Moving into practice: transitions from further education trainee teacher to lecturer

Abstract

The current paper draws on data derived from a small‐scale ongoing longitudinal study of further education trainee teachers. It examines their experiences during and after the completion of their training. The study was conducted at a university in the English Midlands and sets trainees' experiences within the socio‐economic and policy context. This paper addresses the experiences of six respondents, exploring their trajectory into the sector, orientations towards pedagogic relations and enacted professionality. The paper concludes by suggesting that trainees' educational commitment to the tenets of social justice need to be accompanied by an expansive and politicised understanding of practice.

Keywords:

• further education teacher training
• professionalism
• social justice

Notes

1. English colleges of further education in England bear some resemblance to community colleges in the USA and with technical and further education colleges (TAFE) in Australia. FE colleges in England have been concerned with vocational and technical education but they do much more than this, having an important role in 16–19 education, latterly provision for 14–19 year‐olds, and also adult education. FE colleges are diverse institutions whose provision can range from basics skills to degree‐level work. Colleges are marked by their particular histories as well as and relatedly the local and regional contexts in which they are placed (Lucas 2004).

2. It is important to recognise the rhetorical construction of the English economy and its skills requirement. Rhetoric that suggests there is a generic move towards up‐skilling but which underplays the unevenness of such processes. At best, the labour market is marked by a dual structure; one in which there is a polarity between a small high‐skilled and a much larger low‐skilled sector (Brown, Green and Lauder 2001; Coleman and Keep 2001; Keep 1999; Wolf 2002).