INTRODUCING THE 'INVISIBLE EDUCATORS'

Jim Crawley

CRITICAL ISSUES

• What is unique about post compulsory education (PCE) teacher education and about PCE teacher educators (TEds)?

• What makes PCE TEds 'invisible educators'?

• What are the characteristics of PCE TEds?

• How can we enhance the value of PCE teacher education and PCE TEds?

Introduction

The professional, educational and funding turbulence experienced by teacher education and teacher educators (TEds) across all sectors since 2008 has been significant. Austerity financing and increasing government intervention have provided many new and difficult challenges. At the same time, evidence is building that the quality of teaching is the most important contributor to the quality of learning and achievement (BERA-RSA, 2014). Teacher education is demonstrably one of the most important influences on that teaching quality. International research suggests that teacher education in the UK and internationally continues to support improvements in the quality of teachers and teaching despite operating in challenging times and circumstances (BERA-RSA, 2014).

At the same time, research suggests that TEds do not have a strong professional identity, and that they are 'semi-academics' who do not engage as often as other academics in research, and their activity as a coherent community of practice is limited (Boyd et al, 2011). A combination of these factors can render TEds to what could be described as 'invisible educators'. PCE TEds, even within the world of teacher education, often have the lowest visibility of all (Crawley, 2013, 2014; Noel, 2006).

This chapter introduces the key ideas and themes of this book and how the authors have combined to present a more visible, confident and outward-facing set of perspectives on the community of PCE TEds. The book is evidence of a shift in our psychology, approach and self-confidence, which although not at this stage seismic, is important and of significance to the cause of teacher education, and which forms a call to action for PCE.

What is unique about PCE teacher education and PCE TEds?

PCE teacher education and PCE TEds are both situated in a working environment which is particularly diverse, complex, dynamic and challenging. In Chapter 3, Orr charts and analyses this context when considering what the sector is for, who the sector is for and how the sector is changing. His account reinforces how difficult it is to answer these questions precisely, especially because of the bewildering frequency of change. In Chapter 4, Machin provides the historical context of the key policies affecting PCE teacher education from Butler in 1944 to Lingfield in 2012. Machin echoes Orr's conclusion that PCE has become 'pivotal' for governments in preparing people to gain the appropriate skills for the UK to compete in a global economy, and how government actions have not often been seen to help that aspiration.

In Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, Dennis et al, Orr, Machin, Duckworth, and Robinson and Skrbic all include analysis of how PCE teacher education is inevitably affected by the sector context and close attention from governments. Being a part of a sector which is described as the 'filling in the educational sandwich' and the 'Cinderella' sector (Chapter 3, Orr) inevitably affects teacher education and these chapters explore those effects, and introduce some developments which have helped to mitigate their effects.

PCE teacher education

What is it?

This book uses an adapted version of Crawley's (2010) definition of post compulsory education to define PCE teacher education, which is:

If you are training teachers in further education, adult and community learning, workplace learning, 14-19 provision, public services training or offender learning which is not delivered by school teachers, you are working in post compulsory education teacher education.

At the time of writing, teacher education qualifications have been revised for the third time in 12 years, as outlined in Chapter 4 (Machin). They are at a range of levels, worth differing amounts of credit, and offer a step-by-step pathway to full qualification, usually to diploma at higher education (HE) level 5 or higher. Since 2012, gaining these qualifications is no longer a legal requirement for teachers, as is also described in Chapter 4. Qualifications are offered by universities and awarding organisations on a part-time and full-time basis. This combination of short and longer qualifications is unusual across global teacher education, but not thought to be entirely unique by Crawley (2013 and 2014).

Where does PCE teacher education happen, on what scale and in what conditions?

In Chapter 3, Orr makes it clear that good quality data about PCE is difficult to come by, but there have been some improvements in this area recently and it is possible from a number of sources to provide at least some data about PCE teacher education. It takes place in universities and in almost all other provider organisations across PCE including colleges, adult education services, private training providers, public sector organisations, prisons and armed forces establishments. Education and Training Foundation (2015) counted 829 providers in England in 2012/13. Crawley (2013) drew together data for each of the three consecutive years of 2008/9 to 2010/11. As many as 45,000 teachers in PCE were registered for teacher education qualifications in England for each of these three years. Almost 90 per cent of them were part-time in-service participants and over 55 per cent gained their qualifications through universities (LLUK, 2009, 2010, 2011). Although these numbers are difficult to compare with school teacher education, because of different funding, attendance and data gathering regimes (school teacher education has a 'comprehensive' governance regime and PCE does not), they clearly represent a significant amount of activity. Even with the impact of austerity measures and budget cuts, over 30,000 PCE teachers still gained teaching qualifications in 2012/13 (ETF, 2015).

In Chapters 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7, Dennis et al, Orr, Duckworth, Robinson and Skrbic, and Eliahoo, respectively, all highlight how the PCE sector conditions and mixed model of delivery are to...