Broad, Janet Hamilton (2015) So many worlds, so much to do: Identifying barriers to engagement with continued professional development for teachers in the further education and training sector. London Review of Education, 13 (1). pp. 17-30. ISSN 1474-8460 (doi:10.18546/LRE.13.1.03)

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Abstract

Between 2008 and 2012, teachers in the further education (FE) sector were required by legislation to engage with 30 hours (pro rata) of continued professional development (CPD), and this is reflective of the ways in which, historically, policy interest in FE teachers’ professional development has waxed and waned. Situated within this historical context, this paper, drawing on a study carried out between 2009 and 2010, presents teachers’ perceptions of the ways in which they are restricted from engaging with CPD. Through the application of actor-network theory concepts of multiple worlds and realities, three competing and disjunctured ‘reality networks’ are identified: a) policy reality network; b)organization reality network; and c)teacher/CPD reality network. Structural arrangements and on-going funding contractions for the sector, alongside teachers’ working arrangements, are examined so as to identify whether these create barriers for teachers. It was found that the most significant barrier to engagement with beneficial and meaningful CPD is the result of teachers operating in impoverished and limited teacher/CPD networks. These impoverished networks do not offer teachers the opportunity to forge links with similar subject-specialist teachers, leaving them to develop subject and occupational expertise in isolation.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	©Copyright 2014 Broad. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Professional development; Further education and training sector; Post-compulsory; Actor-network theory; Subject-specific knowledge development; Occupational development
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > School of Education (EDU)
Last Modified:	06 Oct 2021 21:33
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/16865

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