‘How do I cope with that?’ The challenge of ‘schooling’ cultures in further education for trainee FE lecturers

Abstract

The development of professional identity amongst lecturers training to teach in further education (FE) colleges in England involves processes of adaptation. These partly take place during teaching placement in FE, as trainees navigate between their own anticipated professional identity and the identities which they feel under pressure to assume as they engage in their work with students. This article explores these processes of development, focusing in particular on the identities that trainee lecturers develop in their work with disengaged 16–19 year‐old students. Using case studies of two trainee lecturers, the article explores the way in which they are pushed towards adopting what they see as a ‘pedagogic’, ‘teacherly’ identity, which they had previously associated with schoolteachers, in their work with such students. The article suggests that the notion of ‘schooling’ identities and cultures, whilst contrasting with the vocational habitus proposed by others, is a useful way to explore how cultures and identities in general FE are created through similar processes of identity construction and reconstruction.

Notes

1. We are currently undertaking a longitudinal study of the transition from trainee to lecturer (Avis & Bathmaker, 2005).

2. GNVQ: General National Vocational Qualification, a broad, vocationally related qualification in England.

3. EMA: Educational Maintenance Allowance, a means‐tested payment made to 16–19 year‐olds in England who are in full‐time education.

4. Edexcel is one of the main qualification awarding bodies for broad vocational qualifications.

5. ASDA: a supermarket in England, which markets itself on cheap prices.