Uncertain pathways: foundation skills tutors and marginalised students in neoliberal times     

Pat Strauss  Judy Hunter 《Journal of Further & Higher Education》2018,42(7):879-892

This article deals with the work of polytechnic tutors on adult foundation programmes and describes how their work has been affected by the current neoliberal climate in the education sector. Inclusive neoliberalism is characterised by heightened regulation, reduced support for the public sector and a greater requirement for individual responsibility. The push to improve skills to meet labour demand is promoted as addressing social needs. Policies devised to promote these neoliberal values have led to numerous and far-reaching changes in adult education. In this study 73 foundation skills educators drawn from 8 institutions were interviewed to gain their insights into the effects of these policies. The article discusses three types of detrimental effects: the growing distrust between teaching staff and management; unsettling changes to institutional policy and its effects on staffing issues; and threats to the professionalism of teaching staff, the delivery of foundation studies, and the students themselves. Finally, the article suggests alternative possibilities for addressing these issues.  相似文献   

Accountability and professionalism: a contradiction in terms?     

Ming Cheng 《高等教育研究与发展》2012,31(6):785-795

Declining trust in public services has led to increasing calls for higher education to be ‘accountable’ for the quality of its teaching and learning provision. However, increasing levels of quality evaluation have led academics to feel that their professionalism is under attack. Reflecting on this history and various dimensions of accountability, this paper seeks to interpret accountability by addressing two questions: What is accountability in higher education? How can it be related to academic professionalism? The paper argues that professionalism and accountability appear to be contradictory terms, but can exist simultaneously. If academics' moral and social responsibility becomes requisite to an enhanced social accounting for the quality of university teaching and learning, there could be less perceived tension between academic professionalism and accountability.  相似文献   

Establishing the overall service quality of engineering education: fuzzy logic approach     

N. Chandra Shekhar  K. Venkatasubbaiah  N. R. Kandukuria 《European Journal of Engineering Education》2012,37(6):575-591

Measuring overall service quality (OSQ) is gaining prominence in higher education due to the increased competition among engineering education institutions (EEIs) and growing awareness about value for money among the public. Determination of OSQ on certain institutional aspects is done by various agencies throughout the world. Each system uses a different set of weighted indicators to measure the overall service quality of institutions. Five service quality factors, namely professionalism, integrated education, facilities, responsiveness and empathy are considered in the study. Trapezoidal fuzzy numbers are used to determine the aggregate weights of the factors to handle the vagueness present in the linguistic values of the stakeholders’ subjective opinions. Final weights of the factors are assessed by taking the distances of each factor between Fuzzy Positive Ideal Rating and Fuzzy Negative Ideal Rating. An illustrative study is presented to determine the OSQ of EEIs. The results help to focus on the factors which need immediate attention to enhance the quality of EEIs.  相似文献   

Observation of teaching and learning: teacher development or micropolitics and neo-Fordism     

《Journal of Further & Higher Education》2012,36(4):482-503

Ethnographic research in a further education college (College X) between 2000 and 2005 was designed to uncover the impact of the Common Inspection Framework (the inspection framework for all post-16 non-higher education and training) on the Observation of Teaching and Learning (OTL) process within the college. Such research indicated that the assumption of narrow pedagogies by observers of teaching, in line with the expectations of the college observation policy, had minimised the effectiveness of the process because it caused OTL to become neo-Fordist and micropolitical in nature rather than a means for lecturer development. This was the product of top-down policy and procedure within College X, but also an over-controlling local Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and Ofsted inspection framework which limited the extent to which senior managers were able to accommodate different learning contexts within the OTL process. The clear implication of research in College X was that improvements in teaching and learning require inspection and observation processes to focus on subject-specific pedagogy and professional values rather than bureaucratic procedures and narrow pedagogies.  相似文献   

Reclaiming professionalism for geography education: Defending our own territory   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Theresa Bourke  Mary Ryan  John Lidstone 《Teaching and Teacher Education》2012

In a world where governments increasingly attempt to impose regulation on all professional activities, this paper advocates that professional standards for teachers be developed ‘by the profession for the profession’. Foucauldian archaeology is applied to two teacher standards documents recently published in Australia, one developed at national governmental level and the other by geography teachers through their professional associations. The excavation reveals that both students and geography teachers themselves are better served when teachers assert their own definition of professionalism and thus reclaim their professional territory, rather than being compliant with generic governmental agendas. Whilst we use Australia as an illustrative example, our findings are applicable to all other countries where governments attempt to impose external professional standards on the teaching profession.  相似文献   

Reconceptualising professionalism in early childhood education: insights from a study carried out in Bologna     

Arianna Lazzari 《Early Years: An International Journal of Research and Development》2012,32(3):252-265

This paper explores the issue of early childhood professionalism from a socio-cultural perspective. In particular the article is concerned with how pre-school teachers conceptualise their professionalism by making sense of the work they carry out on an everyday basis in early childhood institutions. In analysing teachers’ perceptions special attention has been paid to the socio-political and historical conditions that have contributed to shaping them. Drawing on a recent empirical study conducted within Bologna province (Italy), contemporary issues in early childhood professionalism are analysed and insights for a possible re-conceptualisation are offered through a critical interpretation of teachers’ perspectives. The findings discussed in the article highlight how a complex conceptualisation of professionalism, building upon continuous learning in relational contexts, is currently challenged by recent neo-liberal influences. In facing these challenges a crucial role will be played by teachers’ collaborative practices in the workplace that, if reclaimed as a space for collective decision-making, could potentially become an arena for rethinking teachers’ professional development in dialogue with local communities.  相似文献   

浅论高校辅导员专业化建设     

安守春 《青海师范大学学报(哲学社会科学版)》2012,34(3):155-157

辅导员专业化是高校思想政治教育队伍建设的重要途径。辅导员专业化一方面是辅导员职业获得专业标准、提升专业地位的过程,即职业的专业化发展;另一方面是辅导员专业行为改进和素质提升的过程,即个体的专业化培养。辅导员专业化建设要求辅导员具有基本的专业理论素养,基本的专业技能和基本的专业方向。  相似文献   

中小学教师资格制度：问题与出路     

程伟 《四川教育学院学报》2012,28(4):94-96

教师专业化是现代教育发展的必然结果,是进一步完善教师资格制度的主要依据。作为教师专业化的重要维度,教师资格制度对于优化教师队伍、提高教师综合素养、促进教师专业发展具有极为重要而深远的意义。但是,随着教师专业化时代的到来,目前我国中小学教师资格制度在专业知识、专业技能、专业情意的规定上还存有诸多隐忧,无以满足教师专业化发展的时代诉求。为此,确立非师范生教育理论知识的课程标准或学分要求、规定教育实习的时间及其评价标准、实行教师资格定期认证制度、就成为完善教师资格制度,促进教师专业化发展的必由路径。  相似文献   

新加坡学前教育发展政策探析——基于新加坡教育部加大学前教育投入的政策     

王岩 《四川教育学院学报》2012,28(6):118-120

2012年初,新加坡教育部发表政府公告表示要加大对学前教育的投入,其中的QA咨询计划是对2010年9月的“SPARK”质量监督计划的政策补充,并且增加了对学前教育教师专业化问题的重视,并提出了可行的策略,这对我国学前教育的发展在教育政策制定和教师专业化上有着很好的启示作用。  相似文献   

Towards Competent Systems in Early Childhood Education and Care. Implications for Policy and Practice     

Mathias Urban  Michel Vandenbroeck  Katrien Van Laere  Arianna Lazzari  Jan Peeters 《European Journal of Education》2012,47(4):508-526

The close connection between the quality of provision for young children and professionaliation of the field has long been supported by international research. That the two are inseparable aspects of one picture is beginning to become accepted at European policy level, as evident in recent high level EU policy documents. This article explores the reciprocal relationship between quality and professionalisation, drawing on the findings of the study on ‘competence requirements in early childhood education and care’ (CoRe), jointly conducted by the University of East London and the University of Gent, and funded by the European Commission. Based on a review of literature in several European languages and data from a 15-country survey and seven in-depth case studies, CoRe has identified systemic conditions for a professionalisation of the entire early childhood system, beyond the formal qualification levels of individual practitioners. The article argues for a critical and systemic reconceptualisation of professional practice in a competent system.  相似文献