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Promoting Quality in Teacher Education

Note of the meeting of the UCET Research & International Forum held on-line at 1.00pm on Tuesday 19 January 2021

Welcome, introductions and minutes of the previous meeting

Colleagues were welcomed to the meeting. The note of the meeting held on 16 October 2020 was agreed. On matters arising, JNR had shared and discussed the survey results on the impact of Covid 19 on education research with UUK and Guild HE.

Discussion

A range of issues was discussed, including:

An update from JNR on non-Covid 19 related issues, including: the long-awaited Skills White paper which was expected to be published that week and would have implications for FE teacher education; the impact of Covid on the delivery, assessment and regulation of QTS programmes in England; and developments in Wales and Northern Ireland.

The invitation from David Littlefair of Northumbria University to participate in research into the internal institutional pressures facing staff in education departments.

Covid 19 related issues, including: report from that morning’s symposia, which had been led by James Avis, Pinky Jain; Linda La-Velle and Stephen Newman. Key issues had included: the scope to reflect on and learn from new approaches to teacher education, and its underlying culture and assumptions, developed in response to the pandemic; the results of research into the response to the pandemic of four research intensive HEIs involved in secondary ITE; the combined implications of Brexit and Covid on teacher education; the opportunities to develop alternative curricula for teacher education students and schools; and the implications of the current context for the work of UCET and other organisations. The results of the UCET survey into the impact of Covid on education research were also noted.

The following items were suggested as topics for future symposia: teacher and teacher educator efficacy; the virtual assessment of student teachers; and new requirements relating to the recruitment of international students.

The REF 2021, where the composition of assessment panels, the maintenance of the 21 March submission deadline for outputs and the results of the EDAP assessments were noted. It was agreed that a working group should be established to analyse REF results for education, as well as the proportion of research active teacher education staff that had been submitted.

Equalities issues, where continued concern was expressed about recruitment statistics for ITE which showed (for example) that the acceptance rate for black male applicants was 35% compared to an overall figure of 66%. Invitations had been issued throughout UCET to join the new Equalities sub-group, and reference was made to UCET representation on another group established by Diverse Ed. The lack of available data continued to be an issue, and might be a reflection of the general downgrading of equalities issues in terms of national priorities. The UUK report into racial harassment had not been thought to have yet had a significant impact within universities.

The DfE review of the ITE market and the proposed establishment of a new Institute of Teaching. Although firm proposals from the Market Review had yet to be published, there were concerns that it might lead to the imposition of an inflexible and uncritical ITT curriculum, as well as an ECF type contracting model for the provision of ITE. UCET had been feeding its views to civil servants and members of the review group, and had been engaged in discussions with various other individuals and organisations. JNR offered to brief colleagues within member institutions. There was general agreement that the outcome of the review might lead to HEIs withdrawing from ITE, which would have serious consequences for teacher supply, the quality of education in schools and colleges and the status of the teaching profession. The proposed Institute of Teaching was thought to be a vanity project which would not lead to any increase in the number of new teachers recruited and had the potential to undermine existing high quality provision.

International issues, including collaborative work undertaken in regards well-being with colleagues from the US. Invitations to apply for UCET travel scholarships would, it was explained, be invited when international travel became more feasible.

Items for information

The following items were noted:

The UCET paper on effective CPD

The December UCET newsletter

The published UCET strategy for 2020-25.

Any other business

The following issues were raised:

An article on the implications of Covid on mentoring and coaching would appear in the June edition of the International Journal of mentoring and coaching, and would (with other interesting material) be available on-line before June.

Colleagues had secured a small internal UKRI grant of £20K to start the research project originally bid under the UKRI covid-19 funding. Further funding to supplement this would be sought. : Vini is Co-I. We are looking to extend this funding with an additional external grant.

Date of next meeting

11 May 2021, via Zoom.