ITSLIFE - Learning for Teaching

DUAL PROFESSIONALISM

Developing Professionalism and Professional Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes in the Post Compulsory Sector is an interesting and more complex subject than in other educational contexts e.g. Schools. To understand the concept of 'dual professionalism' should help you to understand some of the challenges and issues your mentees are facing, and help you develop your own professional identity as a mentor.

 

As Jocelyn Robson (1998) identifies: 

 “ In moving from one occupational area (in industry or commerce) to another (education  & training) most teachers retain strong allegiances to their first occupational identity… this identity is what gives them credibility (as well as knowledge & skill) … the technical teacher (initially) appears to see him or herself as chiefly the secretary, welder, fashion designer or surveyor… In making the transition from one workplace to another the mature but novice teacher can experience stress of various kinds, more is involved than the simple acquisition of new skills & knowledge (in education). …existing cultural practices & discourses may be inappropriate to the new (education) professional context…the key to the culture … (is) the success of the fist occupational socialisation process combined with … opportunity & incentive to develop another identity that of the professional teacher.”

In this model of professionalism, teachers who are already professionals in their specialist area (e.g. Accountancy, IT, Engineering, Nursing) are being supported to develop the dual professionalism of combining that with teaching expertise. Mentoring from a teaching/ training professional within the same or similar area can help this transition in a variety of ways. The subject mentor who has already made this successful transition from subject or occupational professional to educational & subject/ occupational professional is a crucial figure in supporting the trainee to make the necessary links between the two to blend them for the benefit of their students.

 

Robson, J. (1998) A Profession in Crisis:status, culture and identity in the further education college. Journal of Vocational Education and Training. 50.4 pp585-607 Download (pdf 60k)

Papers from WCLSRN Conference 2008 Changing Identities & “Dual Professionalism” in the Learning & Skills Sector

are useful, and can be found at:

 

http://www.learning-southwest.org.uk/web/Page2.aspx?PageID=229

 

The papers from one particular session - Kate Thomas  -  University of the West of England, Bristol - HE in FE:  dual identities have particular relevance to dual profesionalism.

Summary - donwload
Presentation - download

OTHER ITEMS

Bathmaker, Ann-Marie and Avis, James (2005) 'Becoming a lecturer in further education in England: the construction of professional identity and the role of communities of practice',Journal of Education for Teaching,31:1,47 - 62

Further education colleges in England offer a wide range of post-school education and training provision. Recently they have undergone major transformations that have resulted in considerable changes to the work of those teaching in them. In this paper we examine how cultures of learning and teaching in colleges are affected and how the nature of professional identity has changed. The paper considers the formation of professional identity amongst a group of trainee lecturers completing a one-year full-time teacher-training course at a university in the English Midlands. Lave and Wenger's work on apprenticeship to communities of practice is used to examine the effect of trainees' teaching placement on the development of professional identity. Rather than identifying effective processes of increasing participation in existing communities of practice, a strong sense of marginalisation and alienation amongst trainees was observed. The paper argues that this is detrimental both to trainees and experienced lecturers if they are to actively engage in building new forms of professionalism for the future. Download (pdf 150k)

Davies, Lee (2008) Towards a new professionalism in the further education sector

Edward, Sheila; Coffield, Frank; Steer, Richard; Gregson, Maggie (2005). Coping with endless change: the impact on teaching staff in the learning and skills sector Research funded by the ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme. This paper explores the range of reactions to policy changes within the post-16 sector from tutors and managers in our 24 learning sites, in colleges, adult community education and workplaces. The analysis takes account of the diversity within the group: managers and practitioners; college-based and community-based staff; new entrants to the profession and those with decades of experience; subject or vocational tutors and those trained primarily to improve literacy and numeracy. The last three to four years have seen rapid growth in college, community and work-based provision, accompanied by changes in funding arrangements, new targets and increased accountability requirements. In adult basic skills education, for example, the drive to meet targets and to maximise numbers taking national literacy and numeracy tests has brought in many new staff, while experienced staff find that their jobs have changed considerably. Whereas some staff are enthusiastic about new areas of activity, others have raised concerns about the needs of their traditional client groups. Managers are highly aware of the need to meet targets, but tutors vary, not only in levels of awareness of targets, but also in responses to them and in willingness to allow them to drive their classroom practice. The paper raises wider questions about the management of change and about the capacity of professionals to embrace, absorb, comply with, resist and, occasionally, subvert imposed change (author abstract)

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Elliott, G. (1996) Teaching in post-compulsory education: profession, occupation or reflective practice? This paper argues that a new conceptualisation of teaching in post-compulsory education is required. Taking into account the radical ideology-driven change experienced in the sector in recent times, it is suggested that there are difficulties with traditional and reworked models of the lecturer as a 'professional', chief amongst which is that lecturers do not seem to think of themselves in this way. It is suggested that any alternative conceptualisation must (i) take into account lecturers' own conception of their working practices, (ii) reflect the range of these practices, and (iii) reflect the epistemological and ethical basis of teaching, in particular, lecturers' sense of the value and worth of what they do. Such a model may contribute to our understanding of the nature and extent of the policy crisis in the sector, since it potentially conflicts with both the radical conceptualisation of knowledge and understanding which underpins the NCVQ vocational qualifications framework, and assumptions underlying current managerialist practices.

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Goodham, Mark Using research to enhance professionalism in FE (further education) - what conditions of labour are conducive to practitioner research: the case of FE Paper presented at the 8th seminar of the ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme thematic seminar series 'Changing Teacher roles, Identities and Professionalism': the impact of research on professional practice and identity, King's College, London, 26th April 2006 http://www.kcl.ac.uk/content/1/c6/01/41/78/paper-goodrham.pdf

Hoyle's idea of the 'restricted professional' and the 'extended professional' discussed in a google books result click here

Institute for Learning (IfL) Professional status for the further education and skills workforce

http://www.ifl.ac.uk/services/docs/1258/ProfessionalStatus_SeptRegistrationFlyer.pdf

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