Teaching, leadership and governance in Further Education

The Further Education (FE) sector is now undergoing significant reforms. Apprenticeships 2020, the Report of the Independent Panel on Technical Education (usually referred to as the Sainsbury Review) [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 125.184] and the subsequent Post-16 Skills Plan [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 125.183] provide a framework under which the Department for Education (DfE) will reform the skills landscape. The specific immediate challenges to which teachers and leaders in the sector must rise are those relating to the new technical education routes, the delivery of high quality apprenticeships and raising standards in English and mathematics. For the Department's reform programme to be successful there is a need to ensure that FE teachers, leaders and governors are of high quality and are high performing.

In April 2017 the authors were appointed to conduct a rapid evidence review in order to synthesise the available evidence on teaching, leadership and governance in the FE sector. The evidence reviewed covered the whole FE sector but with a specific focus on FE colleges. Key publications and statistical data were gathered through online searches of national and international online bibliographic and information databases. The findings from the individual studies were summarised, synthesized and critically assessed under key headings and research questions agreed with DfE. The evidence review was supplemented by semi-structured telephone interviews with 14 sector stakeholders and academics.

Key findings include: the tensions between lecturers in FE being both occupational professionals passing on their expertise and teachers with access to pedagogical theories and techniques (dual professionalism) is an identified challenge; the quality of teaching in FE is variable but nonetheless includes examples of outstanding teaching, with pockets of good teaching and learning even in the weakest colleges; people with industry expertise do not necessarily require teaching qualifications to teach effectively in FE, as they can contribute in a range of ways; analysis of (partial) FE workforce data from 2015-2016 shows that, on average, teachers spend 15 hours on Continuing Professional Development (CPD) per year, although over 60 per cent of teachers report spending no time at all on CPD; senior leaders in FE often have an insufficient focus on teaching and learning and this can lead to a lack of CPD to enable FE teachers to improve; principals and senior leaders who are recruited from within the FE sector do not necessarily have the expertise to lead a large organisation, whilst those who are recruited from outside often do not understand curriculum issues; and while strong and effective governance is widely regarded as critical, there is an absence of both an articulated rationale and model for governing and a clear understanding of any connectivity between board and institutional performance.

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