Denis Gleeson

Challenging Dualism: Public Professionalism in ‘Troubled’Times

In recent decades neo-liberal reform has significantly impacted on public sector professionals. Sociological interest in such impact has tended to focus on professionals as subjects of such reform: as either de-professionalized ‘victims’ who feel oppressed by the structures of control or strategic operators seeking to contest the spaces and contradictions of market, managerial and audit cultures. Such a dualism is reflective of wider separations of agency and structure that have plagued sociology down the years. Our approach challenges modernizing agendas which seek to re-professionalize or empower professionals without examining the changing conditions of their work or the neo-liberal conditions which frame their practice. It also questions the policy outcomes of reconciling the dualism between agency and structure through a ‘third way’ politics that purports to remove the tensions and conflicts between professions and various stakeholders, the private and the public, and markets and civic society.

On the making and taking of professionalism in the further education workplace

This paper examines the changing nature of professional practice in English further education. At a time when neo‐liberal reform has significantly impacted on this under‐researched and over‐market‐tested sector, little is known about who its practitioners are and how they construct meaning in their work. Sociological interest in the field has tended to focus on further education practitioners as either the subjects of market and managerial reform or as creative agents operating within the contradictions of audit and inspection cultures. In challenging such dualism, which is reflective of wider sociological thinking, the paper examines the ways in which agency and structure combine to produce a more transformative conception of the further education professional. The approach contrasts with a prevailing policy discourse that seeks to re‐professionalise and modernise further education practice without interrogating either the terms of its professionalism or the neo‐liberal practices in which it resides.

Voice without Accountability: The Changing Relationship between Employers, the State and Education in England.

In the past decade employers, market and private sector influences have had a marked impact on vocational education and training (VET) policy. This article critically examines the effect of such impact on the relationship between employers, state and education in England. It is argued that largely unfettered de‐regulation practices have gifted employers a ‘voice without accountability’ that has shifted regulation and responsibility for VET onto the State and education and away from the workplace. The article considers the consequences of this for future VET reform in terms of 14–19, further and higher education, and social inclusion policies, alongside wider changes in economy and society. Looking beyond critique, the article argues for clearer rules of engagement for employer, state and education partnerships, where power and accountability is a shared rather than a privileged option.

The paradox of professionalism in English further education : a TLC project perspective

This paper examines the shifting nature of Further Education (FE) professionalism through the lenses of the Transforming Learning Cultures in FE (TLC) project. Despite over a decade of market and managerial reform professionalism in FE remains an elusive and paradoxical concept. With some notable exceptions there exists little official data or research evidence of who its practitioners are, their dispositions or how they define professionalism in the contested contexts of their work. In addressing this neglected issue, albeit in a brief fashion here, the paper engages with wider debate concerning the culturally oriented nature of FE practice, as it mediates contradictory policy agendas, at college level. The paper highlights some of the paradoxes involved in a public management discourse that seeks to modernize FE professionals whilst, at the same time, displaying little understanding of their current practice or contexts in which they work. Drawing on the narratives of experienced practitioners participating in the TLC project (2001–2005) the paper explores their perceptions and experiences of professionalism through cultures of learning that simultaneously enhance and restrict their professional room for manoeuvre.

Governing the governors : a case study of college governance in English further education

This paper addresses the nature of governors in the governance of further education colleges in an English context. It explores the complex relationship between governors (people/agency), government (policy/structure) and governance (practice), in a college environment. While recent research has focused on the governance of schooling and higher education there has been little attention paid to the role of governors in the lifelong learning sector. The objective of the paper is to contribute to the debate about the purpose of college governance at a time when the Learning and Skills Council commissioning era ends and new government bodies responsible for further education and training, including local authorities, arrive. The paper analyses the nature of FE governance through the perspectives and experiences of governors, as colleges respond to calls from government for greater improvement and accountability in the sector. What constitutes creative governance is complex and controversial in the wider frame...

Learning for a Change in Further Education.

Abstract This review discusses the main research findings and conclusions of the Transforming Learning Culture in FE Project, which is part of the Economic and Social Research Councils Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP). This review seeks to address some of the key issues arising from the TLC-FE Project that have a direct bearing on improving learning practice in FE. The article provides a more up-to-date account to that which was published in a Special Edition of JVET (2003, Vol. 55, No. 4), including reference to recent data available on the project website. Unadorned by conventional academic dressage, and in ‘words of one syllable’ the review seeks to get to the heart of the TLC Projects findings and address their implications for FE today. Whilst recognising that FE is only one part of the Learning and Skills Sector it is by far the largest provider commanding the major part of LSS funding, and its student and professional body.

The introduction of key skills into schools: core or casualty?

Abstract The introduction of generic key skills into the school curriculum has been limited. The impact of funding to promote development within schools in two local education authorities was the subject of investigation undertaken by Keele University researchers during 1998-99. Findings indicate the importance of the development of strategic management structures at local and school level, and the necessity for clearly stated aims and objectives that are widely accepted and owned by the staff concerned. The research identifies the problems of so-called ‘honeypot’ funding which can lead to creative interpretations of key skills at school level, but which may undermine the wider formulations of policy makers. In terms of the development of key skills, the evidence in this article suggests that without whole staff understanding, cross-curricular application, assessment and the reporting of objectives that go with it, embedded change is likely to be patchy.