ABSTRACT

In recent years, Further Education has reached a crossroads, with questions being asked about its function, aims and focus, as well as querying the role of the FE teacher, the key aspects of the curriculum and which values should inform FE pedagogy. Identity and Resistance in Further Education explores these questions and effectively conveys the sense of uncertainty that those in the field are experiencing today. 

Connecting Higher Education and FE practitioners and researchers, the book gathers a collection of essays covering a range of topics, including: the journey from student to teacher, critical reflective practice as a way of organising identity, values-based teacher education and policy critique. In keeping with the themes of resistance and creativity, the chapters draw on a wide range of theoretical, as well as literary, perspectives to offer answers. Problematising relationships between the teacher and the institution and the teacher and government, the book argues that the profound challenge to teachers’ values and identities finds its response in a critical collegiality. 

This book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students engaged in the study of further education, educational policy and teacher education. It should also be essential reading for practitioners and policymakers.

section I|50 pages

Setting the scene

chapter 3|10 pages

The teacher educator experience

‘Guardians of the pedagogy’?

chapter 4|13 pages

Through the looking glass

Reflection and teacher identity

chapter 5|10 pages

Enquiry-based learning and adult learners

A discussion

chapter 6|8 pages

Something out of nothing

Reflecting on the emerging self as teacher

section II|58 pages

Policy and pain

chapter 7|10 pages

Understanding the business of failure

The educational disconnect between systems and so-called learners

chapter 8|15 pages

FE teacher identity

Marketisation and metaphor

chapter 9|9 pages

Character building

How accommodating is the FE Newbuild™?

chapter 10|11 pages

“Feeding the monster”

Vocational pedagogy and the further education policy present

section III|70 pages

Creativity and resistance

chapter 12|10 pages

The experience of Ofsted

Fear, judgement and symbolic violence

chapter 14|10 pages

Subverting the pseudo-science of inspection with research-informed practice and pedagogic principles

An ungraded approach to the evaluation of teachers

chapter 15|9 pages

Teaching an old dog new tricks

Developing instructor and teacher identities in a military context: a conversation

chapter 16|9 pages

Constellations of practice

chapter 17|10 pages

‘The Marriage of Heaven and Hell’

Discourses of autonomy and reason in further education

chapter 18|8 pages

Conclusion

Identity and the collective purpose of further education