Further Education and Teacher Professionalization in the UK

Introduction: Teaching the Teachers

Teaching primary and secondary school children is one of the most challenging careers in existence. One of the most significant challenges of the profession is that the classroom teacher — who spends her or his days surrounded by children or adolescents — can find the job supremely isolating. Inspired each day to do the best she can for her students, the classroom teacher can sometimes feel that she is struggling entirely on her own, forced to reinvent every pedagogical wheel without assistance.

This feeling of isolation is likely to be exacerbated by at least two factors. The first is that the profession of education, like all human endeavors, is subject to fads and fashions. The practical effect of this is that each new generation of teachers — and in fact each new cohort of teachers — enters the job with new ideas about best practices for the profession. This constant churn of ideas, even when motivated by the best of intentions and even when new techniques genuinely are better at conveying knowledge to the widest possible range of students, can leave even only slightly senior teachers feeling like strangers in their own profession.

The second factor that often aggravates the sense of isolation affecting teachers at all career stages is that the parents of so many students are deeply disengaged from the education of their own children. Teachers are — one can only hope — generally happy to spend a large percentage of their professional lives in the company of young people. This does not mean, however, that they do not also need connections with other adults in order to do their jobs as efficiently as possible. The lack of parental support for teachers' hard work is one of the reasons many teachers cite for leaving the profession. Especially for teachers who do not feel that their school administrators are supportive, the lack of connection with and support from students' families may prove to be a devastating feature of their jobs.

The difficulty of teacher retention is a well-recognized problem — acknowledged by school administrators, teachers themselves, teacher-training program designers, and labor unions alike. Ways to retain good teachers, and ways to improve all teachers so that retaining them is in the best interest of students, have been debated, negotiated, and revisited repeatedly since teaching began to be organized into its modern professional form.

But, as is true of the reforms that constantly reshape what happens in the classroom itself, ideas about how best to support teachers in their professional choices and goals are also in constant flux. This should not be a surprise. Teaching is a complex, demanding profession, and thus providing support for teachers must also necessarily be complex and demanding on those who teach the teachers. Furthermore, while some aspects of teaching have been constant since at least the time of Socrates, other aspects of the profession have seen — and continue to see — rapid change. The demographics of British society have changed dramatically over the past several decades. As the student body has become more diverse, the task of teaching has become more demanding, and thus greater demands must be made on those whose job it is to keep teachers engaged in and rewarded by their positions.^[1]

Even as student bodies have become more diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, religion, and country of origin, they have also become more differentiated in terms of learning style.^[2] Far more children and adolescents are now diagnosed with learning disabilities and communicative disabilities such as autism. There are also increasing numbers of students with physical challenges that require additional work on the part of teachers, who must now perform tasks such as injecting insulin for children with diabetes.

Challenges such as working with students with autism are substantial. Even in the absence of any other difficulty during the day, the challenges that a child with autism can pose may make any teacher — from novice to veteran — feel at least somewhat lost in their own profession. Even as teachers give their students a sense of security and help them find a healthy direction for their lives, the teachers themselves may feel that they are becoming more and more adrift with each passing day.

Before proceeding, it is worth noting that in the field of education — as is true of all human endeavors — nothing occurs in isolation. Changes in further education programs and requirements for teachers are aligned with, and arise from the same political and cultural wellspring as, pushes to redefine what constitutes a competent or qualified teacher.

Because these different changes in the teaching profession are intermingled with each other both in terms of formal political policy and in terms of what one might simply call the overall political zeitgeist, this paper examines both further education and changes in licensure together, since the two cannot be meaningfully examined in isolation from each other.

Guidance and Support for the Teaching Profession

How can teachers be best supported — not only to withstand the challenges and frictions of their profession but in fact to embrace each new school year with enthusiasm and even joy? The current thinking on the issue within the teaching profession in the United Kingdom is that there are at least two distinct needs that must be met for teachers to do their best work on a consistent basis. First, teachers need access to ever-current information on the latest research and program developments in pedagogy. Second, teachers must be provided with a mechanism that can offer what might be termed — with no attempt to diminish its serious importance — emotional support.

A large body of psychological research demonstrates that one of the most stressful aspects of human experience is isolation: the feeling that one is utterly alone in whatever endeavor one is pursuing. Well-planned and intelligently instituted programs for continuing teacher education can help support a teacher throughout the entire course of her career, not only exposing her to the most current research and creativity within the field of education but also allowing her to feel a continuous connection to others in the field.^[3]

This paper examines the state of further education in the United Kingdom as it applies to the field of teacher education. After briefly exploring the history of further education programs in the United Kingdom and how they relate to the field of education in particular, the paper goes on to examine the key concepts in the field at present. The particular focus of this research is on the ways in which intelligently designed further education programs can support a diverse and egalitarian teaching workforce capable of embracing and supporting a diverse student body.

It is useful to begin an examination of further education within the field of teacher training with a broader look at the history of further education — which is at times also called "continuing education," using the American term for the analogous process — for professionals in the United Kingdom. All further education is post-compulsory education in the United Kingdom: it always follows the secondary education that all children are required to obtain. It is entirely distinct, in terms of its design, purpose, and goals, from education received in a university program. It is aimed at professionals who wish both to maintain the highest levels of skill within their chosen career and who require further education courses to maintain the currency of a license or certificate. There are different levels of further education programs, ranging from basic training in a number of different fields to a Higher National Diploma (which can be used as a qualification for entrance into a British university and may be considered equivalent to the first two years of a university study plan) or a Foundation Degree, which is equivalent in status to a Higher National Diploma but is assessed for students in vocational educational programs.

A distinction is made within the educational and professional worlds between further education programs and higher education. Higher education programs are based in distinct institutions such as universities — although this is becoming somewhat less the case than it was traditionally, as more and more higher-education institutions provide "virtual university" programs. In summary: further education as currently configured in the United Kingdom is provided for people over the age of sixteen who are enrolled in non-university post-secondary education.

Although further education courses can be offered at traditional universities, they are generally taught through colleges that serve exclusively as venues for further education. These institutions are sometimes called "community colleges" after the analogous American institutions — though American community colleges offer both post-secondary education and further or continuing education courses. Other institutions that offer further education courses may provide a variety of work-based learning classes, while adult and community learning campuses also frequently offer further education coursework.

As is appropriate — and indeed perhaps necessary — for further education programs designed to improve the skills of a profession as important as teaching (as well as other professions such as social work, medicine, or law), there is an agency tasked with ensuring that teacher further education aligns with national goals for the profession's standards. The Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS, formerly titled the "Quality Improvement Agency and Centre for Excellence in Leadership") has the authority and responsibility to develop "excellent and sustainable" further education programs and courses that apply to all teachers. In general, the goals of the LSIS include instilling in every teacher in the United Kingdom a desire to achieve and maintain excellence.

Crucially, the goal of the LSIS and further education teacher programs is not simply aimed at "improving" or changing individual teachers, but at driving improvement across the entire learning and skills sector. Its aim is to accelerate the drive for excellence and, working in partnership with all parts of the sector, to build on all institutions in society that can support the educational process. This includes schools themselves, of course, but also any other public and private institutions in the United Kingdom that can be recruited to support teachers, students, and the nation's commitment to educating each new generation of students to meet their responsibilities as both citizens and workers.

Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills

Beginning in September 2007, an important change to further education for teachers was instituted. From this point on, all teachers working within any further education program must be designated as having achieved "professional status." This professional status is more formally designated as Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills, or QTLS. This qualification process is divided into different stages, beginning with a "passport to teaching" module. From there, the program progresses to the full teacher training segment. This second stage may take a teacher up to five years to complete. It includes both skills acquired through instruction and skills acquired through practice. Each year of this second phase has as one of its central requirements thirty hours of continuous professional development. A teacher who is recognized as being capable of providing consistent, inspiring education to the entire diverse array of his or her students is awarded the designation of Training Quality Standard.

The degree to which these new regulations affected the composition of the British teaching force can be assessed, at least in some measure, from the following statistics:

The GTC summarizes the ways in which this ongoing process of improving support for and ongoing education of teachers — through increased use of both licensing requirements and further education — operates as follows:

"[Teachers'] provisional registration means that they are accountable to the profession and the public for their conduct and practice standards alongside their fully registered colleagues with qualified teacher status (QTS). Teaching in England is also increasingly attracting qualified professionals from abroad and teachers who qualified outside the European Economic Area (EEA) can take a variety of courses that lead to QTS."^[5]

It is important to clarify that the requirement that teachers meet higher standards to be qualified is, in some measure, distinct from the changes in further education for teachers: they are different formal processes occurring at different points in a teaching career. However, more importantly, both are part of the same political process aimed at increasing the quality of education offered through the United Kingdom's publicly funded schools.

Lifelong Learning UK provides oversight for the teachers who provide pedagogical support as instructors in teacher further education. Further education teachers are affiliated with the University and College Union and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers. Further education teachers employed by sixth-form colleges, schools, or secondary schools are also eligible to join the teaching unions attached to other secondary schools. These unions provide support for teachers throughout the course of their professional lives.

As is true of many aspects of British public life, more than one agency has oversight and input into the learning and skills sector. Beginning in June 2009, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills also gained some authority over the field of further education. This department also provides oversight for prison education and workplace education, along with several other categories of non-school, non-university training and education.

This body of recent reforms to further education across the entire sector has included as a central concept the institution of the status of Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills.^[6] Before a teacher can be recognized as qualified under this framework, the teaching candidate must first have successfully completed a teacher training course approved by Lifelong Learning UK. After completing this course, the teacher registers with the Institute for Learning.

The Institute for Learning, which is responsible for assembling and maintaining a list of all accredited teachers, then awards a "license to practice." However, this is not the end of the process. After receiving this license to practice, the teacher must undergo annual Continuing Professional Development.

The following provides an overview of the ways in which teachers are now certified as fully qualified:

Teachers in full teaching roles to hold appropriate qualifications and QTLS

5.—(1) Subject to the following paragraphs, no person may be employed in a full teaching role unless that person—

(a) holds the Diploma in Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector at Level 5 or above approved by the Secretary of State, or its equivalent; and

(b) holds a specialist's subject qualification approved by the Secretary of State, where the Secretary of State has decided that such a qualification is necessary, or its equivalent.

(c) has completed such programme to the satisfaction of the IfL or has obtained such award as may be approved by the Secretary of State, for the purposes of demonstrating that a person has the necessary literacy, numeracy and information and communications technology skills to teach;

(d) has completed, to the satisfaction of the IfL, a process of professional formation; and

(e) holds QTLS status.^[7]

Conclusion

How does one ensure that teachers are themselves well taught? This question has proven challenging to every form of education that has ever existed, but it has grown increasingly complicated because the brief that public education now holds has grown far broader. Schools are no longer — and have not been for quite some time — simply designed to teach the classics to upper-class youth who will take over the reins of the state and the church from their fathers.

As student bodies have become more diverse and the country these children are growing up in has also become more diverse, education has had to change to reflect the nation's changing needs. Schools are also required to provide the skills needed to help their students make their way through a world in which the technical requirements for ordinary citizens increase yearly.

The world for which today's teachers are preparing today's students may be so different from the world we now inhabit — because of the effects of climate change and other forces — that in addition to providing a wide range of specific skills to their students, teachers must also be able to instill the ability to adapt to dramatic and fast-paced change. Today's schools must remember the fundamental truth of evolution: more than intelligence, more than strength, more than the ability to produce numerous offspring, the most important attribute for evolutionary success is the ability to adapt to change.

This fact — that today's educators must prepare their students for a world whose details none of us yet knows — requires that all stakeholders in the process of education in the United Kingdom be able to balance the need for standardization and professionalization of teachers with sufficient flexibility to prepare their students for a changing world.

This balance of raising standards while avoiding ossification of the educational system is grounded in the importance of further education for teachers. Further education allows teachers access not only to the latest research about pedagogy itself — and keeps them current with any governmental changes relevant to their professional lives — but also gives them access to the latest research on the world at large.

There is a great deal of emphasis in teacher education and assessment on the skills that teachers should have, and this is both appropriate and necessary. However, the knowledge that teachers possess is also important: knowledge about the science behind solar cell batteries, for example, is now something that secondary teachers should be at least passingly familiar with. Further education helps keep both teachers' skills and teachers' knowledge current. As such, it is a linchpin of the profession.