ABSTRACT
The focus of this chapter is the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) which was launched by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) in April 2000.The NTFS is a national level award scheme which seeks to recognise and reward excellent higher education teachers in England and Northern Ireland. In this chapter I look back over the scheme during the period 2000–2006 and undertake a ‘critical’ review (see Skelton, 2005: 10–14) which considers some of the changes in its structure and organisation. I draw upon research and evaluation studies undertaken during this period to examine the impact of the scheme on the higher education (HE) sector and the way we think about teaching excellence. I argue that recent changes to the NTFS (2006) will have far-reaching implications. In particular, the ‘decoupling’ of the individual award from the project strand may have fundamental consequences, since it suggests that teaching excellence is primarily about recognised performance (e.g. in the lecture theatre or seminar room) rather than ongoing inquiry into one’s own practice. I consider two different interpretations of decoupling to stimulate thinking about its potential impact. I consider the broader context within which NTFS changes need to be understood, paying particular attention to the Higher Education Academy’s new framework for scholarship into the student learning experience. I conclude that the new arrangements for the NTFS only serve to undermine its radical potential. The view of what constituted an excellent teacher that was implicit in the original NTFS – someone who teaches consistently to high standards, who undertakes systematic enquiry into their own practice and collective activities as part of a fellowship – has been replaced by a vision which is much more conservative. I argue that a dualistic framework of thinking which separates teaching from (pedagogical) research has prevented the NTFS from realising its full potential. We are left with a scheme which is easier to administer and manage, but one which lacks real potency.
