Session 4 - DPP

Managerialism and Professionalism – A UCU critique

The union for education professionals

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Instructions for Week 4 – Distance Session

Work your way through this Ppt reflecting on your responses to the questions.

Watch excerpts of the video under week 4 DPP on moodle: UCU – John Giddins. (Timings of recommended excerpts in red on powerpoint slides).

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To do tonight…..

Critique views of professionalism in FE over the last 20 years or so.

Considering:• Incorporation• 2007 legislation • Changing status of FE teachers• Managerialism • Lingfield Review and the future

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The White Paper…..March 2006Further Education: Raising Skills, Improving Life Chances

Legislation requiring from Sept 2007New teachers attain• Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) status • PTLLS, CTLLS and DLLS.All teachers• Membership of the ifL (180,000 members by Jan2009)• min 30 hours of CPD a year, (pro-rota p/t)• Maintain portfolio of CPD that can be audited• Conform to a code of conduct – ifL can withdraw

license to teach

Question: Is this legislation…1. a necessary support for professionalism in the sector?2. an unnecessary burden on the sector?

(0-3.30)

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Reasons for the Regulations and Requirements

To “underpin the aim of having a qualified and professional workforce that is committed to continuing professional development”

and

“ as part of the policy to professionialise the FE workforce”

Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.5

Common characteristics of a profession

• Regulated entry

• Qualifications framework

• Defined role boundaries

• Measurable skills and professional knowledge

• Code of conduct and/or ethics

• Commitment to post-qualification development

• Professional independence6

Professionalism and Status

Pre-Incorporation (1993)

FE teachers had a status which was at least equal to and often greater than school teachers.

Questions

1. How has the status of FE teachers changed?

2. What are the reasons for the change?

6.10 -10.35

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Drivers of change – a little history• Incorporation of FE colleges 1993, semi-privatisation.• FEFC and new funding mechanisms. • Business Governors and business ethics.• Hegemony of business values and language.

“‘lecturer’ is a very seventies term and would in the future be replaced by the title of Learning Consultant” Martin Jenkins CEO Halton College.

• Destruction of FE conditions of service. Hours, pay, holidays.

• De-professionalisation ,casualisation and agencies.• Public bad – private good.• Entrepreneurialism.• Dodgy practices, corruption, scandal, FOFO, YOYO.

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What does Lingfield say about conditions of service?

Pay:“…the average salaries of FE staff, relative to their counterparts in schools and universities, appear to have declined substantially over time, and particularly sharply in the last decade. It must be a commonsense conclusion that this would have an impact on FE lecturers’ sense of professional self-worth…” (p32)

1974 10-15% more than school teachers20% less than university lecturers

2011 6-8% less than school teachers27% less than university teachers

2001-2011 School and university teachers salaries increased by 53%, FE teachers, 27% increase.

FE and the New Managerialism. (Randle and Brady 1997)

Professional Paradigm Managerial Paradigm

Lecturers stressed:The primacy of student learning and the teaching process.

Managerialism stressed:The primacy of student throughput and income generation.

Loyalty to students and colleagues. Loyalty to the organisation and its new mission statement.

That lecturers were funds of expertise and knowledge.

That lecturers were “flexible facilitators”.

That resources should be deployed on the basis of educational need. A social dimension to educational provision.

That resources should be deployed on the basis of market demand and income generation.

Professional autonomy. Line management using performance indicators such as student attendance, retention and achievement.

Question: How is the tension between these paradigms manifest in your workplaces?

(38.10 – 46.42)

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A Definition

Managerialism • organisations have more similarities than

differences• performance of all organisations can be

optimised by the application of generic management skills and theory.

• there is little difference in the skills required to run a college, an estate agency or a factory.

• experience and skills pertinent to an organisation's core business are considered secondary.

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Lingfield Review of Professionalism in

FE (2012)Recommendations…Repeal 2007 legislation• IfL membership not required• 30 hours CPD not required• Teaching qualifications at the discretion of

employersFuture Developments• New teacher qualifications• Formation of FE Guild

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What we said we would do tonight…..Critique views of professionalism in FE over the last 20 years or so.

Considering• Incorporation• 2007 legislation • Changing status of FE teachers• Managerialism • Lingfield Review and the future

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Homework – Read these they key document they should inform your essay. On moddle or link here.

– “Towards a UCU policy on Professionalism”http://www.ucu.org.uk/media/pdf/q/j/Towards_a_UCU_Policy_on_Professionalism_Full_Text.pdf

- “Professionialism in Further Education” Lingfield Final Report

http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/further-education-skills/docs/p/12-1198-professionalism-in-further-education-final

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