Rethinking partnership in initial teacher education – developing professional

identities for a new subject specialist team which includes a joint school-university

appointment – a case study in mathematicsRosa Archer, Sian Morgan, Sue Pope

University of Manchester

rosa.archer@manchester.ac.uk

National context

• 2010 White paper The Importance of Teaching• Teaching Schools – 100 p.a. rising to 500 in

2015• Academy status – 2000 currently (half of all

secondary schools)• Expansion of Teach First• Introduction of School Direct• Changes to ITE allocations

The teamTeaching in school Teaching in HE Advisory work Qualifications

10 years 6 years BSc, MSc, PGCE, PhD

8 years 10 years BSc, PGCE

10 years 10 years 1 year BSc, MSc, PGCE, PhD

Those with HE experience had only worked in post-92 universities that were former teacher training colleges

The scenario

• 50 PGCE secondary mathematics students• All new tutor team – two in September 2011,

one in January 2012• Previous team had two very long serving

members• Ofsted rated ‘outstanding’ provision• Well established high quality partnership

Joint school/university appointment

• Why?• What?• How?• Which students?Students had to apply to be involved with the

school, criteria included being confident teaching mechanics at A level

Research questions• How does a new team of mathematics educators (some with

experience of other institutions) establish itself and ensure that previous strengths and successes are maintained and developed?

• Joint school-university appointment is novel, but given current government priorities something that is likely to become more commonplace (TDA, 2011). What are the affordances of this model? What are the personal challenges for the appointee and colleagues working with the appointee – in school and in university?

Professional identity provides a means of interpreting the way practitioners conduct their work (Day et al, 2005)

Third space

• Mixed identities: Boundaries are blurred as a consequence of closer partnership with schools. Mixed identities and third space professional. Whitchurch (2008)

• Third space: Learning community in which the object of activity is extended and the activity itself reorganised resulting in new opportunities for learning. Gutierrez (2012)

Challenges for new ITE tutorsEstablishing credibility with:

studentsuniversity colleaguesschool colleagues

Including:tutor inductionM level study

Becoming a teacher educator is challenging at the best of times (Berry, 2007; Swennen & van der Klink, 2009), as is establishing yourself as a teacher in a new school (Day et al. 2007).

Data collection methods

• Survey of student teachers• Semi-structured interviews with teachers • Focus group with university tutors• Team members’ reflective logs

Students’ written comments

• It has been the hardest but amazing year.• Great course and excellent support - thank

you!• I'll never forget my time here. It's been

fantastic - everything I hoped for.• Overall I enjoyed the PGCE and feel prepared

for the year ahead.• Thanks

Students’ suggestions for the future

• clearer explanation of how the year works and what will be expected of us at the very beginning

• give details of assignments well in advance• more consistency on grading between tutors• more guidance on

monitoring/recording/reporting

Feedback from school based colleagues

• Student teachers get a fantastic deal• Exciting to be working closely with university

colleagues• Work of the department has been enriched• Need to clarify roles and responsibilities with

all members of the department

Feedback from university based colleagues

• Collegiate, hard working, committed team• Keen to get things right• Willing to help• Very high expectations both personally and for

the students• Could be more forthcoming in meetings offering

ideas• May want to set clearer boundaries for students

Personal reflections• Challenge of new responsibilities, new cultures• Working with existing documentation and course

structure • Developing new relationships with one another, with

university based and school based colleagues• Assessing assignments (six M level, three individual

study packs and monitoring files)• Moderating school placement grades• My aim is to understand more fully the complexities of

teacher training and the nature of teaching and learning. The concern with feelings and perceptions renders objectification and quantification insufficient on its own. Statistics may show interesting trends but it is the stories behind them that explain these trends.

For the school/university appointee

• Can easily reinforce university input• Travelling between sites makes it difficult to

catch up with people informally• Managing the competing priorities of school,

university and M level study• Making work space away from the students

when they are on placement• Assessing students’ school practice

Answering the research questions

• It appears that the new team hasn’t had a detrimental impact on student outcomes

• Opportunities to do things differently – lesson study, student teachers in different institutions, students coming into university to do mathematics, collaborative work with teachers (TA funded lesson study pilot)

The team’s future priorities

• Develop planning and reflection through lesson study

• Share the reasons for our behaviours and expectations

• Work more closely with a number of schools• Involve mentors in course delivery• Enhance mentors’ understanding of the course• Work with teachers involved in different routes

Paper available at http://www.bsrlm.org.uk/IPs/ip32-3/BSRLM-IP-32-3-03.pdf