Transforming practice, transforming practitioners: reflections on the TQFE in Scotland

ABSTRACT

This study offers reflections on the TQFE in Scotland as an example of the transformative professional learning model as identified by various authors. The focus of this study is the professional learning of lecturers in Scotland’s colleges. Informed by wider considerations of teacher education more broadly, it will be of particular interest to those supporting a transformative model of professional learning in a variety of educational contexts. The research was undertaken as a collaborative initiative between each of the three universities which offer the TQFE in Scotland. Qualitative data are drawn from former TQFE participants and college mentors, and thematic analysis used to gain further insight from participant interviews. Findings highlight the transformative nature of the TQFE with an impact that is beyond the currency of the TQFE programme duration. The provision of transformative professional learning opportunities is now imperative given various pressures and tensions around the development of educators more generally and within contemporary Scottish Further Education in particular. Such pressures and tensions include: the varied demands within the Professional Standards for Lecturers in Scotland’s Colleges, and the need for professional learning for college lecturers to go beyond a competency or tool-kit based approach and to be sustainable.

KEYWORDS:

• TQFE
• further education
• professional development
• transformative learning
• professional identity

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the participants of the study for the insight that was added through their engagement with the surveys and the interviews. Particular thanks go to Sarah Cornelius of the University of Aberdeen for her contribution to the design and analysis of the surveys at the initial stages of the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yvonne Bain

Yvonne Bain was the programme director for the TQFE programmes at the University of Aberdeen. She has presented at international conferences on the professional learning of teachers and on online learning. Yvonne has had many years of experience of teaching in different contexts and in online environments.

Kevin Brosnan

Kevin Brosnan is programme director of the TQFE courses at the University of Stirling. His research interests focus on the use of networked technologies in the support of professional learning and continuing professional development. He gained his PhD in 2007 from the University of Lancaster.

Aileen McGuigan

Aileen McGuigan led the Teaching Qualification in Further Education programme between 2010 and 2016 at the University of Dundee, where the programme is delivered online to some 150 participants annually. Aileen’s research interests are in the fields of design for online learning and social media tools in learning contexts; she has published various articles and presented at national and international conferences on these topics.