Changing face of teaching profession exposed in new book

Current debates and critical issues in the teaching profession are discussed in a new book written by an Edge Hill University lecturer.

Contemporary Issues in Lifelong Learning is the latest published work from Vicky Duckworth, who is the University's course leader in Post Compulsory Education Teaching (PCET), together with Jonathan Tummons from Teeside University.

The authors examine significant issues in the lifelong learning sector today, including the employability agenda, inclusive practice, embedding functional skills, the curriculum in the industry and research-led teaching. They cover practical strategies and reflective tasks that encourage readers to become critical, questioning practitioners.

"When we took our first steps as teachers," said Vicky, "what might be termed the professional landscape of the further and adult education sectors looked very different to how it is today. A variety of structures and organisations have grown up that all have a significant impact on the daily working lives of teachers in the sector. Professional qualifications are now mandatory and are significantly more rigorous and academically demanding than their counterparts from 10 or more years ago. The relatively soft touch of an inspection from the Adult Learning Inspectorate has gone and Ofsted are now a common feature of life in schools, colleges and adult education centres. A professional body, the Institute for Learning, has also been established for all practitioners in the post-compulsory sector.

"Being a teacher in further or adult education has changed. Further education colleges, always richly diverse, are now busier than ever as a result of significant growth in further and higher education and the changing the nature of the student population. Adult education classes, so long a refuge from managerial excess and needless paperwork, has now seen the introduction of RARPA, an assessment tool of debatable validity and reliability, but one that satisfies the requirements of funding bodies. Recreational classes have been all but lost, despite the work of organisations such as Campaigning Alliance for Lifelong Learning. The emphasis of successive governments of all hues has moved entirely towards a model of provision that sees education as being solely about economic productivity, rather than somehow enriching the lives and societies around us.

"One of the problems with working in a culture such as this is that it leaves little room to think and breathe. The working lives of teachers are so busy, with so little time to pause, that broader issues like these are rarely aired. And this is something that we address in this book."

The new publication is being flagged as essential reading for trainees or newly qualified teachers and is also important reading for education students.

Vicky said: "There are a lot of books out there about teaching in the lifelong learning sector: But at a time when tutors are busier than ever, trying to find time and space to read and prepare for their assignments, it is harder than ever to think about the broader issues mentioned. We have approached the writing of this book from the point of view that wider debates about employability, or inclusivity, or the impact of research, are as immediate and important to the work of a teacher or trainer as are discussions about assessment validity, learning theories, or motivation."

With the readers' needs in mind, the chapters have been designed to be self-contained, to provide current snapshots of themes that the authors have encountered in their own teaching practices. The choice of topics covered has also been informed by students as well as their own professional judgement and research interests.

Case studies and real-life examples are also used as a reflection of the diversity of the learning and skills sector as a whole.

To order a copy of the book, it is available from the Open University Press www.openup.co.uk.