Beyond performativity: reflections on activist professionalism and the labour process in further education

The paper examines the argument that the contradictions of performativity provide the context in which new forms of professionalism can develop. English further education is used to explore these questions. The paper addresses four issues. It seeks to locate the discussion within the period immediately following the incorporation of colleges of further education in 1993, when colleges of further education were removed from local authority control and placed under aegis of the Further Education Funding Council. This is followed by an examination of changes to the management regime following incorporation. It considers suggestions that bullying forms of management have been superseded and that there has been some feminization of senior management. This discussion is set alongside one addressing the socio‐economic context as well as hegemonic understandings of the economy. The final part of the paper examines claims made for the development of an ‘activist’ or transformative professionalism. However the key difficulty with these potentially progressive arguments is that analyses operate at the level of ideology accepting the way in which the knowledge economy is constructed thereby failing to seriously consider and work through the patterns of antagonistic relations that exist within capitalism. In a similar manner they play down education as site of struggle. Whilst the paper is orientated towards English further education the argument has a wider purchase, applying to education in particular and the welfare state in general.     

音乐教师教育专业化存在的问题与对策研究

近百年来,我国音乐教师教育在办学机构、政策法规、课程设置等方面做了大量的基础性工作,但距离专业化标准要求还有很大差距。如办学单位专业水准低、法规建设不够健全、课程设置不够合理等。重新评估音乐教师教育办学单位、继续建立健全音乐教师教育法规、尽快全面实施科学合理的课程方案等,是加快我国音乐教师教育专业化进程、提高其专业化水平的当务之急。     

A contested profession: employability,performativity and professionalism in Irish further education

Further education typically represents the vocational, technical and practice-based forms of education, but this is now being repositioned in a neo-liberal era that is driving a performance-based and market-orientated vision of education in the Republic of Ireland and elsewhere. The implacable drive of neo-liberal economics in everyday practice is evident in the current economic and training discourses of further education, which aim to upgrade the employability of low-skilled and marginalised sectors of the population. The article provides an overview of shifts in educational policy and practices that align Irish further education with what has occurred in the UK and elsewhere through processes of professionalisation and performativity. Analysis of the potential impact on notions of professional identity in the sector helps to articulate the principles, pedagogies and philosophies that will be vital when contesting the performance cultures of New Managerialism that seem likely to ensue. We explore the implications in terms of the policy discourses, organisational structure and professional practices of further education. We contend that changes in these areas have profound impacts on the learning and knowledge base of further education, constraining its social justice and transformative capacity for the learners at the heart of further education.     

Mature and younger students' reasons for making the transition from further education into higher education

This paper reviews findings from a longitudinal study of students making the transition from FE to an ancient university. This paper compares the younger and older students' reasons for higher education study. Our analysis of the quantitative data suggests that the older students had different reasons for entering university. We use the qualitative data to investigate the meanings participants attributed to higher education study in order to make sense of the patterns in the quantitative data, drawing on Wenger's perspectives on identity development as encompassing participants' trajectories in relation to communities of practice. The findings show a positive picture of the motivations of the whole cohort but the mature students seemed to have a particularly rich understanding of the meaning and relevance of their studies. The study therefore has implications for policy-makers and teachers as they seek to make use of the positive aspects of greater diversity.     

论职业学校教育的高延

随着我国教育重心的整体高移，职业学校教育也应当向高层次延伸，这是建立、健全职业教育体系的需要，是改革传统教育体系、建立现代教育体系的需要，也是我国经济与社会发展的需要。实现职业学校教育的高延，需要社会各方面的参与，需要人力、物力、资金的投入，也需要教育结构的调整和教育资源的优化配置与重新组合，并实现初、中、高各层次职业学校教育之间的贯通和对接，还需要相应的学校体系和考试选拔制度的改革。     

积极推进以提高文化素养为核心的大学教师的继续教育

随着高等教育的改革与发展以及高等学校素质教育的深入开展,如何通过继续教育全面提高广大教师的文化素养已是摆在我们面前的一项迫切任务。说到继续教育,大家首先想到的是我们大学为社会各方面的在职人员提供的一种再教育形式,说到终身学习则更多的考虑是要为社会各方面的人士提供学习的机会,在这里大学和大学的教师更多地体现为教育者的责任和义务。然而,教育者首先应受教育,教学者仍要再学习,这是否应成为继续教育或终身教育的重要方面甚至是最重要的方面呢?我想结论应该是肯定的,但这一点往往被忽视了。要充分看到当前我们教师队伍中相…     

《学记》中教师专业化思想探微

《学记》作为我国先秦儒家教育思想的总结,是中国教育史上最早较系统地论述教育理论的专著,其中对教师专业建设作了详尽的论述。用历史的视角解读《学记》中对当今教师专业化发展的积极资源,对努力实现有效的教育建构,促进我国教师专业化发展有很重要的现实意义。     

论大学生敬业精神的培养

敬业精神是做好本职工作的重要前提和可靠保障,当前用人单位对大学生的敬业精神提出了更高要求,而敬业精神的缺失成为制约当代大学生就业的瓶颈之一,如何通过社会熏陶、学校教育、大学生自身的修养等多种途径,培育时代所需的可用之才,是我们面临的一项重要任务.     

论教师专业性的提升

讨论教师专业性的提升,必须对教师专业性的概念进行澄清。对理想型、社会建构型、行动型等各种关于教师专业性认知取向的分析表明,必须对教师专业性议题进行批判性反思,找出各种束缚教师主体性发挥的制度性和意识形态上的因素,才能确定教师专业性提升的起点和方向。     

中师物理教师继续教育刍议

社会的发展要求教师不断提高自身素质,本对中师物理教师继续教育的课程设置及其方式等问题作了探讨。     

The silencing of the knowledge-base in early childhood education and care professionalism

It is widely accepted that the early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce is central to the quality of services. Modernist constructs of quality signal the importance of qualifications for quality, but the preoccupation with qualification levels silences questions about the knowledge required of ECEC professionals. Postmodern perspectives have opened up debates on understandings of professionalism and given voice to those who work in ECEC. However, sociological perspectives of knowledge challenge postmodernism as either creating a dichotomy between modernist technocratic models of professionalism and the ethical models implicated in postmodernism or at worst presenting knowledge as non-existent. Adopting a sociological perspective of knowledge moves away from the dichotomy, enabling a critical consideration of what is the knowledge-base for ECEC, how it is formed, legitimised and applied. Drawing on Bernstein contributes to the debates on professionalism through providing a model for the ECEC knowledge-base that identifies multiple forms of knowledge, representing both theoretical and experiential knowledge. Theoretical knowledge has strong boundaries that provides legitimacy. However, whilst the social origins of experiential knowledge offers legitimacy, it requires greater articulation and scrutiny.     

Bridging further education and higher education in the formation of spiritual directors

This article examines those aspects of curriculum relating to programmes that have developed across the further and higher education divide. It analyses one particular spiritual direction formation programme that has transitioned from a vocational training programme in the further education mode to a post-graduate academic programme in a higher education context. In identifying the core elements of this formation programme, it suggests several complementary educational approaches that resonate with the formation approach within academic contexts and examines whether these approaches adequately address the breadth of learning styles and relational aspects of learning that contribute to effective pedagogical approaches. The article recommends further research to assess the relevance of curriculum design to guidelines and standards demanded of both the further and higher education sectors.     

‘Bowing from the heart’: An investigation into discourses of professionalism and the work of caring for students in further education

Since their incorporation in 1993, further education (FE) colleges in England have been responsible for their own staffing and, faced with funding constraints as well as recruitment and retention targets, some have introduced a new category of staff referred to here as ‘learning support workers’ (LSWs). Though their employment conditions and specific duties vary considerably, LSWs' work often includes providing individual care for students. In this small‐scale study, using semi‐structured interviews, the perceptions of some teachers and LSWs about the nature of their relationships with each other and with students are investigated. The study is set broadly in the context of debates about the impact of public sector reform on FE colleges and teachers. A discourse analysis approach is adopted in discussion of the data. The authors conclude that although they are differently positioned in relation to traditional discourses of professionalism, both teachers and LSWs are perceived to be carrying out what Hochschild termed ‘emotional labour’. The contradictory nature of emotional labour is also highlighted. Some of the implications of employing a new group of workers in FE are discussed.     

素质教育与创新教育

本从社会发展和教育自身发展的历史必然出发，分析了实施素质教育的必要性，从不同侧面阐述了创新教育作为素质教育核心目标的重要意义。在反思传统的教育模式的基础上，提出要进一步转变教育思想，增强创新意识，树立新的知识教育观。     

女性就业与女性继续教育

我国女性就业领域广,但就业率相对较低,就业质量较差。在经济结构调整、知识经济已见端倪之时,妇女下岗就多,再就业难度大。其主要原因在于女性本身素质及社会性别因素的影响。知识经济给女性就业带来了前所未有的机遇,女性要想在就业竞争中占优势,就必须接受继续教育。但是女性继续教育又受其自身心理障碍的影响。因此,女性必须转变传统观念,克服继续障碍,接受继续教育,从而提高就业率及就业质量。