Liz McKenzie

‘Square peg – round hole’: the emerging professional identities of HE in FE lecturers working in a partner college network in south‐west England

The professional status of further education lecturers has been widely debated and contested within the published literature. This article presents the results of a series of semi‐structured interviews undertaken with a small sample of college lecturers working within a partner college network in south‐west England. Regardless of the level of the higher/further education teaching the lecturers identities remain strongly rooted in their role as teachers and commitment to supporting learners attain their educational ambitions. The lecturers’ identities were in a state of flux due to the dual demands of their employer (the college) and collaborating institution (the university). Their shifting identities may only be mediated through wider recognition being afforded to the role of a higher education lecturer working in a further education college from their managers, universities and supporting bodies.

Emerging HE Cultures: Perspectives from CETL Award Holders in a Partner College Network.

Expansion of higher education (HE) into the further education (FE) sector has resulted in a renewed period of growth as colleges strive to create a culture and environment appropriate for HE. This article presents findings from interviews with lecturers delivering HE in FE within the University of Plymouth Partner College network and explores the perceived impact of HE expansion. Lecturers felt that expansion had a positive impact on their students, as raising the profile of HE within their colleges has encouraged internal progression. However, practitioners’ own experiences have been mixed. They felt there was limited recognition or understanding of the needs of HE from many of their FE colleagues, suggesting the presence of structural, education and managerial processes that may need to be considered in light of the emerging culture of HE. In our study, the emerging HE culture within colleges appears to reflect a combination of the FE profile of the college, the non‐traditional nature of the student body, the HE processes instigated through collaboration with the university, and the emerging HE identity of lecturers.

Communities of praxis? Scholarship and practice styles of the HE in FE professional

The Dearing Report advocated that the traditionally separate post‐compulsory education sectors of English higher education (HE) and further education (FE) should bring together the academic and vocational in a working partnership. This has led to significant changes in the working practices of colleges, lecturers and support staff. Drawing on the experiences of a sample of HE lecturers in colleges in south west England and a synthesis of relevant literature, this paper begins to examine the practice styles of HE lecturers working in FE institutions and the opportunities they are presented to engage with scholarship. The research acknowledges the issues involved in positioning HE in FE by considering the traditional roles of FE and HE lecturers, the competing demands of HE and FE and the necessary re‐conceptualisation of the HE in FE lecturer as a teacher, a researcher and a scholar.

Action Research, Becoming and the Assemblage: A Deleuzian Reconceptualisation of Professional Practice.

This paper, following Somekh and Zeichner, offers a ‘remodelling [of] action research theories and practices in local contexts’. It is an attempt, with Kemmis, to address the question ‘what is to be done?’ and to consider the ‘place of action research’ in the light of what Schön has referred to as ‘the crisis of confidence in professional knowledge’. Following the lead taken by Amorim and Ryan, and through the animation of assemblage, becoming and other Deleuzian conceptualisations, this paper will describe and make further claims for an active re-constitution of some of the givens of action research. In doing so it will both acknowledge existing theoretical, practice-based and historical antecedents and offer possibilities for looking at and advancing theoretical and practice-based approaches to action research in educational and professional settings through Deleuzian and Deleuze-inspired lenses.

Narrative Explorations into the Professional Development of Lecturers Teaching Higher Education in English Further Education Colleges.

The diversification of settings in which higher education is delivered has resulted in a growing proportion of lecturers entering teaching from professional backgrounds. This is a challenging transition as lecturers are rarely given the space to consider the implications of this move on their identities and practice styles. Writing is recognised as a powerful methodology through which individuals can make sense of experiences and conceptualise them in light of historical, theoretical and social perspectives. In this paper we consider the experiences of 10 college lecturers who used writing to explore this transition as part of a professional development initiative to promote their writing skills. They were providing higher education in further education colleges across South West England. This project ran over two years, involving a year-long professional development intervention and a subsequent evaluation. Over this time the lecturers produced a number of written pieces. We present the different styles and forms of writing used, and how these engaged with their emergent voices and growing sense of legitimacy. We highlight how writing can provide a reflexive medium and assist in the identification of developmental goals, something particularly valuable during professional transitions.

Trainee teachers’ experience of reflection

This article reports an investigation of trainee teachers’ experience of reflection whilst undertaking a teaching qualification for the post-compulsory sector. The study used a sequential, mixed-methods design, employing a structured questionnaire and a semi-structured interview; 127 individuals completed the questionnaire about their experience of reflection and keeping a reflective journal. The questionnaire responses were used to select a sample of 15 individuals for interview. The findings indicate that, whilst the majority value reflection and believe keeping a journal is useful, finding time to reflect can be problematic. Two potential areas of difficulty are identified, namely, individual preferences for engagement with reflection and the use of reflective journals. Where course requirements are at variance with an individual’s preferred approach, difficulties with reflection may be experienced. Therefore this article recommends that course requirements need to allow flexibility to enable individuals to try different techniques and adopt whichever they are most comfortable with.

Degrees of freedom: college-based higher education students’ choices and views on the top-up mode of higher education

ABSTRACT UK Higher education has for many years been offered to students at different institution types, one such being colleges of further education. He offered at further education colleges differs in many ways from that offered to a university . One way in which it differs greatly is the mode of provision. Traditional university degrees typically a commitment to a named three-year programme of study. Provision through colleges differs as students typically enrol on a two-year associate degree, which they may then decide to top up to a full bachelor’s degree at either their FEC or at partnered universities (2 + 1 mode). This research sought to investigate what factors students believed to be important when making course choices, and their reflection on the course type they chose. It was found that associate degree students tended to remain at the FEC if top-up options were available, and indicated a preference for the flexibility of the 2 + 1 mode. Factors that the majority of students deemed as important in their choice of top-up course was their career potential; students remaining at colleges were also concerned about the continuity of their educational experience and course content.

An exploration of important factors in the decision-making process undertaken by foundation degree students with respect to level 6 progression

Abstract Deciding what degree to study and where are very important decisions to make for a range of practical and economic reasons, and much research has been undertaken in this area. What has not been considered previously is the decision-making processes of students who have completed an associate degree, such as a Higher National Diploma or Foundation Degree, and are now considering where to complete their Bachelor education. Associate degrees are often provided by further education colleges (FECs) in partnership with universities, and the choices available to college-based higher education students are whether to continue at the college or move to university. A mixed-methods approach was adopted comprising of an online questionnaire and subsequent focus groups of students studying at HE at a southwest FEC. The findings showed that equal importance is placed on the practical issues of proximity and familiarity as on course suitability, with the only differences between those remaining at college and those moving to university being financially based.

Reflective writing: I wouldn’t start from here – examining a professional development initiative to enhance the scholarly activity of English HE in FE lecturers

Abstract This paper explores the nature of reflective writing through the experience of the researchers in running a series of writing workshops with a group of higher education practitioners working in a UK further education college. The focus here is on reflective writing, which was chosen to start the sequence of workshops, as it was perceived as a form of writing with which the participants would be familiar, given its role in the education and development of teachers within the sector. Our assumption was that this familiarity would facilitate the writing process and participants would readily respond by engaging in reflective writing. However, in practice this proved not to be the case, despite being introduced to a variety of different forms of writing over a series of workshops, it took the participants longer than we expected to begin to write. This led us to question our assumptions about the starting point for the writing workshops and what they might achieve. The paper draws on field notes made during the writing initiative and data gathered through focus groups and interviews with the participants, as well as extracts of their writing to examine their experiences. Different conceptualisations of reflective writing are identified and their implications are explored in relation to the participants’ engagement with writing and their experience of professional development.