Past event
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Teacher education in UK higher education (HE) exists in a contested and ambiguous space. England, perhaps, has experienced the strongest pull away from university-led Initial Teacher Education (ITE), and pre-service education has been largely school-based here since 1992 (Ellis, 2010), with an evolving inspection framework which prioritises statistical data over other indicators of quality. Universities themselves have come under significant scrutiny in terms of neo-liberal accountability measures, formalised in the 2016 White Paper, Higher Education: Success as a Knowledge Economy. Recent policy changes in England (DfE 2021) leave HE Teacher Education (TE) under sustained threat while continued attempts to commercialise ITE in other parts of the UK reflect challenges to the combined university and school-based model more generally.
Research was initiated by members of Universities’ Council for the Education of Teachers (UCET) to develop a stronger understanding of the ways in which TE (as a sub‐discipline of Education) could claim a vital internal contribution to HE institutions in the UK. For example, as well as generating revenue, Teacher Education is vital in community engagement and partnerships, and could facilitate widening participation, access and employability, offers contemporary expertise in improving teaching, learning and assessment and might usefully contribute to university educators’ professional development and leadership capacity. Teacher educators are experts in supporting professional and practitioner learning, reflection and development, in developing conducive learning environments and cultures and in pedagogy, curriculum development and assessment. This raises the question: how is this expertise taken up within the wider HE institution? Where many education departments have been subsumed into larger units through restructuring, is this in danger of masking knowledge, skills and expertise that could be valuably deployed within the sector?
This discussion paper reports on the initial stage of data gathering involving a qualitative survey of selected teacher educators, which explored the contribution that is made by education departments to the strategic aims of their institutions. It is located in the domains of a) research into teacher education where Ellis et al (2020) have noted the innovations of teacher educators prompted by the urgency of the pandemic, and b) higher education scholarship (for example Johannes and Menter (2021) has explored the impact of HE teaching as a lever for social change). The presentation will allow time to invite participants to contribute their own experiences and views, posing critical questions and challenges for discussion arising from the initial research data in the chat.
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Senior Lecturer - Postgraduate Provision at University of Wolverhampton
Lizana Oberholzer is a senior lecturer in teacher education and programme lead for the University of Wolverhampton's International MA in Education, as well as the Early Careers Framework and National Professional Qualifications for school...
Professor of Education at Cardiff Metropolitan University
Gary Beauchamp is Professor of Education in the School of Education and Social Policy at Cardiff Metropolitan University. Gary is Chair of Governors for Mount Stuart Primary School. He was Director of Research from 2009-2020. Gary worked for many...
Senior Lecturer at University of Edinburgh
Having worked as an English teacher and as a primary teacher, I draw on substantial experience in schools to inform my teaching. I am also passionate about educational research and the ways in which research can help inform teaching and learning...
Lecturer in Education at Ulster University
Mairead is the Northern Ireland Rep for the BERA Teacher Education SIG.
Higher Education Lecturer/Researcher at Canterbury Christ Church University
Judy Durrant teaches, supervises and examines across a range of postgraduate programmes at Canterbury Christ Church University and chairs the Research Ethics Committee for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Education. Over more than two decades...
Associate Professor of Education at Northumbria University
Dr David Littlefair is an Associate Professor of Education in the Department of Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing at Northumbria University in Newcastle, England, UK. He specialises in continuing professional development (CPD)...
MA Education Programme Leader at Edge Hill University
Dr Christine Lewis is the MA Education Programme Leader at Edge Hill University. Her PhD study used autoethnography a critically reflexive methodology which has directly enriched her expertise in research methods and the reflective writing...
Lecturer at University of Dundee
Richard Holme is a Reader in Education Studies at the University of Dundee. His areas of specialism include primary education, STEM subjects, and curriculum innovation. Richard’s main area of research interest is teacher professional learning...
Professor of Education at Northumbria University
Dr Elizabeth Hoult is Professor of Education at Northumbria University. Here interests include resilience in education, adult and community education as ways of nurturing hopeful futures and the arts and humanities methodologies in Education,...
Research Fellow at Northumbria University
Matthew Martinez is a Research Fellow at Northumbria University, where they are involved in a research project focussed on the current climate for teacher education within higher education and how this sub-discipline is able to remain resilient...
This SIG covers research in initial teacher education, continuing professional development and teachers’ careers.
Online registration for this event has now closed, please email events@bera.ac.uk to register. #BERA_TED @BERANews Teaching controversial issues in the classroom is now more urgent and fraught...
The EdD has become increasingly popular as the route to a doctorate for the educational professional. When we embarked on our own EdDs some years ago there were not too many to choose from; now...
The blog is open to anyone to make a submission. The aim is to stimulate debate and thus differences of opinion will be aired. However, all submissions must have some link to evidence rather than...