On the making and taking of professionalism in the further education workplace

Abstract

This paper examines the changing nature of professional practice in English further education. At a time when neo-liberal reform has significantly impacted on this under-researched and over-market-tested sector, little is known about who its practitioners are and how they construct meaning in their work. Sociological interest in the field has tended to focus on further education practitioners as either the subjects of market and managerial reform or as creative agents operating within the contradictions of audit and inspection cultures. In challenging such dualism, which is reflective of wider sociological thinking, the paper examines the ways in which agency and structure combine to produce a more transformative conception of the further education professional. The approach contrasts with a prevailing policy discourse that seeks to re-professionalise and modernise further education practice without interrogating either the terms of its professionalism or the neo-liberal practices in which it resides. © 2005 Taylor & Francis.

Keywords

Author Keywords

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Index Keywords

Author Affiliations

University of Warwick, Coventry, West Midlands, United Kingdom, Centre for Education and Industry, University of Warwick, Coventry, West Midlands, United Kingdom

College of Science and Technology, Bristol, England, United Kingdom

University of Exeter, Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom

Funding & Acknowledgements

Economic and Social Research Council, ESRC

Grant: L139251025

The authors acknowledge funding received from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for the Transforming Learning Cultures in Further Education Project (Award number: L139251025). The TLC-FE Project (2001–2005) is part of the wider ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP) (www.ex.ac.uk/sell/tlc). The authors are grateful to Phil Hodkinson and James Avis for comments on an earlier version of the paper and to their TLC-FE project colleagues for allowing reference to additional data from the project.

Economic and Social Research Council, ESRC

The authors acknowledge funding received from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for the Transforming Learning Cultures in Further Education Project (Award number: L139251025). The TLC-FE Project (2001–2005) is part of the wider ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP) (www.ex.ac.uk/sell/tlc). The authors are grateful to Phil Hodkinson and James Avis for comments on an earlier version of the paper and to their TLC-FE project colleagues for allowing reference to additional data from the project.

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On the making and taking of professionalism in the further education workplace

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