How to avoid Existential Doubt: Research Activity and Professional Practice

Norman CrowtherNational Official Post 16 Education

My aims today...

• We need to better conceptualise the sector• We need to understand the real crisis is - and

always has been - practitioner identity, status and practice.

• We could make a difference by developing colleges as ‘expansive learning environments’.

• Research activity is crucial to these changing practices.

In what ways does this movie clip remind you of working in FE?

• https://youtu.be/hQCG2AwzTxA

• ‘…our desire to belong and to believe that the world is an ordered, meaningful reality renders us susceptible to social influence. By conforming to group norms we affirm membership and meaning and, in turn, restrain existential doubt.’

Is working in FE like being on a Campsite? Factory? Bank? Cruise ship? What’s it like?

There are Standards of course…

Where would I find these in your college?

Identity and Values?

Knowledge/ Shared vocabulary and

concerns?

ResourcesAnd

Skills?

Can research enhance professionalism?

• The Standards assume communities of practice in which expertise is shared, observed, discussed and acknowledged.

• Communities of practice provide a sense of belonging (identity), shared resources, shared vocabulary and common concerns (research = condition of success).

• Such communities can help overcome existential doubt and be ‘expansive learning environments’

Community of Practice elements transposed onto the Professional Standards

Identity and Values

Knowledge andShared

vocabulary and Concerns

ResourcesAnd Skills

The Opportunity…

‘We speak of expansive learning, or third order learning, when a community of practice begins to analyse and transform itself. Such expansive learning is not any more limited to pre-defined contents and tasks. Rather it is a long-term process of re-defining the objects, tools and social structures of the workplace.’

(Engestrom q in Fuller and Unwin)

The Difficulty…

‘ …approaches (expansive or restrictive) are the product of deeper historical, socio-cultural, organisational and economic processes which it is hard for an externally conceived, and essentially bolt-on intervention, to penetrate.’ (Fuller and Unwin)

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What happens in a Restrictive model of CPD?• Focus on job role and tasks in hand• Skills developed solely related to job• CPD imposed as institutionally needed• No wider experiences of other areas• No ‘credible’ claim for CPD or legitimate

appeals against decisions• Little innovation• Ad hoc (at best) research and development

A Restrictive Model of CPD

College

Personal development?

Role

CPD

An Expansive Model of CPD

• Visible and acknowledged access to CPD• Defined and shared opportunities• Legitimate and transparent protocols• Sustainable structures convergent with

communities of practice• Consultative protocols for research and

development

Expansive Model of CPD

Participation

Personal developmentInstitutional arrangements

CPD

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My view

– Professionalism is conceptualised within a ‘strategic action field’ (when agents seek dominance or influence over social spaces)

– A logic of incorporation (not ‘autonomy’) initiated by the State (1993) has had detrimental impact on the FE workforce causing ‘existential doubt’

– Incorporation prioritised financial management, efficiency, and outcomes. It left too many ‘unorganised social spaces’ that were open to interpretation or interference: research, professionalism, even curriculum and student composition.

Taking Ownership of Your CPD in FE

• The ATL Factsheet describes a space that you can develop within your college.

• It is a space for FE professionals - not SMT, managers, trade unions, or any other interests: but their support will help!

• It can become a community of practice for practitioners to engage with managers, trade unions, ETF, Unionlearn and other communities and research networks.