professional programmes and vocational areas in further education. Before becoming a teacher, Sai worked in the industry as a Chartered Accountant. Occupational education is his main area of research interest. He takes an interdisciplinary epistemological approach to work, teaching and learning settings. His research projects and publications have focused on the further and higher education sectors and professional education, especially around teacher education (teacher educators and teachers) and professional practices in work-related settings of the digital economy and clinical disciplines. He has published widely in over 140 publications, conference papers and keynotes (83 per cent are singleauthored). Teacher Educators in Vocational and Further Education, published by Springer, is his eighth research monograph.

Chapter 8

Reflexivity for Whom? The Ethics of a Craft Identity and the Know-How of Supporting Reflexivity on Teacher Education Programmes Warren Kidd, Sheeba Viswarajan, and Andrea McMahon Abstract While it is recognized in policy discourse that the social importance of education means an importance for the practices of teacher education (European Commission in Developing coherent and system-wide induction programmes for beginning teachers: A handbook for policymakers. SEC (2010) 528 final. Brussels, EC (2010), Supporting teacher educators for better learning outcomes. European Commission, Brussels (2013), and Strengthening teaching in Europe: New evidence from teachers compiled by Eurydice and CRELL, 2015), there is still, by comparison with teachers, relatively little research on the mechanisms and processes for the education of teacher educators themselves (Smith in European Journal of Teacher Education 26:201–215, 2003 and Smith in Journal of Education for Teaching: International Research and Pedagogy 37:337–349, 2012; Vanassche et al. in International teacher education: Promising pedagogies. Bingley, UK, Emerald Publishing, 2015). In recognizing this, this contribution revisits the notion of ‘craft’ (once associated with a neo-liberal discourse in education policy in England (Vanassche et al. in European Journal of Teacher Education, 2019)) and using a conceptual framework borrowed from Sennett The Craftsman, Penguin Books, 2008 explores the craft of the teacher educator in relation to the developing craft of the novice teachers they support. In particular, it looks at how VET professionals are supported to ‘become’ teacher educators. This double-hermeneutic (the craft of the teacher and the craft of the teacher educator) places a firm focus on the reflexivity of both groups. This chapter draws upon the outcomes of the 2019 InFo-TED project—a pan-European professional development project exploring the nature of teacher educator learning. In doing so it explores two narrative case studies of VET professionals early learning as new teacher educators. This project raises issues of know-how and reflexivity when W. Kidd (B) · S. Viswarajan · A. McMahon University of East London, London, UK e-mail: [email protected] S. Viswarajan e-mail: [email protected] A. McMahon e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 S. Loo (ed.), Teacher Educators in Vocational and Further Education, SpringerBriefs in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90502-6_8

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applied to new boundary-crossers into the teacher educator professional field. The FE trainees are boundary-crossers—moving from their own VET-location to training to teach VET, yet at the same time the teacher educators are also boundary crossers, from teaching VET to entering university-based teacher education. To explore these twin processes, the chapter draws upon auto-ethnographical data to explore craft practices and the ethics of teacher educator positionality. In doing so, it explores professionalism as reformed and reframed by recent policy discourses and the means in which FE ITE might harness a renewed professionalism to speak about an ethical orientation of craft. Keywords England · Teacher education programmes · Craft identity · Teaching know-how · Reflexivity

Introduction This chapter explores from an English perspective the experiences of professional learning of teacher educators moving from teaching in the English VET/lifelong learning sector and moving into becoming University-based teacher educators. In doing so, we adopt an auto-ethnographic lens, drawing upon two narrative case studies. These ‘voices from the field’, as we have previously called them (see Kidd et al., 2020), take the form of reflections upon professional learning opportunities and we use them extensively in this chapter to allow the voices to come through. Through these narratives from VET professionals who ‘boundary cross’ into University-based teacher education, we report upon some findings from the English involvement in a wider pan-European professional learning project, referred to as InFo-TED (see below and Czerniawski et al., 2017).

Boundary Crossing and Opportunities for Learning This chapter explores teacher educators’ ‘boundary crossing’ (Czerniawski et al., 2018; Vanassche et al., 2019) as a matter of reflexivity around ‘craft practice’ and in doing so adopts a theoretical lens from sociologist Richard Sennett (2008). To explore this, we argue that boundary crossing is poly-contextual as are the reflexive practices developed. There is a double-hermeneutic at work in teacher educators’ boundary crossing since they educate others who are also themselves boundary crossing—from workplaces into VET/PGCE PCET programmes as ‘trainees’ or ‘students’ and then into the teaching profession. Since teacher education is itself also a further, third ‘VET location’, this ‘simple’ processes from teacher to teacher education raises complexities that are addressed in this chapter. These complexities are still under-evidenced and under-addressed in teacher educators themselves, unlike their teacher counterparts where there exists a much more solid and longer-term body

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of literature in the field (Smith, 2003 and 2012; Vanassche et al., 2015). Previous literature has for some time now spoken of the ‘dual professionalism’ and ‘dual identities’ of teachers in the lifelong learning sector (see Plowright and Barr (2012) for example). Equally, teacher educators have also themselves been positioned as ‘second order professionals’ (see Murray & Male, 2005). In adopting the distinction between ‘situational’ and ‘substantial’ self, Murray and Male have argued that transitional social practices—i.e. crossing professional boundaries—changes role and professional identities. This is seen then, as an experiential and relational process: transition and crossing might destabilise and might raise anxiety around location, identity, role and practices when present for the first-time in new spaces. This means, in the light of the InFo-TED pan-European project, an increased recognition for the need for teacher educators’ professional development that might help support and at times mitigate against the issues involved in this boundary-crossing (Kidd et al., 2020). The dual professionalism of VET-based teacher educators is further complicated by the dual mechanisms of concurrent boundary-crossers. This means that for new teacher educators they are boundary crossing at the same time as their students, albeit from different spaces. Thus, we have boundary-crossers teaching and supporting the new contextual practices of other boundary-crossers. It is this double-hermeneutic that this chapter explores. In this sense, we consider the craft and identity of the teacher educator to support the craft and identity of the trainee teacher.

Context: The InFo-TED International Project The catalyst for reflecting upon teachers educators’ professional development comes from the authors’ involvement in an Erasmus + funded project, culminating in a panEuropean summer school (see Conway et al., 2015; Kidd et al., 2020). In exploring the InFo-TED project, and in writing this piece we adopt, as authors, a range of complex positionalities: experienced teacher educators; boundary crossers, VET professionals, new to Higher Education; summer school participants; and, project conveners. We draw upon two narratives written after the summer school, reflecting upon participation and learning at the time, a time of support for boundary-crossing practices. The InFo-TED project, or, the International Forum for Teacher Educator Development established itself in 2013 with successful Erasmus + funding in Autumn 2016. The project group was originally established with representatives from Belgium, England, Israel, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Scotland and the USA (see Conway et al., 2015). Funding for the group was based upon the outcome to run a face-to-face ‘summer school’ (eventually hosted by and held in Norway) summer in 2018 for European teacher educators, both exploring and contributing to professional development needs which were seen at the time to be lacking in the field. In establishing the project, the InFo-TED conceptual model recognises that,

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‘…teacher educators’ practices are situated in the concrete context of the local teacher education institute and/or in the national or regional policy context. The local level refers to, for instance, the culture of the teacher education institute, the existing teacher education programs, or teacher education curricula. This level can also refer to relations with placement schools or other partnerships. The national level refers to national policy measurements, existing frameworks, or standards for teacher educators. Finally, teacher educators’ practices are situated in a global level stressing their relation with supranational and societal change’ (Vanassche et al., 2015).

From its onset then, the InFo-TED project was about supporting the professional development and learning needs of teacher educators by teacher educators themselves, yet adopting a pan-European perspective and approach. In terms of the English member experience, this project provided an opportunity to support the boundary-crossing practices of newly employed teacher educators, from previous VET backgrounds. While the InFo-TED conceptual model recoginses the diversity of the nature of practice, for VET professionals entering the field there are added layers of polycontextuality. These are based around the nature of being a VET professional, entering a new space of VET practice, supporting others to do the same. As an attempt to frame these boundary crossing practices made by VET professionals into ‘teachers’ and then into ‘teacher educators’, we adopt the ideas of Sennett. We see ethical practice of these VET professionals as a matter of ‘craft’, as defined below.

A Matter of Craft? Ethics, Identity and Practice The sociological writings of Sennett draw upon a range of themes and offer, together, the attempt to explain ‘modern life’ in advanced capitalism. Working within the field of ‘cultural sociology’ Sennett offers theorization around civil society and the challenges to it. Within this, Sennett’s work is influenced by the philosophical traditions of pragmatism, most notably Dewey (1916) (Giovannini, 2010). In writing about the progression of late/advanced capitalism (2006), Sennett offers explanations of: place, space and being in the modern industrial world (1977; 2013); perspectives on the city and an urban ecology of lives, self, identity and relationships (1977; 2013); the politics of community, togetherness and cooperation (2013); and finally, an analysis of the (working) lives of those living through and working within (advanced capitalist) workplaces (1997; 2006). What connects these together is the recognition of the consequences of globalisation upon the self and the consequences of advanced capitalism on relations, community and culture. Sennett’s conceptualization of ‘homo faber’, or ‘man [sic] the maker’ is a wide ranging project but it is within this body of work where his characterization of ‘craft’ is located (Sennett, 2008). Critical of Arendt’s distinction between animal laborans and homo faber (Arendt, 1958), Sennett offers an image of craft work practices that encourage thinking, creativity and self-reflexivity. Rejecting Arendt’s polarization of thinking/doing Sennett argues that in advanced capitalism it is still possible to see evidence of ethical, critical, creative

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work bodily practice that unify thinking and doing (Fadini, 2010; Mari, 2010). This is part of Sennett’s wider theoretical view that culture is to be ‘practiced’ in order to be ‘alive’: that culture is framed or structured yet also acted out (Calhourn & Sennett, 2007). In this assertion Sennett recognises the debt this view of culture and cultural practices has to the work of Marx, Bourdieu’s ‘habitus’ (1977; 1990) and Goffman’s ‘presentation of self’ (1971). Sennett is concerned with ‘how culture lives in practice’ (Calhourn & Sennett, 2007). One such of these practices is the notion of how craft might be both waning in advanced capitalism yet as a workplace orientation and ethical aesthetic still surviving albeit in limited pockets of cultural practice. To define a Sennettian version of craft, it is a ‘…desire to do a job well for its own sake.’ (Sennett, 2008: 9). In this perspective, when applied to VET professionals, ‘…the craftsman [sic] represents the special human condition of being engaged’ (Sennett, 2008: 20). In the case of the narratives here, VET professionals are ‘engaged’ in supporting students to become teachers while adopting an ethical orientation to practice, guidance and support. This lens—of craft as an ethical approach to thinking and doing—positions teachers as craft practitioners as much as other professions. We ask, where does this leave the student teacher and the teacher educator? Sennett argues for the appreciation of the means through which making can be an act of self-reflexive being and an ethical basis for pleasure, reflexivity and satisfaction. In this sense, ‘making’ is as much about professions of care and carefulness around practice as it is ‘making’ in an arts sense. As Sennett himself uses the example of the UK National Health Service (NHS): ‘Here, then, is an emblematic conflict in measures of quality, from which follow two different concepts of institutional craftsmanship. To take a generous view, the reformers of the NHS are crafting a system that works correctly, and their impulse to reform reflects something about all craftsmanship; this is to reject muddling through, to reject the job just good enough, as an excuse for mediocrity’ (Sennett, 2008: 51).

Craftwork is therefore an ethical approach to ‘good work’ and as such it is therefore identity work: ‘…focused on achieving quality, on doing good work, which is the craftsman’s primordial mark of identity’ (Sennett, 2008: 25). This theorization offers an explanation of professional practice rooted in creativity, authority, and evidence. As Sennett notes, ‘…history has drawn fault lines dividing practice and theory, technique and expression, craftsman and artist, maker and user; modern society suffers from this historical inheritance’ (2008: ii).

As such this theorisation offers a model for an ethical orientation to work through which we can view VET professionals’ involvement in teacher education learning and development. To do this, we explore the notion of the ‘reflexivity’ contained within craft practice and professional learning as below, and apply this to English VET professionals experience of the InFo-TED project,

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Reflexivity for Whom? Early notions of teacher learning/practitioner learning as a process of reflection (see Dewey (1909 and 1916) and later, Schon (1987)) are well documented and part of the existing ‘canon’ of teacher learning (See for example Brookfield, 1995; Stingu, 2012; and more recently, Feucht et al., 2017). The incorporation of reflection as not only a means for teacher learning but also a site for educational research was part of what Zeichner (1999) referred to, at the time at least, as the ‘new scholarship’ within teacher education. Originally, for Dewey (1909), reflexivity is reached when practitioners have ‘… active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in light of the grounds that support it and the further consequences to which it leads’(9). In this way, reflective practice becomes reflexive over-time but with the application of personal theories that led to change in action. It leads to change in action and change in self. We see this previously in Eraut’s (1995) emphasis upon not Schon’s (1987) ‘reflection-on-action’ but instead reflection for the purpose of changing future action. In this way, reflection is an active and reflexive element, leading to change to identity constructions (Flores & Day, 2006). Archer (2010 and 2012) develops this further—reflection is reflexive at the point that internal processes change belief. In this piece, we connect reflexivity with the boundary-crossing practices of not just novice teachers but also novice teacher educators (Czerniawski et al., 2018; Vanassche et al., 2019). In doing so, we recognise that the philosophical ‘pragmatism’ of Dewey’s account of reflection as a means to learning is revisited in Sennett’s account of the craftworker: they are both ‘philosophies of action’. In the case of the InFo-TED project reported here, a focus on reflexivity for the teacher educator means in-turn an appreciation of the reflexivity experienced by the trainee teacher as well, leading to an appreciation of the poly-contextual role of teacher educators’ experiential learning and biographical practices. We differed in our professional backgrounds, but we were all, to some extent, second order practitioners, having crossed into teacher education from a different teaching role. We seemed to have entered teacher education at different points of our careers with different experiences and had identified different learning needs in our storylines. [Narrative one]. ‘We have generally come to teacher education through multiple identify shifts e.g. as primary or secondary school teachers, further education lecturers, or school / college managers, and this requires a flexible and adaptive approach. The same is true of the student teachers we train to teach. These individuals may be career-changers, or may have decided to return to learning after time out pursuing other pathways. As they undertake a new career trajectory, they too are likely to experience identity-shifting and the accompanying complexity of emotional responses that this creates. I think this is inevitable and not such a bad thing.’ [Narrative two].

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Adopting a Craft Perspective—Two Narrative Case Studies of VET Professional Boundary Crossing To frame VET professionals’ boundary-crossing and subsequent practice as ‘craft’ requires the adoption of a broad notion of what a ‘craft practice’ is, as explained above. For Sennett, ‘…craftsmanship cuts a far wider swath than the skilled manual labour; it serves the computer programmer, the doctor, and the artist; parenting improves when it is practiced as a skilled craft, as does citizenship’ (2008: 9). While this term has previously in the field been associated with neo-liberal discourse and the attempt at the ‘separation’ of the university from Initial Teacher Education (ITE) (see Vanassche, Kidd, & Murray, 2019), it is possible to use a Sennettian approach to re-think the reflexivity of teacher educators—as our narrative case studies illustrate. These ‘voices from the field’ are written exploring a time of intensive professional learning afforded from the InFo-TED project (see also Kidd et al., 2020) and serve as an account of how VET professionals boundary-cross into teacher education and what the consequences of this are for how they support students undertaking a boundarycrossing of their own. To explore these case studies, we shall highlight four examples drawn from narrative accounts, as below.

Example 1: The ‘zipper Jam’ In exploring their boundary-crossing, what becomes apparent is an increased reflexivity as a result of intensified CPD support (in this case a consequence of involvement in the InFo-TED project), and an increased recognition of the need to support the reflexive practices of students. The rhetorical question posed in the case studies here is, Isn’t this the same for our student teachers too? This question is a consequence of the reflective practices kept by participants at the time: I enjoyed video recording my daily reflections of the Summer Academy (SA) sessions, secure in the knowledge that the recordings were for my own use. Two years on, if I need to refresh my memory of the SA sessions, I watch these reflective journals. My ‘public selfie’ video recording summarised my professional learning from the weeklong SA. In the selfie I talked about the ‘zipper’ analogy, used in a SA session, to visualise teacher educators bringing together theory and practice. We watched the selfies in our groups, and I realised that there were differences in our takeaway from the SA. Attending professional development sessions didn’t necessarily mean that we had interpreted or would apply the content of the theory in the same way. The interpretation was influenced by our different professional background and spatial context. I also realised that in order to merge what I had learnt at SA into practice, I needed to zip the theory and the practice together. Consequently, I had to enact on my learning from the sessions i.e., take a conscious action for the professional learning to be integrated in my practice. If zipping is enacting the professional learning, then would a zipper jam be such a bad thing? The jam results from conflict, unease, problematisation and brings us to a pedagogical discomfort zone triggering a heightened self-awareness and close reflection. I can learn so much during this discomfort as I put in all my energy to solve

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the problem and to make the zipper work. This part of the learning could possibly involve disconnecting from my previous learning and to start over. Isn’t this the same for our student teachers too? What they take away from our professional sessions vary depending on their interpretive framework and as teacher educators, surely, we can support them explicitly in taking conscious action on it i.e., help them in zipping up. [Narrative one].

If Sennett’s notion of craft is reflective, moral and habitual, it offers a means through which we can think about what we do and who we are and the professional learning and identity formation processes involved. As Sennett says, ‘…in learning a skill, we develop a complicated repertoire of procedures’ (2008: 50) and, ‘…in the higher stages of skill, there is a constant interplay between tacit knowledge and selfconscious awareness, the tacit knowledge serving as an anchor, the explicit awareness serving as critique and corrective’ (2008: 50). In this view there are fundamental links between learning, reflection and identity, which themselves become brought-to-thefore through boundary crossing experiences. Sennett explores how culture and the routines of the workplace ‘stand in the way’ of engagement in the workplace through craft. In this example workplace reform and the growth of performativity means that ‘…craft skills …are being frustrated by the push for institutional standards’ (2008: 46). This clinician-professional model is a strong feature within the writing of Sennett. For example, different paradigms of professionalism and of what constitutes professional knowledge, ‘…conflict institutionally, as in medical care, when reformers’ desire to get things right according to an absolute standard of quality cannot be reconciled with standards of quality based on embedded practice. The philosopher finds in this conflict the diverging claims of tacit and explicit knowledge; the craftsman at work is pulled in contrary directions’ (Sennett, 2008: 52).

We see in the narratives from the case studies examples of the VET professionals ‘pulled in contrary directions’. As one teacher educator puts in, ‘When we crossed to teacher education from our previous teaching roles, we were expected to be good at our jobs as we were experienced teachers. However, both roles were different and, hence, we need to engage in professional learning to develop our new practice as teacher educators. As teacher educators we juggle different roles and heavy workloads making it difficult to find time for own professional development. Furthermore, policy interventions and accountability measures place more focus on performativity, which takes away the focus from research. Development of knowledge bases through research and professional development activities would not only enhance teacher educator’s practice but also enrich the student teachers learning experience.’ [Narrative one].

In this example, to focus upon professional learning for oneself is an act of identity formation and boundary crossing. In doing so, these reflexive practices themselves ‘enrich student teachers” learning.

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Example 2: Anxieties and Fears at Boundary-Crossing Murray and Male’s (2005) location of teacher educators as ‘second order’ professionals acknowledges the difficulties of the process of professional socialization: In this case teacher educators work on developing their HE subject pedagogy, while experiencing feelings of anxiety, uncertainly and a sense of being deskilled (usually in contrast to the previous positions they held as teachers beforehand). This pedagogic discomfort results in participants questioning their beliefs and assumptions, which may de-stabilise them and their view of the world. While these discomforts might be a barrier to growth and development, reflexively, if worked-on and workedup, they become a source for professional learning, mirroring often the same feelings of destabilization found in novice teachers. As put in the case studies here, exposure to others through CPD is often initially an unsettling experience: ‘I was apprehensive as I didn’t know what I was expected to do at the Academy and felt I wouldn’t measure up against the calibre of the other research intensive international fellow attendees’ [Narrative one]. The issue of ‘what knowledge do we draw upon’ to help overcome de-stablising boundary-crossing is also an issue of craft. This is because it places at the heart of reflexivity over identity and practices the issues of knowledge and experience. Our reading of Sennett places his notion of craft at the intersection between tacit and explicit knowledge: there is knowing and skilful manipulation of knowledge in practice. This skilful manipulation, over-time, provides a counter-point to early feelings of anxiety and ‘dis-identity’ (as seen in narrative account two). Here, ‘craft’ does not have the derogatory connotation associated with some neo-liberal discourse over the past twenty years (see Vanassche et al., 2019), but rather it is deeply interwoven into human nature itself as the desire to do a job with skill and pride. There are links in this to the notion that teaching is a moral and ethical enterprise (Campbell, 2003). From the craft perspective, knowing how to act, how to solve-problems, make decisions, and in so doing produce ‘good work’ is a moral basis for an identity that can potentially resist performativity cultures. It can also provide a basis for de-stablised identity to be worked upon. This also places ‘craft work’ as an ethical practice that leads to identity work. ‘Being a teacher educator carries with it responsibility. As role models for training those who will go on to become the teachers and lecturers of the future, we have to ensure that the practices we exemplify are inclusive and represent the diversity of individuals who train to become teachers. Equally, those in training need to replicate the same openness, flexibility and inclusive approaches.’ [Narrative two].

Sennett demonstrates the effects that institutional contexts can have on practice and identity when he recognises that, ’…(T)he desire to do something well is a personal litmus test; inadequate personal performance hurts in a different way than inequalities of inherited social position or the externals of wealth: it is about you’ (2008: 97).

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Over time, experience and knowledge play ‘catch-up’ to help support emerging and new identity practices. They also offer a counter-point to the anxieties of boundary-crossing supported through immersive professional development: ‘On reflection, I had found my fears disappearing as I was immersed into a week of intense and steep learning, involving frank discussions and candid reflections. SA provided a rare opportunity to switch-off from the rigamarole of the day job and reflect on my storyline- my professional journey, which for me was the crossing over from being a teacher of adolescents to a teacher of adults in HE.’ [Narrative one].

Sennett suggests that craft-work is the ‘desire of doing a good job’, which is an ethical location, yet this same desire can cause conflicts in identity and one’s approach to practice. Wanting to do a good job, if not immediately possible due to boundary-crossing, can result in internal conflict. ‘…(T)he craftsman’s workshop is indeed a cruel school if it activates our sense of inadequacy’ (2008: 97). For the case studies herein, early relationships to others to support boundary-crossing was key in supporting developing mature experience. In the experiences of these VET teacher educators, we see that ‘…having a research mentor like XXX was a major factor in achieving the aims of the project. If teacher educators are allocated a research mentor, early on in their career, then they too can be similarly supported to develop their knowledge base’. [Narrative one].

Example 3: Meaningful Reflexive Practices—Future-Proofing The importance of the professional learning gained from the InFo-TED project, for it to have an impact upon craft practice and reflexivity, means that it needs to be future-oriented. This was in-part achieved due to the ‘unifying bond’ [Narrative two] of meaningful collaborative activity: ‘The structure of the week provided scope for professional learning through themed presentations, seminars and discussions, which took place in the morning. In the afternoon, we worked in a micro-group to develop a project which was to be the focus of a whole group presentation at the end of the week. I was lucky enough to work with a fantastic group of colleagues from a range of universities each of whom had come to teacher education via different career pathways, and this helped to stimulate a rich learning environment. The first day contextualised the vision for the week very effectively; we were asked to produce a concept map of our teacher education journey with relevant milestones signposted. This activity in itself produced much debate, honest evaluation, thought-provoking reflections, and provided the foundations for our project remit. Simultaneously, it also helped us to create a unifying bond, which served us well for the remainder of week.’ [Narrative two].

While this places reflexivity as a relational exercise, it also raises important questions about the longevity and scalability of learning and craft practice at a distance. This places implications for if professional learning is scalable in the near future. Again, movement from discomfort to a more certain and confident reflexivity is seen as key here, and a collaborative exercise. Sennett urges the craftworker to ‘…not

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give up on the workshop as a social space’ (2008: 73). As Narrative two shows, ‘…Embracing the process of critical reflection and dialogic interaction with others helped me to position myself more confidently as part of a pan-European community of teacher educators’. This social aspect to craft was essential for the learning from the InFo-TED project, leading to reflexive practice and further ‘identity work’: ‘I also think that knowledge creation is a constantly evolving act of knowledge exchange mediated through interaction with others. For example, during the Summer Academy week, we were exposed to some interesting theoretical concepts, which I hadn’t encountered in a conscious way previously. Amongst others, the notion of ‘pedagogic discomfort’ resonated with me and I realised that the more I allowed myself to experience discomforting emotions, the more I would acquire new knowledge. This felt like a process of not exactly un-learning or re-learning what I believed to be true, but more a process of enriching my repository of learned principles and practices. As the week unfolded, I felt myself developing more personal clarity and vision about what teacher educator professionalism and teacher educator identity meant to me.’ [Narrative two].

While working-up and working-on identity is a craft practice, according to Sennett it has as its goal agency: ‘…(T)he pursuit of quality is also a matter of agency, the craftsman’s driving motive’ (2008: 97). For the future, the aim of the InFo-TED project was to enable work, collaboration and development beyond the summer school itself, into the future. The future, though, for education and teacher education was unpredicted: at the time of the summer school in 2019, the events of the Covid-19 pandemic were yet to be felt. This unprecedented global context forced a number of changes to teacher education practices that further complicated the attempts of new teacher educators to support new novice entrants into the teaching profession themselves (see Kidd & Murray, 2020). This context required from teacher educators a resilience or ‘pedagogic agility’ (see Kidd, 2020) that enabled VET professionals to still feel that they could ‘do a good job’. As Sennett notes, ‘…technical understanding develops through the powers of imagination’ (2008: 10), and through the pandemic teacher educators needed to develop an imaginative approach to continuing professional learning albeit ‘remotely’: ‘Who would have thought that our attempts in integrating technology in education would get an extraordinary boost albeit caused by the global coronavirus pandemic? The unprecedented COVID-19 lockdown has accelerated our adoption of technology. The sudden closure of colleges and universities meant that teachers had to quickly adopt technology to be able to continue educating their students. The distinctive rise of e-learning involving teaching remotely on digital platforms has triggered the immense need for professional development of all teacher educators on the use of technology. During the lockdown, I have worked with my SA group on a collaborative study, under XXX’s guidance, to explore our current use of technology and the changes in our teaching practices. Our group has co-authored a journal article which is now being reviewed for acceptance at the COVID-19 special edition of the European Journal of Teacher Education. The lockdown has brought our group closer and we are now planning to collaborate on another project’ [Narrative one].

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Example 4: Moving on and Working-On Identity For professional learning in and around boundary-crossing to support changes to the ‘situational self’ then reflexivity needs to be lived longer than the availability of individual learning opportunities. There needs to be a longevity behind ethical craft practice for it to change identities: ‘I still remember being told by a colleague that I will find the Summer Academy useful and that, at the least, I would come away with some amazing friends and connections. I hadn’t believed him them and thought the SA would be just another bog-standard CPD. Little did I know that the SA would turn out to be the most thought provoking and productive professional learning that I had attended in my 8 years as a teacher educator. I realise that the SA was unique as the learning didn’t just stop there. It created further learning opportunities not only through the international collaborations but also through the collaborative work I am doing with my colleagues. SA offered to me a serendipitous, totally unexpected research opportunity and since then my engagement in research has accelerated and diversified. The velocity of this change has taken me by surprise, and I am developing my confidence and identity as a researcher. The ripple effects of the professional learning that I immersed in during the chance of a lifetime SA are still evident.’ [Narrative one].

These ‘ripple effects’ on craft and identity means that reflexivity, VET professionals are able to address questions around their own identity constructions: ‘Two years later as I reflect back on this first foray into answering the question that was initially posed to us i.e. “What is a teacher educator identity?”, I would say that there can be no uniformity of response. How one articulates their identity as a teacher educator is an amalgam of our unique selves and experiences, our relationships to others, and an acceptance that the notion itself is dynamically evolving. I feel like this is a good thing. As teacher educators, we need to be open to new ways of thinking, responsive to local and national policy changes, and inclusive in our practices.’ [Narrative two].

Ultimately, craft practices require those who adopt them to strive for quality: ‘…(T)he desire to do good work is seldom satisfied by just getting by’ (Sennett, 2008: 45). For the case studies here, ‘I think it can only help me to keep examining and re-examining what it means to be a teacher educator.’ [Narrative two].

Conclusion In this auto-ethnographic and narrative-based research we have considered the ways craft and identity of the teacher educator supports the craft and identity of the trainee teacher. To do this we have drawn upon two case studies from VET professionals and the rich narrative accounts that they produce. These accounts refer to the lived outcomes of the InFo-TED project from the perspective of two boundary-crossing VET professionals. The case studies of VET teacher educators here serve as a reminder of the importance of identity work in boundary-crossing and also the importance of collaborative work in developing reflexivity. The contribution this chapter makes is to revisit these

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notions of boundary-crossing in the light of reflexive notions of ‘craft’ practice. In doing so it serves as dissemination of the narrative/case study accounts of English VET professionals’ learning through the wider pan-European InFo-TED project. More than this, these case studies serve to illustrate that when thinking about ‘reflexivity for whom?’ we need to be mindful of the intersectionalities of teacher educators ‘doing a good job’ (Sennett, 2008) to support the boundary-crossing of their own students. The implications of this work show that to invest time in schools we not only need to invest time in teacher learning, but recognise the poly-contextual nature of teacher educator learning too. Therefore, to ‘strengthen teaching’ and teachers (European Commission, 2015) and in ‘supporting teacher educators’ (European Commission, 2013), it is essential to provide opportunities for reflexivity. This is significant for VET professionals and how we might locate them: boundary-crossers, ‘secondorder professionals’ (Murray & Male, 2005), but also reflexive craft practitioners. This is as much a question of identity as it is of practice, as explored through a Sennettian lens. The ethics of these craft orientated boundary-crossing practices are best summed-up through the case studies themselves: ‘Being a teacher educator feels like an incredibly privileged position to be in. We are role models for a future generation of teachers, who have the responsibility to create exciting learning opportunities for their students. Being a good teacher educator doesn’t necessarily follow on from being a good teacher – this can only happen with a conscientious approach, actively seeking out and engaging in professional development opportunities, and reflective and reflexive practice.’ [Narrative two]. Funding This project has received funding from the European Union’s Erasmus + project*

References Archer, M. (Ed.). (2010). Conversations about reflexivity. Routledge. Archer, M. (2012). The reflexive imperative in late modernity. Cambridge University Press. Arendt, H. (1958). The human condition (2nd ed.). University of Chicago Press. Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge University Press. Bourdieu, P. (1990). The logic of practice. Stanford University Press. Brookfield, S. (1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. Jossey-Bass. Calhourn, L., & Sennett, R. (Eds.). (2007). Practicing culture. Routledge. Campbell, E. (2003). The ethical teacher. Open University Press. Conway, P., Rust, F., Smith, K., Tack, H., & Vanderlinde, R. (2015) InFo-TED: Bringing policy, research, and practice together around teacher educator development, In C. Craig, & L. OrlandBarak (Eds.), 2015 volume 22C—International teacher education: Promising pedagogies (Part C). Emerald Insight. Czerniawski, G., Kidd, W., Murray, J. (2018). We are all teacher educators now: Understanding school-based teacher educators in times of change in England. In A. Swennen, C. Kosnic, & J. Murray (Eds.), International research, policy and practice in teacher education: Insider perspectives. Springer.

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Czerniawski, G., Guberman, A., & MacPhail, A. (2017). The professional developmental needs of higher education-based teacher educators: An international comparative needs analysis. European Journal of Teacher Education, 40, 127–140. Dewey, J. (1909). How we think. Heath. Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education. Macmillan. Eraut, M. (1995). Schon shock: A case for reframing reflection in action. Teachers and Teaching, 1, 9–22. European Commission. (2010). Developing coherent and system-wide induction programmes for beginning teachers: A handbook for policymakers. SEC (2010) 528 final. Brussels, EC European Commission. (2013). Supporting teacher educators for better learning outcomes. European Commission, Brussels European Commission. (2015). Strengthening teaching in Europe: New evidence from teachers compiled by Eurydice and CRELL, June 2015. Fadini, U. (2010). On Richard Sennett’s The Craftsman. IRIS European Journal of Philosophy and Public Debate, 11, 507–511. Feucht, F. C., Brownlee, J. L., & Schraw, G. (2017). Moving beyond reflection: Reflexivity and epistemic cognition in teaching and teacher education. Educational Psychologist, 52, 234–241. Flores, M. A., & Day, C. (2006). Contexts which shape and reshape new teachers’ identities: A multi-perspective study. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22, 219–232. Giovannini, P. (2010). On Richard Sennett’s The Craftsman. IRIS European Journal of Philosophy and Public Debate, 11, 516–521. Goffman, E. (1971). The presentation of self in everyday life. Penguin. Kidd, W., & Murray, J. (2020). The Covid-19 pandemic and its effects on teacher education in England: How teacher educators moved practicum learning online. European Journal of Teacher Education, 43, 542–558. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2020.1820480 Kidd, W. (2020). Agility, Return and Recovery: Our New Covid Context for Schooling and Teacher Education? [Blog post] https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/agility-return-and-recovery-our-new-covidcontext-for-schooling-and-teacher-education Kidd, W., McMahon, A., & Viswarajan, S. (2020) Developing a pan-European approach to teacher educators’ collaborative learning: Learning about, learning how and learning from. Research in Teacher Education 9. Available at: https://www.uel.ac.uk/Schools/Cass/Research/Research-inTeacher-Education/Volume-9-No-2-November-2019 Mari, G. (2010). On Richard Sennett’s The Craftsman. IRIS European Journal of Philosophy and Public Debate, 11, 511–516. Murray, J., & Male, T. (2005). Becoming a teacher educator: Evidence from the field. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21, 125–142. Plowright, D., & Barr, G. (2012). An integrated professionalism in further education: A time for phronesis? Journal of Further and Higher Education, 36, 1–16. Schon, D. A. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner. Jossey-Bass Publishers. Sennett, R. (1977). The fall of public man. Cambridge University Press. Sennett, R. (1997). The corrosion of character: The personal consequences of work in the new capitalism. Norton. Sennett, R. (2006). The culture of the new capitalism. Yale University Press. Sennett, R. (2008). The craftsman. Penguin Books. Sennett, R. (2013). Together: The rituals, pleasures and politics of cooperation. Penguin Books. Smith, K. (2003). So, what about the professional development of teacher educators? European Journal of Teacher Education, 26, 201–215. Smith, K. (2012). The multi-faceted teacher educator: A Norwegian perspective. Journal of Education for Teaching: International Research and Pedagogy, 37, 337–349. Stingu, M. M. (2012). Reflexive practice in teacher education: Facts and trends. Procedia-Social and Behavioural Sciences, 33, 617–621.

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Vanassche, E., Kidd, W., Murray, J. (2019). Articulating, reclaiming and celebrating the professionalism of teacher educators in England. European Journal of Teacher Education. Vanassche, E., Rust, F., Conway, P., Smith, K., Tack, H., Vanderlinde, R. (2015). InFo-TED: Bringing policy, research, and practice together around teacher educator development. In C. Craig, & L. Orland-Barak (Eds) International teacher education: Promising pedagogies. Emerald Publishing. Zeichner, K. (1999). The new scholarship in teacher education. Educational Researcher, 28, 4–5.

Dr. Warren Kidd is Senior Lecturer at the University of East London and a teacher educator with experience across secondary, lifelong learning and HE-based professional learning programmes. Formally, he was a teacher of the humanities and social sciences in both the secondary and lifelong learning sectors for 15 years. As a University-based teacher educator, he has an interest in action research, teacher identity and ethnography. For the InFo-TED project, Warren was an original committee member of the organisation. Sheeba Viswarajan is a Senior Lecturer in Secondary Teacher Education (Science) at the University of East London. She has experience of teaching science and chemistry in educational institutions both in London and India. She now teaches on postgraduate teacher education programmes and works with a range of school partners to train both chemistry and physics teachers. Sheeba also runs the Subject Knowledge Enhancement course for chemistry, which was the first of its kind in England to be approved by the Royal Society of Chemistry. She is currently pursuing her doctorate in the ‘Effectiveness of practical work under the new GCSE curriculum’. Her interest areas are on reducing cognitive load in lessons and improving learning from practical work. Sheeba attended the InFo-TED project as a summer school participant. Andrea McMahon is the Head of Education, Training and Development and Programme Lead for the PGCE Post Compulsory Education and Training at the University of East London. She is also a teacher educator whose experience is working with those who are training to teach in the further education and skills sector, and supporting teachers’ continuing professional development. Formally, she taught English as a second language to adults overseas and in the UK. For the InFoTED project, Andrea attended as a summer school participant.

Chapter 9

Towards a More Radical, Meaningful and Dynamic Teacher Training and Mentoring Scheme for Teachers and Learners of the Future: A Personalised Approach to Pedagogy and Curriculum Design Ian Duckett Abstract In 1981, Brian Simon reflected on the nature of education within English mainstream provision, posing the question: “Why no pedagogy in England?” This raised the argument for a more robust teacher training programme, encouraging many to question how our European counterparts had indeed been successful in their interpretation and implementation of a teaching pedagogy where we had failed. Indeed, forty years on, the question remains all the more pertinent for those within the Further Education (FE) sector. Simon (1981) argued that the English education system had failed to develop pedagogy because of social class division. I will argue, over the past forty years, this has been enhanced by the failure to address parity of esteem issues between the academic and vocational curriculum, which makes the absence of a real pedagogy in Further Education (FE) and alternative provision (AP) even more profound than it is perhaps within mainstream compulsory sector. While there have been substantial changes since 1981, Simon’s basic contention and the question of why no pedagogy in England remains to be the case. Teacher education and professionalism essentially relate to what it means to be a ‘professional’ and link to the relevant theoretical concepts of teacher education This is all the more pertinent in FE given the diverse nature of the sector and the responsibility that teaching practitioners (qualified or other) have towards students, especially those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), those who are vulnerable and English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) requirements. This chapter provides a personal and reflective approach as a former FE teacher educator regarding pedagogy associated with skills development in FE in-service initial teacher education (ITE), the impact on the FE ITE curriculum and vocational education and training VET, and how it may be possible to learn from that history and move forwards with an improved future curriculum. The analysis of existing FE in-service ITE models will provide a framework for the study. The nature of the research project is observational and rooted in I. Duckett (B) Learning and Skills Research Network East Anglia, Norwich NR6 5BL, UK e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 S. Loo (ed.), Teacher Educators in Vocational and Further Education, SpringerBriefs in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90502-6_9

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reflective practice of five phases of development. In the discussion, I explore employability and vocational learning along with the skills agenda and place them within a practical application of the theoretical framework to create a radical teacher education/training and mentoring scheme. The distinction between teaching and learning is breaking down and learner autonomy is enhanced not only by advances in information learning technology (ILT), but by project and problem-solving based approaches. They represent a more radical, meaningful and dynamic approach to teacher training and mentoring for teachers and learners of the future and a personalised approach to pedagogy and curriculum design. Keywords England · Teacher training · Mentoring scheme · Pedagogy

Introduction If education is about human fulfilment, it has to develop human beings in engaging with the world. It can be helped by radical and real-world based pedagogy; most especially one that is not driven by, but rather served by assessment for learning and has a place for an inquiry based dialogic pedagogy at its heart. 40 years ago, Brian Simon reflected on the nature of education within English mainstream provision, posing the question: “Why no pedagogy in England?” (Simon, 1981). For Wrigley (2020), the process has to be a sensitive one; complex and exploratory and cannot be pinned down by mere regulation and surveillance. In order to achieve this, the current situation needs to be changed and the forces that have held back its development need to be challenged. This raises the argument for a more robust teacher training programme, encouraging many to question how our European counterparts had indeed been successful in their interpretation and implementation of a teaching pedagogy where we had so evidently failed. Indeed, forty years on, the question remains all the more pertinent for those within the Further Education (FE) Sector. The FE sector is a wide-ranging and diverse section of the education system. It is made up of many different types of provider and offers a huge range of education and training opportunities. The sector is vast; there are literally thousands of different options available including academic, vocational, and recreational courses. It can be challenging to understand how all the different parts fit together (Education and Training Foundation [ETF], 2020; Loo, 2019). There are different types of FE provider: colleges, Independent Training Providers (ITPs), Local Authority (LA) providers, employer providers, third sector providers, and Adult Community Education (ACE) providers. Using close observation and reflection, this chapter is structured in six sections. Following the introduction, the second section refers to initial teacher education. The next section reviews the related theoretical frameworks. Following this is the methodological section. The discussion section focuses on the themes of employers, employability and vocational learning, skills, and practice and theory. The sixth and final section includes the conclusion.

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Initial Teacher Education: Some Modern Complications The Coalition government scrapped the Teaching Development Agency (TDA) which had a credible record in allocated student numbers for undergraduate (BA and B.Ed.) and postgraduate (PGCE) and for subject and stage. Since then, responsibility for teacher recruitment and education was allocated to the National College of Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) which danced to Ministerial tune like never before (although it’s worth noting that the one result of the TDA’s abolition was that there was no Ministerial responsibility for ITT/teacher recruitment from 2010). Conservative politics (with both a large and a small p) post the Coalition continued to shape the teacher education landscape. Michael Gove and Nick Gibb aided and abetted by Dominic Cummings changed the regulations without any consultation to allow teachers in state-maintained schools to be unqualified. Previously unqualified teachers could only work in the private/independent sector. They increased the time that trainee teachers spent in schools as part of a learn on the job philosophy (Carter, 2015). There were always some ‘learn on the job’ entrants, for example, those on graduate trainee programmes but this agenda took it to the extreme. Much is made of the progressive nature of the Finnish ITE system, which is often held up as a progressive model and used as a stick to beat the narrow and functional English system and where, since 2014, there has been a greater emphasis on project-based approach, a more dialogic pedagogy, project-based and greater teacher autonomy (Ropo & Jaatinen, 2020). ITE still provides stimulating developmental and theoretical components long abandoned in England (Tampere University, 2021). They include Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Education, Education and Schooling in Society, Development and Learning in Life Course, Teaching and Pedagogical Facilitation, and Research of Education. We are a long way from Finland—and not just by geographical measures. A radical overhaul would require a rewind to re-establish teaching as a profession with (probably) a similar body to the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) with lessons from Finland together with an end to the teaching research schools and a return to a well-funded ITE within a university higher education (HE) context (Socialist Educational Association, 2021). Comparisons have also been made by critics (SEA, 2021) to doctors and pilots in terms of professionalism (after all, who wants them to solely learn on the job without any theoretical knowledge or reflective practice?) but it was to no avail. They established Post Graduate Teaching Apprenticeships, School Direct and Teach First (DfE, 2020) whereby schools were encouraged to recruit trainee teachers directly (to train on the job) and provided schools with funds in part to pay these recruits’ salaries; reduced numbers allocated to university education departments (and changed the formula for allocations each year making it very difficult for departments to anticipate staffing resources). To enable them to promote their agenda, Gove and Gibb changed the Ofsted inspection framework favouring smaller Russell Group provision, which Ministers aimed to make ITE a more competitive market (and in the hope that modern universities—some of the biggest providers) would fail or drop out of their market (SEA,

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2021). The next step was an announcement that student teachers should have a 2.1 or a 1st class honours degree (Teach First, 2016), a move which ignored the evidence that degree classification is not a robust indicator of teacher quality and flew in the face of progressive steps to make the teaching cohort more representative in terms of black and minority ethnic (BAME) and mature entrants. Perhaps the most ideologically driven of all of their actions was to allocate additional numbers to Teach First, based on the neo-liberal initiative from the United States, Teach America. Teach First is much loved by the Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) that are at the forefront of the privatisation of state education. It provides graduates with work experience in teaching prior to entering other professions. Very few graduates stay in teaching and if they do, it is one of the costliest routes into ITE (SEA, 2021). As a consequence, teacher recruitment has become an even more complex business for applicants and The National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) was brought in-house so teacher recruitment now directly run by Department for Education (DfE) through its in-house adjunct, the TRA and the DfE has set up its own ‘get into teaching’ website (DfE, 2021). Further muddying of the waters ensued. Schools were invited to bid for funds to become ‘teaching schools.’ MATs began to run their own teacher training programmes, some of which are narrow and functionalist in nature. School Centred ITT (SCITT) has been favoured in terms of number allocations (SEA, 2021). It appears that after a decade, DfE still does not know and has yet to establish a clear way of managing the direction, demand, supply and quality of education for new teachers (Spendlove, 2021). Following the decades of changes, this could be a chance to re-assess the ITE provision and revitalise the ITE sector. However, before this discussion, the pertinent theoretical frameworks require reviewing in the next section.

Underpinning a Progressive Model of Learning I wonder amid this most complex of sectors and dream of fantastical initiatives of a freer curriculum whether a more radical pedagogy, one that would enable practitioners and educationalists alike to underpin a progressive model of learning based on personalised projects and real-world problem solving, was possible. As a young teacher reading Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Freire, 2005) as a crusade for humanity and educating, I saw it as an act of love that enabled me to see dehumanisation, both as an historical reality and as an individual experience in the lives of many of the learners I worked with. Curriculum development within post compulsory FE has, for me, always been concerned with the three interwoven strands of employability and vocational learning, the skills agenda and the relationship between practice and theory (Duckett, 1997). Coupled with a customised, learner-centred model that is committed to Every Child Matters agenda (DCSF, 2003) and other welfare initiatives, that is genuinely personalized (Duckett, 2010b) it forms the true heart of all learning and teaching practices. As Che Guevara said: “The walls of the educational

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system must come down” (Guevara, 1964) in order for educators to help transform the world and to enable learners and teachers alike to become different kinds of human being. The absence of pedagogy in English education leaves a vacuum in both ITE and in-service training. This in turn enables the driving force for change to develop an alternative strand to the canon of ITE and initial teacher training (ITT) such as the conceptual framework of the occupational pedagogy of teachers by Loo (2018) in the form of a genuinely radical pedagogy. I will draw on Loo’s (2018) framework to investigate a radical teacher education/training and mentoring scheme for the curriculum of the future. ITE and in-service in FE colleges and alternative provision (AP) alike is often an ad hoc affair delivered as and when by managers and peers and occasionally, in the case of AP, by the local authority (LA). This makes it even more subject to forces for change and the struggle (Marx and Engels, 1848) between the balance of forces than mainstream schools even, we would argue in a time of rapid and de-stabilizing academisation and the dominance of multi-academy trusts (MATs). This is also true to some extent of the class-divided education system as a whole and has been at the heart of the prevention of a coherent pedagogy emerging in the first place, at least in the way described by Simon in the form of “a science of teaching embodying both curriculum and methodology” (Simon, 1981, p. 124). Simon (1981) argued that the English education system had failed to develop pedagogy because of social class division. A system, which continues to reproduce inequality in a social context of polarisation (Little, 2020 and Duckett, 2020a) and an assessment regime that is not fit or purpose (Wrigley, 2017). This, I will argue, has been enhanced by the failure to address parity of esteem issues between the academic and vocational curriculum, which makes the absence of a real pedagogy in Further Education (FE) even more profound than it is perhaps within mainstream compulsory provision sector. While there have been substantial changes since 1981, Simon’s basic contention and the question of why no pedagogy in England remains to be the case. Teacher education and professionalism essentially relate to what it means to be a ‘professional’ and link to the relevant theoretical concepts of teacher education This is all the more pertinent in FE given the diverse nature of the sector and the responsibility that teaching practitioners (qualified or other) have towards students. Underpinning a radical teacher education/training and mentoring scheme for the curriculum of the future would require a genuine engagement with teacher educators in vocational learning settings and FE, a dialogue on the perspectives of teacher educators’ teaching know-how and its application (pedagogy) and the reestablishment of adequately funded ITE in universities and HE as well as in-service provision to develop and support it.

Underpinning Theoretical Frameworks In this part, I draw on two theoretical frameworks: Loo (2018) and to a lesser extent Evans (2016) to support a pedagogical model that I have been developing, often

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to reluctant learners through stealthy or even guerrilla tactics and refining since discovering the teachings of Freire (1970) and encountering Simon (1981). Teachers develop and use a special kind of knowledge. This knowledge is neither theoretical, in the sense of theories of learning, teaching, and curriculum, nor merely practical, in the sense of knowing learners. If either of these were the essential ingredient of what teachers know, then it would be easy to see that others have a better knowledge of both: academics with better knowledge of the theoretical and parents and others with better knowledge of the practical. A teacher’s special knowledge is composed of both kinds of knowledge, blended by the personal background and characteristics of the teacher and expressed by her in particular situations.

A Conceptual Framework of the Occupational Pedagogy of Teachers Starting with a reminder of the definitions of occupational knowledge (both pedagogic and occupational) and the related applications using a dual professional approach initially for discussing purposes following pre-existing research and literature, Loo (2018) applies occupational knowledge and practice from the perspectives of teachers to the relevant ITE and occupational experiences to pedagogy. From a pedagogic delineation of knowledge, teaching knowledge may include knowledge of the relevant disciplines (Becher, 1994). Teaching knowledge may also include other forms of explicit knowledge. These are general pedagogical knowledge (consisting of principles and teaching strategies for classroom management and organization), pedagogical content knowledge (which is a combination of content and pedagogy), knowledge of the learners, and knowledge of the educational contexts (Shulman, 1987). Other forms of teaching knowledge may be tacit in nature, which require a language of articulation (Loughran et al., 2017) regarding the information, concepts and perceptions that inform teachers’ practices, especially with reference to mentoring, which has typically been promoted as a meaningful way for learning about the profession as it provides pre-service teachers with the required basic skills and professional knowledge to face the uncertainty associated with the complexity of practice. Besides teaching knowledge being explicit and tacit in nature, there is also the cognitive variety where teachers intellectually interact with their professional learning and development and with stakeholders such as their learners and colleagues (Verloop et al., 2001). Teaching knowledge may also include a teacher’s wider life experiences (Clandinin, 1985) and occupational practices relate to teaching knowledge by examining critically the notion of teaching knowledge and its import in teacher education/training curriculum and alongside these, the need for researchbased evidence (Loo, 2016). However, so that the theoretical knowledge is used for occupational practices, it requires a process of application to specific work contexts and the environment it operates in (Bernstein, 1996). This occupational knowledge base also includes knowledge of procedures, skills (e.g., an occupational knowledge

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base consists of a wider spectrum than a pedagogic knowledge base) (Eraut, 2004; Winch, 2014). The occupational know-how involves codified and tacit types. The other two forms of knowledge—pedagogic and occupational—may be applied through the processes of recontextualization (Bernstein, 1996). From the occupational perspective, biology as knowledge from the natural science may be applied in the dental hygiene occupational setting. These include content re-appraisal (relating to the specifications of a programme), re-thinking pedagogy (relating to teaching), learner (relating to the strategies that are employed by the learner to acquire and understand the required knowledge) and workplace in relation to work settings (Evans, 2016). They also cover practice (Kemmis & Green, 2013), which is carried out in organisations, institutions and settings where a teacher can use her/his ‘sayings’,‘doings’ and ‘relatings’, and Systems 1 and 2 (Kahneman, 2012) where the former is intuitively based on past experiences and the latter relies on rational and cognitive interactions. The above delineations of knowledge and its applications of the occupational pedagogy of teachers will form the basis for a conceptual framework in the next section.

Description of the Conceptual Framework This conceptual framework starts with two dimensions as indicated by the dual professional notion. A conceptual framework of the occupational pedagogy of teachers (Loo, 2018, p. 50) provides a partial context for the model or at least some of its phases. The framework (Loo, 2018) starts with the dual professional concept of teaching and work/occupational practices. Teachers and teacher educators need to have these practices/experiences. The framework may not be linear. The teaching practice pathways begin with the acquisition of teaching knowledge (e.g., learning theories). It uses Bernstein’s (1996) recontextualization process to understand how this knowledge is selected, modified and relocated for curriculum development. A teacher may use a learning theory to help think about a specific part of the curriculum (e.g., gas laws of physics in a gas fitting course) to make this relevant to the programme (content recontextualization). This modified part of the content is called pedagogic knowledge. S/he then needs to translate this bit of the specification via pedagogic recontextualization to a specific teaching session. This process involves work knowledge of the teaching institution with its systems and protocols and pedagogic knowledge. Referring to the occupational pathway, a gas fitter/practitioner needs to acquire theories relating to the gas laws of physics as an example. This part of the curriculum needs to be made relevant for the gas fitting programme. This process of modification is content recontextualization like for teaching practice. The modified knowledge is known as occupational knowledge. The next step is to apply this occupational knowledge to work via occupational recontextualization to become the modified

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applied occupational knowledge. Part of this complex process also involves work knowledge i.e., knowledge of the organisation with its own systems and protocols. Finally, the teacher integrates the applied pedagogic and occupational knowledges through a final process—integrated applied recontextualization—to decide the best possible teaching approaches/strategies for that specific part of the curriculum to the students at the relevant academic level. The final modified know-how is known as Occupational Pedagogic Knowledge (OPK) or Occupational Teachers’ Capacities (OTC). This ongoing reflective process may offer different perspectives, which the teacher can utilise in future teaching activities such as a different choice of teaching strategy or a different ordering of teaching sequence from a specific part of a curriculum specification over a period (Loo, 2018). A teacher may also re-visit parts of the conceptual framework as a result of pedagogic or occupational ‘triggers’ or incidents such as an unintended ‘failure’ or consequence for example in the pursuit of a teaching strategy to a group of learners in the taking of oral history of patients in a simulated dental hygiene session. Returning to teaching knowledge, it may be derived from other disciplines such as psychology, sociology and business management. Examples may be learning theories such as social constructivism and behaviourism from these disciplines (Loo, 2018).

Methodology The nature of the research project is observational and is viewed as a personal and reflective approach. One may view this as five phases of development: Phase 1: Early teaching career in further education, characterised by an initial teacher education that was guided by what was then called ‘student-centred learning’. Phase 2: Engagement in curriculum development initiatives and characterised by flexible approaches and open-ended outcomes which explore pedagogical projects through the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative and Extension (TVEI/TVEE). Phase 3: Developmental work through education action zones (EAZ) and a commitment to the development of generic skills through core learning as a safety net with scaffolding. Phase 4: Projects developed and managed as a development advisor at the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA) characterised by a value-added and evidence-based approach and an acceptance that not all assessment models are easily measurable. Phase 5: A more open-ended approach, with pupil referral units and excluded pupils, developed at Shaftsbury Young People, with the Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network (ASDAN) and the current Learning and Skills Research Network (LSRN) Ways of Engaging project, which is due to be piloted with

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Table 9.1 Inventory of initiatives and conceptual framework references Phase Initiative

Conceptual framework reference

1

Early teaching career in further education, characterised by an initial teacher education that was guided by what was then called ‘student-centred learning’ (Duckett, 1997)

This is the stage of pedagogic recontextualization where FE teachers have disciplinary knowledge but not necessarily teaching experience. (Loo, 2018)

2

Engagement in curriculum development initiatives and characterised by flexible approaches and open-ended outcomes which explore pedagogical projects through TVEI/TVEE (Duckett, 2001b, c)

Teaching and occupational practices with the two content recontextualization processes (Loo, 2018)

3

Developmental work through EAZs and a Processing pedagogical knowledge (after commitment to the development of generic content recontextualization) to develop skills through core learning as a safety net these generic skills (Loo, 2018) with scaffolding (Duckett, 2001a)

4

Projects developed and managed as a development advisor at the LSDA characterised by a value-added and evidence-based approach and an acceptance that not all assessment models are easily measurable (Duckett, et al., 2005 and Duckett, 2010a)

5

A more open-ended approach, with pupil Framework of learner recontextualisation referral units and excluded pupils, (Evans, 2016) developed at Shaftsbury Young People, with ASDAN and LSRN piloted with Norfolk YMCA in Norwich, characterised by engagement through personalised objectives and meaningful projects with a negotiated learning framework (Duckett, 2005, Duckett & Grainger, 2009 and Duckett, 2010a, b)

IAR process after the application of teaching strategies to look at assessments/evaluations (Loo, 2018)

Norfolk YMCA in Norwich and is characterised by engagement through personalised objectives and meaningful projects with a negotiated learning framework. Loo’s (2018) framework relates to some extent to the first four phases of my model (Table 9.1).

Discussion This section explores employability and vocational learning along with the skills agenda and locate them within a practical application of the theoretical framework previously discussed in an attempt to create a radical teacher education/training and

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mentoring scheme. In service and on-the-job training brings with it different challenges from initial teacher training (ITT) and post graduate certificates in education (PGCE). ITE and PGCE, even when specialised, include generic aspects and at least some (perhaps not enough) theory in the form of philosophy, psychology and sociology of education as well as themes such as language and learning and contexts and perspectives. In service and on the job, training rely heavily on results, especially for training providers and even in FE colleges, there is an overwhelming emphasis on practice. In-service teacher training is often very short in terms of theoretical concepts, contexts and perspectives and provide us with a clear indication of what Simon was getting at when he posed the now famous question, “Why no pedagogy in England?” over 40 years ago.

Employers, Employability and Vocational Learning The context in which skills-based education is, of course, one in which employers but required a workforce who knew their place yet had sufficient literacy and numeracy skills to follow instructions, and an increasingly important and complex British industry also needed increasing numbers of skilled workers like mechanics, clerks and accountants (Brown, 2018). In terms of a meaningful timeline this period starts pretty much equates with the industrial revolution and goes on until the 1960’s. A traditional Marxist perspective of the role of education—perhaps a link to Marx’s “work objects” workers valued only for their ability to perform a task that is predefined and not valued for their individual creativity in The Communist Manifesto (Marx and Engels, 1848). The rebirth of community education in the 1960s and 1970s absorbed more a Marxist influence, writings such as those of Gramsci (1971), Bourdieu (2008) and Freire developed what remains of the Marxist tradition (Steele & Taylor, 2004) now in post-Gove retreat with the most regressive education politics since the 1940’s and concluding that in a capitalist system that remains deeply unequal and globally exploitative. Marxism still offers a valuable framework of analysis through which educators may be able to engage in a dialogue with emergent social movement; learning to learn and developing skills to survive, cope with the challenges in their lives and perhaps even, prosper. The importance of critical thinking and an awareness of the social, political and economic factors that influence so much of everyday life is rarely given enough value in formal education and not included within ‘training’ in FE.

Skills Clearly skills, one major problem using skills is that it is difficult to define and there is no robust framework (Dreyfuss, 2004 as critiqued by Loo (2018)). There

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is a great deal of academic snobbery surrounding skills and the development of skills. Be they termed common, core, key, functional or anything else they are, at the very least, either generic learning skills or the specific learning skills relating to a subject and, as such, have a major role to play, especially, one might argue, with students from less traditional backgrounds. They are essentially learning skills (Duckett, 1998). Similarly, those genuine assessments for learning that have not just been state-sponsored assessment objectives aimed at perpetuating a system that required the many to fail so that the few can succeed in the system have fostered a genuine progressive curriculum; in short, the myth of meritocracy and the dangers of neoliberalism in an educational context expounded by Radice (2018). Curriculum development and delivery and assessment methodology alike need to be matched with both the appropriate skills, and attitudes and the syllabus aims, objectives and specifications, including an identification of skills and attitudes, the aims of a specification and demystify the hidden curriculum in Bowles and Gintis (1976) with the emphasis on culture within institution, processes, social interaction. A teacher can, where these conditions exist, work collaboratively with learners to enhance the student learning experience, impact –while largely discredited since its fashionable boom in the 1990s does have some merit if the emphasis is on reflection on a learner’s own practices -on teaching and learning styles and develop the curriculum in its broadest possible capacity. The diverse nature of FE, the delivery and acquisition of these ‘skills’ make them difficult to quantify, for example: the former personal, learning and thinking skills (PLTS) embedded within apprenticeship programmes, (knowledge, skills and behaviours) now informs the most recent standard, professional guidelines—embedded within the assessment to meet industry standards. Professions require diverse yet sometimes overlapping skills; however, FE is the sector that sweeps up the 16–19 cohort, both “Academic” (under the remit of sixth form colleges) and “Vocational” (colleges, training providers and employers). Many learners within FE with around 23% in 2017/18 (DfE, 2019) having a SEN, despite being heterogeneous, there are plenty of these particular learners who will require the acquisition of a completely different set of skills—highly individualised. This may further reinforce your argument about the need for a personalised, individualised and customised approach to curriculum design. The problematic nature surrounding the assessment of such generic and transferable skills in addition to the general educational aspects of vocational education such as liberal education, general studies, communication skills, social and life skills and more recently functional skills and place empowering individuals, core knowledge and transferable skills, ethics, values and civic engagement at its heart. Perhaps it is because now, these ‘core’; ‘key’; ‘transferable’ or ‘generic’ skills are, for the first time, making an impact on traditional academia as well as vocational further education (Duckett, 2002a; Duckett & Whiting, 2020). In-service and “on the job” teacher training and, more importantly, mentoring, is employed in less traditional FE contexts, like school refusers and with the excluded young people usually labelled “NEET” as well as in family learning settings. As well as its diverse nature, the FE sector played a central but not exclusive role in the Skills for Life agenda as well as some learning skills and the history and

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pedagogy associated with less formal teacher education explored her must be viewed in that context (DfES, 2004). Poor literacy and numeracy can prevent people from taking an active part in the community. People who experience difficulties with these skills are less likely to vote, less likely to own their own home and more prone to health problems. Poor literacy and numeracy lead to low productivity, fewer training opportunities and greater health and safety risks at work. The cost to the individual, the taxpayer, business and the economy is enormous. This approach also calls on experience and research of on-the-job teacher education in FE colleges, family learning and in the community, which in almost all cases is on the cusp of education and social care, the argument for in-service teacher education and communities of practice. In this pedagogical history and historical pedagogy of the significance of skills development over the past forty years we will draw on engagement with various incarnations of government sponsored generic skills initiatives from common skills to, most recently, functional skills as they relate to mostly a narrow vocational curriculum but at a times a broader and more meaningful wider curriculum that has attended to cross the academic/vocational divide and generate a genuine learning and personalized, curriculum.

Practice and Theory Insights arising from practice and action research relate to teacher know-how and pedagogical framework (see theoretical frameworks) and give shape to a radical teacher training and mentoring scheme that can support a more meaningful teaching practice that is more fully learner focused. The recontextualization process is posited in dynamic environments, involving people in socio-cultural dimensions and is context related and can be creative. It occurs in pedagogic and occupational activities that are related to work-related programmes from technical and vocational education and training (TVET). The pedagogic knowledge needs to be applied for teaching purposes, and the process by which this is done is known as pedagogic re-contextualization. It is the process where pedagogic knowledge is selected and refocused ready to be used for example in a series of lessons or one-day long session, depending on the format of the programme. This process of preparing pedagogic knowledge for use in teaching sessions is part of the application of pedagogic knowledge. Included in the pedagogic re-contextualization process is the preparation of the pedagogic knowledge for teaching (Loo, 2018). The more radical, meaningful and dynamic teacher training and mentoring approach outlined (see methodology) is evidenced by action research over the period since Simon (1981) opened the debate. Examples of each of the five phases are outlined in a range of published articles: early learner-centred models (Duckett, 1997); further work on the nurturing and support of skills through core learning is discussed (Duckett, 2001a, b and 2002c); a range of action research and development projects supported and managed by the

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Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA) between 2003 and 2005 (Duckett et al., 2005; Duckett, 2010a). Each stage is based upon a belief that learner engagement is determined by a meaningful and personalised curriculum which fosters the development of personal, learning, thinking and employability skills. The latest distillation of this work was based 14–19 on practical learner engagement projects (Duckett, 2005; Duckett & Grainger, 2009; Duckett, 2002b) and reflects the importance of personal, learning and thinking skills in the teaching and learning process. The development of the model through all of its phases is contextualized and analysed as a learning journey (Duckett, 2002b). Apart from the final phase of my on-going project, the developing model goes hand in glove with Loo’s (2018) framework: Phase 1 is best categorised as a stage of pedagogic recontextualization where FE teachers have disciplinary knowledge but not necessarily teaching experience. They may also have had some generalised experience of teaching such as second language teaching or voluntary work overseas or started but not completed an ITT programme. Phase 2 combines curriculum development, teaching and occupational practices with the two content recontextualization processes are involved; Phase 3 is concerned with the use of pedagogical knowledge (after content recontextualization) to develop these generic skills; and Phase 4, which lends itself to the IAR process after the application of teaching strategies to look at assessments/evaluations. The final and on-going phase is about ways of engaging and attempts to resolve some the difficulties identified in the NEET cohort through project-based learning activities such as researching a topic that interests the learner. This phase of development has closer ties with Evans’s (2016) framework of learner recontextualisation and the recognition that the whole education system should be more learner focused. These aspects can be project-based and include soft skills such as creativity and problem solving as well as awareness of rights and responsibilities, and respect for individual differences.

Conclusion Teacher education for VET sectors worldwide is under-theorised, undermined by government interventions and tends to relate weakly to the re-orientation of VET to changing work practices, digitisation and globalisation. I have tried to address this by applying the observational and reflective practice to the theoretical models developed by Loo (2018) and Evans (2016). Never was a genuinely radical approach to teacher education for the VET sector and the ITE as a whole needed more. Yet, the current state of ITE and ITT in the UK is buried by a lack of ambition, aspiration and creativity alike. Not only has the theoretical framework so valuable to teacher education been consistently eroded since the 1980s, but language and learning, perspectives (psychology of education) and contexts (sociology of education) stripped from VET ITE.

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The launch of the new Institute of Teaching (IoT) to deliver initial teacher training (ITT), the early career framework (ECF) for new teachers and national professional qualifications (NPQs) for more experienced staff is, however, likely to narrow the focus and functionalised the profession still further. The best hope for ITE now (and it is thin gruel) is that Oxbridge and Russell Group providers continue to be funded while other HE providers are further marginalised. Skills termed as common, core, key, functional, generic or specific learning skills relating to a subject have a significant role for students from less traditional backgrounds. Skills need to be at the heart of VET sector ITE programmes. How can skills be incorporated in ITE after decades of government cuts remains to be seen. While there is some hope that the IoT might address some key CPD themes, there is still uncertainty surrounding ITE. A more radical and dynamic approach to teacher training and mentoring for teachers and learners of the future and a personalised approach to pedagogy and curriculum design remains my ambition. How education managers and policymakers deal with the challenges associated with ILT and learner autonomy is the next challenge for VET and post-14 learning, which has managed to do more with less resource after each cut. The question now has the thin end of the wedge finally become too thin to withstand the pressure placed on it? Or can itfirst four phases of my mod hold the weight until a future, braver Government can rewind and re-establish teaching as a profession with a new regulatory body as part of national education service with lessons from Finland together and bring an end to the ITE saga?

References Becher, T. (1994). The significance of disciplinary differences in studies in higher. Education, 19(2), 151–161. Bernstein, B. (1996). Pedagogy, symbolic control, and identity: Theory. Rowman & Littlefield. Bourdieu, P. (2008). Political Interventions: Social Science and Political Action. Verso. Bowles, S., & Gintis, H. (1976) Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life, Haymarket. Brown, M. (2018). Is there a Marxist Perspective on Education?. Culture Matters, 21 May 2018. Clandinin, D. J. (1985). Personal Practical Knowledge: A Study of Teachers’ Classroom Images. Curriculum Inquiry, 15(4), 361–385. Department for Education and Skills. (2004). Skills for Life—the national strategy for improving adult literacy and numeracy skills. London: DfE Department for Education. (2020). Get into teaching. Accessed: 18 Feb 2021. https://getintoteach ing.education.gov.uk/. London: DfE. Department for Education. (2019). Destinations of key stage 4 and 16–18 students, England, 2017/18. October. London: DfE. Department for Children, Schools and Families. (2003). Every Child Matters. London: DCSF. Dreyfus, S. E. (2004). The five-stage model of adult skill acquisition. Bulletin of Science Technology & Society, 24(177). Duckett, I. (1997). Breadth and the core. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 21(3), 335–344. Duckett, I. (2005). Key skills activity pack: Communication level 2. Heinemann Educational.

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Duckett, I., & Grainger, P. (2009). Tackling the NEETs problem Supporting Local Authorities in reducing young people not in employment, education and training. Institute of Education. Duckett, I., et al. (2005). Partnerships that work guidance for schools and colleges providing work-related learning for 14–16 year olds. DfES. Duckett, I., & Whiting, J. (2020). A radical vision for a new 14–19 curriculum. In Regan, L., & Duckett, I. (Eds.). Reimagining Education. London: Manifesto. Duckett I 1998 Key Skills in the Curriculum FORUM Vol 41. No. 1. Duckett, I. (2001). Developing a value-added and evidence-based approach to key skills, or, ‘measuring the un-measurable’ in Evidence-Based Policies and Indicator Systems (Ed. Coe R.) 96–114, University of Durham. Duckett, I. (2002a). 14–19 curricula now: The qualifying for success reforms and the wider FE curriculum: a bigger, broader and braver curriculum or another missed opportunity’, [MA (Education) dissertation, University of London Institute of Education], published in Post 16 Educator, Issue 10 July/August. Duckett, I. (2002b). The development of key skills and the learning curriculum. FORUM. 42 (1). Duckett, I. (2002c). Up for a new curriculum. FORUM. 42(3). Duckett, I. (2010a). Additional specialist learning and personal learning and thinking skills: essential components. In Delivering Diplomas, vol. 2, no. 1. London: DfE Duckett, I. (2010b). Personalized learning and vocational education and training. In Peterson, P., Eva Baker, E., & McGaw, B. (Eds.), International Encyclopaedia of Education. Vol. 8, pp. 391–396. Oxford: Elsevier. Education and Training Foundation. (2020). So what is the FE sector? a guide to the further education sector in England. ETF. Eraut, M. (2004). Informal learning in the workplace. Studies in Continuing Education, 26, 247–273. Evans, K. (2016). Higher vocational learning and knowledgeable practice: The newly qualified practitioner at work. In Loo, S., Jameson, J. (Eds.). Vocationalism in Further and Higher Education: Policy, Programmes and Pedagogy. Abingdon: Routledge. Freire, P. (2005). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Herder and Herder. Gramsci, A. (1971). Selections from the Prison Notebooks. Lawrence and Wishart. Guevara, E. (1964). Talks to Young People in The Cuban Revolution in World Politics. Pathfinder. Kahneman, D. (2012). Thinking Fast and Slow Penguin. Kemmis, R.B., & Green, A. (2013). Vocational education and training teachers’ conceptions of their pedagogy. International Journal of Training Research, 11(22), 101–121. Little, G. (2020) Where now for pedagogy in England? FORUM, 62(1). Loo, S. (2018). Teachers and Teaching in Vocational and Professional Education. Routledge. Loo, S. (2016). Training of teachers of occupation-related programmes. In Gibbs, I. S. (Ed.) Teacher Education: Assessment, Impact and Social Perspectives New York: Nova. Loo, S. (2019). Further Education, Professional and Occupational Pedagogy: Knowledge and Experiences. Abingdon, Routledge. Loughran, J., et al. (2017) Developing pre-service teachers’ professional knowledge of teaching: The influence of mentoring in Teaching and Teacher Education Vol. 66, Aug 2017, pp. 47–59. Oxford: Elsevier. Marx, K., & Engels. (1848) The Communist Manifesto, Penguin. Radice, H. (2018). Beyond Meritocracy: Equality, Classlessness and Citizenship. Accessed: 6 Jan 2021. https://discoversociety.org/2018/10/02/beyond-meritocracy-equality-classlessness-and-cit izenship/ Ropo, E, & Jaatinen R. (2020). Subject Teacher Education in Transition: Educating Teachers for the Future Tampere University Press. Socialist Educational Association (SEA). (2021). 2021’Initial Teacher Education in England’, Paper for working group on higher education and initial teacher training, 11 Jan 2021. Shulman, L. S. (1987) Knowledge and teaching: foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57(1), 1–22.

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Simon, B. (1981). Why no pedagogy in England? In B. Simon & W. Taylor (Eds.), Education in the Eighties: The Central Issues (pp. 124–145). Batsford Academic and Educational Limited. Sir Andrew Carter. (2015). Review of initial teacher training (ITT). DfE. Spendlove, D. (2021) We need a review of initial teacher education—just not this one and not now. WonkHE accessed: 28 Jan 2021. https://wonkhe.com/blogs/we-need-a-review-of-initial-teachereducation-just-not-this-one-and-not-now/ Steele, T., & Taylor, R. (2004) Marxism and Adult Education in Britain. In Policy Futures in Education, vol. 2, no. 3 and 4. Tampere University. (2021). Finland 2021 Bachelor´s Programme in Educational Studies accessed: 28 January 2021. https://www.tuni.fi/studentsguide/curriculum/degree-programmes/ otm-b7db3f3c-44bd-4bd9-9244-c5d0d417dcb2?year=2020&activeTab=1 Teach First 2016 Eligibility Requirements accessed: 18 February 2021. https://www.teachfirst.org. uk/knowledge-base/eligibility/eligibility-requirements. Verloop N et al 2001 Professional development and reform in science education: The role of teachers’ practical knowledge. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 38, 137–158. Winch, C. (2014) Are the dual system and qualification frameworks compatible with each other? In Maurer, M., & Gonon, P. (Eds.) The Challenges of Policy Transfer in Vocational Skills Development: National Qualifications Frameworks and the Dual Model of Vocational Training in International Cooperation, Studies in Vocational and Continuing Education, vol. 12. Wrigley, T. (2017) Beyond the exam factory: alternatives to high stakes testing. More Than A Score Publications. Wrigley, T. (2020) Pedagogy and enlightenment. FORUM, 62(1).

Ian Duckett is an award-winning teacher (DfE Best Practice citation in 2003) with comprehensive experience in the 14-19 sector and skilled in intervention, engagement and re-engagement strategies with so called NEET learners. He has been a teacher and manager in FE and alternative provision for almost 40 years and was a development advisor with the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA). Recent publications include ‘Ways of Engaging: some approaches to developing learning skills’ in the AoC/ETF publication Future FE Pedagogies, a series of articles on a broader and more meaningful 14-19 curriculum post- pandemic in the Morning Star as well as co-editing Reimagining Education (Manifesto Press), a collection of essays arguing for education fit for all children and young people. Ian is an active trade unionist, member of the national executive committee of the Socialist Educational Association, a school governor and Fellow of the Society for Education and Training.

Chapter 10

Future Development of Teacher Educators in the FE Sector: Challenges and Opportunities Sai Loo

Abstract This concluding chapter of the monograph includes a relevant literature review of the topic and a re-cap of the eight chapter contributions with two discernible trends: teacher education/training perspectives and teaching institutions. Additionally, there is a delineation of the themes arising from the contributions. The three most dominant themes relate to teacher educators’ perspectives, training or education, and international comparisons. The final discussion covers the contributions/benefits, challenges, and opportunities. Keywords Literature review · Re-cap · Themes · Challenges · Opportunities

Reaching the End and Literature Review We have come to the concluding chapter of this edited research monograph. Before we summarise the chapters, ascertain the possible themes arising out of them with a reflection of the themes in the Call for Papers (in Chap. 1), and lastly, thinking about the challenges and opportunities ahead, I would like to refer to the relevant literature sources. It would be helpful to cover the related books on teacher educators and teacher education. A more extensive discussion can be found in Professional Development of Teacher Educators in Further Education: Pathways, Knowledge, Identities, and Vocationalism (Loo, 2020), p. 4–7. The books might be classified into three types. The first batch might be viewed as handbooks to offer teacher educators guidance to perform their roles. These, in date order, included McEwen-Atkins and Merryfield (1996), Philpott (2014), Crawley (2016) and Czerniawski (2018). The Crawley book is focused on the English FE sector. The next batch of self-study or edited books is by Berry (2008), Bates and Swennen (2012), Davey (2013) and Hadar and Brody (2018). The first book is a self-study posited in Australia, and the second book is an edited collection from S. Loo (B) UCL Institute of Education, University College London, London, UK e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 S. Loo (ed.), Teacher Educators in Vocational and Further Education, SpringerBriefs in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90502-6_10

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ten countries ranging from experiential to empirical-based studies. Davey (2013) offers a phenomenological account of teacher educators in the higher education sector, and the fourth book provides an institutional perspective of the educators. This monograph, Teacher Educators in Vocational and Further Education, fits neatly in this group as a collection of chapters from educators from five countries using empirical data sets. The final group consists of two research-driven monographs. The first is by Lunenberg et al. (2014): a systematic review of literature of 137 publications focusing on Dutch teacher educators’ professional roles, knowledge and identities. The other research monograph is by Loo (2020) on English FE teacher educators. He focuses on becoming teacher educators’ pathways, roles and job titles, knowledge, identities, and professional education.

Re-Cap of the Contributions Pilz, Schlöglmann and Gengaiah, in Chap. 2, examined the Indian Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) as a VET provider. Their findings of the teacher trainers’ perspectives concerned the external and internal conditioning factors. The external factors were related to salary, duration of training and equipment, working conditions and reputation of the teacher training institutions. The internal factors were the educators’ teaching abilities, private lives, job security, the opportunity to train up the next generation of educators, professional status, the relationship between teachers and students, the option of a fallback career and previous educational experiences. The researchers found that VET had a low professional position, which the government had taken steps to improve this situation. However, these teacher educators are viewed by the government as a supporting pillar to the VET system. The government intends to develop new training institutes in every state in India. The teacher educators in India appeared to be highly motivated in supporting their trainee teachers. These teacher educators viewed this as a contribution to society. This aspect of education is considered a link to the country’s economic growth. The participants saw their job security, linked to their salary and personal benefit, as a motivator in carrying out their roles. They perceived their state-run employment as good. A vital facet of the social use was their importance to the relationship with their trainee teachers. These teacher educators viewed their professional status as different from others, and they felt respected by others. However, the researchers cautioned the generalizability of the small-scale study and that the external and internal factors were connected. Scott, Wilde and Bennett investigated the centrality of teacher educators in England, which was in the education of trainee teachers. They critiqued this dimension using the backdrop of the marketization of the English FE sector. They used Biesta’s (2013) three domains of education: subjectification (beginning/trainee teachers’ narratives), socialization (placements at teaching institutions) and purpose (teacher education qualification) to delineate their findings. From the first domain on trainees’ narratives, the researchers found the dilemmas fitting into the teaching

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setting in the FE sector as trainee/beginning teachers amidst the neoliberal environment. Teaching conditions regarding workloads, administration and inspection regime created ambiguities of expectations, terrors of performativity and everchanging goal posts, leading to stress and anxiety as beginning teachers. Relating to their placements, the unexpectedly high workload such as lesson planning, teaching and the relentless pace afforded these trainee teachers little space for reflection. For some, the speed was ‘soul-destroying’ and demoralizing that affected their sense of professional identity. With the third domain - teacher education programme – the trainees felt that it offered them a ‘healthy and safe space’ to think and interact, which the placement environment did not. The programme also provided them with the space to examine their pedagogical and political assumptions. In Chap. 4, Papier discusses the development and implementation of the postgraduate diploma TVET programme at the University of Western Cape, South Africa. As with the other two empirical studies, this chapter drew on five vignettes. Initially, the participants found the academic requirements (e.g., readings, scholarly discourse and assessment demands) daunting alongside juggling home and work orders. However, the course opened up new vistas of thinking about vocational teaching and learning. In some instances, the educators felt that more scaffolding activities were needed to support the teachers. The participants also felt pride in achieving the postgraduate qualification. The course achieved its two main aims for the programme facilitators: building vocational curriculum leadership through increased understanding of teaching and learning and creating a new community of researchers to reflect their own and others’ educational practices. However, Papier pointed out that systemic and logistical challenges needed to be resolved despite the tentative success of the programme. In the following chapter by Duch and Nielsen, they studied the various forms of coherence among teachers in vocational institutions in Denmark. They used a sequential research design of policy analysis from 2014 to 2018 and multiple qualitative data sets of three vocational schools. The researchers identified three assertations: interest from policy level in the programme-fieldwork coherence, conflicts of interests between vocational teachers and managers, and tensions between teacher educators’ research and development projects. The findings identified varying forms of coherence relating to concepts, structure, biographies, programme fieldwork, and transitional ones from the policy level. From the educators’ perspective, coherence refers specifically to the development of pedagogy at the policy level. Conflicts of interest were identified. The marketisation agenda drove managers to support the studying process, ensure the trainee teachers graduate, and attract sufficient funding. However, the student teachers are concerned with teamwork, social agency and joint planning. The types of coherence were biographies and transitional. However, the managers rely on coherences connected with concepts, structure, and programme fieldwork forms. Teacher educators were caught in the middle and to ensure their future job opportunities. The third finding relates to the teacher educators’ implementation of teacher education programmes based on different knowledge. The researchers used activity theory and other sociological theories, which provided

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varying perspectives that the educators might find challenging to create a coherent professional view. Hannan, in Chap. 6, investigated the pedagogical potential of questions to enhance the trainee student learning experience in New Zealand. Using a small qualitative study of six participants through interviews, the researcher created a framework for fostering culturally responsive questioning strategies. She identified three conditions for this approach to work. These are a trusting learning environment (‘Whanaungatanga’), processes embedded in learner-centred activities required (Plan learning), and facilitation supporting learners to interact with questions and answers. Finally, the research pointed out that teacher education programme planning needed culturally responsive teaching practice, especially in a country like New Zealand with indigenous people and their distinct cultures. This approach similarly applies to continuous professional development. In the following contribution, Loo focused on the English FE teacher educators’ initial disciplines, journeys and job titles. Using mixed-method data sets from surveys, interviews and Talking Heads (a narrative method) of 33 teacher educators, he compared the disciplines, journeys and titles of those educators in FE colleges, higher education institutions and private providers. Regarding the initial disciplines, the teacher educators in the higher education sector seemed to have more qualifications with a more extensive range of expertise than those in the other two sectors. There was no discernible difference amongst educators in the HE and FE institutions with work-related or occupational expertise. All the teacher educators had teaching qualifications. There was no observable difference in allocating educators’ intentional and unintentional categories in the three sectors of HE, FE and private providers. Concerning job titles, greater emphasis was given to academic titles in the HE sector. In contrast, the focus was on quality control and learner support in the private sector and in the FE sector. The researcher concluded that taking the three themes together, the more extensive disciplinary and academic qualifications of teacher educators in the HE sector meant that these institutions could, more likely, provide a broader teacher education experience to their trainee teachers. Kidd, Viswarajan and McMahon, in Chap. 8, explored the craft identity of teacher educators to those of their novice teachers. Basing this study in England, they used a reflectivity approach to investigating the double-hermeneutic topic. The researchers used two narrative case studies which arose from the 2019 Infor-TED project. The researchers’ delineations referred to know-how/knowledge and reflectivity when applied to new boundary-crossers in a teacher education area. The two boundarycrossers are FE trainees moving from their VET location to training to teach VET and teacher educators to enter university-based teacher education. In so doing, they identified four themes. These were ‘zipper jam’, anxieties and fears at boundary-crossing, meaningful reflective practices of future-proofing, and moving on and working on identity. The first theme was related to zipping or mashing theory with practice as teacher educators, creating pedagogical conflicts and tensions. With anxieties and fears, these educators felt the disparities between the standard of their research to their academic colleagues in the higher education sector, the pressure on inclusivity and diversity in enacting their roles as educators, and the added pressure to be good

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role models to their trainee teachers. Regarding future-proofing, the educators were conscious of longevity, scalability of learning and craft practice via the digital imperative. With identity, the educators were mindful of social support for individual and collective learning that would alter their professional identities. The final contribution by Duckett again focused on England. He used his five phases of professional development as a teacher educator. In this case study approach, Duckett drew on Loo’s (2018) Conceptual framework of the occupational pedagogy of teachers to provide a radical and dynamic teacher training and mentoring scheme. This scheme highlighted three themes: employers, employability and vocational learning, skills, and practice and theory. For the researcher, skills development was the centrality of learning as common, core, key or functional skills under various guises. Specific or generic skills provide a significant role for learners from disadvantaged backgrounds. Finally, he argued that the radical scheme would induct these underprivileged students from the FE sector to become citizens and gain worthwhile employment. Two trends come out of the eight contributions. The first from the six chapters (Chaps. 2–6 and 9) relates to the teacher educators’ central role in educating/training teachers in the sector. The other trend from the two chapters (Chaps. 7–8) refers to teacher educators. With the former movement, this collection emphasizes the delivery and design of teacher education facilitation, as suggested by Hannan in Chap. 6, whereas the latter focuses on themselves as teacher educators. Within each of the two trends, what can be ascertained? From the teacher education/training perspective, four factors appear. The first relates to the roles and jobs of the (trainee) teachers viewed from the position of teacher educators. The issues cover abilities and skills, terms of employment, requisite qualifications, status, academic requirements, conflicts between teachers and managers, tensions between research and development projects, delivery strategies, facilitation of supporting learners, employability and linking theory with practice. These issues were identified in all the related chapters, i.e., Chaps. 2–6 and 9. The second factor refers to teaching institutions, and the concerns are placements, trust of learning environment and employers. Chapters 3 and 6 discussed these at length. The other factor relates to personal ones such as juggling work, home and studies and that the training provides new ways of thinking, as emphasized in Chap. 4. The fourth factor regards policy and the need for national policy coherence with the training in Chap. 5. The chapters (Chaps. 7–8) on teacher educators revolve around their roles/jobs, may they be about their initial disciplines before becoming educators, and journeys to be educators regarding their transitions from teachers to educators and anxieties and fears. The other areas include future-proofing their roles and identities and linking theory with practice. There are overlaps between the two trends, especially theory and practice, identities, transitions, and anxieties. The next section discusses these trends to Knight et al.’s (2014) seven research areas on teacher educators.

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Themes Arising from This Research Monograph The re-cap of the chapters above offers a chance to think about the themes arising from this monograph. This reflective act also provides a platform for the next and final section on challenges and opportunities. In their editorial capacities, Knight et al. (2014) posed seven helpful questions regarding research on teacher educators. These were related to (1) identities and roles, (2) types of know-how, (3) Influencers that shape their roles, practices and learning to be teacher educators, (4) Contexts regarding their learning and professional development, (5) Future needs of educators, (6) Preparation of the next generation of educators regarding quality and effectiveness, and (7) Role of research and practice. Suppose one included the delivery and design of teacher education facilitation from Chaps. 2–6 and 9 with Chaps. 7–8 on teacher educators. In that case, the mapping of these trends to Knights et al.‘s seven criteria is far-reaching. Of the seven items, only one aspect—preparation of the next generation of educators—is not covered. This exclusion may be a new research area for FE teacher educators. If the trends from the eight chapters are mapped to the ten themes in the Call for Papers of this research monograph (in Chap. 1) using the same inclusion criteria as above, how do they look? Table 10.1 offers a tabular map of the 10 Call for Papers themes to the eight contributions. The three most dominant themes were teacher educators’ perspectives, training or education, and international comparisons with eight hits each (i.e., themes focused on all eight chapters). ‘Professionalisation of educators’ theme captured seven chapters. Those themes with five hits were views of stakeholders, professional identities, and teaching know-how, with the theme on opportunities and issues, three hits and finally, the theme on ethical, gender and social justice issues, two. Though the themes coverage by the contributions was seemingly broad, the themes that were not covered included the impact of ICET on teaching. One possible reason for this deficit is that the global pandemic was too recent for any empirical research to be completed to be featured in the monograph. The most lacking theme is ethical, gender and social justice and here is an area for future researchers to focus on. Perhaps, one needs to mention that only eight contributions were eventually selected despite a worldwide call for papers. This less than expected number may be down to the relatively new research area where these educationists are still relatively unknown in an overlooked and misunderstood field of TVET. However, these disparities offer researchers new research opportunities to mine, which connect to the final section on challenges and opportunities.

Contributions, Challenges and Opportunities This final section ends with contributions/benefits, challenges and opportunities. The edited monograph showcases the contributions/benefits of the research by the FE teacher educators in vocational education. The countries covered are Denmark, England, India, New Zealand and South Africa. The book brings insights into the

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Table 10.1 Mapping the Call for Papers themes to the chapter contributions Chapter

Authors

2

Pilz, Schlöglmann and Gengaiah

3

Scott, Wilde and Bennett

4

Papier

5

Duch and Nielsen

6

Hannan

7

Loo

8

Kidd, Viswarajan and McMahon

9

Duckett

Total

1 √

2 √

√

√

3

√

4 √

5 √

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

6

7 √

8 √

√

√

9 √

10

√ √

√

√ √

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

5

7

8

2

√

√

8

5

√ 0

8

5

√

3

√

Key to the Call for Papers themes 1. Perspectives of teacher educators 2. Views of stakeholders 3. Impact of information, communication, and electronic technologies 4. Training or education 5. Professional identities 6. Teacher educators’ teaching know-how 7. Professionalisation of educators 8. Opportunities and issues 9. International comparisons 10. Ethical, gender and social justice

teacher educators’ perspectives of their primary role—teacher training/education— regarding teachers’ jobs, institutions, personal views and policy. In so doing, the chapters open up areas for further investigation. Additionally, the book highlights the teacher educators’ functions concerning their initial disciplines, journeys, transitions, job titles, future-proofing of their jobs and linking theory with practice. These areas provide a platform for further research. The findings also reveal the missing areas for research, as discussed earlier, relating to those aspects identified by Knight et al. (2014) for the FE sector and the ten themes from the Call for Papers. Most importantly, this monograph has started a dialogue about FE teacher educators and TVET globally. And this last point opens the way to think about some challenges and opportunities in this lamentable under-researched area of FE teacher educators. Some of the challenges might be garnered from the omission of topics from the contributions. These are professional recognition as teacher educators with their significant roles including training of beginning and novice teachers in the FE sector; recognition of the relevance of teacher education by stakeholders, especially policymakers and funders; formation of professional status; professional development for existing teacher educators; a clear and recognised route for future teacher educators; establishment of support structures in teaching organisations by management and

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nationally by policymakers; and creation of a more inclusive and diverse workforce of educators especially regarding gender, ethnicity, vocational-based and age. There are numerous opportunities. These cover research; dissemination of research (formally and informally, and academically and socially); clarification and widening of the significant roles teacher educators play in the education backwater of FE/TVET sector; creation and ownership of professional status with dedicated centres for its promotion and professionalisation of its members; and formation of partnerships and collaborative activities with colleagues and related networks in the sector and other education sectors nationally and internationally. Finally, Loo (2020) provided some ideas regarding possible research topics in pp. 127–128.

References Bates, T., & Swennen, A. (2012). Professional development of teacher educators. Routledge. Berry, A. (2008). Tensions in teaching about teaching: understanding practice as a teacher educator. Springer. Biesta, G. (2013). The beautiful risk of education. Paradigm Publishers. Crawley, J. (2016). Post compulsory teacher educators: Connecting professionals. Hertfordshire, Critical Publishing. Czerniawski, G. (2018). Teacher educators in the 21st Century: Identity. Albans, Hertfordshire, Critical Publishing. Davey, R. (2013). Professional identity of teacher educators. Routledge. Hadar, L. L., & Brody, D. L. (2018). Teacher educators’ professional learning in communities. Routledge. Knight, S. L., Lloyd, G. M., Arbaugh, F., Gamson, D., McDonald, S. P., & Nolan, J., Jr. (2014). Professional development and practices of teacher educators. Journal of Teacher Education. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487114542220 Loo, S. (2020). Professional development of teacher educators in further education: Pathways, knowledge, identities, and vocationalism. Routledge. Lunenberg, M., Dengerink, J., & Korthagen, F. (2014). The professional teacher educator: roles, behaviour, and professional development of teacher educators. Sense Publishers. McEwen-Atkins, E., & Merryfield, M. (Ed.). (1996). Preparing Teachers to Teach Global Perspectives: A Handbook for Teacher Educators. Thousand Oaks, California, Corwin Press. Philpott, C. (2014). Theories of professional learning: A critical guide for teacher educators. Hertfordshire, Critical Publishing Ltd.

Dr. Sai Loo is an academic at UCL Institute of Education, University College London, and an author and editor of research monographs. Before joining UCL, he taught accounting and finance at higher education institutions on undergraduate, postgraduate and professional programmes and vocational areas in further education. Before becoming a teacher, Sai worked in the industry as a Chartered Accountant. Occupational education is his main area of research interest. He takes an interdisciplinary epistemological approach to work, teaching and learning settings. His research projects and publications have focused on the further and higher education sectors and professional education, especially around teacher education (teacher educators and teachers) and professional practices in work-related settings of the digital economy and clinical disciplines. He has published widely in over 140 publications, conference papers and keynotes (83 per cent are singleauthored). Teacher Educators in Vocational and Further Education, published by Springer, is his eighth research monograph.