Chartered teachers matter: envisioning their future as leaders of learning

This report traces the development of the Chartered Teacher Scheme (CTS) using an approach based on documentary analysis of reports published during the last 10 years. It places this significant and far-sighted policy initiative, which was an important pillar in A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century (2001), within a wider international context in which the “Scottish approach” has been recognised as being at the forefront of quality improvement in schools. Central to this has been the combination of internal and external evaluation based on the use of quality indicators to identify strengths and areas for improvement. It is argued that the section devoted to the Chartered Teacher in the recent Report of the Review of Teacher Employment in Scotland (McCormac, 2011) represents a sharp departure from this approach and is short-sighted in its conclusion. It does not present a full consideration of all the available evidence or a balanced evaluation involving a full analysis of both sides of the debate. Further, in presenting what is described as a “widely held view”, it is quite misleading in terms of what is presented as evidence. As such, Recommendation 19 to discontinue the CTS should be treated with great caution as a basis for sound policy making. The documentary analysis involved in producing this report highlights a complex and long running debate about the CTS around grade, rewards, duties and role and identifies an associated need to develop a more widely shared understanding about the meaning of leadership in particular. In looking to the future, it argued that existing agreements do provide the necessary basis for clarifying the role of the Chartered Teacher with all stakeholders and that a positive future can be envisioned by focussing discussion and debate on the meaning of the Chartered Teacher as a “Leader of Learning”

SASICE: Safety and sustainability in civil engineering

The performance of the built environment and the construction sector are of major importance in Europe’s long term goals of sustainable development in a changing climate. At the same time, the quality of life of all European citizens needs to be improved and the safety of the built environment with respect to man-made and natural hazards, such as flooding and earthquakes, needs to be ensured. Education has a central role to play in the transformation of a construction sector required to meet increasing demands with regard to safety and sustainability. In this work, the SASICE project is presented. The aim of this project is to promote the integration of safety and sustainability in civil engineering education. The project is organised in the context of the Lifelong Learning Programme, funded by the European Community. The coordinator organisation is the University of Bologna. Nine partner universities from different countries are involved in this transnational project. The universities participating to the project constitute a network of high level competences in the civil engineering area, with several opportunities to improve lifelong learning adopting different media: joint curricula, teaching modules and professor and student exchanges. As a response to the challenge regarding new educational methods in sustainable engineering, teaching modules are developed in 4 thematic areas: (1) Safety in construction, (2) Risk induced by Natural Hazards Assessment, (3) Sustainability in construction, and (4) Sustainability at the territorial level. The development of the teaching modules is based on an extensive analysis of the need for highly qualified education on Safety and Sustainability involving all relevant stakeholders (European and national authorities, companies, research institutes, professional organizations, and universities).The main target is enabling students to introduce these advanced topics in their study plans and curricula and reach, at the end of their studies, a specific skill and expertise in safety and sustainability in Civil Engineering. With our natural resources fading away and our infrastructure in dire need of repair, new trends and challenges in civil engineering education in the concept of “Sustainable Development” are needed to be adressed.<br/

The transitions discourse in the ecological modernisation of the Netherlands

Discourse analysis, socio-technical transitions, ecological modernisation