Initial teacher education for the education and training sector in England: development and change in generic and subject specialist provision

This report reviews the current system of initial teacher education (ITE) for the education and training sector and its development from earlier systems. The report also discusses subject-specialist teaching in the education and training sector, leading to a provisional assessment of the potential of the current ITE system for enhancing subject-specialist pedagogy. The report begins by contextualising the development of ITE from the post-war period to the beginning of the New Labour years, followed by a more detailed discussion of the reforms introduced by Labour governments in 2001 and 2007 and the moves away from regulation introduced by the Conservative–Liberal Democrat Coalition government. The report then discusses the main features of the qualifications framework established following the Lingfield Review of 2011-12. The final part of the report focuses on the development of subject-specialist pedagogy in ITE courses, relating concerns expressed by Ofsted to debates about teacher knowledge and vocational pedagogies. A model for understanding approaches to subject-specialist pedagogy is developed, and applied to consider the potential of the current ITE system for strengthening this area of professional development

Trainee teachers in voluntary teaching posts: roles, rights and responsibilities

Trainee teachers in voluntary teaching post have diverse experiences that shape their teaching journey. Structural contexts related to teaching employment landscapes, education policy, institutional cultures and circumstances in addition to the trainee teacher’s own characteristics, motivations and personal situations all interact to affect how teachers train. Research funded by the Education and Training Consortium aimed to explore how trainees, course tutors and other stakeholders viewed the learning experience of trainee teachers in voluntary teaching posts. Fieldwork was undertaken from December 2014 – May 2015. Data was collected from a questionnaire completed by centre managers and 25 semi-structured interviews with centre staff, current Year 2 volunteer trainees and mentors, plus two focus groups of trainee teachers. Volunteer teaching posts can often be successful and offer valuable resources to both the trainee and affiliated institution. However, the balance between a trainee teacher’s learning experiences, their role, responsibilities and rights in their voluntary teaching post, and their developmental needs must be carefully managed as these can have important implications for a trainee’s professional identity and prospects of completing the course

Explaining inequality? Rational action theories of educational decision making

This chapter discusses the rational action perspective on social class differences in educational attainment. In this context, rational action theories derive from the distinction between the primary and secondary effects of social stratification made by Raymond Boudon, and seek to understand educational inequality through the decisions made by individuals and their evaluations of the costs and benefits associated with different educational routes. The chapter aims to evaluate the ability of these theories to account for observed patterns of stability and change in educational inequalities, particularly in higher education, and to highlight some of the reasons why the rational action approach has received relatively little attention within the sociology of education. Methodologically, the chapter presents a conceptual analysis based on critical appraisal of key theoretical literature and an evaluation of a range of empirical studies which aim to test rational action models of educational decision making

NEET young people and the labour market: working on the margins

This paper is based on findings from a longitudinal study of twenty young people who have spent significant periods of time categorised as NEET (not in education, employment or training). Drawing on three years of ethnographic research conducted across two local authorities in the north of England, it focuses on the lived experience of a set of young people as they move between various sites of exclusion and participation in the labour market. Central to the paper are the experiences of three individuals and their attempts to begin work in the retail, care and catering industries. The paper illustrates a range of tensions between the aspirations of young people and the opportunities open to them. It provides a critical insight into some of the conditions which characterise work on the fringes of the labour market and the inter-play between these and the attitudes, values and dispositions of the young people taking part in the research. The paper’s findings challenge popular discourses about young people on the margins of participation and pose questions about the articulation between education, work and training for those seeking to enter the labour market

Extending the Technology Acceptance Model with Motivation and Social Factors

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) proposed by Davis (1986) has been tested in a number of studies, and has received considerable support. The model is parsimonious, easy to understand, and provides reasonable explanatory value under a variety of conditions. As part of a larger study, two factors (Motivation to complete the task and Social Factors) were added to the TAM model, and tested with two data samples. In the first test, Motivation and Social Factors exerted much stronger direct influences on Intentions than the TAM constructs, and the amount of variance explained in Intentions increased significantly (26 % with TAM alone; 47% with Motivation and Social Factors added). Motivation and Social Factors alone explained over 40% of the variance in Intentions. In the second test, the results were less dramatic. Differences between the samples are used to interpret the observed results. Specifically, in the context where respondents had no choice over the selection of technology, Motivation and Social Factors played a very strong part in influencing Intentions. When a choice of tools was offered, the Attitude toward using the tool exerted the strongest influence on Intentions

Understanding class-based inequalities in education: rational action theories of educational decision making.

This paper discusses the rational action perspective on social class differences in educational opportunity. In this context, rational action theories derive from the distinction between the primary and secondary effects of social stratification made by Raymond Boudon, seeking to understand educational inequality through the decisions made by individuals based on their perceptions of the costs and benefits associated with different educational routes. The paper aims to evaluate the ability of these theories to account for observed patterns of stability and change in educational inequalities, particularly in higher education, and to highlight some of the reasons why the rational action approach has received relatively little attention within the sociology of education. Methodologically, the paper presents a conceptual analysis based on critical appraisal of key theoretical literature and an evaluation of a range of empirical studies which aim to test rational action models of educational decision making

Teacher knowledge and subject-specific pedagogy in technical and vocational education

This paper provides a critical analysis of conceptualisations of subject-specific pedagogy and their application to technical and vocational education, with particular reference to the English FE and Skills sector. Drawing on international literature on teachers’ pedagogical knowledge in different phases of education, the paper argues that there is currently no satisfactory account of subject-specific pedagogy or of the knowledge that technical and vocational teachers use in making pedagogical decisions. However, it proposes that a re-interpretation of Lee Shulman’s pedagogical content knowledge within sociocultural learning theory can provide a basis for a better understanding. The paper begins by reviewing briefly the context of subject-specific pedagogy in the English FE sector, where it has been a contested issue for over a decade. Although this debate has intrinsic academic interest, it has also been driven by external pressures from policymakers and inspection regimes based on regressive understandings of teacher knowledge. In recent years, the debate has been modified to some extent by emerging notions of vocational pedagogy and a tendency to privilege the immediate needs of employers over wider educational considerations. The paper continues by reviewing more fundamental issues related to subject-specific pedagogy, including critiques of disciplinary knowledge in general, which argue that such knowledge has decreasing relevance and authority; evidence that the formal acquisition of codified pedagogical knowledge plays a relatively limited role in the professional development of FE teachers; and a lack of more extensive empirical research on FE teachers and their subject-specific pedagogy. It then discusses the strengths and limitations of two key ideas: pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and the multi-layered notion of recontextualisation. Although PCK has been extensively critiqued, the paper argues that it offers access to an extensive research tradition and valuable insights into the meaning of subject-specific pedagogy. However, interpretations of PCK which delocate it from a social and cultural context would be inadequate, particularly in the context of technical and vocational education. Two elaborations of PCK are required: firstly, to take into account the need for teachers and learners to recontextualise knowledge – both from the college to the workplace and vice versa – and secondly, to recognise that teachers’ professional learning is itself socially located, taking place in specific cultural and historical contexts and affected by hierarchies of power and status at local and societal levels. The paper concludes by proposing a model of subject-specific pedagogy as situated reasoning about teaching decisions