Intuition- Summer 2021

Issue 44 Summer 2021

The journal for professional teachers and trainers in the further education and training sector

set.et-foundation.co.uk

SOLID FOOTING Why upholding ethics and professionalism is the foundation of FE 12

Encourage reflection with peer mentoring 16

The end of empire: decolonising the࣢curriculum 23

Apprenticeships are the way forward in a tough jobs market

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HER Professional development for experienced and advanced teachers

APPLICATION WINDOW NOW OPEN FOR OCTOBER 2021 START

Advanced Teacher Status (ATS) is the badge of advanced professionalism and mastery in further education teaching and training.

Now available to advanced practitioners who do not hold QTS or QTLS*, undertaking ATS allows you to focus on your personal and professional GHYHORSPHQW JDLQ FRQͤGHQFH LQ \RXU WHDFKLQJ VNLOOV DQG PDNH DQ LPSDFW RQ your students and your organisation.

Apply for ATS: set.etfoundation.co.uk/ats 6HH 6(7 ZHEVLWH IRU IXOO GHWDLOV RI $76 HOLJLELOLW\ FULWHULD ZKLFK LQFOXGHV KROGLQJ D PLQLPXP RI D OHYHO WHDFKLQJ TXDOLͤFDWLRQ The Society for Education and Training (SET) is part of the Education and Training Foundation (ETF)

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CONTENTS

SUMMER 2021

UPFRONT 05 NEWS Two new partners for the Society for Education and Training (SET)

08 OPINION Views from Jeff Greenidge and Laila El-Metoui

10 INSIGHT Gillian Keegan discusses the recent FE White Paper

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16 Q&A Denise Brown, CEO of Stoke on Trent College, on ‘decolonising’ the FE࣢curriculum

THE KNOWLEDGE 30 CULTURAL CHANGE Setting out a framework of FE teacher professionalism will benefit educators

34 CALM REFLECTION 12 ADVICE Informal mentoring

14 INTERVIEW Dr Shaid Mahmood, chair of the Association of Colleges

Do you compost? The gardening analogy describes perfectly how slowing down can produce better results

MEMBERS’ CORNER

FEATURES 20 ETHICS AND PROFESSIONALISM Ethical teaching can help FE learners adopt the positive behaviours needed for the workplace and in society

23 APPRENTICESHIPS

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36 THE FORUM New tools tailored to support members and learners during the current challenges

The jobs of those under 25 have been hit hardest by Covid-19. But new apprenticeship schemes set out clear career pathways for young people

26 ADULT COMMUNITY LEARNING Nicola Milton on teaching GCSE English to adult learners

Often overlooked and misunderstood, and battered by funding clawbacks and lockdowns, how can adult education bounce back?

39 BOOK REVIEWS

28 PRACTITIONER ADVISORY GROUP

The latest educational titles reviewed

Introducing the eight newest members of the PAG, and how the group formulates SET’s membership strategy

38 MY LIFE IN TEACHING

InTuition is published on behalf of the Society for Education and Training Redactive Publishing Ltd +44 (0)20 7880 6200 redactive.co.uk

EDITOR: Nick Martindale

DIRECTOR: Martin Reid

LEAD DESIGNER: David Twardawa

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SUBEDITOR: James Hundleby PICTURE RESEARCHER: Claire Echavarry PRODUCTION: Jane Easterman jane.easterman@redactive.co.uk +44 (0)20 7880 6248 PRINTED BY Precision Colour Printing, Telford

COMMUNICATIONS EDITOR: Julia Faulks COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER: Sundip Gill HEAD OF CURRICULUM DESIGN PROJECTS: Paul Kessell-Holland

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While every care has been taken in the compilation of this magazine, errors or omissions are not the responsibility of the publishers.

Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the publishers or editorial staff. All rights reserved.

Unless specifically stated, goods or services mentioned are not formally endorsed by the Society for Education and Training, which does not guarantee or endorse or accept any liability for any goods and/or services featured in this publication.

ISSN: 2050-8980

SUMMER 2021 INTUITION 3

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WELCOME

FIRST WORDS

MARTIN REID

Passing the stress test A year of lockdowns and rapid adaptation has shown how important further education is to a post-pandemic recovery have been hugely impressed by the way in which the further education (FE) sector has responded to the challenges of the last 15 months. During that time, we have seen three national lockdowns, as well as a number of local measures that have forced those working in the sector to rapidly adapt their delivery model and teaching to help ensure learners are not unduly disadvantaged.

It’s at times like these – when the sector is effectively being stress-tested – that having a solid base of ethical principles and professionalism comes into its own: a subject we explore in our article on page 20.

As we hopefully start to move back towards something approaching more ‘normal’ conditions, it’s clear that FE will play an important role in helping our society and economy bounce back. The recent White Paper acknowledged this, and our exclusive interview with Gillian Keegan, minister for apprenticeships and skills, on page 10 outlines how it plans to provide a better system to enable this to happen.

Apprenticeships will be a vital part of the mix, and we also take an in-depth look at this topic on page 23, exploring new measures to help ensure the right blend of teaching vital skills and picking up valuable on-thejob experience. Adult community education is another area that will contribute to helping get the country back on its feet, but the sector is under pressure. Read more about this on page 26.

Aside from the recovery from the pandemic, ensuring the FE system plays its part in achieving

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equality of opportunity for all is a major priority. On page 16 you will find an in-depth interview between David Russell, chief executive of the Education and Training Foundation (ETF), and Denise Brown, CEO of Stoke on Trent College, in which she outlines her thoughts on how to decolonise the curriculum in FE. Our Opinion columns this issue also centre around this theme, with pieces from equity and belonging consultant Laila El-Metoui and the ETF’s own director for diversity Jeff Greenidge.

Elsewhere in this issue, you’ll find an interview with Shaid Mahmood, chair of the Association of Colleges, and thought-provoking pieces from Chloë Hynes and Paul Tully in The Knowledge. There’s also our maths, English and ESOL supplement, which takes a detailed look at these vital elements of learning.

Finally, plans are well underway for our next SET Conference, which will take place online later this year. You can read more about this on page 36, as well as recapping some of last year’s content.

We will update you on details in due course. In the meantime, I wish everyone an enjoyable summer, and I hope you are able to get a well-deserved break in this country or possibly even overseas.

FE WILL PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN HELPING OUR SOCIETY AND ECONOMY BOUNCE BACK

MARTIN REID, director, SET

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LATEST UPDATES FROM SET AND THE ETF

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150 staff at University College Birmingham will enjoy partnership benefits

TWO NEW SET CORPORATE PARTNERS University College Birmingham and Education Development Trust have become the latest institutions to sign up hanks to a new corporate partnership, 150 teaching staff at University College Birmingham (UCB) have been welcomed as members of the Society for Education and Training (SET).

SET has also welcomed Education Development Trust, a not-for-profit organisation that transforms lives by improving education around the world, as a Corporate Partner.

Nikki Brady, executive director of academic quality for further education at UCB, said: “We are delighted to join SET as a Corporate Partner. Delivering high-quality education to all students is our top priority and we recognise the importance of investing in our staff, and their professional development in order to achieve this.

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“This partnership will enable us to utilise the extensive resources, CPD opportunities and professional networks provided by SET to ensure our staff are able to provide an innovative and engaging learning experience for all students.”

As a Corporate Partner, members enjoy benefits including: The opportunity to study for Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) and Advanced Teacher Status (ATS). SET is the only passport to achieving both Access to resources, training and teaching tools, research and expert views in further education Discounts on CPD courses run by the Education and Training Foundation (ETF)

Access to SET’s online FE/higher education eBook library Joining the largest professional network of teachers and trainers in the FE sector Receiving copies of inTuition.

Martin Reid, director of SET, said: “Our partnership provides teaching and training staff with access to a host of expertise and resources as well as CPD opportunities, including enabling them to study for both QTLS and ATS. We look forward to supporting our new members in striving for excellence in their professional journey.”

For more information about our corporate partners, visit set.et-foundation.co.uk/ membership/set-corporate-partners

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NEWS

SECTOR UPDATE

NEWS IN BRIEF In other news...

TECHNICAL TE ACHING

WHITE PAPER EXAMINES SOFTWARE SKILLS

TEACHING FELLOWSHIP APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN pplications are now open for the 2022/23 Technical Teaching Fellowships. The fellowships are open to exceptional technical teachers in the further education (FE) and training sector and are awarded by the ETF in partnership with the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851.

Fellows are recognised as outstanding practitioners, with high-impact teaching practice, who deliver effective outcomes for their learners. Successful proposals are characterised by: Demonstrating highly effective approaches to improving teaching and learning in technical education, with the potential to help other teachers to teach better Promoting the professional standards of the FE sector and the professional standards of the workplace Demonstrating how applicants will use this opportunity to become a positive national role model and inspire others Planning and delivering professional development opportunities which will share effective practice in technical teaching and impact positively upon the pedagogy of other teachers

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Maximising reach, engagement and impact by raising the profile of the Technical Teaching Fellowship programme associations.

On being awarded a fellowship, successful applicants will: Receive an award of £5,000£15,000 to support knowledge transfer activity and to ensure remission time is guaranteed Develop ‘Pathways to Impact’ activity action plans, to maximise the benefit of their fellowships Attend two one-day developmental workshops over the academic cycle 2022/23 Be allocated a programme mentor Be expected to disseminate their work at national conferences in January and July 2023 and via regional networks Contribute to the delivery of a final report, written to engage and motivate technical education in their area of practice.

The awardees will also be made fellows of SET and will be awarded a year’s free membership. The deadline for applications is 5pm on 24 November 2021.

Further details and the application form are available at etfoundation.co.uk/ technicalteachingfellowships

A White Paper on how FE meets industry demand for software skills has been published. It examines how FE colleges can partner with EdTech specialists to accelerate the delivery of skills that lead to employment.

Four FE organisations, including SET corporate partner Newcastle College, alongside South East LEP, Code Institute and Gateway Qualifications, collaborated to offer a practical response to the depth of the job crisis as a result of Covid-19 and Brexit.

The paper offers a roadmap for FE colleges to follow to ramp up the delivery of in-demand skills that lead to employment and support younger workers in need of new career opportunities in the tech sector.

Reflecting on the White Paper, Vikki Liogier, national head of EdTech and digital skills at the ETF, said: “This initiative is an effective exemplar of what can be achieved through collaboration.”

Read the full story on the White Paper at set.et-foundation.co.uk/set-news

ATS AWARDEES ACHIEVE CHARTERED TEACHER STATUS A group of SET members have been awarded Chartered Teacher status at a graduation ceremony after undertaking Advanced Teacher Status (ATS) through SET. The 56 teachers and trainers from the FE and training sector were honoured in a virtual ceremony in March for achieving the national standard, which recognises excellent teaching from the Chartered College of Teaching.

The ceremony celebrated the hard work and commitment of the graduating cohorts of Chartered Teachers who

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SU TO ETF NBSCRIBE EWSLETT Receiv e

have undertaken a programme to be recognised for evidence-informed, high-quality teaching practice with Chartered Teacher status.

The programme, which is underpinned by the 20 Professional Standards, was launched by the ETF in 2017 and is conferred through SET. Applications for the next cohort of ATS is now open until 31 August 2021.

Find out more about applying for ATS at set.et-foundation.co.uk/ATS

COLLEGE BOARD REVIEWS SERVICE EXTENDED The Department for Education (DfE) has extended the ETF board reviews service to July 2021. This means that there is still time for colleges to receive a free board review, where they meet the criteria for a referral.

As highlighted in the FE and Skills White Paper, three-yearly external board reviews will shortly become a requirement for FE college corporations, so now is a good time to consider applying for one. The Further Education Commissioner teams and Education and Skills Funding Agency’s territorial teams will actively assess whether reviews would be helpful for colleges with whom they are in touch, and make a referral where appropriate, but colleges may also make their own case for a referral.

To seek a referral for your college, email the policy team at governancepilots.fecolleges@ education.gov.uk to explain the factors that should be taken into account, as requests are prioritised.

These might include a recent self-assessment – which indicates the need for a thorough review – a recent change in leadership, a period of structural change, or other new challenges that require the college to take࣢stock.

RECRUIT FE TEACHERS WITH INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE FE providers are being encouraged to take advantage of funding to support their recruitment of teachers through the Taking Teaching Further࣢programme.

SECTOR UPDATE ERS

regula r upda the ET tes fro F on n m ew an CPD c d upda ourses ted and re well as s ources selecte as d to Sign u pic areas. p at et-fou ndatio n newsle .co.uk/ tters

The ETF has announced round 4 of the DfE-funded initiative, which helps FE providers recruit, train and retain industry professionals to become teachers in technical࣢subjects.

Funding is made available to FE providers at a rate of £18,200 per place to cover the costs of the new recruit undertaking a Level 5 teaching qualification, receiving intensive support such as paired teaching or work shadowing, as well as having reduced classroom time.

Managed by the ETF, Taking Teaching Further launched in June 2018, with three rounds of funding between 2018 and 2021.

Registration and further information can be found at etfoundation.co.uk/ taking-teaching-further

SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED FOR FESTIVAL OF LEARNING AWARDS 2021 The Learning and Work Institute has announced its shortlisted Festival of Learning award nominees for 2021.

The Festival of Learning Awards recognises the outstanding achievements of adult learners and those who teach them, and aims to inspire others to discover how learning can benefit them, their families and࣢communities.

The nominees include inspiring individual learners, outstanding tutors and leading employers who have demonstrated a commitment to investing in skills.

The ETF is pleased to be continuing its support of the festival and looks forward to presenting the tutor of the year award. The winners of the 2021 awards will be selected by a panel of key learning and skills leaders and revealed at an online awards ceremony on 6 July.

The full list of shortlisted nominees can be found at et-foundation.co.uk/news/ shortlist-announced-for-festival-of-learningawards-2021

NEWS

NEWSINNUMBERS

22

The number of ‘outstanding’ colleges that have not had a full Ofsted inspection in over 10 years, according to TES. Ofsted says it aims to inspect all ‘outstanding’ providers by 2026

60.2%

The rate of apprentices training on new-style standards who stayed until the end of their programme in 2019/20. This is up from 48.3 per cent the previous year

£17m The sum allocated by the DfE to help tackle mental health issues in schools and colleges. This includes £9.5 million to train senior mental health leads

£50m

The amount of college funding at risk due to adult education clawback plans, the Association of Colleges warns Created by popcornarts from the Noun Project

£65m The money available for colleges selected to pilot the Strategic Development Fund, as part of the Skills Accelerator programme

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OPINION

JEFF GREENIDGE

DIVERSIT Y AND INCLUSION

Making a difference The further education sector is finally committing to real change around diversity. The Education and Training Foundation and Association of Colleges are enabling sector leaders to develop a culture of inclusion, says Jeff Greenidge ne year ago, the main conversation in further education (FE) was around Covid-19 and online learning.

Diversity and inclusion were being talked about, but not necessarily as an essential requirement.

The global Black Lives Matter movement brought into sharp relief the realisation that change around race is too slow. LGBT, MeToo and many other activist groups were demanding equity and inclusion. Previous diversity initiatives focused on data, ‘objective’ reports and case studies, while dismissing data from staff and learners’ personal experiences.

The established diversity toolset was sticking a plaster over existing structures not affecting workplace culture. Policy changes and training at best raised awareness, and provided middle management with development opportunities.

We need real change, and real change will only take place when there is emotional and intellectual commitment, and when it is recognised that the status quo cannot persist. I now see that commitment to change in many of our sector leaders.

The immediate risk is that we waste time looking to assign blame for inaction and for the speed of change. The opportunity now is to use the lessons of those organisations where genuine diversity and inclusion are driving success and where workers in those diverse teams report having higher job satisfaction.

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The coaching and development work undertaken by the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) and the Association of Colleges (AoC) is supporting sector leaders to be heard in their organisations. The ETF’s Diversity in Leadership programme, working with the AoC, is supporting several colleagues to implement strategies to make systemic change.

Students and staff at West Suffolk College have co-designed a black history curriculum as a result of students seeking to understand what Black Lives Matter was all about. Staff in colleges are reimagining the curriculum to ensure the impact of diverse groups on UK is recognised within programmes of study.

Governing bodies are being supported by the AoC and the ETF to think

differently about the value diversity of thought will bring to the board. The ETF is reviewing its programmes to embed the principles of inclusion and the value of diversity within its CPD programmes.

In the next few months, the ETF will be continuing its support to the sector. This has already begun with FE Voices, and throughout the summer and autumn, we will be sharing the approaches, actions and difference being made by providers, their learners, staff and governors in the sector.

As a sector there is a renewed energy and appetite for change; however, the pace needs to be increased. Therefore, in the autumn term, I will be looking for the ETF, AoC and other partners to build on the actions being taken by providers and amplify their impact to enable the change.

It will require each one of us to challenge the existing organisational systems and processes. It will be uncomfortable.

However, if we do not take personal action, institutional action will not happen. Our personal challenge is to become the change that will change the system.

JEFF GREENIDGE is director for diversity at the Education and Training Foundation and the Association of Colleges

A NEW ROLE FOR THE ETF “The role of director for diversity has been created with the AoC to stimulate the systemic change required,” says Greenidge. “We are not starting from a blank slate and those driving the change will require the right tools to support leaders and governors as they create new organisational habits and reimagine systems. Many of these tools are already in place, and this role will help share and refine those.

“The time is right to ask some challenging and uncomfortable questions, but which we do need to address if we are going to implement the change required.”

Greenidge has a varied career in education and training, being a Latin and French teacher in the south Wales valleys, then a civil servant developing the national curriculum for languages. After working on European vocational education projects, he helped to set up learndirect. Since retiring in 2015, he has remained a strong advocate for equity and inclusion, and has been working with the ETF and AoC to shape the diversity in leadership coaching and development programme since 2019.

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LAILA EL-METOUI

DIVERSIT Y AND INCLUSION

Queering FE Those working in the further education sector have a duty to help learners be their authentic selves, and to ensure everyone understands the need to respect each other, says Laila El-Metoui f learners are not free to talk about themselves and be their authentic selves, this will hinder knowledge acquisition and prevent achievement, success and progression.

The issue is particularly relevant to learners who are LGBTQI+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning and intersex), whose classmates might have strong homophobic or transphobic views linked to culture, religion or personal beliefs. These learners could be experiencing such discrimination in their own homes, with their flatmates, parents/carers or neighbours.

The liberation of LGBTQI+ people in the UK is rather recent. Homosexuality was partially decriminalised in 1967; Section 28 was only repealed in 2003 and sexual orientation and gender identities only became a protected characteristic in 2010. At the international level, homosexuality is illegal in 71 countries and punishable by death in 11, according to the Human Dignity Trust.

The challenges to LGBTQI+ inclusion are varied. There is a paucity of LGBTQI+ teaching and learning resources across adult education, and even more so in ESOL and English Language Teaching. Staff might not embed it in their designated curriculum area for fear of ‘getting it wrong’, ‘offending people’, or putting themselves at risk. Typically, the post-16 sector comprises part-time courses for adults from a variety of cultural, linguistic and educational backgrounds. If courses are taught off site or in remote areas, it could present additional challenges.

OPINION

the designated curriculum areas. For example, developing better customer care skills on vocational courses and preparing learners for the real world, increasing their employability.

Inclusion needs to be embedded at every stage of the learner journey. Senior leadership commitment is crucial to achieving this. Such an approach should include looking at LGBTQI+ in an intersectional context. People are LGBTQI+ and/or black, and/or disabled, and/or older/younger. Remembering that we all have multiple identities will lead to true inclusion and compassion.

Specific issues for ESOL

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ALL OPINIONS AND VIEWS ARE VALID, AS LONG AS THEY ARE NOT HARMFUL OR HURTFUL TO OTHERS At an institutional level, there may not be a clear commitment from senior leadership. On a personal level, it might be difficult for an LGBTQI+ teacher to support inclusion; many self-censor their speech and activities for fear of repercussions. Learners may not feel safe to be their authentic selves either.

A more inclusive environment How organisations can create an inclusive environment might seem like a challenge, but it does not need to be.

It’s about celebrating differences and fostering a positive atmosphere in a way that respects different opinions. It’s important to get learners to think about the impact of what they say and how this can affect the recipient.

Challenging homo/bi/transphobia in the classroom is not about changing people’s minds. It’s about developing learners’ ability to express their opinions in a respectful way. All opinions and views are valid, as long as they are not harmful or hurtful to others. Consider, too, the relevance to

The subtlety and indirectness of the English language can at times be a difficult concept to grasp for cultures that have a more direct way of communicating. As a non-native speaker myself, I remember feeling bemused by the language when I first arrived in the UK. I can therefore help learners understand how to communicate in a way that is not perceived as abrupt, aggressive or emotional. For example, learners can say: “I find this difficult to understand”, or “My religion doesn’t agree with this” rather than “Being gay is a sin” or “This is wrong.”

Teaching English is about developing critical-thinking skills; the language of opinion; encouraging learners to question things and find out answers for themselves. It’s about supporting them to take ownership of their learning. I feel I’ve succeeded when learners can express their opinion in English without offending others.

The education sector’s duty of care is to support all learners, staff and partners to be their authentic selves and develop an environment of respect and empowerment. We all need to be working in a trauma-informed, bias-aware and compassionate manner.

LAILA EL-METOUI is a UKbased equity and belonging consultant, and Stonewall Lesbian Role Model of the Year (2020). She has 30 years’ experience as a teacher and teacher trainer in FE, and is a member of DiverseEd

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Q&A

GILLIAN KEEGAN

Q& A

Centre stage The recent FE White Paper put further education at the heart of the government’s t’s post-16 education system. In an exclusive interview with inTuition, Gillian Keegan outlines its approach to a rapidly evolving sector

The FE White Paper has generally been well received.

What are its important elements?

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It enshrines the new Lifetime Skills Guarantee, setting out a blueprint for a post-16 education system that will ensure everyone, no matter where they live or their background, can gain the skills they need to progress in work at any stage of their lives. The measures will supercharge further and technical education, re-aligning the system around employers, so that people are trained for current and future skills gaps, in sectors the economy needs, including construction, digital, clean energy and manufacturing.

More broadly, we want to tackle outdated misconceptions about further education (FE), and the assumption that a good education must be a university one. I’ve often said that apprenticeships and other technical routes are our best-kept secret; they can lead to the same careers, in the same sectors, as you can access through going to university, often

with greater opportunities for valuable work experience. There’s now an apprenticeship standard in everything from graphic design to aerospace engineering, at any level up to a master’s degree.

The White Paper set out the importance of colleges engaging effectively to meet employers’ needs. It said less about adult learning institutions.

How important is adult learning in your view?

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We know how important adult education is in improving people’s life chances, which is why we are continuing to invest in education and skills training for adults through the adult education budget (£1.34 billion in 2020-21). We’re also investing £2.5 billion (£3 billion when including Barnett funding for devolved

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GILLIAN KEEGAN

administrations) in the National Skills Fund to transform post-16 education and training, boost skills and get more people into work.

In the Outstanding Teaching chapter of the White Paper there is a clear, ambitious agenda on teacher training, recruitment and development. Will the government be able to address the other key element of policy: teacher pay?

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We recognise the need to provide greater support for, and investment in, the sector’s teachers and leaders. The measures set out in the White Paper come with a total investment of over £65 million in 2021-22, an increase of £20 million compared with 2020-21, allowing us to deliver greater support for recruitment, retention and teacher development.

As autonomous institutions, FE providers are responsible for setting the terms and conditions of staff they employ.

The department currently has no role in determining or changing FE teacher pay.

You’ve been a great champion of T Levels. What will make these qualifications culturally transformational rather than simply an incremental improvement?

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T Levels are a game-changer. We’ve worked with more than 250 leading businesses to ensure the new qualifications give students the skills they need to get ahead in the workplace, while providing businesses with the talent they need for the future.

One of the unique aspects of a T Level is that it includes a 315-hour industry placement, allowing students to gain insight and invaluable on-the-job experience that will set them apart from their peers. For employers, this is a great opportunity to tap into a local talent pool early on in their career journey.

You’ve talked with passion about apprenticeships and their importance for young people and adults, and for businesses. Do we have the right teaching and training workforce to deliver the government’s plans on apprenticeships?

Q

As a former apprentice, I’ve experienced

I’VE OFTEN SAID THAT APPRENTICESHIPS AND OTHER TECHNICAL ROUTES ARE OUR BEST KEPT SECRET the great benefits and opportunities of an apprenticeship. We are investing in a comprehensive package of professional development available to all apprenticeship providers and their workforce through a new national online Apprenticeship Workforce Development programme.

Beyond this, the White Paper announced an ambitious package of support for the FE teaching workforce.

In 2021-22 we will invest over £65 million in programmes to help improve the recruitment, retention and quality of teachers in the FE sector.

There is no minimum standard of qualification for an FE teacher or trainer in England. How can we best work together to ensure consistently high professional standards across the FE workforce?

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The FE sector needs great quality teachers with a huge variety of backgrounds, skills and experiences, so it would be very difficult to take a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to teaching qualification requirements. That’s why we believe FE providers themselves are best placed to determine the skills, experiences and qualifications required of their teachers to provide the best student learning experience and outcomes.

Through the FE initial teacher training reforms that we outlined in the White Paper, we want to create a sustainable market of high-quality, sector-developed and endorsed qualifications and qualityassured providers of teacher training.

We are working with the sector to revise the Learning and Skills Teacher apprenticeship and to strengthen Initial Teacher Education qualifications so they are based on a clear occupational

Q&A

standard. This will help to ensure that all routes into FE teaching can provide consistent excellent outcomes.

Clearly, SET will continue to play an important role in supporting and strengthening professionalism in FE teaching, including through its award of Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills status and Advanced Teacher Status, which we hope will build on the benchmark set by the new occupational standard.

What do you see as the role of the FE sector in meeting those climate change goals?

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As co-chair of the Green Jobs Taskforce, I am committed to pushing forward the government’s plan to build back greener and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

Some of the aims include ensuring we have the immediate skills needed, such as in offshore wind and home retrofitting.

The FE sector will be vital in our transition to net-zero and already great progress is being made in harnessing the opportunities green jobs can bring to the economy.

The pandemic has created a serious challenge in terms of education recovery. How well placed is the sector to meet this?

Q

Our priority is ensuring learners recover from lost learning and training. That’s why we have announced a further investment of £102 million to extend the 16-19 Tuition Fund into the 2021/22 academic year.

The fund will support disadvantaged students in FE by providing small group tuition to help them catch up from learning they have missed.

We have also appointed an education recovery commissioner, Sir Kevan Collins, who is advising the government on the approach for education recovery, with a focus on helping students recover lost time in education. We are working collaboratively with Sir Kevan and the wider education sector, including the Association of Colleges, to help develop and implement long-term solutions to tackle the impact of missed learning.

GILLIAN KEEGAN is minister for apprenticeships and skills etfoundation.co.uk/apprenticeships

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ADVICE

INFORMAL MENTORING

Peer power Working with a peer – or two – in an informal mentoring partnership is a great way of receiving supportive, critical feedback and encouraging reflection on your practice, says Lynne Taylerson eacher-led, informal developmental partnerships can play second fiddle to more formal observation processes in an organisation, but peer mentoring is a recognised, evidenceinformed aid to professional learning.

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S HU T T E R S T O C K

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BUILD THE PARTNERSHIP ON A FIRM FOUNDATION

It allows us to collaborate with colleagues to develop our teaching and learning strategies. Informal partnerships can offer new insights into our practice and can be easy to set up if we bear in mind a few principles.

Here’s how to do it effectively.

Ideally, you’ll choose the peer to partner with yourself, or you’ll have a significant say in your choice of mentor. Take time to ensure the partnership is a good fit. If you know each other well, giving honest, critical feedback can be a challenge.

On the other hand, if you don’t have aspects of practice in common (such as curriculum area or learner profiles) you may not get feedback tailored for your context. You could call on the advice of an advanced practitioner from your organisation to advise you on your mentor choice.

You may not choose to sign a formal mentoring agreement, but make sure you have realistic expectations of the role and the commitment needed. Agree how often you’ll meet initially, if/how you’ll observe each other’s sessions and how you’ll provide feedback. Also discuss when and how you’ll review your pairing and evaluate the progress you’re making (see step 5).

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INFORMAL MENTORING

3

SET A FOCUS

It can be useful to agree a focus for observations and developmental discussions, using the Education and Training Foundation’s (ETF) Professional Standards online self-assessment tool.

Your focus may change from one meeting to the next, or remain the same for months, as the agenda should be

USE A MENTORING MODEL Even though you’re entering into an informal partnership, calling on a recognised mentoring model can give observations and dialogues structure and direction. I’d argue that all observations of teaching and learning should be supportive, developmental and ungraded, but in peer work this is especially so. Hobson’s (2016) ONSIDE mentoring model is a valuable framework as it warns us against ‘judgementoring’.

The mentoring partnership should be compassionate and, importantly, growth-focused. Mentors are ‘first and foremost on the side of – allies, champions and advocates for – their mentees’ (2016: 19).

Use the ONSIDE principles to set the tone for your peer partnership: O = offline: separated from management and supervision, allowing free sharing of CPD needs N = non-judgemental: to build and maintain a trusting relationship S = supportive: of emotional needs and wellbeing I = individualised: to the specific needs of each mentee D = development and growthoriented: this is not a remedial strategy to ‘correct’ practice E = empowering: with each mentee leading and having agency over their own development.

4

ADVICE

set according to individual needs. For example, one person might ask their peer mentor to focus on assessment for learning strategies, while the other may want to receive supportive feedback on learner motivation and their rapport with a group. set.et-foundation.co.uk/digital-assets/ self-assessment

TO OBSERVE OR NOT TO OBSERVE?

You may consider using ‘unseen observations’ for some or all of your work. Developed by O’Leary and Miles (2020), these are observation-free observations! A pairing meet, online or off, to agree a focus for their mentoring, then they each plan a session. Then, they come back together to reflect on and discuss the strategies and resources they’ve planned to use. They listen and they question.

Both parties then teach unobserved, unrecorded sessions before individually reflecting on their experiences, also using learner feedback if they wish. Finally, they discuss their sessions and ‘feed forward’ their conclusions to form action plans and to help decide the focus for the next unseen observation.

ENSURE AN EQUITABLE PARTNERSHIP An important, but often underdeveloped, part of a mentoring pairing is active evaluation of that partnership. We don’t want peer mentoring dialogues to turn into a ‘cosy chat’; we need to strike that supportive yet critical balance. After a few weeks or months, it’s really important to come together to analyse the successes of your partnership and evaluate how you can develop it further.

Key questions to ask here are: What have been the tangible outcomes of your partnership so far?

Are you both getting equal time to reflect and discuss your development needs?

What might you change about when and how you meet, how you observe and discuss your practice?

You may decide to continue just as you are, or you may conclude that the partnership has run its natural course and seek out new mentors on a ‘no blame’ basis. You could also consider inviting a third peer to join you.

Wider reading Hobson AJ. (2016).

Judgementoring and how to avert it: introducing ONSIDE mentoring for beginning teachers. International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education 5(2): 87-110.

O’Leary M and Miles J. (2020). Unseen observations. Available at: bit.ly/unseen_ observations

DR LYNNE TAYLERSON is a teacher educator, mentor, digital learning specialist and director of Real Time Education

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INTERVIEW

DR SHAID MAHMOOD

r Shaid Mahmood originally trained as a chemist and spent the early part of his career working as a research scientist. But a drive to help others saw him move into education, and would ultimately lead to his appointment as chair of the Association of Colleges (AoC) in December 2020. He recalls: “I joined the governing body of a high school and a primary school, and became chair of governors of the primary school and vice-chair of governors of the high school.”

In time, he was asked onto the board of the local training and enterprise council, and later joined the governing body of Park Lane College in Leeds. Other placements followed, including at Leeds City College and later the Luminate Education Group, a post he still holds today while working full-time for Leeds City Council in various transformative roles, focusing mainly on education and local communities.

Mahmood attributes much of his love for further education (FE) and his passion for education to his own experiences growing up in Moss Side, Manchester, in the 1970s. “It was a really tough inner-city area where you were often told you weren’t going to amount to a great deal,” he says.

“There was a lot of diversity, but there was also poverty and inequality. It is that link with poverty, inequality, neighbourhoods

D

INTERVIEW

Making his A desire to help people from disadvantaged backgrounds fulfil their potential drove Dr Shaid Mahmood towards the further education sector. Six months into his new role at the Association of Colleges, he explains how he hopes to help do just that, and tackle some of the challenges facing the sector

BY NICK MARTINDALE

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DR SHAID MAHMOOD

and communities that need support and services to help them make transitions in their life successfully that really drove me.”

FE at the centre His first few months in his latest role have been spent getting to know the board and team of officers, and meeting as many people as he can from colleges, albeit virtually. “What I can bring to the role is my relationship with members and politicians more generally, so really understanding a local government environment and why it’s important to ensure that there’s a strong bridge between local government and education,” he says.

Longer-term, he believes there’s a need for more joined-up policy at national level.

“In the past, there have been a number of attempts to bring policy environments across different ministries or departments together,” he says. “I don’t think there’s a more important time than now to get that right.” He’s pleased with the fact that the recent FE White Paper came out at all, as it helps to position the FE sector at the heart of government policy.

But he also warns of the need to ensure learners are at the heart of the sector.

“When I became chair, we had to deal with a huge number of issues,” he recalls. “I remember meeting after meeting where we never talked about the learner, but funding, finances and buildings.

“I felt really strongly that, when matters stabilised, I wanted to bring back much more talking about individual learner journeys, the experiences they’re having in the college, the difference it’s making to their lives, and the quality of teaching and learning.” Simplification of the funding regime around FE would help free up time to do this, he adds.

Colleges and other adult education providers also have an important role to play here in helping ensure the country has the right skills it needs to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. “None of us would want to have an electrician do some electrical work in our house just because they’ve got a tick in the box after doing some online courses,” he says. “You want them in an environment where they can practise what they’ve learned, and demonstrate to a quality-assured standard how they’ve gone about doing

it. There’s a really key role there for adult education, and it’s important that we, as a sector, can influence how that budget gets spent, in line with the priorities of our local places and spaces.”

Big issues But there are also challenges ahead.

While FE does a good job at attracting learners from diverse backgrounds, Mahmood believes it needs to improve its own representation of those from different communities. “It’s important that people from culturally diverse communities see they can aspire to bigger and better things,” he says. “When they see people from their own communities having positions of authority within organisations, it’s a real fillip to them, whether they be adult or younger people.”

But the culture is set from the top of the organisation, he believes, adding that having diversity on boards is vital. “It’s a case of going to the unusual suspects and building your networks so they include people who identify as LGBT, as from a culturally diverse community, as being of a certain age, or as any of those protected characteristics, and really

INTERVIEW

feeling comfortable and confident in their company.”

He also welcomes the spotlight that has been shone on the issue of sexual harassment in schools and colleges. “FE colleges have already worked really hard to be tolerant, safe and respectful places,” he says. “But with the safeguarding agenda, you can never rest on your laurels. We need to make sure these matters are discussed at board level, and all other places too.

There’s an opportunity for FE to re-examine what it’s doing.”

Mental health, of both learners and educators, is set to be another big topic over the next few years.

“FE has got a really important part to play in supporting our learners and workforce as much as we can, using the best practice that’s out there,” he says. “For example, initiatives like Mental Health First Aiders can give people an opportunity just to have a talk when they want to, but it’s also important to recognise that people have their own ways of dealing with things.”

Professional standards should be another area of focus, says Mahmood.

“We’ve encouraged practitioners at the front line to improve themselves professionally by going through these mechanisms to develop professional standards,” he says. “It’s really important that the sector embraces that.” The AoC is keen to work with organisations such as the Society for Education and Training to help embed standards, he adds.

As for his own priorities, his main focus is to ensure the sector is able to realise the full benefits of the White Paper. “It’s a set of ingredients that could form the basis of a recipe to bake an absolutely fantastic cake, and we’re not there yet,” he says. “We probably need some more ingredients, and proper funding for the sector. If I can play my part in being able to do that, then I’ll leave the role happy.”

IT WAS A REALLY TOUGH INNERCITY AREA WHERE YOU WERE OFTEN TOLD YOU WEREN’T GOING TO AMOUNT TO A GREAT DEAL

VITAL INFO FAVOURITE DRINK

Fentimans Ginger Beer

DOG OR CAT Dog

HOLIDAY

Dordogne, France

FOOD

Italian/Asian fusion!

TV SHOW

Would I Lie To You?

NICK MARTINDALE is editor of inTuition

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Q&A

DENISE BROWN Q& A

Breaking down

BARRIERS

Decolonising the curriculum is vital to understanding different cultures.

David Russell, CEO of the Education and Training Foundation, interviews Denise Brown, CEO of Stoke on Trent College, on the opportunities and challenges of this, and the role further education can play

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DENISE BROWN

DR: The concept of ‘decolonising the curriculum’ is gaining momentum. What does it mean to you, and why does it matter?

DB: The Oxford English Dictionary defines decolonisation as “the withdrawal from its colonies of a colonial power; the acquisition of political or economic independence by such colonies”. The expression denotes the dismantling of colonial empires established prior to the 1900s.

However, it also relates to decolonisation of the mind from the coloniser’s notions – notions that made the colonised seem inferior. So, when we apply this definition to the curriculum, I understand this to mean reviewing what is taught and assessed and by whom, with the aim of developing a curriculum that rectifies the view of inferiority of people from previously colonised territories and their ancestors, wherever they are in the diaspora. Decolonisation of the curriculum requires a root-and-branch review of how the curriculum is designed, the qualifications used to accredit it, the training of teachers who deliver it and the materials used to support delivery of the curriculum.

It matters because other attempts to equalise black and minority ethnic (BAME) people in British society have failed.

Multiculturalism failed to address racism and focused on cultural celebrations that broadened society’s understanding of some of the experiences of BAMEs but not their struggle to overcome perceptions of the inferiority of BAME individuals.

Anti-racism initiatives focused on eradicating racist behaviours but didn’t get to the source of the problem – that colonisation introduced BAME people to the white population through negative experiences and from a position of dominance.

Decolonisation dismantles previously held archetypes of beauty, intelligence, behaviour, authority and history. When these archetypes are dismantled, it creates space for equalisation.

Q&A

embedded into teacher training programmes and that all elements of the curriculum are included in this training – enrichment and pastoral support as well as specialist subject content.

We also need to look at ensuring that the workforce is more representative of BAME communities and that they, along with their white counterparts, are trained in decolonisation. Being from a BAME community does not automatically qualify you to dismantle colonialism after all; colonisation has left the BAME communities feeling inferior and lacking the confidence to challenge prevailing colonial-centric perspectives.

Leadership would also be a good place to start by ensuring that curriculum policies and strategies embrace decolonisation so that teaching and learning standards drive its implementation.

There’s decolonisation and multiculturalism – and sometimes I struggle to differentiate between the two. For me, multiculturalism celebrates difference; decolonisation dismantles what makes difference unequal.

BAME PEOPLE HAVE BEEN IMMERSED IN AN EDUCATION SYSTEM THAT IS NOT RELATABLE TO THEM SINCE COLONISATION

DR: In schools there’s a national curriculum, and universities set their own curricula. But in further education (FE), the curriculum is largely dictated by the qualifications we offer.

Where can we start?

DB: If we accept that the curriculum is what is taught and assessed, how it is taught and assessed, and who teaches and assesses it, then a good place to start would be on ensuring that decolonisation is

DR: When it comes to practical subjects like horticulture or hairdressing, is decolonising the curriculum still a useful concept?

DB: Qualifications dictate what is taught in FE but the content of those qualifications is often very broad and presents a lot of opportunity for decolonisation.

For example, City and Guilds Level 1 in catering specifies the method of cookery – boiling, poaching, braising and grilling – but it does not specify what is cooked. If you are not experienced in the cuisines of BAME communities, you would not know how to integrate products from these cuisines into the syllabus. This results in these cuisines being marginal, exotic or specialist.

If white communities are taught how to prepare some of these products, they become mainstream, available in large supermarkets and therefore cheaper. Europeanisation of the eating habits of Britain has changed our supermarket shelves, but we now need to think beyond Europe. My heart soars when I see on social media white Scots eating and loving Nigerian food. Exposure to the unknown creates opportunity for cross-fertilisation of cultures and mutual respect.

Hairdressing and barbering are also good examples in terms of dismantling singular perceptions of beauty and normalising working with clients

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Q&A

DENISE BROWN

of African and Asian descent. For example, one awarding organisation has working with African hair as an optional unit, but if working with clients from a BAME background were integrated into mainstream units, all learners studying hairdressing would be equipped to work with clients of BAME origin.

I accept that BAME communities are largely concentrated in urban areas, so this might not be practical across all geographies but there are ways around this problem. For example, you could have assessment exchange programmes between colleges in demographically mixed areas with one that is monocultural. I have worked in organisations where the great majority of learners on hairdressing courses are black, but they start their hairdressing journeys working with training head blocks that are white with European hair.

I have yet to see a head block with afro hair in a college, even though I know they exist. Barbering is another example: cutting male African hair is very different from cutting European or Asian hair, while shaving for men with African hair is a completely different process because when you cut curly hair it tends to turn inward, creating bumps and infections. Wouldn’t it be lovely if a black person could walk into any salon or barbers for a haircut or shave and know that that they can be received as a ‘normal’ client. It would be lovely too if white hairdressers could work in salons with predominantly black clients because they have been trained in black aesthetics and African hair types.

Moving on to horticulture, cultivation techniques vary across the globe.

In countries that have drought they manage to cultivate crops in very difficult circumstances and, as global warming increases and as the prospect of water shortages looms, it could be part of developing sustainable horticulture to learn from countries that have developed their cultivation techniques in such conditions. But these countries are in sub-Saharan Africa and, instead of their farming techniques being seen as creative, they are perceived as primitive. Decolonising the mind starts to turn on its head the views

white people have about the struggles of such countries. Conversely, introducing to Britain the cultivation of crops that are grown across the globe fosters understanding about diet, creates more environmentally friendly access to such products and integrates such products into British society.

These simple examples demonstrate that decolonisation of the curriculum works universally across both practical and theoretical subjects.

DR: If we move back to the academic subjects like English literature, history or geography, for example, is it possible to lose sight of the purpose of the subjects if we take a decolonising lens? Might it be a mistake to focus on things that differentiate us, like our ethnicity, rather than things that unite us – like our humanity? Or do we stretch and develop our learners more by showing them different worlds, new subjects, unfamiliar experiences?

DB: BAME people have been immersed in an education system that is not relatable to them since colonisation. For decades, Africans, Indians, Pakistanis and Chinese, to name but a few, have been studying Western qualifications in their

countries, having been served a diet of literature and science that is outside of their experience. They have passed European-designed qualifications based on European knowledge and history simply to achieve academic recognition from Western society.

Now, their descendants across the globe are still sitting in classrooms being educated with a curriculum where they and their experiences are, at best, absent, and at worst perpetuating negative stereotypes. I have sat in a classroom when charity for Africans was discussed and seen 30-odd white faces swivel to look at me as the only person of colour in the room. It is humiliating to receive the pitying looks and to have no alternative view of Africa to respond with. When you, your ancestry and your family are portrayed as impoverished in mind, body and culture, your sense of self-worth diminishes. How much more could people from BAME communities achieve and how much more could they demonstrate their intelligence if the curriculum they study embodied their experience, their knowledge and their history, and how much more could white people achieve if their learning embraced global intelligences? It is not just BAME communities who suffer from a narrow perspective; white people are cheated too.

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Denise Brown (far left) is CEO and principal of Stoke on Trent College

DENISE BROWN

Q&A

DR: Is there a risk that we rush

DECOLONISATION OF THE CURRICULUM REQUIRES A ROOTAND-BRANCH REVIEW OF HOW IT IS DESIGNED

Denise Brown says culture and context define how we interpret ‘universal’ themes

Difference is important; it has been a great failing of equality initiatives to try to bring everybody to the same point, the same page and the same perspective.

Understanding our differences and accommodating them is important. Yes, we want an integrated society, but we want equal integration. Once we are closer to more extensive experiences, then we can start to look at timeless themes from a variety of perspectives.

For example, in the West we wear white for weddings but in most other parts of the globe, colour is the order of the day – in some African communities white is worn at funerals.

In some communities, love comes after marriage; in other communities, love leads to marriage or union.

What we see as timeless themes have different meanings in different cultures.

Our identity forms our understanding of these timeless themes. Understanding this about other cultures empowers all concerned; denying this inevitably leads to a dominant perspective shaping the curriculum that teaches these universal themes. These themes do not transcend culture or context – rather, culture and context define how we experience and understand them. In the words of the American poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou, “You can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been”, and that is applicable to white people and BAME communities alike. She also said: “You can’t be friends until you are equal.”

to diversify the canon but shoot ourselves in the foot if we include something of unproven quality that has not yet stood the test of time, for the sake of diversity of authorial perspective? The literary canon, for example, has been built and honed over time. To help learners understand what has shaped our world, won’t we always end up focusing on what has been considered important up until now? I worry that, as long as one set of cultural capital artefacts is dominant, we cannot challenge and change perspectives unless we have the knowledge needed to critique those things held up as being of greatest value.

DB: Who defines excellence is the nub of this question around decolonisation.

To call something to be of unproven quality because it is procreated in a culture or by a race outside of one’s own is to epitomise the problem of colonisation and offer the necessity for decolonisation. Decolonisation broadens the perception of excellence; it does not take away from what is already deemed to be excellent.

A beautifully written piece of African or Indian prose, for example, can sit alongside a beautiful piece of prose considered to be of Western origin.

The fact is, global influences before colonisation were rife, and who is to say that Western literature does not have its origins in Eastern or African influences.

BAME histories and influences stretch far back into the history of time; they are not new arrivals to the scene.

I agree that to understand what has shaped our world up to now requires us to re-evaluate what has been most important. Young learners are motivated by ethics, and an increased awareness that what they have been told is the most important no longer is; commercialisation at the expense of the environment is frowned on by the young, so is capitalism borne out of slavery. A curriculum no longer dominated by the supremacy of European countries could also be a new awakening.

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FEATURE

ETHICS AND PROFESSIONALISM

SOLID FOOTING

Operating in a responsible, professional and ethically sound manner underpins the whole further education sector. Despite the current pressure educators and learners are under, this is as important now as it has ever been. Elizabeth Holmes explains

hen an event such as a global pandemic crashes through our usual mode of operating, it means educators have to adapt, and fast. The need to get both themselves and their learners up to speed with remote working, as well as juggling the additional demands Covid-19 placed on both professional and personal lives, meant those working in the further education (FE) sector have found themselves under more pressure than ever over the past 15 months.

The profession has responded admirably, and having strong processes, policies, procedures and organisational culture has helped ensure that providers have been able

P H O T O G R A P H Y: G E T T Y

W

to maintain standards and high levels of professionalism, despite the unforeseen circumstances.

Barnsley College is one such example. “We have an extensive policy framework that is supported through the relevant procedures and systems, and its purpose is to safeguard and support as well as remind people in some cases what the expected standards are,” says Yiannis Koursis, principal and CEO. “The key point around these policies is that they must be fully aligned with the organisation’s purpose. If strategic alignment is not present or is only partially present, then it will be difficult to safeguard against not meeting expected standards due to lack of clarity or confusion.”

PERHAPS THE QUESTION ISN’T ABOUT BEING TEMPTED TO CUT CORNERS, BUT HOW WE CAN PROMOTE THESE CREATIVE PRACTICES

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ETHICS AND PROFESSIONALISM

That’s not to say there aren’t risks associated with the unprecedented circumstances the education sector has found itself working in, however.

Dr Jim Baxter, professional ethics consultancy team leader at the Inter-Disciplinary Ethics Applied Centre, University of Leeds, warns there is potential for standards and behaviours to slip as a result of stress or time pressure. “First, there might be an issue with the quality of ethical decision-making,” he says. “Making good ethical decisions requires taking a step back from the immediate problem, seeing it in a broader context, discussing with colleagues and teasing out the relevant facts and values. All of this can be very difficult to do if the decision has to be made very quickly.

“Secondly, there can be a temptation to let things which you know are not optimal slip, in order to meet deadlines, when correcting the problem would require significant additional work. This is perhaps a particularly acute problem in educational settings where many deadlines are fixed and immutable.

The question then becomes whether it is fair to expect educators to work long hours to put things right.”

Upholding standards Teresa Carroll, who leads on the Education and Training Foundation’s (ETF) offer on offender learning, special educational needs and disabilities and mental health, feels that although staff are under pressure, they have stepped up admirably to the challenge. “Many are now delivering learning much more creatively by taking time to understand the reality of their learners’ lives and working together to find solutions,” she says.

In a world of rapid change, she believes there is much to be positive about. “Only this morning,” Carroll says, “I was listening to teachers talking about how best to present ideas to learners; delivering learning packs where access to technology isn’t available and adapting teaching to be relevant to the learners’ lives. So perhaps the question isn’t about being tempted to cut corners, but how we can promote these creative practices. There are so many communities of practice across the FE sector, and this is just one way that sharing ideas can happen.”

Operating within the guiding principles of your organisation is the core of operating ethically. For Koursis, this means “having an

EXPERTISE

LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE Dr Maggie Gregson, professor of vocational education and director of the Centre for Excellence in Teacher Training at the University of Sunderland (SUNCETT): What do we mean by teachers operating ethically? There is a difference between ethics and morals. Ethics lean towards decisions based on the individual character and qualities of the teacher,

their subjective understanding of right and wrong, and the judgements they make in context about their learners based on their understanding of the needs of individuals as well as those of the group.

On the other hand, morals tend to suggest more widely shared societal norms about what people ought to do. The concept of professionalism can be construed as protectionist,

‘NEWER TEACHERS WITH LESS EXPERIENCE MAY NEED SOME ASSISTANCE OR MENTORING’

FEATURE

employee handbook, staff code of conduct, and teaching and learning standards and expectations that are reflective and representative of the organisation’s purpose and mission”.

This is about complying with the rules and expectations of the organisation, including safeguarding, health and safety, and so on.

The lens of trust is a useful tool to achieve this, suggests Baxter. “The imbalance of knowledge and power between educator and learner means that trust is a central, unavoidable element of the relationship, and the responsibility is on the educator to ensure that trust is earned,” he says.

For Carroll, this also embraces the promotion of social justice in the FE sector and beyond. “We are well placed to promote social justice within society, working with learners to achieve their aspirations and become the people they want to be,” she says. “Our learners are drawn from all demographics of society and because of that many will be experiencing, or living in families experiencing, social and economic deprivation alongside emotional and mental health concerns.

“The shift to learning online has revealed the disparity within our

even elitist. Other meanings of the term have more to do with adhering to the shared values of a practice.

In these demanding times, experienced teachers may be more able to make good practical judgements in complex and difficult situations. Newer teachers with less experience may need some assistance or mentoring.

We all have a role professionally in supporting and learning from one another to achieve the best outcomes for learners. The more complex and difficult things get, the more we will need to learn from shared experience and collaboration to make educationally sound judgements in the interests of our learners, at the right time and for the right reasons.

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FEATURE

ETHICS AND PROFESSIONALISM

society in terms of having access to technology, broadband, a quiet place to study within the home and financial pressures due to being unable to work.

Operating ethically and professionally, it is even more important that educators are aware of the diversity of experience within their learner cohorts.”

Professional Standards The Professional Standards for Teachers and Trainers were developed by the ETF in 2014 and are designed to enable teachers and trainers to identify areas for their own professional development.

They are also a national reference point, so organisations have a focus for supporting the development of their staff.

These standards are based around the core pillars of professional values and attributes, professional knowledge and understanding, and professional skills. The differentiated structure to the Professional Standards provides a common language for discussing the career progression and development of teachers, combined with a self-assessment tool which provides an efficient way of understanding current performance against the Professional Standards.

Once these areas for development have been established, teachers and trainers can use the Professional Standards research tool to identify appropriate professional development, associated with each standard.

Andrew Dowell, head of professional status at the ETF, explains that while the Professional Standards have not changed, those working in the sector should take the opportunity to regularly re-assess themselves against them. “The Professional Standards self-assessment tool is a great way of doing this, by reflecting on your teaching practice and identifying areas of strength and areas for development,” he says.

The Society for Education and Training (SET) Code of Professional Practice, meanwhile, sets out the professional behaviour and conduct that is expected of SET members. Combined with the Professional Standards, these provide a clear focus for remaining on track despite the immense pressures we find ourselves dealing with.

Ethical teaching C O R E VA L U E S

LEADING BY EXAMPLE Charlie Broomfield, access to higher education co-ordinator at an FE college: Operating ethically means we act with our personal values and professional standards at the core of everything we do. We treat learners and staff with respect, we treat people fairly, and we work within the internal and awarding body guidelines for࣢quality.

Professionalism means remaining objective, especially in challenging situations.

We consider our actions to ensure we respond professionally in any given situation. Encouraging staff to reflect on, and adjust, their practice is࣢important.

Thinking about my own team, and the wider college, our culture is one of high standards leading to excellence.

Underpinning that, to make it actions and not words, are the processes we have in place that ensure staff don’t face pressure to cut corners.࣢

If standards or behaviours do slip as a࣢result of pressure to meet deadlines, an organisation has to look at how secure the underpinning processes are and adjust them.

You want your team to share those core values of behaviour and professionalism, and before that can become the culture, it has to be made explicit.

This is who we are. This is what we do. This is what we don’t do.

Educators lead by example, so their role is vital. They can model ethical practice and professionalism in every interaction they have, and they can make this explicit – verbalising their behaviour.

We deliberately teach our learners about professionalism, and invite them to agree the values we hold, at classroom and college level. I࣢want my learners to be proud of their college and themselves, and that comes, in part, from teaching them to know what we stand for.

‘WE DELIBERATELY TEACH OUR LEARNERS ABOUT PROFESSIONALISM’

Educators also have a duty to factor ethics and professionalism into their own teaching. Baxter explains that this is about thinking in terms of fostering ethical competence. “One element of ethical competence is ethical reasoning skills and judgement,” he says. “Another element is the ability to take others’ perspective.

There is a lot educators can do here.

“Both of these elements of ethical competence are more important than ever in a context in which so much of the public conversation takes place on social media, which can tend to encourage condemnation over constructive debate, and playing to one’s own ‘tribe’ over understanding where others may be coming from.”

Ultimately, this is about keeping learners at the centre of all that we do as teachers. As Koursis explains: “The development of the skills and behaviours of our learners not only focuses on them being job-ready when they leave college, but also in developing them and imbuing in them an increased ethical behaviour that ultimately will shape future behaviours in workplaces and wider society.”

ELIZABETH HOLMES is a freelance journalist specialising in the education sector

etfoundation.co.uk/professionalstandards

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APPRENTICESHIPS

Apprenticeships will form an important part in how the UK recovers from the pandemic, delivering vital skills and providing hope for young people in a tough jobs market. New initiatives aim to transform a battered system, as Jo Faragher explains ith the government’s furlough scheme coming to a close in September, it’s likely we have yet to see the true impact of the pandemic on the labour market.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that the under-25s have made up more than 60 per cent of the hundreds of thousands of people to have lost their jobs so far. While schemes such as Kickstart will address this to a certain extent, there will be a desperate need to upskill and reskill the UK’s workforce.

Apprenticeships – and providers such as colleges and independent training providers (ITPs) – have a major role in delivering those skills and helping the country’s economy to recover. However, since the introduction of the apprenticeship levy in 2017, apprenticeships have endured a turbulent reputation. Covid-19, too, has inevitably had an impact, with the number of apprenticeship starts falling from 393,000 in 2018/19 to 322,500 in 2019/20.

Yet there are reasons for cautious optimism; a survey by the British Science Association revealed an increase in the number of young people aged 14-18 considering a career in science as a result of Covid-19, with 37 per cent saying they are more likely to do this.

Apprenticeships will prove vital here.

The Budget in March hailed the introduction of a new ‘flexi-job’ apprenticeship that would allow apprentices to work with a number of different employers in one sector.

This will create an agency-type model for apprenticeships, which will prove helpful in sectors such as the creative industry, where work tends to be project-based. This will

W

FEATURE

LEARNING THE TRADE

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FEATURE

APPRENTICESHIPS

widen skills development and ensure apprentices have a range of potential future settings in their chosen sector.

The recent further education (FE) White Paper made a number of suggestions, including better provision for the recruitment of teaching staff in the FE sector, and an assurance that those who enter the sector get first-rate initial training to deliver apprenticeships. It also pledged the introduction of a new programme to develop links between providers and employers.

To this end, the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) has brought together a host of CPD resources aimed at supporting teachers in FE who deliver apprenticeships. Launched in January , the Apprenticeship Workforce Development (AWD) programme focuses on four key strands: new teachers; effective technical teaching, technical curriculum design, and

TA K I N G P R I D E

FROM TRADE TO TEACHER “My father is an electrician and owned a business, so when I was younger it was usual for me to help out on jobs on weekends and during school holidays. It was a simple choice for me to join the family business,” says Joel Dalhouse, a tutor manager at independent training provider JTL. He went on to do an apprenticeship and became a qualified electrician in 2000.

In 2008, City of Wolverhampton College asked him to start teaching apprentices on its electrical installation and electrical engineering programmes. He was promoted to programme leader for the electrical team and then curriculum manager, and joined JTL in 2019 as a tutor manager.࣢ His role includes managing the electrical tutor team and the teaching

staff on JTL’s fire and security apprenticeship course, as well as teaching. “There is no job more satisfying than teaching; helping an apprentice to develop their skills, instilling pride in the quality of work they produce and really pushing them to reach their full potential,” he says. His aim when teaching is to develop “engineers who will not just be good enough for the industry but also as future leaders in the sector too”.࣢ The past year has required resilience but Dalhouse and his colleagues have adapted well to online teaching. “JTL quickly set out a remote learning plan to maximise teaching and learning at the start of the pandemic, which resulted in over 3,000 learners logging on in the first two months to access 5,000 new learning resources,” he adds.

apprenticeship leadership, which helps teachers and curriculum leaders to build effective teams.

Paul Kessell-Holland, head of curriculum design projects at the ETF, explains: “You need to build a qualification programme from the ground up with an employer, and many teachers have never done this.

Employers also have a huge list of tasks they expect learners to be able to do, so it’s a case of being realistic. We hope the AWD offer teaching to the point where they understand how to teach most effectively and can work with the employer, while helping learners to show the knowledge they have.” Teachers can follow the AWD programme online at their own pace. The ETF’s FutureLearn programme, meanwhile, also supports colleagues with employer partnerships and industry insights.

Put it into practice Ben Sweetman, director of learning design at digital and technology apprenticeship provider QA, believes one of the challenges is that employers have been involved in writing apprenticeship standards, but it’s then up to the college or learning provider to work out what that means for them.

“You have to think about the relative importance of topics, how you sequence

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APPRENTICESHIPS

them, and what it is that the student needs Teacher shortage to learn first to be trusted on the job,” he Hiring and retaining apprenticeship teachers says. “In technology we also have to keep who have experience in the relevant field one eye on what’s coming up, as we’re is itself a struggle. Liam Sammon, director constantly trying to keep up with changes.” of learning and innovation at electrical Maintaining a mutually beneficial apprenticeship provider JTL, says his relationship with employers is crucial sector in particular can run into difficulty. to ensure that all training is up to date “Unlike other sectors, where the alternative and delivers the skills and attributes that opportunities are normally within secondary employers need, says Lynn Masterton, schools for example, our apprenticeship assistant principal – business engagement tutors are qualified electricians and at Hugh Baird College in Liverpool. “We plumbers, so there is always the alternative deal with around 450 employers and of going back ‘on the tools’,” he says. are engaging with new ones on a regular “However, this also works the other basis. It is important to deliver highway and we often recruit electricians and quality apprenticeship programmes and plumbers from the sector who have no to do this you need to really understand teaching qualifications, and will support what employers need to develop their and train them as they obtain professional workforce, and be confident that you can teaching qualifications.” work in partnership with employers to The FE White Paper has pledged develop the apprentices’ skills to a level a national recruitment campaign for that will support them to pass an endFE teachers that will build on the ETF’s point assessment and gain meaningful own website and taster programmes for employment.” Employers benefit from upcoming graduates and career changers this as they are gaining a highly skilled (see box). But Sweetman from QA believes workforce, she adds. this could go further, adding: The college won “We’re all trying to recruit the AoC Apprentice trainers out of industry of the Year award – it’d be good to see after supporting support from a structured a learner on a programme similar to The proportion of young people healthcare course Teach First, a trusted brand who say they are more likely to to teach dementia that brings people in.” embark on a science career patients British Sign Some reforms to as a result of Covid-19 Language so they apprenticeships, such could communicate as the new flexi-jobs their care needs apprenticeships, are not – a scheme that expected to start until has since been January 2022, but hundreds adopted across the of colleges and ITPs are The number of apprenticeship hospital trust she beginning to prepare for the starts in 2019/20, down from works at. There hoped-for uptake in new 393,000 in 2018/19 can be opportunity starters. Masterton at Hugh for a mutual exchange of skills when Baird has seen a pipeline of potential recruits staff develop relationships with from industry due to the uncertainty of the employers, she adds: “We encourage current labour market. But the decision to our staff to regularly update their teach in FE is about more than a regular skills. For example, we worked with the pay cheque, she concludes: “We focus on Construction Industry Training Board providing our learners with the skills that to offer a brickwork pilot scheme and employers need. The opportunities that this asked our staff to go on to site and engage brings to the learner can be life-changing.” with employers to support them to gain an understanding of the materials and JO FARAGHER is a freelance journalist and former editor of TES Magazine tools that were commonly used. There’s no point in having teachers who haven’t etfoundation.co.uk/apprenticeships been on site for a number of years.”

37%

322,500

FEATURE

NEW SCHEMES

SUPPORT FOR NEW STARTERS Alongside SET’s support to members on career pathways and professional status, the ETF offers support to undergraduates and potential career-changers looking for a career in FE. This includes: Talent to Teach in FE, formerly known as Pathways to FE Teaching, aims to raise awareness of FE teaching as a career among second and third-year undergraduates and postgraduates. This nationwide scheme has been running for four years and in 2021/22 we plan, via our delivery partner Cognition Education, to give 340 higher education institution students the opportunity to get a flavour of the world of an FE teacher.

Participants engage in a range of activities including working with learners in lessons, and there are locally structured programmes that include ongoing mentoring. Former participants have described it as an “invaluable experience” that has helped shape their decision to work in FE. Taking Teaching Further brings in skilled individuals from industry and retrains them to teach in FE. Colleges and training providers can access funding of £18,200 per recruit to cover the cost of undertaking a teaching qualification, the time required to provide intensive support, and reduced teaching times while the recruit is brought up to speed.࣢

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SECTOR FOCUS

ADULT COMMUNITY LEARNING

dult community learning is perhaps the least well understood part of the further education (FE) sector, says Teresa Carroll, national head for inclusion at the Education and Training Foundation (ETF). “It’s a bit of a hidden gem,” she says.

“It serves people at all points of their lives.

It doesn’t have to be about qualifications; it’s also about a social return on investment – bringing people together.”

A majority of provision is linked to qualifications at Level 2 or below, but learners may have many different goals.

They include people for whom English is a second language; learners who underachieved in full-time education, perhaps for reasons linked to previously unrecognised learning differences; and those seeking new qualifications as part of a career change. Adult community learning can also be more accessible for learners with special education needs and disabilities.

Sue Pember, policy director at Holex, the professional body for

A

UNDER PRESSURE

Adult community learning brings multiple benefits to learners and society, and will be an important part of a post-pandemic recovery. But amid funding shortfalls and clawbacks, the sector is feeling the strain. David Adams investigates adult education providers, asserts the importance of adult community education “for society, because if we improve the skills of our workforce we improve economic productivity”. But it is also, she continues, “incredibly important for individuals”.

This is certainly not just about qualifications. Adult education offers mental and physical health benefits for older learners in particular, and opportunities for any learner to make new

friends. A 2017 study by the Department for Education (DfE) showed that 52 per cent of adult learners who had symptoms of anxiety and/or depression at the start of their courses no longer had those symptoms at the end.

Adult learning can help individuals and their families in multiple ways. At Sutton College in Surrey, for example, Family Learning courses include various arts and crafts and digital skills for work, while the college also

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ADULT COMMUNITY LEARNING

52%

The proportion of adult learners reporting improvements in mental health at the end of their course

runs a project with the Sutton Women’s Centre, helping victims of domestic violence through art therapy. “There’s a huge agenda that’s for wellbeing and social inclusion,” says the college’s principal, Dipa Ganguli.

P H O T O G R A P H Y: C I T Y L I T, S U T T O N C OL L E G E

Tough climate But provision is inconsistent across the country, partly as a consequence of the mix of funding sources, and of public and third sector institutions and providers delivering courses. Funding is limited by the cap to which the Community Learning Budget has been subject for more than a decade.

More broadly, research published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) in November 2020 suggests that government spending on adult education has fallen by almost 50 per cent during the past decade, in real terms. Some spending has been transferred to fund apprenticeships, but the IFS calculates that combined spending on both adult education and apprenticeships is still 35 per cent below 2009/10 levels.

Funding issues also account in part for falling participation in adult community learning. Governmentfunded adult FE and skills participation decreased by 15.6 per cent in 2019/20 – before the pandemic – according to the Education Statistics Service, continuing a long-term downward trend. Money may be a factor. “For people who may be on quite a low income, the fact they may have to pay or take out a loan will create a barrier,” says Carroll.

Covid-19 impact Participation has also been reduced by the Covid-19 lockdowns. This has had some positive effects, accelerating development of online provision, and allowing some

35%

The proportion by which funding of adult education and apprenticeships has fallen since 2009/20, according to the IFS

15.6%

The pre-pandemic fall in governmentfunded adult FE and skills participation

learners to participate in courses they could not have accessed before. “Our reach is now way beyond London and the south-east,” says Mark Malcomson, principal of City Lit, an adult education college in central London; and chair of the Institutes for Adult Learning, nine adult community learning organisations that support about 130,000 adult learners every year. “But the negative side is that we have created a digital elite: people with good broadband and devices, and a quiet room they can sit in to take a course.”

Like schools and FE colleges grappling with the same issue, providers have loaned devices to learners and/ or paid-for data packages. But some courses are difficult to deliver online.

City Lit visual arts learners “want the expertise and advice they can get face to face and they want to use our kit – most people haven’t got access to a kiln, for example,” Malcomson explains.

The lockdowns and the need to home-school children also took a heavy toll on participation among learners (and teachers). Almost twothirds (65 per cent) of adult learners in Manchester are women and a large percentage have school-age children, says Julie Rushton, head of adult

SECTOR FOCUS

learning and skills at Manchester City Council. Both she and Ganguli report falling participation in family learning.

Falling participation is having immediate financial consequences. In March 2021, the DfE and the Education and Skills Funding Agency announced a reconciliation threshold of 90 per cent for the 2020/21 academic year, with clawback from providers that have not reached that level. Analysis by the Association of Colleges suggests that some providers will lose six-figure sums as a result.

Building back Despite these daunting problems, there is optimism in this part of the sector.

“There are opportunities to work with local partners and employers and be part of the Covid-19 recovery,” says Ganguli.

“I also think people are a bit fed up with being at home. We can capitalise on that.”

But policymakers must prioritise this form of learning, says Fiona Aldridge, director of policy and research at the Learning and Work Institute. “We need to invest if we are going to get people to upskill and retrain.”

Sandra Rennie, consultant at independent training provider Sequals and a member of SET’s Practitioner Advisory Group, hopes that the flexibility and collaboration that adult community learning providers have been forced into during the pandemic will continue. She would like to see more investment in non-teaching staff; and in arts courses, in tune with a greater emphasis now on wellbeing.

“People have been crying out for the arts during lockdown,” she says. But she fears policymakers will focus on qualifications and employability. The name of the government’s Skills for Jobs White Paper, published in January 2021, does suggest this is its primary focus.

But, says Aldridge, “It’s not all about jobs.”

Malcomson agrees. “Ultimately, we serve the learners,” he says. “It’s about ensuring that people have the opportunity to learn when they need it.

We need to learn from what we’ve done during the pandemic. This is a chance for the sector to reinvent itself.”

DAVID ADAMS is a freelance journalist

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FEATURE

PRACTITIONER ADVISORY GROUP

HELEN WOOD FSET ATS, head of

staff professional development at The Loddon School

Helen has 24 years’ experience in workbased teaching and learning within the third sector. Her current role is head of staff professional development at The Loddon School in Hampshire, a residential children’s home and school for young people with severe autism.

She manages the staff training function and vocational qualification centre, coordinating the delivery of qualifications and courses and ensuring high quality professional development opportunities for employees. Helen delivers autism and positive behaviour support training and has supported nongovernmental organisations working with children and adults with special needs in Romania and Azerbaijan.

Helen is a teacher, assessor and quality assurer. She gained her Qualified Teacher Learning Status (QTLS) in 2012 and her Advanced Teacher Status (ATS) in early 2020. She has recently completed her International Master of Business Administration and is a fellow member of the Chartered Management

Institute. Helen has a particular interest in understanding the learner experience and getting it right for every learner. She is a passionate advocate for teaching and learning in the post-compulsory sector and believes that learning never stops, given the right support and encouragement.

PENNY TAYLOR FSET ATS,

advanced curriculum coach, Newark College Penny has worked in education for over 25 years in a range of settings, from prison education and youth offending, to working alongside youth organisations with NEET (not in education, employment or training) learners.

She is currently employed by the Lincoln College Group and is based at Newark College, where her role focuses on education and training and curriculum development, as well as her own teaching commitments to ensure she is current with learning, assessment and teaching practices.

Penny has a key focus of developing an active curriculum to teach the skills and qualities required for work, and social and

personal development. She is a SET fellow and holds QTLS, ATS and Chartered Teacher (CTeach) status.

JANE CHILLINGWORTH FSET,

curriculum lead, creative industries, Adult Community Learning Having started out as a French and German teacher in secondary schools, Jane made the move to adult education 15 years ago and works as both a curriculum lead and a languages tutor.

She is a qualified mentor and has worked on collaborative projects, including facilitating a RARPA group for the East of England Professional Exchange Network, and participating in the ETF’s APConnect programme.

This culminated in the organisation of the AP South conference in March 2020, which she says was a celebration of the collaborative culture in the further education (FE) sector.

Jane has recently completed her master’s in education, which focused on communities of practice and digital training. She is passionate about lifelong learning, the importance of adult education and learner and tutor voice.

REPRESENTING YOU The Practitioner Advisory Group (PAG) is a group of 40 members from across the further education, vocational teaching and training sector, who meet three times a year to help shape SET membership strategy.

Meet the newest members who joined the PAG in November 2020

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PRACTITIONER ADVISORY GROUP

PENNY PETCH FSET QTLS,

director of teaching, learning and quality, Chelmsford College Penny has worked in the FE sector for more than 18 years following an initial career as a nurse and midwife.

She is currently director of teaching, learning and quality at Chelmsford College where she is responsible for professional development, the observation of teachers, advanced practitioners, and quality assurance and improvement. Always a supporter of professional organisations and the benefits they bring their members, she was also president of the Institute for Learning in its final year.

Penny is passionate about teacher education and the nature of professionalism in a sector that is ever changing. As a SET fellow, Penny also holds QTLS status and joined the PAG so that she could better support her colleagues and demonstrate her commitment to the professional status of the sector.

MARTINE ELLIS FSET ATS,

professional development lead and teacher education, Guernsey College of Further Education Martine leads professional development, scholarly activity and teacher education at the Guernsey College of Further Education, part of the Guernsey Institute. She holds ATS and CTeach status and is a SET fellow.

Martine is also the host and producer of ‘The Teaching Space’ podcast. When she’s not teaching or podcasting, she can usually be found chasing her mischievous dog on one of Guernsey’s beautiful beaches.

STEPHANIE JANKA-SPURLOCK FSET, dementia education lead, NHS trust

Stephanie has worked in the health and social care sector specialising in dementia care for 35 years, and has been involved in teaching, training, assessing and mentoring for 20 years delivering higher secondary certificates (HSC) vocational education programmes. She has an MSc in training in dementia care, is a SET fellow and holds ATS and QTLS status.

Stephanie has a dual role within the NHS trust working as dementia education lead, where she is responsible for the development and delivery of education programmes for the health care assistants’ registered nurses and allied professional and social care workers across the Integrated Care Organisation. Stephanie is module lead for the dementia degree module in partnership with the University of Plymouth.

She is also tutor, assessor and internal quality assurer for vocational education. Stephanie is passionate about teaching and raising awareness in education for health and social care and dementia.

LORA SCOTT MSET QTLS,

beauty therapy and HR curriculums lecturer, Coventry College Lora began teaching in FE in 2005, having held a variety of roles in the beauty and leisure industry, and establishing her own small business.

Her interest in human resource management (HRM) and people development led to her becoming an advanced practitioner in 2010, and since then she has been working in a quality improvement and coaching capacity.

FEATURE

Having studied online for a variety of qualifications, including an MEd and MSc in HRM, and having authored some of the UK’s first massive open online courses for degree credit on FutureLearn, she now specialises in online pedagogy and technology for learning.

Lora has completed QTLS status, and is now working towards ATS status as well as a professional doctorate in education at the Open University.

VERITY SANGAN MSET,

head of education and training, LV Care Group Based in Jersey, Verity is a registered nurse, and worked in higher education, before moving into FE. She currently teaches and assesses on level 2, 3 and 5 health and social care programmes, as well as a range of mandatory training courses for nurses and healthcare support workers. She recently developed an online training portal, which serves the training needs of a variety of staff in healthcare.

Verity’s professional interests include training efficacy and developing healthcare practice, areas in which she was able to develop her knowledge through completing an MSc in professional practice and MSc in advancing healthcare practice. “My favourite thing about working in FE is helping people realise and achieve their potential,” she says.

Meet the rest of the members of the Practitioner Advisory Group at set.et-foundation.co.uk/pag If you are interested in joining the Practitioner Advisory Group, please register your interest by emailing membership@etfoundation.co.uk and be the first to know when we are recruiting

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RESEARCH AND INSIGHT FROM THE FURTHER EDUCATION SECTOR

Cultural change Identifying what we mean by professionalism, and allowing for its application in different situations, as well as transforming how practitioners are appraised and recognised, can help create conditions for educators to develop and thrive, says Paul Tully

eople agree that professionalism is important. It supports high performance, harnesses trust, and projects a positive image of one’s work. After that, unfortunately, the consensus unravels. From ‘setting standards’ to ‘being qualified’, ‘thinking ethically’ to ‘organisational loyalty’, ‘being committed’ to ‘dressing smartly’, we want the cake, but alas we struggle with the recipe and the steps needed to bake it.

In this article, I will address this enigma. Drawing on my PhD study, I will examine what further education (FE) educators said about professionalism in their own words, including the factors that strengthened and undermined it. From here, I will produce a model that can develop teacher professionalism and organisational capability inside any FE institution. This model is positioned as a roadmap for cultural change.

Most researchers agree professionalism is complex. This complexity, I suspect, is a reason why policymakers have avoided the subject. Richard Hall (1968) wrote more than 50 years ago that professionalism described a set of characteristics that distinguished certain types of intellectual work: the need for expertise, self-regulation, autonomy, community and commitment, known collectively as the ‘professional model’ and linked with high-status professions such as doctors, lawyers and architects.

Testing this model against FE participants, I found:

P

FE educators were highly qualified in their subject (more than 95 per cent of my sample of 461 participants had a Level 3 qualification or higher) and that the vast majority had a teaching qualification of some kind (almost 90 per cent).

FE educators appraised their work in intellectual and public interest terms. They believed their role was complex, ethically driven and socially significant, helping learners to become aspirational citizens.

FE educators who were members of professional associations had stronger professional attitudes than nonmembers. It suggested that what happens inside professional bodies reinforces members’ sense of value, community and mission (Friedman, 2020).

The study also illustrated where FE departed from the professional model: Most teachers talked about their work in terms of a highly restricted autonomy. They felt their involvement in institutional decision-making was limited and therefore disempowering, leading some to consider leaving the sector.

Lack of statutory teaching qualifications (a ‘licence to practice’) was considered a deviation from other professions such as school teachers, nurses and social workers, where the link between high-quality performance, expertise and being qualified underpins professionalism.

More self-regulation was felt to be near-impossible, as long as

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PROFESSIONALISM

Figure 1: Professionalism themes in further education: highest to lowest frequency

38%

Qualities

Coummunity

Role

Conduct

Students

Standards

0%

19%

18%

15%

7%

Conformity

22%

20%

2%

11%

Autonomy

24%

Experience

26%

Pay

31%

Improve

32% 30%

Expertise

% sample answering

40%

10%

were suggested by repeated thematic pairings in comments (e.g. expertise and autonomy, students and community, expertise and standards, etc). Schemas were not shared equally across staffing groups: for instance, more teachers referred to ‘expertise’; more senior managers spoke in ‘compliance’ terms. Professionalism, it seemed, revolved around individual and work-specific interests. I call this ‘situational professionalism’.

Situational professionalism recognises that professionalism is not a unified concept. It reflects competing perspectives informed by a person’s work situation and ecology. Schemas can be thought of as interests or mindsets that individuals inhabit to varying intensities, or as forces that impel individuals to think and work in preferred ways. When professionalism is described as ‘contested’, people’s constructions reflect their differing circumstances and experiences (Clow, 2001). Situational professionalism can explain these tensions with precision.

In creating this model, the use of ‘compliance’ was always going to be controversial: yes, hitting targets

45%

Recognition

50%

Theme

Ofsted controlled definitions of ‘effective practice’.

IL L U S T R AT ION: IK ON IM A GE S

Professionalism themes So, how can we develop professionalism inside FE institutions? In my study, DR PAUL TULLY I used a large online survey to is a strategic explore staff perceptions. Most researcher with the Education respondents were from FE colleges and Training (84 per cent), although staff also Foundation came from sixth-form colleges, independent providers and adult education. Participants were asked: “What does the term ‘professional’ mean to you in the context of your working role?” This exercise produced 13 main professionalism themes (see Figure 1).

‘Expertise’ (knowledge, skills and qualifications) was the most popular reference, followed by ‘standards’ (competence, effectiveness) and ‘students and service’ (motivating and supporting). In other words, being credible in the classroom, being responsible for high working standards, and a strong student commitment were the top ingredients of FE professionalism in my sample. With expertise, it was subject knowledge that was most highly prized; conversely, pay was not a key driver (although it was a cause of professional dissatisfaction; see Tully, 2020).

By tallying theme frequencies across staff groups, and entering these into a correspondence analysis (CA), a statistical best-fit representation of the themes and their relations was produced (see Figure 2).

The CA map plots the ‘discursive space’ of FE professionalism. Closer themes are more strongly related (e.g. ‘expertise’ and ‘experience’), while distant plots (e.g. ‘autonomy’) differentiate groups more strongly than central plots (e.g. ‘standards’). Three clusters (1, 2, 3) were identified, comprising themes that strongly differentiated groups, had sizeable sample sizes

THE KNOWLEDGE

(see Figure 1), and occupied similar locations. From here, the final model was abstracted (see Figure 3).

‘Expertise’ (qualified and knowledgeable, cluster 1), ‘service’ (students and pedagogy, cluster 2) and ‘compliance’ (meeting external expectations, cluster 3) were labels that summarised each cluster and represent the three dominant ways professionalism is interpreted and spoken about in FE (emphasising the self, students and organisation respectively).

I call these ‘professional schemas’.

Linkages between schemas (e.g. autonomy, standards, community)

Figure 2: CA map for professionalism themes

2

Autonomy -5

Qualities Students

Community Standards

0

Improve

Expertise

1

Recognition

Experience

Conduct

3

Role

Pay

5 -0.5

0.0

0.5

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THE KNOWLEDGE

PROFESSIONALISM

Figure 3: A model of situational professionalism

SERVICE (students)

nit

Aut

mu

ono

my

Com

Recognition appeared throughout the study, as a factor that supported professionalism, and as a missing factor in statements of deprofessionalisation and declining morale

y

RECOGNITION

EXPERTISE (self) and inspection performance were found here, but so were rules of conduct, health and safety conformance and respecting established norms of practice.

However, participants disagreed over the merits of compliance; for instance, while some saw organisational loyalty as a crucial aspect of professionalism, for others, the organisation was a major source of professional disquiet.

Employee recognition Common to the experience of professionalism was one vital ingredient: recognition. Think of the last time you felt great about your work. An email from your line manager? A colleague seeking your advice? A student thanking you for your support? Being asked to present a conference paper?

In my study, participants who reported the greatest challenges to their professionalism felt undervalued, insignificant and excluded, and in almost all these cases, the problem was the working

Standards

COMPLIANCE (organisation)

culture itself. Establishing recognition at the heart of professionalism means developing a workforce that is more confident, satisfied and committed.

So how do we build a ‘recognition culture’? This goes beyond staff awards ceremonies, which, at best, have marginal effects on most staff (Feys et al, 2013) and, at worst, can be seen as contrived. Instead, recognition needs to permeate all aspects of the FE culture. Strengthening expertise, collaboration, inclusive decision-making and positive affirmations are all part of the recognition mix. And while hitting targets, per se, is also important to FE educators, focusing exclusively on Ofsted criteria was highly demotivating for many teachers. That cannot be a good thing.

SITUATIONALPROFESSIONALISM REFLECTS WHAT FE EDUCATORS WANT FROM THEIR WORK: OPPORTUNITIES TO DEVELOP EXPERTISE, COLLABORATE AND IMPROVE PRACTICE

In aligning the model of situational professionalism (Figure 3) with other cornerstone pedagogic ideas such as the ‘reflective practitioner’, ‘teacheras-researcher’ and ‘dual identity’, we can construct a framework that strengthens individual teacher professionalism and develops institutional learning (see Figure 4).

Situational professionalism harnesses the factors that researchers have consistently identified as intrinsic to building strong teacher identities in post16 education: teacher researcher initiatives (e.g. Lloyd and Jones, 2018), knowledge co-creation (Gregson et al, 2015), sharing and networking (Forrest and Morris, 2018; Crawley, 2017) and critical reflection (Gregson and Hillier, 2015), to name but a handful of influential contributions. They strike at the core of what FE professionalism is about: building expertise, a community ethos and improving practice.

I argue that these can be embedded into FE institutions by establishing three key activities: research projects, teaching circles and 360-degree appraisals.

‘Research projects’ enable teachers to test out new strategies and evaluate their impact on student learning. There is a huge appetite for this kind of engagement, of which the ETF’s T Level Resource Improvement Projects (TRIPs) and the work of the Learning and Skills Research Network are first-rate examples. However, the FE culture is poorly equipped to support teacher research because of packed teaching timetables and limited downtime. To echo Geoff Petty, if we want FE to improve its impact, we must install a culture that values teacher time for investigating and evaluating teaching practices.

I describe ‘teaching circles’ as safe spaces for teachers to share, diagnose, collaborate and solve common pedagogic issues. When

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run effectively, these can be powerful channels for improving the quality of provision. These are not managementenforced structures or quality-control exercises, but teacher-led systems that encourage exchange and professional dialogue. Teaching circles recognise the potential of colleagues working and learning together.

Finally, we need to transform appraisal inside FE institutions.

Appraisal is an opportunity to energise, empower and motivate individual staff. Long ago, human resource specialists proposed the merits of 360-degree appraisals, in which multiple viewpoints inform an individual’s appraisal discussion.

Though these can also be conducted poorly if appraisal feedback is not transparent or constructive, when conversations are open, reliable and appropriately reflective, they can offer a more balanced and in-depth approach than the traditional 1:1 model because 360-appraisals recognise the situational context that informs professional work.

FE professionalism is rich, interesting and diverse. FE educators believe they are professionals, and their work supports generations of learners to realise their ambitions.

However, FE educators also work in conditions where professionalism can feel like an afterthought. A lack of recognition can cause frustration and resentment in hard-working staff.

Situational professionalism reflects what FE educators want from their work: opportunities to develop expertise, collaborate and improve practice. We must support and recognise these needs for professionalism to flourish.

Professionalism, after all, is about being valued and respected for one’s contribution. The model I have suggested, and the professional learning opportunities it affords, not only brings together the various strands of previous research into one coherent whole, but also offers a practical pathway to developing an esteemed and capable workforce.

Figure 4: A practical framework for developing teacher professionalism

THE KNOWLEDGE

References and further information Clow R. (2001) Further education teachers’ constructions of professionalism. Journal of Vocational Education and Training 53(3): 407-420.

Crawley J. (2017) Principalities of people: destabilizing the prince’s power through acts of connection.

In: Daley M, Orr K and Petrie J (eds). The Principal: Power and Professionalism in FE. London: Trentham Books: 115-123.

Feys M, Anseel F and Wille B. (2013) Responses to co‐workers receiving recognition at work.

Journal of Managerial Psychology 28(5): 492-510.

Forrest C and Morris A. (2018) The Evolution of the Learning and Skills Research Network: 20 years of fostering the interplay of research evidence between policy makers, administrators, sector leaders and other practitioners. Now Looking to the Future. Peer-reviewed conference presentation, BELMAS 2018.

Friedman A. (2020) Promoting Professionalism. Bristol: Professional Associations Research Network (PARN).

Hall R. (1968) Professionalization and bureaucratization. American Sociological Review 33(1): 92-104.

SERVICE Teacher as researcher

xpe ge ldin

Peer support

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Institutional support

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Teaching circles

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Research projects

mu

Bui

Share, network, disseminate

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r tis

Experiment, test, develop

Ac

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Gregson M and Hillier Y. (2015) Reflective Teaching in Further, Adult and Vocational Education (fourth edition). London: Bloomsbury.

Gregson M, Spedding P and Nixon L. (2015) 16.1 Helping good ideas to become good practice: Enhancing your professional practice through Joint Practice Development (JPD).

In: Readings for Reflective Teaching in Further, Adult And Vocational Education. Reflective Teaching.

London: Bloomsbury: 268-273.

Lloyd C and Jones S. (2018) Researching the sector from within: the experience of establishing a research group within an FE college.

Research in Post-Compulsory Education 23(1): 75-93.

Management support

Appraisal

Dual identity

Improving practice

The reflective practitioner

EXPERTISE

Review, reflect, plan

COMPLIANCE

Tully PR. (2020) Behind the Curtain: An Exploration of Professionalism and Capital in Further Education.

PhD thesis. Brighton: University of Brighton.

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THE KNOWLEDGE

CALM REFLECTION

and ultimately the substitution value placed on online engagement.

Despite this, there has been much concern about practitioner wellbeing and ‘Zoom fatigue’.

With all this in mind, I hope this article will encourage practitioners to give themselves and each other some time, space and stillness to reflect on their practice.

Facing my own digital overwhelm

And breathe…

In the middle of our busy professional and personal lives, it can be hard to find the time to reflect and allow our ideas to ‘compost’, says Chloë Hynes. But in an increasingly chaotic world, this is more important than ever he past year has been a rollercoaster. It has taught us many things, and made visible the perseverance and resilience of practitioners in further education (FE). Many organisations are retaining online aspects (some choosing to remain fully online for the whole year), which may appear to be a positive step forward, as it empowers all practitioners who have made waves in their digital competence and confidence.

However, I have grave concerns about the practitioners for whom

T

that competency gap is widening and for those who are experiencing digital overwhelm. I met a teacher for a one-to-one a few weeks ago, who apologised that they may have to ‘dip in and out’ because they were currently in a meeting and a training session at the same time.

Sadly, this isn’t the first time in the past year this has happened.

This can be an unhappy consequence of working online and from home; the expectation to be able to engage with multiple things, to achieve more because travel between rooms/venues is reduced

CHLOË HYNES is a creative development officer, online trainer and mentor for Claire Collins Consultancy

How can we have space to think, when we are rushing from a session, to a meeting, to emails, and back again? More than ever, we need to cultivate the right environment to compost in our daily lives – and make it stick.

Last summer, I wrote a blog during my first week off since lockdown, called My Lockdown Confession: I forgot to compost! It expressed my frustration with work overwhelm, resulting in having no time to myself, no time to think and no time to reflect. It was the first time I could catch a breath since we went into lockdown.

Our workload prior to that was enormous as we put on a huge number of courses to support practitioners when we went into crisis mode. I’m a digital specialist whose heart sings when I can help and support people with their digital resilience. This was to my own detriment because at that time I didn’t give myself any ‘me space’ – until it was recommended I take a week off. From the first day of leave, however, I found it hard to switch off because I had all these ‘inklings’ (thoughts, ideas, things to try out, further reading, my own consolidating activities) that had been lying on the side waiting for me to put into the composter!

I started to use this metaphor of composting in my first teaching post in the art department of a local college. Learners would labour over their work, sometimes to the detriment of it.

I suggested leaving it and working

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CALM REFLECTION

THE KNOWLEDGE

INKLING ‘Bits of stuff’

on something else for a little while to let their ideas ‘compost’ and revisit it with fresh eyes.

They struggled at first because they felt they needed to be physically seen to be working on it at all times. They feared being seen to be misbehaving if they weren’t constantly at the computer or with a paintbrush in their hands. They didn’t allow themselves some distance between themselves and the work. I remember when I was at school I would get a project brief and immediately think about the work I could make, rather than the journey of how to get there.

I saw the same attitude when I came into teaching; to the extent that there were huge disparities between learners’ experiments, sketchbooks and final piece.

Ten years and a new path later, I work on action research projects such as OTLA (Outstanding Teaching Learning and Assessment) and Essential Digital Skills on behalf of the Education and Training Foundation (ETF), and I see how this metaphor may be helpful to them too; to give time and space for the research journey to happen and practitioner stories to be told. I started to think how the metaphor of putting stuff (or ‘inklings’) into a composter, could be extended into a framework (see diagram, above) for quiet, yet active, reflection.

IL L U S T R AT ION: IK ON IM A GE S

The ideal environment to cultivate I propose that composting (like its real-life counterpart) has an ideal environment in which it thrives.

The first of three environmental factors is time. Time to focus and dedicate to reflection and nothing else, including checking emails or marking work. Ultimately, this is easier said than done because who has time to pencil in an hour for reflective thinking?

Luckily, I don’t think we need to be that strict, as the ideal

that suits you: when, where and how do you feel most at ease?

RELAX

PRODUCE

The composting framework REFLECT

COMPOST

Back to nature Ultimately, composting is chaotic and unpredictable, just like the natural world. However, like plants, animals and organisms, there is a structure that allows us to create the ideal conditions for it to occur. It is personal and, as such, the approaches towards it may be different for you and I. Earlier, I mentioned grounding.

Focusing on your senses is an anxiety coping strategy that can help to ‘ground’ you. I find that it works best in environments where we are in nature and away from work, life and responsibilities.

Nature-based religions describe ‘grounding’ as when you take your shoes off and feel the ground under your feet. When was the last time you did that? I know I don’t do it enough. It grounds us, brings us back to the world we live in, brings us closer to nature for a moment before we go back to our lives surrounded by technology. My best composting is done when my superfluous self is shed and I am in nature.

Whether or not these ideas sing for you, I hope you will agree that we could all benefit from taking some time to slow down, catch a breath and appreciate the world around us.

environment for composting doesn’t happen in a neat hourly slot and instead is a little more unpredictable.

Have you ever come up with your best thinking when drifting off to sleep, in the shower or while out running? Places where you (sometimes annoyingly) don’t have access to a pen or paper? Places where your main objective isn’t to think or write, but the by-product sometimes happens to be better thinking than if you were to stare at a computer screen hoping for inspiration to come. For me, it was on the bus.

Now it’s in the shower or riding my bike because more than ever I yearn to ground myself surrounded by the colours of nature. For others, it’s when walking the dog or relaxing in bed. Therefore, space is the second of our ideal environmental factors.

If at night our minds are free to make sense of the day’s events, is it not possible that during our most relaxed waking moments we might consciously ‘compost’ and actively reflect on the subjects most pertinent to us? For me, the spaces mentioned above were only successful conduits if the environment was also still, calm and uninterrupted. Stillness is the last of the triptych and, in my experience of working from home with a one-year-old, the hardest to achieve.

I’ve found if you were to stop References and and write, or even stop and speak, it would disrupt the composting further information process. While it’s an active process My Lockdown Confession: I forgot to compost! (and by that I mean you have to bit.ly/3myI9Aj actively keep the thoughts turning, Be kind to yourself: once the process starts), it can be a Mind mind.org.uk semi-conscious by-product when Action for Happiness actionforhappiness.org #JoyFE (Twitter hashtag) you are at ease. This means you The Thinking Environment timetothink.com/ may not be able to reflect on cue, thinking-environment immediately after a lesson or during See what your local adult community learning centre has to offer. your free period sat at a computer.

Instead, encourage it to occur etfoundation.co.uk/otla organically in the right environment etfoundation.co.uk/edtech

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TIPS AND RESOURCES TO HELP YOU MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR MEMBERSHIP

MEMBERS’ CORNER

Please us e and follow ou r hashtag

#SETinTuitio n to see the latest features from inTuition

THE FORUM

Moving forward rom understanding the extent of learning gaps, to taking learners’ personal circumstances into consideration, moving forward during this pandemic continues to have its challenges.

We have been hearing from our community about how a ‘one-sizefits-all’ approach to education is no longer a viable option, especially when there continues to be a mix of online and offline lessons. It’s with this in mind that we continue to tailor our content and member offers around supporting you to ensure the needs of learners are being met, as well as addressing the ongoing effects of the pandemic on mental health.

Planning for our annual SET conference on 2 November is well under way and we’re working hard to deliver plenty of useful takeaways and learnings from our speakers and panel sessions. Tickets are now available, so do make the most of your reduced SET member fee (and group booking discount).

We hope you’ve been enjoying our recap articles from last year’s conference, which are as relevant today as they were in November. If you haven’t yet read any, there’s

F

a shortened version opposite of a recent article that focuses on dealing with pressure and change, and alleviating stress in the workplace.

With the recent launch of the new SET website, I’ve been thinking back to how much has changed over the past few years. I have seen the introduction of our social media pages, live webchats and webinars, an online eBook library, along with a raft of new member benefits. We’re looking forward to hearing what you think of the new layout, improved navigation and general usability of the new website, so please do share your thoughts on social media using the hashtag #SETinTuition (or drop us an email).

Last, but not least, thank you to everyone who has joined us for our regular SET webinars or watched them on demand. By the time you read this, we will have switched to a new webinar platform, so do join us as we introduce you to new faces and topics. We are also thrilled to welcome back our regular host Geoff Petty for another year of webinars and CPD, including coping with challenging behaviour and increasing engagement.

JULIA FAULKS is communications editor at SET

TR AINEE TE ACHER ADVISORY GROUP Made up of both trainee teachers and those in their first-year post initial teacher education (ITE) from across the FE sector, we meet two of࣢our members from our new Trainee Teacher Advisory Group (TTAG)

DOUGLAS MATHERS

“I’m studying for a PGCE in post-compulsory education, specialising in mathematics and numeracy. I graduated in engineering mathematics and I love solving problems, but teaching is the route I want to take. I’m on placement at a further education college provider in the West Midlands, teaching foundation maths GCSE. I࣢have a passion for second-chance education, to help those who return to education from a variety of࣢socioeconomic backgrounds. I࣢enjoy watching those moments when something clicks in a student and they understand something they couldn’t before and their confidence is increased.”

SAMINA GILL

“I have a master’s in English literature and am due to complete my master’s in education. I also have a postgraduate diploma in TEFL (teaching English as a࣢foreign language). I started my PGCE in education Level 7 at the University of Bolton in January 2021, where I began to explore new ways of teaching and learning processes as a trainee teacher.

For me, teaching is the most rewarding career I can pursue, due to my love of working with young people and my passion for learning.”

Some of our other new members include: Sarah Bates-Ryan: Studying for a PGCE in post-compulsory education Laura Christie: Studying for a PGCE post-14 Paul Mangan: Studying for an ITE Anne Navaneetharajah: Completed PGCE in FE and skills sector last summer Calem Richardson-Jones: Studying for a PGCE (Further Forces) Phoebe Summers: Trainee in post

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ONLINE RESOURCES

MEMBERS’ CORNER

S E T CONFER ENCE BR E A KO U T S ES S ION R ECA P

MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING TODAY AND TOMORROW STUART RIMMER, CEO at East Coast College Group, offers practical tips and takeaways on wellbeing and mental health in teaching All of us, regardless of what FE role we are in, are under a huge amount of pressure.

I࣢often talk about pressure, rather than stress. I also think it’s more helpful to talk about ‘distress’, which is more of a negative stress. For me, Covid-19 has accelerated and amplified everything.

Things which were already sitting under the surface have become more significant for us on a personal and a࣢professional level. Also, we have moved d

to digital learning and witnessed the pressures that has brought on staff and colleges.

As people start to feel that pressure, behaviour can change. To help alleviate it, it can be useful to understand the contributing factors to stress or distress, and think about what strategies can be deployed.

I would like to see people being more open and transparent about their mental health – this isn’t about playing out their private lives in public; it is about people being open enough so that they can get some support.

The six-model takeaway in brief Understand the change for you and your team Manage the pressure performance curve for you and the team Identify your stress factors Empty the bucket (positively) Develop a resilience prescription and personal care packages Be kind and compassionate – get a swim buddy!

Wellbeing can be greatly enhanced by spending time creating better and deeper understanding and then proactively taking practical steps and personal accountability.

To read the full-length article, please visit the SET website at set.et-foundation.co.uk

TOP T WEE TS

I N S TA G R A M

Our @SocietyET has been busier than ever,r, as a means of keeping you informed and letting you share your thoughts and tips

Over on our ETF instagram page @E_T_Foundation @ __

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MEMBERS’ CORNER

MY LIFE IN TEACHING

How did you first get into teaching?

I could say that I just sort of fell into it, but I think the truth is that it found me.

At 21, I was working as an administrator at a satellite centre for a local college.

On occasions I provided cover in the computer room, and was encouraged and supported to complete City and Guilds 7307.

ISTOCK

Why did you feel this was the career for you?

Sorry to quote this overused phrase, but I love helping people; to feel like I am making a difference. My first teaching role was delivering courses to teaching assistants on how to use ICT (information and communication technology) to support learning.

My second assignment was teaching ICT to adults, both within the classroom and out in the community, to groups of young mothers or residents of care homes. Knowing that people were able to stay connected to distant relatives and loved ones by sharing photos and stories, and being able to witness first-hand the benefit of lifelong learning, left a lasting impression on me.

to stop, and to only do the hours I am employed to do. Call me an ‘over-giver’ if you will. I will put in all I have, as teaching and supporting others is a big part of me and my life.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE Seeing the benefit of lifelong learning close-hand drove Nicola Milton to a career in further education ation

Where has your career taken you so far?

Over the years, I have had many roles, including IT and English lecturer, department coordinator, and quality and performance manager. I’ve worked for FE colleges, private training companies and for the local council teaching lifelong learners in the community.

lesson to a large group, working one-to-one providing skills support, planning lessons, marking work, attending online meetings or even juggling emails and direct messages, resolving queries.

What is your current position?

I work part-time as an English teacher at Cambridge Regional College, delivering functional skills and GCSE English to adult learners. I have also found myself providing one-to-one support and small group support in English, maths and study skills.

What’s the strangest request you’ve had from a learner?

I wouldn’t say I’ve had strange requests, but the timing of requests have been strange – online direct messages at 11pm asking for feedback on work that’s been submitted earlier in the evening outside of working hours.

Can you run me through a typical day?

Typical is not a word I would use to describe any working day. Each day is unique – I could be delivering an online

What are the biggest challenges you face?

There are so many challenges, but my biggest personal challenge is being able

How has the QTLS qualification helped you?

I gained QTLS status when it first came out, and it helped me to recognise my value and provided me with additional credibility. I plan to join the Advanced Teacher Status programme in September.

How would you like your career to develop?

I am a woman who likes to have her fingers in many pies and it is difficult at the moment to say which pie looks most appetising.

What three characteristics do you feel makes a good teacher?

There are so many, but if you’re forcing me to choose… I would say commitment to learners, love for learning and an abundance of patience. abu What one piece of advice would Wha you have for your former self? yo y uh Remember that taking a break is R a good thing. Stopping does not mean going backwards! m What do you most love Wha about te teaching?

My favourite part is hearing about successes outside the classroom; a moment of pride about something that someone would not have felt confident or able to do before their English classes.

Ultimately, it’s the positive impact you can have on someone’s life and the connections you can make with some truly wonderful educators.

What do you get up to outside work?

Painting is my ‘go to’. Creating something on a canvas helps me stop and clear my mind when I need to.

If you would like to be featured in My Life in Teaching, email intuition@redactive.co.uk

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MY LIFEBOOK IN TEACHING REVIEWS

BOOK REVIEWS LESSONS FROM LOCKDOWN: THE EDUCATIONAL LEGACY OF COVID-19

by Tony Breslin Routledge, 2021 The book is timely and is intended to be read by educators in all areas of education. The author’s aim is to explore the impact of the current pandemic on our education system.

The author has taken input from more than 100 learners, parents and professionals, with quotes revealing how educators and learners have adapted to the pandemic. At the heart is one question: what kind of schooling do we want and need as we move forward?

This is not a quick read. There are some hard-hitting points, such as impact on learner poverty and future education. There are recommendations for senior school leaders and education authorities. I felt on a number of occasions that this book should be better aimed at school leaders, and I am tempted to leave my copy on someone else’s desk.

All recommendations come from research carried out for the specific purposes of addressing the author’s aims. It’s a book for the now; its relevance in a year’s time is debatable.

Overall, a good book full of insights and ideas, which takes a thorough look at the impact of the pandemic, from the practicalities of returning to teaching face-toface to the long-term effects on our learners’ future education.

InTuition readers receive a 20% discount on this book with the code SMA04 at routledge.com (valid until 31 July 2021)

MEMBERS’ CORNER

All books have been reviewed by DR ANNE DAVIS , who has worked as a sixth-form maths teacher and head of maths in south-east England. She is also a private tutor, teaching maths, chemistry and physics, specialising in the 16+ age group.

She is a cycling and kayaking coach, with experience of coaching disabled athletes

THE LADDER: SUPPORTING STUDENTS TOWARDS SUCCESSFUL FUTURES AND CONFIDENT CAREER CHOICES

STEPPING INTO SENIOR LEADERSHIP: A GUIDE FOR NEW AND ASPIRING SCHOOL LEADERS

by Andrew Bernard Independent Thinking Press, 2021

by Jon Tait Bloomsbury Education, 2021

Andrew Bernard started writing this book in 2019, and it evolved to take the impact of the global pandemic into consideration. Many learners have been affected by uncertainty over their career choices, and it is important we are able to help our learners achieve their potentials.

This book is aimed at teachers, educators, employers, careers professionals and parents. There is a focus on supporting educators to develop learners’ self-belief.

Bernard offers suggestions on how to help learners plan their journey to achieving their career goals. All the while, he presents the underlying processes as ladders, or stages towards achievable goals.

Each chapter can almost stand alone. There is a chapter of resources that could be useful to educators in supporting learners, as well as other links and tools throughout. There is also a chapter on supporting learners with special educational needs and disabilities.

I found the chapter covering the current research on equality of career opportunities interesting.

It gives an up-to-date view of today’s educational inequalities, which still affect learners based on gender, ethnicity and background.

This is an excellent book for today’s careers climate.

The back cover describes this book as a practical handbook, and this is very much the case. It is aimed at anyone considering the step into an academic leadership role, as well as also being useful to those already in the position. The author is an experienced school leader who has drawn on his wealth of experience.

An overview of senior leadership, and paths into the role, starts the book. It then leads the reader through the different aspects of the role, offering clear and sensible advice about how to handle the challenges encountered. Although primarily aimed at school leadership, there is a lot of relevance to further education and higher education leadership roles. Each chapter ends with suggestions for reflection and relevant activities.

Each of the 20 chapters is short and can be read on its own if needed. The layout is very appealing, like a lot of modern books of this type. This book is packed with lot of useful information, guidance and tips for starting off in a senior leadership role on a good footing.

I would recommend it to anyone considering applying for such a role or anyone already there.

InTuition readers receive a 20% discount on this book with the code inTuition20 at crownhouse.co.uk

InTuition readers receive a 20% discount on this book with the code Tait20 at Bloomsbury.com (valid until 31 August 2021)

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SET MEMBER TICKETS

£49

CON ONFERENCE 20211 Following lastt year’s tremendous success, this year’s annual Fo SET T Co C nferen nce will once again be held as a fully digital event wiith a range of exciting, practical breakout sessions, QHWZRUNLQJ J RSSRUWXQLWLHV DQG KLJK SURͤOH NH\QRWH VSHDNHUV J including T TES Columnist and #UKFEchat host Sarah Simons and teac acher and author Geoff Petty. Don’t miss out!

Tuesday day 2 November 2021 | Discounts available for bulk booking | #SETConf21

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