Clare Woolhouse

Mapping the changes: a critical exploration into the career trajectories of teaching assistants who undertake a foundation degree

This article explores the changing career trajectories of teaching assistants who graduated from a university in the northwest of England with a Foundation degree in Supporting Teaching and Learning. It begins with a consideration of the changing policy context in England in relation to the role of support staff in schools. This context informed the development of three key research questions that are addressed in this article: What are the perceived benefits of Foundation degree study in the present policy climate? In what ways does engagement with a lifelong learning course impact upon professional and personal lives? Does doing a lifelong learning course like a Foundation degree encourage further study? The article then presents the research methodology employed to address these questions. A research survey was conducted with teaching assistants who had gained a Foundation degree, using a questionnaire that provided both quantitative and in‐depth qualitative data. Research findings suggest that graduates have varying perceptions about the benefits of the Foundation degree and the effect it has had on their careers. Findings also suggest that age and school sector are significant factors in determining promotion prospects. The researchers conclude that despite considerable advancements for some teaching assistants, there is a degree of disillusionment regarding professional status and career progression. Nevertheless, there are perceived personal benefits to gaining a Foundation degree, such as increased self‐confidence, awareness of one’s own learning potential and a positive impact upon professional ‘performance’ in the classroom.

Lifelong Learning: Teaching Assistants' Experiences of Economic, Social and Cultural Change Following Completion of a Foundation Degree.

This paper stems from a longitudinal research project that explored the perceptions and experiences of teaching assistants (predominantly women) who have undertaken a foundation degree. It draws upon Bourdieu’s notion of habitus and investigates shifts in economic, cultural and social capital for this particular group of educational professionals. 189 graduates were invited to respond to a postal survey that asked questions about the impact of doing a vocational degree on personal and professional lives. The survey was followed up with six case study life history interviews to provide insight into the lived experiences of the teaching assistants. Our findings suggests that whilst there were personal benefits stemming from studying for the degree, such as a perceived increase in self‐confidence, remunerated career development opportunities were limited and there was little change in terms of economic capital. There were changes and antagonisms in terms of social and cultural forms of capital. Our research exposed the personal challenges and hidden ‘costs’ involved in vocationally driven lifelong learning; especially for working mothers. We found that this group experienced a powerful conflict between fulfilling their professional aspirations and their responsibilities towards their families. In this paper we call for a more candid acknowledgement of the complex and shifting positioning of teaching assistants and the potential personal benefits and sacrifices involved in studying whilst working.

Now I think of myself as a Physics Teacher: Negotiating professional development and shifts in self-identity

This paper reports on the findings of research carried out with two cohorts of science teachers engaged in professional development by investigating how these teachers perceived any changes they experienced. In particular we engaged with the work of Foucault on power/knowledge to cast a critical lens over the qualitative data collected in order to explore how the teachers came to know themselves as specific types of professional subjects: namely as physics or chemistry teachers. This paper details how teachers perceive shifts in their professional self‐identities by attending to three key themes: (1) subject knowledge and competence; (2) peer support; and (3) the reflective practitioner. In the conclusion we suggest that if individuals come to identify themselves as subject specialists they become integrated in particular communities of practice. This integration can enhance teachers’ subject knowledge and pedagogic practice, but also impact upon job‐satisfaction, which in turn can increase science teacher retention.

Reflective practice and identity construction: the particularities of the experiences of teachers specialising in dyslexia

This paper explores the impact for teachers’ identity of undertaking professional development designed to enhance provision for children identified as having dyslexia, in line with the recommendations made by the UK Government. In the paper the concept of ‘participation in communities of practice’ is taken as a departure point for investigating how reflective practice can inform professional identity. The data reported upon were gathered through focus groups and narrative life history interviews conducted with teachers on a Specialist Dyslexia Training for Teachers Programme. The paper identifies and investigates the ways in which teachers who work with dyslexic pupils view themselves as different from other teachers, as having distinct attributes and different motivations for pursuing their chosen career paths. These findings are reviewed, and it is argued that reflection can enable teachers to become better learners, develop their practice and feel integrated into a specific community of practice. However, tensions that arise from perceptions that these teachers have a distinct positioning in the school community are also explored.

Language learning, cultural capital and teacher identity: teachers negotiating the introduction of French into the primary curriculum

This paper stems from the Primary French Research Project (PFRP) that explored the perceptions and experiences of educational professionals involved in introducing modern languages (ML) into the primary curriculum in England. UK government policy was to make modern language learning a compulsory curriculum requirement for English schools in Key Stage 2 (pupils aged 7–11) from September 2010. However, with the election of a coalition government in 2010, the policy shifted and ML became reframed as a non-compulsory ‘entitlement’. Although many primary schools were already teaching some modern languages, this still requires many primary educators to develop the necessary ML knowledge and skills. Anecdotal evidence garnered from primary teachers suggested that they were daunted at this prospect, and the authors felt that questions were arising relating to teachers’ epistemological and ontological security as well as the interplay between policy and practice. In this paper, Bourdieus notions of habitus and cultural capital are employed to identify and consider the impact on self-identity of policy shifts for a particular group of teaching professionals. These individuals were all studying on a continuing professional development course relating to the introduction of primary ML. The research that is detailed explores how these individuals’ perceptions of themselves as language teachers developed over time and what tensions between self-identity, classroom practice and national policy were manifest. While the focus is on a particular group of professionals, their localised experience highlights issues that may resonate with others who are tasked with interpreting and implementing new educational policy.

Re-Visioning Disability and Dyslexia down the Camera Lens: Interpretations of Representations on UK University Websites and in a UK Government Guidance Paper.

The focus of this article is to consider visual portrayals and representations of disability. The images selected for analysis came from online university prospectuses as well as a governmental guidance framework on the tuition of dyslexic students. Greater understanding, human rights and cultural change have been characteristic of much UK governmental policy regarding disability, and legislation has potentially strengthened the quest for equality of opportunity. However, publicly available institutional promotional visual material appears to contradict policy messages. To interrogate this contradiction, this article presents a tripartite critique whereby three researchers provide a self-inventory of their backgrounds and theoretical and ontological positioning, before presenting their differing interpretations of visual representations of disability. Following an agreed methodological and analytical framework, they addressed the question: what do visual representations of dyslexia and disability look like and what messages do they convey?

Teachers performing gender and belonging: a case study of how SENCOs narrate inclusion identities

This paper investigates how the narratives Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENCOs) tell can be framed as social, discursive practices and performances of identity by analysing accounts offered in focus groups and life history interviews. I explore how the narratives deployed demonstrate an engagement with a rhetoric about who works in inclusive education. I argue that this rhetoric informs the materialisation of what Butler terms an ‘intelligible identity’ (1993, 2004), one which might be identified as a SENCO identity because it is gendered as feminine and caring. However, I explore how some of these narratives simultaneously negotiate and refigure rhetorical constructions of intelligible identities by invoking a child-centred warrior persona to alternatively iterate belonging to the special educational needs community. Thus my analysis considers the potential for personal narratives to decouple gender from a rhetoric of caring and identifies potential alternatives for claiming a SENCO identity.

Educational Policy or Practice? Traversing the Conceptual Divide between Subject Knowledge, Pedagogy and Teacher Identity in England.

This research paper is framed by concerns about recent UK Government policy regarding the training of mathematics and science teachers in England and discusses how two cohorts of pre-service teachers negotiated the development of a professional identity while undertaking subject-specific training. The data reported upon were garnered in two ways; through an evaluation survey that received quantitative and qualitative responses from 159 teacher trainees and through focus groups conducted with 40 trainees. In the paper, the authors take the concept of ‘participation in communities of practice’ as a departure point to explore how trainees demonstrate their development of professional identities as chemistry, maths or physics teachers. In the conclusion, the authors consider the implications of the findings for pre-service teachers and teacher trainers given the current education climate of financial austerity being experienced across Europe.

‘Making children count’: an exploration of the implementation of the Every Child Matters agenda

This paper reports on the findings of a funded research project that explores the implementation of the Every Child Matters (ECM) agenda within the Greater Merseyside area. The research team explore how primary schools and external agencies are currently working together to deliver this agenda in order to highlight areas of good practice as well as potential sites of conflict. The aim is to develop an effective response to the challenges currently faced by schools and other agencies in meeting the requirements of the principles underpinning the ECM agenda. The research project implemented a mixed-method case-study approach, using questionnaires, policy documentation and stakeholder interviews as data sources. Responses were elicited from members of school staff, parents and professionals from the education welfare, health and social services to gauge their perceptions of how well they felt schools and agencies were responding to the challenges of implementing the ECM agenda. There is strong evidence of effective multi-agency working, particularly in relation to children who are ‘at risk’ or have special educational needs, and in terms of contributions to the curriculum and life of the school for all pupils. There are also clearly identified areas for further development, for example on shared operational frameworks. There are also concerns that poor resourcing and a lack of practical support could hamper the embedding of reforms.

Relationships in early childhood education – beyond the professional into the personal within the teacher–child dyad: relationships ‘that ripple in the pond’

ABSTRACT The dyadic nature of the teacher–child relationship is recognized as a significant factor in young children’s learning experiences. However understandings about how teachers’ own personal and professional identities and experiences influence their construction of teacher–child relationships are under researched. This article extends upon earlier research by exploring the concept of a networked dimension of teachers’ personal relationships and how they inform their perceptions of their relationships with children within a dynamic system. Through the interpretation of four teachers’ life history narratives and utilizing the lens of development systems theory, we present original insights regarding how they understand their personal and professional relationships with children. We illuminate how teachers’ lives are open, networked and overlapping in nature and that there are implications for teachers’ initial education and professional development.