Becoming a Teacher in the Learning and Skills Sector: Using a Knowledge Resources Perspective

Becoming a Teacher in the Learning and Skills Sector: Using a knowledge resources perspective to inform the development of initial teacher education

BRONWENMAXWELLSheffieldHallamUniversity

Paper presented at the Scottish Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Perth, 25-27 November 2004

Abstract

The government led ‘reform’ of initial teacher education in the learning and skills sector, constrained by current political discourses, is silent about what is known about becoming a teacher in the sector. This paper seeks to redress this silence firstly by drawing out key ideas from empirical studies of initial teacher education in the sector, general perspectives on professional knowledge, and literature on school teaching knowledge bases to illuminate the process of becoming a teacher in the learning and skills sector. Secondly, it reports the finding of a scoping study that examined the knowledge resources trainees draw on in their everyday practices. Within each trainee’s teaching context, three overlapping areas of knowledge were found to have particular significance: subject or vocational knowledge; knowledge about generic teaching and learning processes; and knowledge constructed with and about specific groups and individuals. These knowledge resources are filtered through each trainee’s personal constructs. Knowledge constructed with and about specific groups appears to have greater significance in the learning and skills sector than the schools sector and pedagogic content knowledge less significance. Trainees’ conceptualisation of teaching shifts from a predominately subject frame of reference to take greater account of learners’ needs and characteristics. The paper concludes that a knowledge resources perspective has much to offer in guiding the improvement of initial teacher education in the learning and skills sector. Trainees need to develop greater critical awareness of the knowledge resources they do, and potentially could, draw on. Teacher educators need to design programmes that bridge the gaps in trainees’ access to knowledge resources. Trainees’ employers need to ensure that the contexts for trainees’ teaching facilitates access to the range of knowledge resources required by the trainee to become an effective practitioner.

Introduction and Political Context

Initial teacher education (ITE) in the learning and skills sector is currently the subject of government-led ‘reform’. Using a knowledge resources perspective this paper explores what we know about the process of becoming a teacher in the sector and how this can inform the development of ITE. In the introduction I briefly set out the political context and argue that current political discourses are limiting our conceptualisation of the process of becoming a teacher in the sector. Two approaches are then used to redress these limitations. Firstly, empirical studies of ITE in the learning and skills sector, general perspectives on professional knowledge, and literature on school teaching knowledge bases are used to identify key ideas that illuminate the process of becoming a teacher in the learning and skills sector. Secondly, the paper reports the findings of a scoping study which examined the knowledge resources drawn on by in-service trainees in their everyday teaching practices. Within each trainee’s teaching context, three overlapping areas of knowledge emerged as having particular significance for trainees: subject or vocational knowledge;, knowledge about generic teaching and learning processes; and knowledge constructed with and about specific groups and individuals. Personal constructs played a central role in shaping individuals’ knowledge bases and their practices. Finally, drawing on the literature and the scoping study I propose a number of ways of improving ITE in the sector that avoid contextual simplification. These recommendations show how teacher educators, trainees’ employers and those responsible for setting standards for ITE can use the understanding of the ways in which trainees acquire and construct knowledge set out this paper to ensure that trainees have access to the practices and contexts necessary to enable them to become effective teachers. Equally important trainees themselves need to develop awareness of how they construct knowledge and the knowledge bases they do, and potentially could, access in their development as a teacher.

Interest in PCET (Post-Compulsory Education and Training): ITE began gathering pace with the production of standards for teaching and supporting learning in further education (FENTO 1999), followed by the introduction of compulsory teaching qualifications for all new FE college staff from September 200l. ‘Success for All’, the DfES’s (2002) blueprint for reforming education and training in the learning and skills sector, made developing the leaders, teachers, trainers and support staff of the future one of as one of its main four themes.

The spotlight on ITE intensified further with OfSTEDbeing commissioned toconduct a survey of existing ITE provision. This reached the damning conclusion that:

‘The current system of FE teacher training does not provide a satisfactory foundation of professional development for FE teachers at the start of their careers.’ (2003: 2).

Although the survey recognised that tuition on taught elements of training courses was generally good, it highlighted weaknesses in providing opportunities for trainees to learn how to teach their specialist subjects, a lack of systematic mentoring and support in the workplace, and insufficient differentiation of learning programmes. OfSTED also criticised the FENTO standards for not clearly defining the standards required of new teachers. Building on the OfSTED survey the DfES (2003) set out its’ proposals for reforming ITE across the whole learning and skills sector, beginning with the college teacher education.

The increasing emphasis on raising the quality of teaching is a direct consequence of the priority the government is placing on the learning and skills sector as a means ‘to raise economic output and bring about a more just and inclusive society’ (Lucas 2004: 42). The ‘reform’ of ITE in the sector is framed firmly within New Labour’s agendas of raising standards and modernising public services. The standards discourse

is underpinned by the two assumptions: firstly, that raising standards translates unproblematically into increased economic competitiveness in the global economy; and secondly that to raise standards the government needs to ensure that teachers use effective practices (Docking 2000). New Labour’s modernisation agenda seeks to restructure the welfare state, particularly through the implementation of managerialist approaches. The discourse of performativity, the ‘obsession with performance, assessment and accountability’ (Phillips and Harper-Jones 2003: 130) permeates the ‘reform’. The government has clearly signalled its’ intention to exert strong central control on the training of teachers in the sector. Challenging targets for the attainment of teacher training qualifications have been set (DfES, 2002), and the introduction of inspection of ITE programmes by OfSTED represents a strengthening of control over the form and content of the training.

Along with many teacher educators (UCET 2004) I do not dispute the need for change and welcome many of the proposals. However, it is important to ask if political discourses may be limiting our conceptualisation of the process of becoming a teacher in the sector. There is a silence in both the DfES (2003) consultation document and the Ofsted survey (2003) about what is already known about becoming a teacher. This paper seeks to redress this.

Becoming a Teacher in the Learning and Skills Sector: Research Evidence

The process of becoming a teacher in the learning and skills sector is an under-researched area. Existing research focuses primarily on trainee FE college lecturers who have participated in a PGCE or Certificate of Education (Cert. Ed.) taught by a higher education institution (HEI), or one of its’ partner colleges. This under represents the diversity of teaching contexts and the range of initial training routes. Within the constraints of this evidence four key themes are drawn out below; the disjunction between trainees perceptions and the realities of practice, trainees socialisation and access to work-based communities of practice; the impact of participating in a PGCE or Cert. Ed.; and trainees approaches to reflective practice.

Perceptions and realities

There are significant differences in the perceptions of pre-service trainees, who participate in a full-time ITE course with integral placements in colleges, and in-service trainees, who complete an ITE course on a part-time basis while employed in the sector.

Pre-service trainees often enter FE teaching believing that students will be enthusiastic committed learners, however their placement experience confounds this expectation (Avis et al. 2003, Bathmaker et al. 2000, Wallace 2002). In reality they find students uncooperative, badly behaved and unable to meet the demands of their course (Wallace 2002). Pre-service trainees tend to construct learners as “good” or “bad” according to the learner’s motivation, attitudes and behaviour (Parsons et al. 2001). Although ‘caring appeared to be pivotal to their construction of a preferred identity as a lecturer’ (Avis et al. 2003: 4), trainees enter into contradictory relations with students, adopting pathological constructions of uninterested and disaffected students (Avis et al. 2002a). Pre-service trainees also construct most FE lecturers as “bad” (Parsons et al. 2001), perceiving that they have low expectations of students and were ‘resigned to, and unwilling to challenge, this [poor] behaviour’ (Wallace 2002: 87). The poor regard in which they hold lecturers and their pathological construction of learners appears to emanate from trainees lack of awareness of wider social, economic, historical and other contextual constraints affecting learners and staff in colleges (Avis et al. 2003, Parsons al. 2001). The alienation felt by pre-service trainees leads them to rely on their own experiences as learners, from which they create strong images of ideal teaching and learning cultures. Often their vision of the underlying purpose of learning is related to a commitment to their subject, being articulated as the importance of different ways of knowing, for example as an artist or psychologist. This over reliance on memories of their own experience means that they do not ‘question and challenge the “common-sense” assumptions behind their own former learning experience’ (Bathmaker et al. 2002: 20).

In contrast, in-service trainees are more accepting of both staff and learners (Parsons et al. 2001), ‘recognising the significant social, educational and personal problems and difficulties that made students behave as they did’ (Avis et al. 2003: 36).

Socialisation and work-based communities of practice

Bathmaker et al. (2000) identified five factors that affect teacher socialisation: whether trainees were pre-service or in-service; the trainees’ own experience as a learner, the institutional and supervisory context; trainees’ previous or concurrent occupational identify and its associated norms and expectations; and the changing conditions in FE.

Wenger (1998) describes the characteristics of communities of practice as involving members being aware of what others know, shared discourses, rapid flows of information using jargon and shortcuts to communication, communal lore and shared stories. Shared stories act as ‘repositories of accumulated wisdom’ (Brown and Duguid 1996: 66). Although there are criticisms of the concept of communities of practice (for example Trowler and Knight 2001), it does explain how through the process of legitimate peripheral participation (Lave and Wenger 1991) ‘apprentices’ can go about ‘the development of knowledgeably skilled identities in practice’ (p 55).

The reality for pre-service trainees is often one of exclusion from communities of practice: (Parsons et al. 2001, Avis et al. 2002b, Bathmaker et al. 2000). In contrast in-service trainees find peripherality empowering, enabling them to move towards more intensive participation through a journey of enculturation (Avis et al. 2002a, Parsons et al. 2001). In considering the process of becoming a teacher in the learning and skills sector it is important to note that:

‘Learning, from the viewpoint of LPP, essentially involves becoming an “insider”. Learners do not receive or even construct abstract, “objective”, individual knowledge; rather they learn to function in a community’ (Brown and Duguid 1996: 69).

Participation in a PGCE / Certificate of Education

In an evaluation of different modes of study on an integrated PGCE / Certificate in Education at the University of Greenwich, Ainley (2000) concluded that there was ‘remarkable consistency’ (p5) in the skills and knowledge trainees thought they acquired on the different routes. Skills acquired spanned planning, group management, dealing with disruption, creating resources, assessment, evaluation, organisational and research skills, and classroom skills. Many trainees gained an appreciation of the diversity of students and of how to cater for students of different abilities and at different levels. Most distance students and part-time students stated that they had changed their practice as a result of participating on the course. There was a more mixed response from those full-time students who had taught before, some considering that it had only led to minor adjustments to their teaching, others to significant change. Some distance and full–time students pointed to becoming more professional, sometimes this was linked to increased self-confidence. Observations of teaching were particularly valued for trainees working outside mainstream provision.

Research conducted at the University of Wolverhampton indicates a greater difference in experience between pre-service and in-service students. Bathmaker et al. (2002) found that pre-service trainees felt that the PGCE course stood apart from their day to day experience in college. Pre-service trainees also displayed a greater theoretical orientation, whereas in-service trainees exhibited a strong commitment to a holistic approach to teaching, emphasising student personalities rather than theories and models (Parsons et al. 2001).

Becoming a reflective practitioner

Pre–service trainees primarily engage in technical ‘know how’ reflection (Parsons et al. 2001), holding ‘a common –sense notion of reflection as “thinking about things” (Hankey 2000: 10). They engage little with practical ‘know what I ought to do’ reflection, relying instead ‘on formulaic responses rather than seeking novel approaches’ (Parsons et al. 2001 p13), and rarely engage in critical ‘know why’ reflection. They show little contextual awareness, little evidence of self-reflection or the need to challenge their own preconceptions. In contrast in–service trainees engage more in practical reflection, considering themselves apprentices on a journey of self-discovery. They also engage in some critical ‘know why’ reflection. They use their own life stories as a resource for reflection, but although aware of the micro-political environment in their organisations they are not aware of the national context. (Parsons et al. 2001).

Parsons et al. (2001) argue that perspective transformation (Mezirow 1983) is required to enable trainees to break from past beliefs and experiences of education. They also point out that to achieve perspective transformation, ITE programmes need to encourage ‘deep reflection’, using the multiplying factor of peer support and positive criticism, and the FENTO standards, which do not appear to acknowledge the need to move beyond technical and practical reflection, require revision.

Knowledge used in Professional Practice

In this section changing conceptualizations of professional knowledge are discussed followed by examination of key themes from literature about school teacher knowledge. Consideration is then given to what we know about the knowledge bases and acquisition of knowledge by teachers in the learning and skills sector.

General perspectives

Explanations of the nature of knowledge drawn on and used in professional practice, and their sources are complex and contested. Labelling ‘types’ of knowledge has preoccupied many writers. Knowledge may be propositional or practical (Eraut 1994), equating to Ryle’s (1949) ‘knowing that’ and ‘knowing how’. Eraut (1994) also distinguishes between personal and public knowledge. Personal knowledge bases ‘includes notes and memories of cases and problems that have been encountered, reflected upon and theorized to varying extents and with varying significance for current practice’ (p17). Professionals only use in their practice a portion of publicly available knowledge. This portion, sometimes termed action knowledge is a personalised interpretation of the wider canon (Eraut 1994). Blacker (1995) identified five images of knowledge in existing literature: embrained knowledge equivalent to Ryles’s ‘knowing that’; embodied knowledge describing practical knowledge equivalent to Ryles’s ‘knowing how’, embedded knowledge which resides in systematic routines, encultured knowledge, a process of achieving shared understandings; and encoded knowledge, which encompasses information conveyed in signs and symbols.

Knowledge may be tacit or explicit. Schon (1991) argues that many professional practices do not result from prior thought but that ‘Our knowing is ordinarily tacit, implicit in our patterns of action and in our feel for the stuff with which we are dealing. […]. our knowing is in our action.’ (p49). Schon appears to equate the distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge to a distinction between intuitive knowledge and rational knowledge. Rational knowledge, in the techno-rational tradition, involves the explicit application of theoretical knowledge to solve professional problems. Eraut (2000), while recognising the formidable difficulties in making tacit knowledge explicit, argues that it is crucial to do this to improve professional performance.

Knowledge may be also be individual or communal. A communal memory, which enables individuals in a work group to do their work without having to know everything, is embedded and distributed within communities of practice (Wenger 1998).

Ideas about knowledge have moved away from the tradition view of an abstract, external, formal body of knowledge. Lave (1993) argues that ‘knowledge always undergoes construction and transformation in use’ (p8) and knowledgeability:

‘is routinely in a state of change rather than stasis, in the medium of socially, culturally, and historically ongoing systems of activity, involving people who are related in multiple and heterogeneous ways, whose social locations, interests, reasons, and subjective possibilities are different, and who improvise struggles in situated ways with each other over the value of particular definitions of the situation,’ (p17)

From a similar stand point Blackler (1995) rejected the five images of knowledge he had drawn from existing literature, arguing that they were not separate from one another and did not adequately take account of the multi-faceted complex nature of knowledge, which is situated and abstract, implicit and explicit, distributed and individual, physical and mental, and verbal and encoded. Blackler concluded that it is more apposite to conceive of knowing (rather than knowledge) as a process which is provisional, mediated, situated, pragmatic and contested.