ABSTRACT
Many teachers in FE will be expected to teach across a wide range of programmes that could include basic skills programmes at one end of the spectrum and undergraduate or even postgraduate work at the other. Similarly, the students may range from age 14 to 65 and beyond. At the time of writing, one London college has some 90-year-olds among its student population as well as some 14-year-old pupils from local schools. Some of the 14-to 16year-olds in colleges arrive there from Pupil Referral Units (PRUs). They may include teenage mothers, pupils excluded from schools for behavioural problems, children who are ‘school phobic’, and pupils who are awaiting the results of special needs assessments (Culham, 2003; Attwood et al., 2004). These different age ranges are not confined to particular programmes of study. An A level group, for example, will not necessarily include only those of 16to 18-year-olds as would be the case within a school sixth form.
