Communities of praxis? Scholarship and practice styles of the HE in FE professional

Do lecturers delivering higher education in further education desire to conduct research?

“…Both Page (1997), and Gale et al (2011) in their individual respective works, reach the same conclusion that lecturers in FECs may lack the necessary skills to undertake research, and that it is for this reason that research is not the norm in FE. However, it is not for this reason alone, that research may not be the norm, it is also because of the large amount of teaching hours that most lecturers find themselves delivering (Parry and Thompson 2002;Young 2002;Harwood and Harwood 2004;Feather 2009Feather , 2010, for example in excess of 30 hours per week some terms (Feather 2009(Feather , 2010).…”

Professionalism: doing a good job!

“…There are too many works to list or cover here, but this subject is addressed by leading authors from a range of different perspectives (see Farrugia 1996;Bayer and Braxton 1998;Clow 2001;Friedson 2001;Nixon 2001;Perkin 2002;Bathmaker and Avis 2005a;Beck and Young 2005;Gleeson, Davies, and Wheeler 2005;Archer 2008;Turner, McKenzie, and Stone 2009;Gale, Turner, and McKenzie 2011).…”

“…However, this changed in April 2008 when the Institute for Learning (IFL) became the official recognised professional body for lecturers teaching in FECs (Feather 2009). This professional body has similar powers as those for law and medicine, and therefore, any lecturer not complying with the ruling that they undertake 30 hours of continuous professional development (CPD) per year (Clancy 2007) may not be allowed to teach until they have amassed the necessary 30 hours and recorded it with the IFL (Heath 2007;IFL 2008;Feather 2009;Gale, Turner, and McKenzie 2011). This trend is further warranted when, as Clancy (2007, 2) writes, 'Like teachers in schools, lecturers in colleges are now required to register with the professional body and face being struck off for failing to uphold a code of behaviours'.…”

“…Archer (2008) appears to be in accord with this view when reflecting on academic authenticity and legitimacy, believing that individuals and groups within departments or institutions may compete to ensure that their specific needs, 'interests, characteristics and identities are accorded recognition and value' (Archer 2008, 386). This becomes ubiquitous when Gale, Turner, and McKenzie (2011) argue that:…”

“…As such, groups may have power to influence, or even reverse, managerial decisions due to the strength of the communities of practice (Clegg 2008;Nagy and Burch 2009;Feather 2011a;Gale, Turner, and McKenzie 2011), or agency (Archer 2000) that may be found in any organisation and its different departments. Therefore, being part of a community of practice and having agency (power to control certain aspects of one's work through numbers) may enable these groups to negotiate their professional status.…”