The impact of professional learning on the teaching identities of higher education lecturers

Higher Education is currently undergoing some of the most profound changes in its history. Against a backdrop of increasing marketization, rising levels of student debt and far greater fully online offerings, the higher education lecturer is grappling with new ways of working and high expectations of teaching quality. This 3 year qualitative study based in The Open University UK investigates the ways in which HE distance learning lecturers are approaching professional development and learning, identifying what type of learning may be most effective in creating and sustaining an online teaching identity. The study also examines ways in which resistance discourse is shaping these identities and practices revealing emerging re- conceptualisations of what it means to be an effective and well-motivated distance learning lecturer. The investigation uses a framework for identity analysis which analyses professional identity via the expression of hegemonies, phenomenological, narrative articulations of identity, and a post-modern, constructivist view of identity which is shaped by social interactions and communities of practice. It highlights the importance of personal agency in identity formation. The results revealed a number of insights into the ways in which a combination of resistance discourse, professional learning and reflections from student interactions are shaping new understandings of professional knowledge in this context

Different systems, different identities : school inspectors in England and Sweden a comparative study

School inspection has formed part of both English and Swedish approaches to governing education for some time now (Maclure, 2000; Segerholm, 2009) But latterly both countries have begun to adopt different approaches to the process, reflected in in the recruitment, training and development of their inspectors. In Sweden the inception of a new inspectorate in 2008 introduced an intensified scheme and a sharper mission, but also a departure from the recruitment of teachers and those with an educational background in a move to recruit individuals with backgrounds in either law or investigation. In England the inception of a New Inspection Framework early in 2012 (Ofsted, 2012a, 2012b) was accompanied by a drive to re-model the inspectorate workforce in aiming to recruit in-service school leaders as part time inspectors (Baxter and Clarke, 2013;Baxter, 2012) Using Jacobsson's theory of governance as a regulative, meditative and inquisitive activity, this paper investigates the effects that these shifts have had on the recruitment and training of inspectors and the shifts have had on the inspection experience .(Hult & Segerholm, 2012; Lindgren et.al., 2012).  The research questions within the study are :  -Which competencies are required for school inspectors within both systems, and why? -How do changes in the both systems affect school leader perceptions of inspection as a governing tool? The paper concludes that in spite of the concerted efforts of both inspectorates to ensure that their systems combine regulatory rigour with developmental impact,  the changes are causing substantial tensions in the recruitment, training and operating capacity of inspector