Professionalism In Higher Education
An Essay regarding Professionalism in the Post-Compulsory Education Sector and the relevance of continuing professional development of dual professionalism
Foreword:
I am glad to have found documented research that clarifies how broad a subject like Teacher Professionalism in Further Education can be.
From the off set of this assignment, it was clear that Professionalism is ambiguous. Before there could be any discussion we first need to be clear what is meant by professionalism and where better than to agree the etymology;
[1]
If then by simple definition, can such an ambiguity create such a diverse and radical suggestion that one maybe both professional and vocational? Whose etymology suggest operates at ones highest level …show more content…
of consciousness.
[1]
A calling? To be called upon? A forthright? If fate brought me to teaching, it had many plans to overcome before I chose this path. However, the logical response would be to accept the call.
1. Expectations of a Professional: the individual
I have chosen to observe the coherence of teachers in training with the added subject or specialism required of vocational subjects in Post-Compulsory education.
Because of the broad subject ranges catered for in Post-Compulsory Education (PCE), designed to complement industries and specialisms served in terms of where our students aim to become employed, we are caught right in the middle. If there is always a middle person (ne-man), then the system could be considered inefficient. Professionals do not have the luxury performing with inefficiencies, by their very nature result in staying true to the cause or calculate the best get out plan. Before we explore the exit strategy it is once again logical to start at the beginning. Not the very beginning, just the beginning of the process of professionalisation.
What PCE offers in professionalism is institutionally trained and educated teacher. Logically the arrival at the teaching profession has either occurred via the academic path by way of qualifications or via the subject specialism. Creating a duality at a given point where a subject specialist becomes a qualified teacher. The training process then provides the incubation of reprofessionalisation. A bridge between one profession and another. That is to suggest that those that have arrived from the subject specialism route have previously been considered professionals. If in fact, this is not the case and the candidate has had a meandering of past vocations that in their totality constitute experienced knowledge, then professionalization is significantly relevant.
In contrast, academics entering PCE, may not consider themselves vocational, but the developing nature of PCE, to prepare learners for employment in the field of their choice, requires a selection of skills and knowledge, a career toolkit.
That extract comes from a published series of recommendations as a result of a government commission into Adult Vocational Teaching and Learning. It could be conceived that the notion is focused on the learner. However, the statement specifically acknowledges ‘individuals’ as a resulting embodiment of the recommendation. Although, this commission would appear to order imperative action.
2. Expectations of Professionalisation: the collective
There is, in this assignment going to be no comparison to primary and secondary teachers, purely because this area of teaching is typically traditional in terms and has manor of practices and well-established structures that would require their own analysis. Higher Education however can be compared in some instances, but my efforts will attempt to deconstruct a series of possible recommendations that may attract and perpetuate young vocational teachers and how they can remain attached to their subject specialism through communities of practice, during qualification and practice.
The first point that, in order to meet professional standards we always need constant checking of performance. This goes for any profession where you are working alone or as the main decision maker, even if you are positioned within a teaching team, in the classroom you are often the only significant decision maker in terms of the content delivery and classroom management, somewhere throughout your jurisdiction you must be accountable.
Policy, governance and regulation, at institution and national levels, outline accountability criteria. Within that we are free to operate instinctively, collectively and logic aside, a choice of emotions and common denominators.
Which brings us to the second point, we ‘need’ to balance ourselves uniquely between the governance of our institutions and our passion to create, impart and prosper, as professionals.
The Institute for Learning, a commission highly regarded by government for accreditation and qualifications for teaching professionals, set the highest standards for teaching, training and learning, supported by the professional body over a career. A body, that required all practicing teachers to become a member of, in order to work as a professional teacher, and more practically to be employed. A requirement that was relinquished in 2010 by the incumbent coalition government, along with the removal of any formal teaching qualifications as a pre-requisite, raising a number of questions over the standards and implications of professionalism.
Suffice to say it is within the jurisdiction of the educational institution to appoint teachers at their discretion, some choose to retain qualifications as essential for recruitment.
The third point is to address the need to maintain our subject specialism.
In order to do this we need to be clear about our duties as a teacher, the role and objectives of providing and facilitating learning. However, in order to be effective in this, fundamentally we need to remain linked to our subject specialism. We cannot become complacent that our existing knowledge and skills will remain best practice in industry, and the purpose of our teaching requires up to date content. Here is where the theories of communities of practice are opportunities for collaboration and development, not only of our learners, but the lifelong learning, that might be attributed more to academics and researchers in Higher Education institutions. Teachers of Further Education may not be contractually obliged to carry out research but most likely; there is a significant clause to maintain a high level of vocational competency.
As part of the research into the area, we conducted a survey to current colleagues to determine the values and validity of Continuing Professional Development (CPD). An institutional buzzword associated to ones progress, by means of critical reflection, peer feedback, contractual reviews and in accordance with regulatory inspections.
CPD is a personal portfolio that allows professionals to assign targets to areas for improvement or ambition; it can also be considered a tool for managing and evaluating ones performance throughout their career.
The survey, completed by …show more content…
39 respondents from two separate institutions in East Sussex, indicated some conceivably predictable, but also enlightening, factors. [3]
Over 44% of all respondents said that Online Resources were the most effective CPD strategy, compared to Peer Observation being considered the least effective. Having discussed progress and performance with my own personal tutor it is clear that as humans, regardless of our best intent and willingness to improve, our ‘feelings’ can often reject constructive criticism, and any judgment of our performance other than our own justifications, can cause offence, and sometimes considered unwarranted, irrational or bureaucratic. More than a quarter of respondents felt that in-house team working was most effective, however those who do not work in a team, or operate around a dysfunctional team could affect this data point. This would be an area for further investigation, if we were to include communities of practice as an effective method by which to enhance our professional development.
Surprisingly we discovered that 4 people spent over 100 hours a year or more on CPD whilst the majority spent 20-50 hours. A quarter spent equal amounts of time on both dual aspects of vocational teaching, 36% focused mostly on teaching methods and almost 39% focused on their subject specialism.
Interestingly we did not request data for subject areas to match, and made no record of personal data, so this primary research does open more questions as who does what and how, but ultimately we are individuals and data can only show us a snapshot of possibilities, this data cannot directly provide recommendations. It can however support encouragement that there is a broad range of professional development available and personal circumstances, requirements and ambition are the main contributing factors.
Conclusion
As a vocational teacher, it is apparent that changes and practices in industries should be reflected, discussed, observed and delivered in the teaching environment. For example, disciplines in public services, such as emergency services and military forces, should begin in such vocational courses. Effective communication, team work and time management are all effective and transferable skills, required in employment terms but most significantly in the business sector, and therefore a focus of A-Level and BTEC Business studies: information technology competencies, maths and English are basic requirements in all sectors and most work roles.
The objective here is to make ourselves employable and effective, if your passion is to be the best teacher practitioner you can be, you will need to maintain and develop your specialist subject knowledge.
A marketing technique of many Further Education institutions is to claim professional working relationships with businesses, in order to promote career opportunities as a direct result of completing a course. It would appear seemingly beneficial to build in subject development with the teaching team also acting on work experience placements or back to floor sessions, whereby their professional skill to absorb, interpret and communicate knowledge can be harnessed. This is not to suggest this does not already happen, possibly easier for part time and variable session lecturers, but the business or industry link being sourced as a partner in the teaching environment and the PCE teacher, a conduit of knowledge and professional
practice.
Communities of Practice (CoPs), defined as “a community created over time by the sustained pursuit of a shared enterprise” (Smith, 2003), have been a point of reference for many collaborative pursuits. The University of Brighton have dedicated a department, to determine and develop effective and functional communities of practise between academics and community or business partners where best practise and knowledge transfer can occur seamlessly. Whereby situated learning, legitimate peripheral participation and boundary spanners are common terminology. A boundary spanner is a person or group than intersects disciplines or other vocational areas, meeting the needs of two, possibly distinctly different groups.
Therefore it would be prudent to quantify that as professionals we should seek to outperform the regulations and policy by acquiring teaching qualifications and maintain our own professional and personal links outside the institution, or in conjunction with institutional partnership, even become a key stakeholder in developing new vocational partnerships, in order to keep the lifelong learning sector, learning.
An Essay regarding Professionalism in the Post-Compulsory Education Sector and the relevance of continuing professional development of dual professionalism
References:
[1] http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/
[2] CAVTL (2013) The summary report of the Commission on Adult Vocational Teaching and Learning: Excellent adult vocational teaching and learning. Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS)
[3] https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-5KXMDL7/
Further Reading:
Hillier, Y (2012). Reflective teaching in further and adult education. London: Continuum International Publishing Group. p7-29.
Armitage, A et al. (2007). Teaching and Training in Post-Compulsory Education. 3rd ed. Berkshire: Open University Press. 4-22.
Robson, J (2005). eacher Professionalism in Further and Higher Education: Challenges to Culture and Practice: Overcoming Obstacles and Creating Opportunities. Oxford: Routledge.
© Joel Benjamin Samuels 2014.
Foreword:
I am glad to have found documented research that clarifies how broad a subject like Teacher Professionalism in Further Education can be.
From the off set of this assignment, it was clear that Professionalism is ambiguous. Before there could be any discussion we first need to be clear what is meant by professionalism and where better than to agree the etymology;
[1]
If then by simple definition, can such an ambiguity create such a diverse and radical suggestion that one maybe both professional and vocational? Whose etymology suggest operates at ones highest level …show more content…
of consciousness.
[1]
A calling? To be called upon? A forthright? If fate brought me to teaching, it had many plans to overcome before I chose this path. However, the logical response would be to accept the call.
1. Expectations of a Professional: the individual
I have chosen to observe the coherence of teachers in training with the added subject or specialism required of vocational subjects in Post-Compulsory education.
Because of the broad subject ranges catered for in Post-Compulsory Education (PCE), designed to complement industries and specialisms served in terms of where our students aim to become employed, we are caught right in the middle. If there is always a middle person (ne-man), then the system could be considered inefficient. Professionals do not have the luxury performing with inefficiencies, by their very nature result in staying true to the cause or calculate the best get out plan. Before we explore the exit strategy it is once again logical to start at the beginning. Not the very beginning, just the beginning of the process of professionalisation.
What PCE offers in professionalism is institutionally trained and educated teacher. Logically the arrival at the teaching profession has either occurred via the academic path by way of qualifications or via the subject specialism. Creating a duality at a given point where a subject specialist becomes a qualified teacher. The training process then provides the incubation of reprofessionalisation. A bridge between one profession and another. That is to suggest that those that have arrived from the subject specialism route have previously been considered professionals. If in fact, this is not the case and the candidate has had a meandering of past vocations that in their totality constitute experienced knowledge, then professionalization is significantly relevant.
In contrast, academics entering PCE, may not consider themselves vocational, but the developing nature of PCE, to prepare learners for employment in the field of their choice, requires a selection of skills and knowledge, a career toolkit.
That extract comes from a published series of recommendations as a result of a government commission into Adult Vocational Teaching and Learning. It could be conceived that the notion is focused on the learner. However, the statement specifically acknowledges ‘individuals’ as a resulting embodiment of the recommendation. Although, this commission would appear to order imperative action.
2. Expectations of Professionalisation: the collective
There is, in this assignment going to be no comparison to primary and secondary teachers, purely because this area of teaching is typically traditional in terms and has manor of practices and well-established structures that would require their own analysis. Higher Education however can be compared in some instances, but my efforts will attempt to deconstruct a series of possible recommendations that may attract and perpetuate young vocational teachers and how they can remain attached to their subject specialism through communities of practice, during qualification and practice.
The first point that, in order to meet professional standards we always need constant checking of performance. This goes for any profession where you are working alone or as the main decision maker, even if you are positioned within a teaching team, in the classroom you are often the only significant decision maker in terms of the content delivery and classroom management, somewhere throughout your jurisdiction you must be accountable.
Policy, governance and regulation, at institution and national levels, outline accountability criteria. Within that we are free to operate instinctively, collectively and logic aside, a choice of emotions and common denominators.
Which brings us to the second point, we ‘need’ to balance ourselves uniquely between the governance of our institutions and our passion to create, impart and prosper, as professionals.
The Institute for Learning, a commission highly regarded by government for accreditation and qualifications for teaching professionals, set the highest standards for teaching, training and learning, supported by the professional body over a career. A body, that required all practicing teachers to become a member of, in order to work as a professional teacher, and more practically to be employed. A requirement that was relinquished in 2010 by the incumbent coalition government, along with the removal of any formal teaching qualifications as a pre-requisite, raising a number of questions over the standards and implications of professionalism.
Suffice to say it is within the jurisdiction of the educational institution to appoint teachers at their discretion, some choose to retain qualifications as essential for recruitment.
The third point is to address the need to maintain our subject specialism.
In order to do this we need to be clear about our duties as a teacher, the role and objectives of providing and facilitating learning. However, in order to be effective in this, fundamentally we need to remain linked to our subject specialism. We cannot become complacent that our existing knowledge and skills will remain best practice in industry, and the purpose of our teaching requires up to date content. Here is where the theories of communities of practice are opportunities for collaboration and development, not only of our learners, but the lifelong learning, that might be attributed more to academics and researchers in Higher Education institutions. Teachers of Further Education may not be contractually obliged to carry out research but most likely; there is a significant clause to maintain a high level of vocational competency.
As part of the research into the area, we conducted a survey to current colleagues to determine the values and validity of Continuing Professional Development (CPD). An institutional buzzword associated to ones progress, by means of critical reflection, peer feedback, contractual reviews and in accordance with regulatory inspections.
CPD is a personal portfolio that allows professionals to assign targets to areas for improvement or ambition; it can also be considered a tool for managing and evaluating ones performance throughout their career.
The survey, completed by …show more content…
39 respondents from two separate institutions in East Sussex, indicated some conceivably predictable, but also enlightening, factors. [3]
Over 44% of all respondents said that Online Resources were the most effective CPD strategy, compared to Peer Observation being considered the least effective. Having discussed progress and performance with my own personal tutor it is clear that as humans, regardless of our best intent and willingness to improve, our ‘feelings’ can often reject constructive criticism, and any judgment of our performance other than our own justifications, can cause offence, and sometimes considered unwarranted, irrational or bureaucratic. More than a quarter of respondents felt that in-house team working was most effective, however those who do not work in a team, or operate around a dysfunctional team could affect this data point. This would be an area for further investigation, if we were to include communities of practice as an effective method by which to enhance our professional development.
Surprisingly we discovered that 4 people spent over 100 hours a year or more on CPD whilst the majority spent 20-50 hours. A quarter spent equal amounts of time on both dual aspects of vocational teaching, 36% focused mostly on teaching methods and almost 39% focused on their subject specialism.
Interestingly we did not request data for subject areas to match, and made no record of personal data, so this primary research does open more questions as who does what and how, but ultimately we are individuals and data can only show us a snapshot of possibilities, this data cannot directly provide recommendations. It can however support encouragement that there is a broad range of professional development available and personal circumstances, requirements and ambition are the main contributing factors.
Conclusion
As a vocational teacher, it is apparent that changes and practices in industries should be reflected, discussed, observed and delivered in the teaching environment. For example, disciplines in public services, such as emergency services and military forces, should begin in such vocational courses. Effective communication, team work and time management are all effective and transferable skills, required in employment terms but most significantly in the business sector, and therefore a focus of A-Level and BTEC Business studies: information technology competencies, maths and English are basic requirements in all sectors and most work roles.
The objective here is to make ourselves employable and effective, if your passion is to be the best teacher practitioner you can be, you will need to maintain and develop your specialist subject knowledge.
A marketing technique of many Further Education institutions is to claim professional working relationships with businesses, in order to promote career opportunities as a direct result of completing a course. It would appear seemingly beneficial to build in subject development with the teaching team also acting on work experience placements or back to floor sessions, whereby their professional skill to absorb, interpret and communicate knowledge can be harnessed. This is not to suggest this does not already happen, possibly easier for part time and variable session lecturers, but the business or industry link being sourced as a partner in the teaching environment and the PCE teacher, a conduit of knowledge and professional
practice.
Communities of Practice (CoPs), defined as “a community created over time by the sustained pursuit of a shared enterprise” (Smith, 2003), have been a point of reference for many collaborative pursuits. The University of Brighton have dedicated a department, to determine and develop effective and functional communities of practise between academics and community or business partners where best practise and knowledge transfer can occur seamlessly. Whereby situated learning, legitimate peripheral participation and boundary spanners are common terminology. A boundary spanner is a person or group than intersects disciplines or other vocational areas, meeting the needs of two, possibly distinctly different groups.
Therefore it would be prudent to quantify that as professionals we should seek to outperform the regulations and policy by acquiring teaching qualifications and maintain our own professional and personal links outside the institution, or in conjunction with institutional partnership, even become a key stakeholder in developing new vocational partnerships, in order to keep the lifelong learning sector, learning.
An Essay regarding Professionalism in the Post-Compulsory Education Sector and the relevance of continuing professional development of dual professionalism
References:
[1] http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/
[2] CAVTL (2013) The summary report of the Commission on Adult Vocational Teaching and Learning: Excellent adult vocational teaching and learning. Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS)
[3] https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-5KXMDL7/
Further Reading:
Hillier, Y (2012). Reflective teaching in further and adult education. London: Continuum International Publishing Group. p7-29.
Armitage, A et al. (2007). Teaching and Training in Post-Compulsory Education. 3rd ed. Berkshire: Open University Press. 4-22.
Robson, J (2005). eacher Professionalism in Further and Higher Education: Challenges to Culture and Practice: Overcoming Obstacles and Creating Opportunities. Oxford: Routledge.
© Joel Benjamin Samuels 2014.