Culture clash: mentoring student Literacy educators in a marketised and instrumentalist further education policyscape

Abstract

At the centre of the study on which this article is based, there is a sense of cultural collision. While from a global perspective, Literacy education has an exciting and radical pedigree, the teaching of Literacy in England has been harnessed to an explicitly instrumentalist policy agenda since the introduction of the Adult Literacy Core Curriculum in 2001. This paper sets out to explore the impact of this policyscape on a specific area: the mentoring of Literacy student teachers. The study draws on a qualitative data set from a series of interviews with Literacy mentors from different FE colleges in the English West Midlands. The study found that Literacy mentors are able to promote the holistic approaches that are fundamental to established Literacy pedagogy but that institutional and cultural factors can militate against this in decisive ways. The paper concludes that whilst Literacy mentors have a significant role to play in the education of new Literacy teachers, the motivations and values associated with Literacy mentoring seem to jar in many cases with the marketised cultures in which they operate.

‘Learner-centred’ assessment policies in further education: putting teachers’ time under pressure

“…Such regimes have blurred the distinction between the professional and manager allowing managerialism to dominate and drive sector thinking (Plowright and Barr, 2012). This has been exacerbated by the rhetoric of competitiveness which dominates the post-compulsory sector (Avis, 2007), and has intensified to the extent that it is not only colleges which are in competition with each other, but even the departments within them (Garbett et al, 2013). Performative regimes and audit cultures not only affect teachers' sense of professional identity, but also add to their daily workload by subjecting them to an incessant stream of 'information lint' (Eriksen 2001, viii) -for example, target grades, progress grades and attendance information -which demand teacher response and fill any available gaps in the college day.…”

Of cultural dissonance: the UK’s adult literacy policies and the creation of democratic learning spaces

“…In essence, the aftermath of the recommendations of the Moser committee was the introduction of a dictatorial regime which effectively dis-empowered both practitioners and learners. Emphasising the instrumentalist ethos that the Moser -induced adult literacy policy brought with it, Garbett, Orrock, and Smith (2013) noted:…”