Kevin Orr

Bio: Kevin Orr is an academic researcher from University of Huddersfield. The author has contributed to research in topics: Further education & Vocational education. The author has an hindex of 11, co-authored 35 publications receiving 424 citations.

Dual identities: the in‐service teacher trainee experience in the English further education sector

Abstract: Since 2001 there has been a statutory requirement for teachers in English further education (FE) colleges to gain teaching qualifications. However, in marked distinction from other sectors of education, around 90% of FE teachers are employed untrained, and complete their initial teacher training on a part‐time in‐service basis. Traditionally, this route has been necessary to attract established vocational practitioners into FE and to enable them to continue earning whilst undertaking their teacher‐training. Consequently, staff sustain the dual role of teacher and trainee teacher. This paper explores the dual identities of trainees on in‐service FE teacher training courses. It argues that how their two roles interact may cause tensions in their development, shaping and reinforcing a conservative understanding of further education and the role of the FE teacher.

HE in FE: Vocationalism, Class and Social Justice

Abstract: The paper draws on the Wolf (2015) report (Heading for the Precipice: Can Further and Higher Education Funding Policies Be Sustained?) and other quantitative data, specifically that derived from HEFCE’s Participation of Local Area (POLAR) classifications. In addition it explores key literature and debates that associate higher education in further education (HE in FE) with the pursuit of social justice. This enables an interrogation of conceptualisations of vocationalism as well as a consideration of its articulation with class and gender. Whilst the paper is set within a particular and English socio-economic context, it addresses issues that have a much broader global significance. The paper argues that whilst HE in FE has limited traction in facilitating social mobility it does serve as a resource in the struggle for social justice.

Coping, confidence and alienation: the early experience of trainee teachers in English further education

Abstract: This article examines what both in-service and pre-service trainee teachers learn from their early experience of teaching in further education (FE) colleges in England. Despite differences between in-service and pre-service trainees, that early experience is often characterised by isolation and lack of control over practice for both groups. Although trainee teachers may develop as a result of this experience of working in FE, a discourse that emphasises their growing confidence obscures how these trainees may not be enhancing their professional practice, but rather learning to cope with difficult circumstances. This article draws on data gathered between 2005 and 2009 from two separate projects, one that focused on pre-service, the other on in-service teacher education in FE colleges. It problematises the effect of this early experience and applies the Marxist concept of alienation to analyse the development of trainee teachers in relation to coping rather than learning to teach. As a partial counterbalan...

Room for Improvement? The Impact of Compulsory Professional Development for Teachers in England's Further Education Sector

Abstract: After years of neglect, the New Labour government has identified the further education (FE) sector in England as being the crucial means to achieve two policies at the centre of their project: social justice through widening participation in education and enhancing the skills of the nation’s workforce to compete in a globalised economy. This has led to FE and the staff who work there being more and more closely scrutinised and directed by the government, and from September 2007 teachers in FE colleges in England are required to participate annually in at least 30 hours of continuing professional development (CPD) in order to maintain their qualified status. This and many of the other government initiatives are associated with restrictive and impoverished notions of professionalism, but the sanctioning of CPD chosen and recorded by the staff themselves, rather than their employers, may allow room for a more meaningful and autonomous professionalism to evolve.

Restrictive Practice: The Work-Based Learning Experience of Trainee Teachers in English Further Education Colleges

Abstract: Purpose – This paper problematises the experience of trainee teachers in further education (FE) colleges in England It focuses on colleges as employers and developers of their own teaching staff, 90 per cent of whom are trained “in‐service”, while in paid employment The paper aims to explore how a shift towards more expansive workplace practices could better develop these teachers and contribute towards enhancing the learning culture in FE Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on data gathered from two instrumental case studies of FE colleges focusing on the experience of in‐service teachers training in the workplace Using Fuller and Unwin's expansive‐restrictive framework, the paper draws on qualitative data from interviews with trainee teachers, teacher educators and human resource managers It critiques the current practice of colleges as employers and considers alternative strategies for workforce development Findings – This research finds that in‐service trainee FE teachers are expected to cope with heavy workloads almost immediately upon commencing employment and that these trainees are required to quickly make the transition to full practitioner Consequently, opportunities to develop are restricted, often leading to conservative practice There is evidence of the prioritisation of expedience over the development of professional knowledge and creative practice, a scenario that this paper challenges Research limitations/implications – This is a small‐scale qualitative research project based upon two colleges within a large and diverse sector of employment As such, its findings do not claim to be representative of workplace practices experienced in all FE colleges However, the research gives informed insight into some of the challenges trainee teachers are likely to face during the early stages of their employment Practical implications – The paper identifies strategies to challenge current practice and to enhance the work‐based learning experience of trainee teachers Originality/value – This paper considers FE colleges primarily as employers and explores the consequences of their employment practices on new teachers as both trainees and employees

Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in Discourses.

Abstract: Many people in "literate" societies, when asked to define literacy, almost always do so in terms of reading and writing abilities This narrow interpretation of literacy, an offspring of reductionist psychology, has reigned supreme in many academic and educational contexts for decades, greatly shaping literacy theories and classroom practices Within the past ten years, however, a large body of multidisciplinary research has begun to undermine the authority of this perspective by situating literacy in larger social practices

The Education Debate

Abstract: THE chorus of approval with which Mr. Mundella's report on the progress of elementary education was received on Monday cannot but be gratifying to all who have at heart the highest welfare of the country. With one or two unimportant exceptions—members whose vision is so bizarre as to discern communism in the education of the children of the working classes, and who connect the increase of weeds with the spread of education'what criticism there was referred to details of method. All the members whose opinions are of any weight agreed that vast good had resulted to the country by the working of the Code. As to the special subjects, among which science is included, the weight of opinion was decidedly in favour of their retention. The greatest friends of the Fourth Schedule will admit that there is still much room for improvement in the teaching of these subjects; it cannot be expected that so great a novelty in the system of elementary education in the country can all at once be taught to perfection. About the success of the compulsory system of education it may be said that the House was all but unanimous. The analogy between the treatment of paupers and the free education of the children of the working classes will not hold water. In the one case we are simply keeping from starvation people whose improvidence or misfortune have made them a dead burden on their fellows; in the other case we are feeding the minds of those who one day will have to bear the brunt of the work of the nation; The better these future workers are educated, the more intelligently and the more effectively are they likely to do their work, and the less likely are they to become inmates of our workhouses and prisons. As Serjeant Simon testified, even already is there a marked decrease of embryo criminals in our streets. The conclusion come to by Mr. Mimdella and those who,like him, have the interests of education at heart, is not that we have gone too far, but that we have not gone far enough; not that we have reached finality, but that we have only made a good beginning. The figures he adduced to prove the success of the existing Education Act were practically admitted to be irrefutable; and we only trust the progress in the next ten years will be at an equal ratio to that achieved during the past decade. “Many of us,” he truly said, “would pass away without seeing the full effect of the work we are doing.” As to the propriety of encouraging the retention of exceptionally clever boys in elementary schools beyond the regulation age, the figures showed that it would be cruel and unjust to forbid this. Until we have a State system of secondary education in England similar to that about to be sanctioned in Scotland, until air equally decisive step is taken with regard to educational endowments in the one country as in the other, the nation would be doing a gross injustice to force exceptionally clever boys to leave school just when their intellects were beginning to shoot into full vigour. Mr. Mundella showed by his figures that Scotland is still ahead of England in the matter of education; that extra or special subjects are more widely sought after and with greater success, and that a larger percentage of children in elementary schools proceed to secondary education. But it should be remembered that this is the result of many generations of universal education, and that in Scotland it has long been considered as great a disgrace to be uneducated as in England it is considered to be immoral. There among the great majority of the working classes compulsory education was scarcely needed, and this will no doubt be the case in England in the course of a century or so, when education will have become as great a necessity as decent clothing. Again during the debate was it shown by those who have the best means of knowing that where science is properly taught there the children are as a rule more intelligent and bright, and better up in the ordinary subjects than in schools where science is neglected. Sir John Lubbock gave a remarkable instance of the favour with which properly conducted science-teaching is received by the children themselves:—