Facing the Storm?

Teacher Educators, Higher Education and Government Policy for Teacher Education in the

Twenty First Century

Professor Jean Murray, The Cass School of Education, University of East London.

Presentation for the University and College Union, London, 2nd November 2010

The ‘Battleground’

The part of the field which we are to examine has long been a battleground for the expert, and many questions call for discussion. What, for example, should be the purpose of professional training? – its character and duration? Where should it be given and by whom? .... At what age should it commence? – and is a system of apprenticeship desirable?

Lance Jones - The Training of Teachers in England and Wales

1923

A Future Vision: a model of training for twenty first century teachers?

‘Teaching is a craft and it is best learnt as an apprentice observing a master craftsman or woman. Watching others, and being rigorously observed yourself as you develop, is the best route to acquiring mastery in the classroom.’ (Gove, 2010:6)

‘We will reform teacher training to shift trainee teachers out of college (sic) and into the classroom’ and to ‘shift resources so that more heads can train teachers in their own schools’ (Gove, 2010:6).

Out of the Pedagogical Museum: the teacher training college

Apprenticeship learning and teaching in the nineteenth century

Back to the Future? Re-visiting old ideas... (1)

Attacks on HEIs as remote, limited in the training provided and overly theoretical

1890s, 1960s, 1980s – 1990s (& 2010)

Dangers of school-based apprenticeship model 1880s, 1920s, 1970s, mid 1980s – mid 1990s (& 2010)

Back to the Future? Re-visiting old ideas... (2)

‘…teacher trainees (should) spend their first year in schools apprenticed to a “master teacher”.’

Coz, C B & Boyson, R (Eds) (1977) Black Paper. London: Temple Smith

‘We … believe that there is no such thing as a qualified ‘expert’ in education, and no coherent discipline of ‘education theory’. Teaching, like business, is a form of practical knowledge.’

The Hillgate Group (1989) Whose Schools? A Radical Manifesto. London: The Hillgate Group

Discourses of Derision: 1980 / 1990s

The majority of teacher training courses are intellectually feeble and biased

They are overly concerned with topics such as race, sex, class and even ‘anti-imperialist’ education

Their preoccupations appear designed to stir up disaffection, to preach a spurious gospel of ‘equality’ and to subvert the entire traditional curriculum

Hillgate Group (1989:5) Whose Schools? A Radical Manifesto. London: The Hillgate Group

A teacher educator?

A teacher educator?

Discourses of Derision: modern takes

....’the system has been brought low by poorly qualified, trained and motivated teachers, supported by their unions.’

‘No single thing is more urgent, or more neglected, in education policy today than to put a bomb under teacher training and the outdated, lazy orthodoxy that has almost wrecked English teaching traditions. That’s what is most needed. Teacher training, teacher training, teacher training.’

Minette Marrin in the Sunday Times, October 18, 2009Accessed at

http://www.minettemarrin.com/minettemarrin/the_sunday_times/ 23rd November 2010.

Fitness for Purpose? Apprenticeship Learning in Teaching in the Nineteenth Century (but not

the twentieth...)

Fitness for purpose in twenty first century schools

....and for twenty first century teachers and student teachers

Global and national challenges for the teaching profession

Being a teacher is a complex and demanding profession ...

Teacher education is the key to better qualified teachers who are able to educate pupils and teachers for the demands of the 21st century

OECD (2005) Teachers Matter.

Joining up Professional Learning over the Life Course: key questions

What is involved in teaching well and effectively over a career? Pupil learning, teacher well-being and learning, sustaining of teacher professionalism.

So what is involved in ITE as the process during which the foundations of professionalism are forged?

Teacher education: the Janus-faced enterprise

Mis-leading dichotomies and simplistic judgements

Practice = good; theory = bad (or vice versa)School-based ITE = good; HE-based ITE = bad (or vice

versa) Workplace learning = relevant; out of workplace

learning = irrelevant Implicit learning = grounded; explicit learning out of the

workplace = difficult to apply / transfer Immediately relevant learning = good; learning with

longer term relevance = bad

Teacher Professionalism for the Current Century

Teachers able to:• meet the learning needs of increasingly diverse bodies of pupils who are

taught in increasingly diverse ways• meet and anticipate the challenges which social and political changes

bring to education • promote innovation • take personal and collective responsibility for continuous professional

learning • meet the learning needs of neophyte professionals and experienced

colleagues

Based on:• decisions about evidence-informed practice, local needs and the broad

socio-cultural and political contexts within which the school operates

Traditional models of apprenticeship (1)

Traditional models of apprenticeship (2)

Traditional models of apprenticeship (2)

Induction: apprenticed to a ‘master’ plumber 4 days a week – learning by watching and then doing

Attendance and study at college 1 day a week to gain qualification – reading set texts on ‘how to’, trade manuals, health and safety guidance etc etc

CPL: reading of new product publicity, new guidance on how to fit products. Plumbing Today.

Occasional discussions with fellow plumbers / builders / customers on new developments.

Teach yourself new techniques – trial and error.

Workplace Learning: a panacea for all ills?

• Emphasises value of experiential knowledge above other sources of knowledge generation

• In teaching adds to the over-valuation of classroom teaching as an activity• Sees immediate learning in the workplace as most valuable • But doesn’t always acknowledge that not all workplaces can provide the

necessary conditions for learners to be novices nor the variety of contexts required for full professional induction

• Emphasises the importance of the ‘community’ inducting the newcomer and drawing her/him into established practice

• Strengthens immediate and ‘local knowledge’ in teaching but does not always acknowledge the broader context or add to the overall development of the profession as a whole

The Cultures of ITE and Collegial CPL in Schools as Workplaces

• Cultures strong in some schools but generally still weak across the system as a whole

• Not all schools participate in ITE or have sustained commitment to collegial CPL

• Schools’ priorities firmly focused on pupils first and foremost• Pressures and pace of school life may make little space for

workplace learning • Mentoring and school-based teacher education roles still not

fully recognised or accredited • Risk of reproducing only local and experiential knowledge

Teacher Educators: the hidden profession

A generation of teacher educators closer to and more knowledgeable about the school sector than ever before -

• Overview knowledge of schooling, including but going well beyond experiential knowledge

• Scholarship and / or active research engagement• 2nd order pedagogy and practice, including student support• Development of practical theorising skills with student teachers • Often caught between a rock and a hard place in terms of ‘fit’with

HE workplaces and traditional constructions of academic roles

Teacher education: the Janus-faced enterprise

The Faces of Janus: looking at, not looking away

Neither schools nor HEIs - as the two faces of Janus in teacher education - currently bring their full power to ITE and collegial CPL

Tacit divisions, judgemental stances, derision and lack of recognition based on old (and sometimes outdated) visions of teaching and ITE abound under the rhetoric of partnership

ITE clearly needs the contributions of both schools and HEIs to create a coherent and viable national system of ITE fit for the 21st century teacher.

Apprenticeship models alone cannot provide this; nor can an ad hoc model of school-centred provision

Strengthening the HE Contribution (1)

• Re-clarification of what we mean by reflexivity, enquiry, scholarship & research in ITE, CPL and Schools of Education

• Values base of ITE and CPL work in HE is clarified • Use this understanding to re-think the place of academic activities in

Schools of Education – stakeholder / user engagement; impact?• Create communal structures and ‘scaffolds’ across schools for the

development of evidence-informed reflexivity from student teacher to experienced professional.

• Allow time to do this. • Centre teacher development around a scholarly knowledge base about

learning and teaching in educational institutions and communities (true generativity)

Strengthening the HE Contribution (2)

• Articulation of panoply of scholarship and research activities, their purposes and how they are manifested as processes and products

• Teacher educators ‘standing at the forefront of their discipline’ (Furlong, 2009)

• Highlight and disseminate 2nd order practice• Generate and disseminate products of teacher and teacher

educator scholarship in conventional and new media• Join forces with other professional education fields in HE

(nurse education, social work education)

Strengthening the School Contribution

• Participation in ITE and collegial CPL becomes the required norm for schools and is seen as integral to teachers’ career development

• Values base of ITE and CPL work is clarified. Challenge the dominance of experiential knowledge in teaching.

• Role of mentors and of school-based teacher educators is fully recognised, accredited and linked to further study opportunities (generation of scholarship). Recognition of 2nd order practice – androgogy as well as pedagogy. Award of clinical practitioner role?

• Teachers have opportunities throughout their career for further development through formal academic study and the generation of personal scholarship and research