It may come as a surprise to
many that teachers in further education have a set of professional standards
that form the basis of initial teacher education, as well as outlining the
process for continuous professional development throughout their careers. More troubling,
however, is the fact that teachers working within the sector have no
relationship with the aforementioned standards and their subsequent
professional development is limited to say the least.
The regionalisation of the
college sector was preceded by two significant reviews; one that looked into Post-16
Education and Vocational Training in Scotland conducted by Willy Roe, the other
a Review of Further Education Governance in Scotland, conducted by Professor Russel
Griggs OBE. These publications proposed ambitious plans for the future of the
sector. Unfortunately, the Roe Report ignored the opportunity to advocate a
pedagogical solution for the development of the FE workforce, failed to mention
our professional standards and instead suggested that FE teachers spend half
the year working in industry and half the year teaching in colleges. I agree that
industry experience can be invaluable to teachers in their quest to offer a
contemporary experience for Scotland’s future workforce, however, Roe’s idea of
a 50/50 year for FE practitioners may be taking ‘blue sky’ thinking too far.
In contrast, Graham
Donaldson’s report into teacher education in Scotland supplied primary and
secondary teachers, and those wishing to work in schools, with a clear vision
of teacher development for their respective sectors. With mandatory General
Teaching Council registration required for all school teachers, bringing with
it a robust and rightly demanding set of standards together with a requirement
for reaccreditation through ‘Professional Update’, teachers continue to be
central to our education system. Why then, do teachers in further education
continue to be on the periphery when it comes to post-16 education? Furthermore,
Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) aims to provide a more coherent and
enriched curriculum for our learners aged 3-18, wherever they are being
educated. A learner choosing to transfer from school to college at the age of
16 is unlikely to experience a seamless transition if they enter an environment
that fails to offer equal teacher status to that of our primary and secondary
peers.
Regionalisation has also
resulted in colleges being forced to employ less qualified staff to meet their
curricular needs as many qualified and experienced teachers have simply left
the field. Furthermore, teaching staff employed post-regionalisation are only
being offered temporary posts. With no security of tenure, how can this impact
positively on our learners? The sector requires stability and investment in its
workforce. As I mentioned earlier, our professional standards exist and must,
therefore, form an integral part of our practice. FE teachers holding the Teacher
Qualification in Further Education (TQFE) can, and should, register with the
General Teaching Council for Scotland, comply with the GTCS code of conduct,
and be subject to ‘Professional Update’. Both Northern Ireland and Wales have
chosen to bring further education under the wing of their respective Teaching
Councils and Scotland, the vanguard for educational foresight finds itself lagging
behind.
Colleges now have ‘outcome
agreements’ and such agreements are ostensibly founded on colleges being more
efficient. Efficiency in itself is no bad thing; however, it must be linked to
the ‘core’ purpose of education-the transformation of lives through learning. If
we continue, through a preoccupation with outcomes, with inspecting quality
out, rather than building quality into our teaching and learning processes,
then we are ignoring the empirical evidence that consigned the former to the
wastebasket long ago.
Teaching and learning must
be led; therefore, leadership is crucial in developing our pedagogical
evolution. Mechanistic structures that offer little in the way of pedagogical
career development-instead rewarding commitment and passion with positions
predicated on administrative and fiscal order are contrary to the vocational
foundation that our profession advocates If we accept the premise that great
teachers inspire learners, then we must also accept that great teachers can
inspire and develop other teachers.
The Professional Standards for
FE lecturers in Scotland’s colleges can be found at:
