ABSTRACT
This chapter examines current organisational perspectives on professional development, and provided a benchmark for the rest of the research. It involves a content analysis of staff development policies collected from organisations in the two sectors and was followed by a series of in-depth interviews with staff development managers in a range of further education (FE) colleges. Attitudes and perceptions of FE and higher education (HE) staff regarding their development needs and opportunities were collected by questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The chapter suggests that teaching staff have noticed a change in the underlying epistemology of the Further and Higher Education (FHE) sector, from a generally pedagogic orientation towards a managerialist framework, largely based on theories of organisational behaviour. Educational institutions have a responsibility to help members of staff establish what they require in the way of professional and career development.
