The paper reports on collaborative journal writing and dialogue sustained by two education professionals with a view to engaging in meaningful reflective practice. The transition from journal writing to reporting in this paper was underpinned by knowledge of the place of reflective practice in teacher education and continuous professional development. Knowledge of the limited opportunities and time for meaningful continuous professional development; as experienced across the education sector, also informed a desire to share the writing experience with a view to encouraging other teachers to develop writing communities.As teacher educators, we relate how we came to write together and sustained a dialogue that provided us with newly framed insights in to our professional lives and experiences. Our journalling told our stories and was very much in the spirit of evocative autoethnography. We describe how we naturally included sensory description related to the time and place of writing. We also used more evocative language, including the use of metaphors. Themes of critical reflection, reflexivity, embodied reflection and evocative autoethnography are therefore explored in the light of our writing experience. The journals and the associated dialogue highlight the values of such small and time constrained moments as informal professional development opportunities.
is the Head of Post Compulsory Education working alongside Theresa Loughlin as Head of Lifelong Learning Partnerships in managing Post Compulsory provision and partnership. Victoria teaches on postgraduate provision including the PGCE PCE and the MA in Professional Practice and Lifelong Education. Theresa teaches substantially on the PGCE in PCE and has previously taught on the MA in Professional Practice and Lifelong Education. Sandi Bates is a Senior Lecturer in the Post Compulsory Education team. She has taught across the PGCE in PCE and has been the Course Leader for the last few years. She is one of the Personal Tutors on the PGCE course. Nicola Clarke and Dayna Hale are current and alumni students, both experienced teachers who work within FE settings and who have contributed to the writing of this paper.
Exploring the professionalisation of further education teachers in
EnglandThe paper captures the professionalisation of teachers in the further education sector by shining a light on their everyday struggle to uphold their ethical goals in support of their students in a climate of performative and regulatory expectations. It reports on a small scale qualitative study in which the six participants were either on the Postgraduate Certificate in Post Compulsory Education course (PGCE in PCE) or on the Masters degree in Professional Practice and Lifelong Education (MA PPLE). They were therefore either student teachers or experienced teachers with different lengths of experience. Students were asked to rank order a set of cards and clarify their decisions. Semi-structured interviews were then undertaken in which the participants were asked to bring artefacts of their choice (potentially from their course of study).Reflection points included the construction of self as teacher and the tensions and impact of a range of expectations nationally and locally. Participants shared responses to continuous change in the sector, their institutions and within their practices. All expressed a common and sustained mission to make a difference, no matter how small, to their students' lives.
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