Routledge Research in Vocational Education – serie

Professional Development of Teacher Educators in Further Education critically analyses the specific challenges relating to teacher educators in the English further education (FE), such as the diverse nature of learners and the variety of educational contexts. It focuses on the journeys to becoming teacher educators, their relevant teaching know-how and professional needs.This book combines theoretical frameworks with both qualitative and quantitative data to outline the pathways, professional identities, knowledge, and continuous professional development of teacher educators. This data is used to discuss the four main themes. The first deals with the teacher educators’ initial disciplinary areas, journey-making to be educators, and the current titles/positions. The next one delineates the know-how (knowledge, experiences, capacities and skill sets) to perform as teacher educators. The third one relates to their professional identities and the final topic, their professional requirements as FE teacher educators. Contributing to the field of further and vocational education, this book will be of great interest for researchers, academics, and postgraduate students in the field of education, specifically FE and teacher educators.

Teachers and Teaching in Vocational and Professional Education introduces a critical understanding of how teachers deliver occupational or vocational courses at various academic levels. Including wider coverage of work-related programmes and based on empirical research, this book uses the term occupation-related to refer to programmes spanning several academic levels and education sectors, including the further and higher education sectors. The book disassociates the English context of work-related studies, where issues of the academic-vocational division and socio-cultural dimensions have hampered critical investigations of this under-researched topic. Also, it offers a conceptual framework from the perspectives of teachers in their teaching and work-related settings derived from the understanding and development of Bernstein’s recontextualization process. Teachers and Teaching in Vocational and Professional Education will be of great interest to academics, researchers and postgraduates who are engaged in the study of education and occupation-related programmes. The programme areas include accounting, dental hygiene, equine studies, fashion and textiles, health and social care, medical training of clinicians and emergency medicine, and travel and tourism.

In recent years, Further Education has reached a crossroads, with questions being asked about its function, aims and focus, as well as querying the role of the FE teacher, the key aspects of the curriculum and which values should inform FE pedagogy. Identity and Resistance in Further Education explores these questions and effectively conveys the sense of uncertainty that those in the field are experiencing today. Connecting Higher Education and FE practitioners and researchers, the book gathers a collection of essays covering a range of topics, including: the journey from student to teacher, critical reflective practice as a way of organising identity, values-based teacher education and policy critique. In keeping with the themes of resistance and creativity, the chapters draw on a wide range of theoretical, as well as literary, perspectives to offer answers. Problematising relationships between the teacher and the institution and the teacher and government, the book argues that the profound challenge to teachers’ values and identities finds its response in a critical collegiality. This book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students engaged in the study of further education, educational policy and teacher education. It should also be essential reading for practitioners and policymakers.

This book explains how education policies offering improved transitions to work and higher-level study can widen the gaps between successful and disadvantaged groups of young people.Centred on an original study of ongoing further education and apprenticeship reforms in England, the book traces the emergence of distinctive patterns of transition that magnify existing societal inequalities. It illustrates the distinction between mainly male ‘technical elites’ on STEM-based courses and the preparation for low-level service roles described as ‘welfare vocationalism’, whilst digital and creative fields ill-suited to industry learning head for a ‘new economy precariat’. Yet the authors argue that social justice can nevertheless be advanced in the spaces between learning and work.The book provides essential insights for academics and postgraduate students researching technical, vocational and higher education. It will also appeal to professionals with interests in contemporary educational policy and emerging practice.

This book explains how education policies offering improved transitions to work and higher-level study can widen the gaps between successful and disadvantaged groups of young people.Centred on an original study of ongoing further education and apprenticeship reforms in England, the book traces the emergence of distinctive patterns of transition that magnify existing societal inequalities. It illustrates the distinction between mainly male ‘technical elites’ on STEM-based courses and the preparation for low-level service roles described as ‘welfare vocationalism’, whilst digital and creative fields ill-suited to industry learning head for a ‘new economy precariat’. Yet the authors argue that social justice can nevertheless be advanced in the spaces between learning and work.The book provides essential insights for academics and postgraduate students researching technical, vocational and higher education. It will also appeal to professionals with interests in contemporary educational policy and emerging practice.

In recent years, Further Education has reached a crossroads, with questions being asked about its function, aims and focus, as well as querying the role of the FE teacher, the key aspects of the curriculum and which values should inform FE pedagogy. Identity and Resistance in Further Education explores these questions and effectively conveys the sense of uncertainty that those in the field are experiencing today. Connecting Higher Education and FE practitioners and researchers, the book gathers a collection of essays covering a range of topics, including: the journey from student to teacher, critical reflective practice as a way of organising identity, values-based teacher education and policy critique. In keeping with the themes of resistance and creativity, the chapters draw on a wide range of theoretical, as well as literary, perspectives to offer answers. Problematising relationships between the teacher and the institution and the teacher and government, the book argues that the profound challenge to teachers’ values and identities finds its response in a critical collegiality. This book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students engaged in the study of further education, educational policy and teacher education. It should also be essential reading for practitioners and policymakers.

Professional Development of Teacher Educators in Further Education critically analyses the specific challenges relating to teacher educators in the English further education (FE), such as the diverse nature of learners and the variety of educational contexts. It focuses on the journeys to becoming teacher educators, their relevant teaching know-how and professional needs.This book combines theoretical frameworks with both qualitative and quantitative data to outline the pathways, professional identities, knowledge, and continuous professional development of teacher educators. This data is used to discuss the four main themes. The first deals with the teacher educators’ initial disciplinary areas, journey-making to be educators, and the current titles/positions. The next one delineates the know-how (knowledge, experiences, capacities and skill sets) to perform as teacher educators. The third one relates to their professional identities and the final topic, their professional requirements as FE teacher educators. Contributing to the field of further and vocational education, this book will be of great interest for researchers, academics, and postgraduate students in the field of education, specifically FE and teacher educators.

This book challenges the economistic neoliberal rationale for vocational education by drawing critically on emancipatory theoretical approaches, especially a body of German theory neglected almost entirely by contemporary accounts. Capitalising on the current under-theorisation of vocational education, this book revisits established perceptions of the role of vocational education under contemporary social, economic and political conditions. The book centres on pre-war and post-1960s emancipatory approaches to vocational education and training (VET), examining the context of their emergence and their application to present-day contexts. Chapters discuss the role of neoliberalism in undermining the educational integrity of VET and other educational spaces, and examine the complex relations between education and skill formation in different societies. Applying its learning to contemporary VET in both the global North and South, this book ultimately provides foundations for critical thinking in vocational spaces. This book will be of interest to scholars, postgraduate students and researchers involved in vocational, technical, professional and adult education, the theory of education, and more broadly the economisation of education under neoliberalism. With potential to reframe debates concerning specific approaches to VET that can be applied in the global South, this book has undoubted international appeal.