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This study examined new faculty members’ perceptions and approaches to student supervision and mentoring as related to their own experiences as doctoral students. Previous research has examined the graduate student-supervisor/mentor relationship but has yet to examine its impact on subsequent graduate student practices when they enter academic positions. Fourteen Canadian faculty members participated in a study on the experiences and expectations of doctoral candidates and early career academics. As a group, these new faculty members perceived that ideally a supervisor would also be a mentor. They perceived that a mentor shares professional and personal experience, functions as a ‘sounding board’, provides guidance and advice, and helps prepare students for the work they are currently doing and for their career responsibilities in the future. A majority of these new faculty members reported that their graduate supervisors were not their only mentor or did not function as a mentor. Furthermore, all participants reported that they consciously made an effort to include mentorship as part of their supervisory role. These findings indicated that graduate students’ own experiences of being supervised and/or mentored informed approaches with their own students. This research shows the apparent value in studying the influences of these important graduate school relationships and demonstrates the way in which our perspectives on supervisory relationships may influence subsequent practice.

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Beginning graduate students who are working in higher education can benefit from establishing a professional development plan designed to enhance leadership capacity. The challenge is to align personal goals with those of the graduate program, yet ensure that collegial socialization and professional competency development occurs. Professional socialization refers to the acquisition of values, attitudes, skills, and competencies pertaining to a professional subculture. In this paper, [the author] describe[s] an activity [the author] designed and the process [the author] used that address equity, diversity, and inclusion as one professional competency area in [the author's] socialization process as a strategy to become a more effective leader.

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In a rapidly changing workforce environment with skill shortages and a need for different pathways to training and education, vocational education and training (VET) has a significant influence on building stability in the workforce. The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of the causes, implications, and consequences of the out-of-field teaching phenomenon for VET. This phenomenological study examines VET teachers' lived experiences and professional identity as an approach for studying out-of-field teaching in VET.

The findings highlight the complex nature of out-of-field teaching in the economic culture of VET, with unique dilemmas. VET teachers experience conflicting and dilemmatic situations regarding occupational professionalism when they are expected to teach outside of their expertise while they are held responsible for students' safe learning environments, outcomes, and satisfaction. The study revealed aspects of harmonious and tensioned relationships between these elements of the work and teachers' identities. In conclusion, evidence-informed strategies are shared to support teachers' capacity building and approaches to address concerns of the out-of-field phenomenon and the influence it has on quality teaching in VET.

Published abstract.

Forthcoming article first published online 23 August 2023 by Springer. Show less

The theme of the fifth annual international JVET conference was ‘researching policy and practice in vocational education and training’. The papers are: Teachers of vocational specialisms in further education: their perceptions of NVQs as preparation for employment / Bill Bailey, Shirley Larkin and Jocelyn Robson; Biography, values and identity: becoming a lecturer in further education / Anne-Marie Bathmaker, James Avis and Alex Kendall; Assessment in VET in Australia: does research matter? / Robin Booth; Assessment and learning in vocational education and training: a missing link / David Boud; From franchise network to consortium: the evolution and operation of a new kind of further and higher education partnership / Freda Bridge, Roy Fisher and Keith Webb; Thoughtful and strategic practitioner research in Australian VET / Mike Brown and David Hodges; World visions and projects of secondary level skilled workers / Suzana Burnier; Teacher training for VET: a German-Scottish comparison / Roy Canning and Thomas Deissinger; An industry-led VET system: where to from here? / Clive Chappell; Changing pedagogies of the new vocationalism / Clive Chappell and Nicky Solomon; Bridging the digital divide / Hatice Choli; Venture creation: a unique learnership model for sustainable self employment in Southern Africa / Terry Davies; Will Cinderella get to the ball? barriers and opportunities for modern languages in Scottish further education / Hannah Doughty; Placement and adding value to the academic performance of undergraduates: reconfiguring the architecture: an empirical investigation / John Duignan; The values base for individuals’ responses to professional ethical dilemmas / Nigel Duncan; Moving the Skills for Life agenda forward: a HEI perspective on current PCET teacher training initiatives within basic skills / Linda Eastwood and Alison Gorf; Learning chances: using company work biographies to analyse individual and collective learning expectations in times of rapid change / Rob Evans; Expansive learning environments: integrating personal and organisational development / Alison Fuller and Lorna Unwin; Vocational education in the context of globalization and technological change in Kerala, India / Chinnappan Gasper; How can a national program of VET research produce information that is timely, relevant and useful to policy makers? / Jennifer Gibb; Getting off the ground? Can Modern Apprenticeships provide a coherent progression route into amenity horticulture? / Carmel Gibbons; The UK workforce in the 21st century: how can the Skills for Business network help employers fulfil future skill demands? / Lesley Giles and Carol Stanfield; Skills, standards and specifications: trainee teachers learn to teach adult basic skills / Karen Gomoluch; Bridging academic and vocational education: the Swiss berufsmatura (maturite professionnelle) as a reform project / Philipp Gonon; Current theories of workplace learning: a critical assessment / Paul Hager; Career decision making and new deal clients: whose choice is it? / Dave Hall and Ava Lefton; Re-engaging 14-16 year olds at school through work-related learning / David Hall; Co-producing knowledge: negotiating the political / Kerry Harman … [et al.]; Seductive texts: communities of practice ‘at work’ / Kerry Harman; Effective learning environments: perspectives of apprentices and trainees in the automotive and hospitality industries in Australia / Roger Harris and Michele Simons.

The collected volumes of conference papers may be found at TD/TNC 76.451 and TD/TNC 76.452; selected individual papers are indexed from TD/TNC 76.453 to TD/TNC 76.480. Show less

The project focuses on leadership roles in the conduct of transnational education (TNE) and in the internationalisation of curriculum. For purposes of the project, TNE is defined as an arrangement for provision of higher education where students acquire an award in one country issued by a higher education institution based in another country. The project focused on developing recognition, reward and support of leaders in TNE and in internationalisation of curriculum. The project involved an investigation of staff experiences, expectations and preferences in TNE and in the internationalisation of curriculum. It included matters such as influences of involvement in TNE on career paths and on learning and teaching, views on good practice in TNE and internationalisation of curriculum. Through the project, online professional development modules aimed at supporting leaders and academics engaged in TNE were produced. The modules have been designed so that they may be customised by other Australian universities. The project produced recommendations on recognition, reward and support of leadership in TNE and internationalisation of curriculum and guides in the form of a handbook and checklists.

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Community colleges employ more than one-third of the nation's higher education faculty. Nevertheless, the labor market through which faculty are recruited, selected, hired, evaluated and retained or replaced is one of the least understood aspects of these institutions. Functional management and effective policy both require a clear understanding of the workplace dynamics and employment dilemmas associated with this labor market. This article begins by recognizing that the 21st century economy is being transformed by large scale social, political, and technological developments - developments often referred to as the emergence of a new economy. This new economy is transforming the nature of work and the character of worker-employer relations. Four core ideas in the new economy literature are developed to show how they are creating fundamental labor market dilemmas for community colleges. The concepts are (a) information age technology, (b) globalization, (c) neo-institutional theories of organization, and (d) work spatialization. Analysis of these concepts shows how the transformation of work and of workplace relationships produced by the new economy is creating five troublesome dilemmas for community college management, policy, and research. These dilemmas are examined to build theory and frame policy issues for research and action. The dilemmas involve distinguishing work spatialization from secondary labor market status, separating institutional from bureaucratic forms of control, identifying symbolic and substantive faculty work roles, clarifying managerial control structures and roles, and identifying the career pipelines that bring individuals into this occupation. Responding to these dilemmas shapes college management, frames higher education policy issues, and defines a research agenda for anyone interested in understanding and improving community college performance.

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One of the most nationally-recognized, two-year legislative reform initiatives in the US began in Kentucky with the passage of the Kentucky Postsecondary Education Improvement Act of 1997 (HB1). This exploratory, cross-sectional, correlational study was administered at the 10-year anniversary of the HB1-legislated formation of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS), which originally combined 13 community colleges formerly governed by the University of Kentucky and 25 vocational/technical institutes previously governed by the Kentucky Cabinet for Workforce Development. This dissertation examined faculty and administrator perceptions of the merger of Kentucky's community colleges and vocational/technical institutes that resulted from HB1. A survey instrument was designed using information gathered from a thorough literature review. A panel of experts validated the instrument. The survey instruments were mailed to a stratified random sample of faculty (n-1,497) and all administrators (N-195) of the 16 public two-year colleges that form KCTCS. A total of 569 faculty and administrators returned completed, usable surveys and became the sample for the study.

A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the null hypothesis for the first question that there was no difference in the perception of merger, with Perception of Merger as the dependent variable and respondent status, faculty or administrator, as the independent variables. Administrators had a significantly higher mean score than faculty; therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected. For the second research question, a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed with the six indices of perception, type, depth, support, involvement, and motivation as dependent variables. The MANOVA confirmed that the administrators had significantly higher scale mean scores than faculty. A regression analysis was conducted to determine the degree of the relationship between the dependent variable, Perception of Merger, and the five control variables. The control variable with the strongest correlation for the dependent variable, Perception of Merger, was Level of Support for State Postsecondary Education Reform Initiatives That Led to Merger. All five control variables were significantly and positively associated with the dependent variable, Perception of Merger. Approximately 74% of the variance was predicted by the control variables. Two thematic constructs or clusters emerged from the data collected from administrators offering open-ended comments: (a) increased educational access and attainment - viewed as a positive result of merger, and (b) growth of the KCTCS Central Office and bureaucracy - viewed as a negative result of merger. Two positive thematic constructs or clusters emerged from the data collected from faculty offering open-ended comments: (a) increased educational access and attainment and (b) improved technical training - both viewed as positive results of merger. Additionally, 15 negative themes emerged: (a) growth of the KCTCS Central Office and bureaucracy, (b) too many administrators, (c) negative impact on technical colleges, (d) the KCTCS President's salary and benefits package, (e) lowered academic standards and declining quality of instruction, (f) negative impact on community colleges, (g) top-down management style, (h) differences of cultures/missions, (i) too much emphasis on enrollment numbers, (j) decline of general education transfer program, (k) rising tuition, (1) lack of local college autonomy, (m) loss of faculty authority and influence in college governance, (n) politically-motivated reforms, and (o) the move from a higher education model to a business model. The findings will potentially benefit community and technical college leaders, stakeholders, strategic planners, and state higher education boards (particularly those considering a similar merger process or implementing institutional changes that impact organizational culture).

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In Aotearoa New Zealand, tertiary educational organisations are required to show that literacy and numeracy are embedded in Foundation level programmes in line with the national adult literacy and numeracy infrastructure. The National Centre for Literacy and Numeracy for Adults was established in 2009 to support professional development work in literacy and numeracy. The centre has developed a whole-of-organisation approach to support educators to meet the challenge of embedding literacy and numeracy in Aotearoa New Zealand. In this chapter, the authors describe this model comprising an embedded literacy and numeracy framework which supports data-driven decision making by organisations wishing to gauge their progress in embedding literacy and numeracy against defined benchmarks. The authors consider how this approach may support educators to move beyond compliance within a regulatory framework to a deeper critical professional engagement.

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The voice of professional educators in prison education has been all but drowned out by the demands of delivering a contract, where the design, the content and the appropriateness of the curricula for prison learners has been insufficiently considered. The current prison education commissioning system has failed all the stakeholders of prison education: the prison learners themselves, the prison education staff and taxpayers. If we are to see development of a truly fit for purpose, innovative prison education curriculum, that sees the education provision being designed and delivered around educational needs and aspirations as opposed to narrow, target-based contractual restrictions, then the voices of those who teach and those who learn behind the walls needs to be heard.

In England, prison education is outsourced, which has led to a culture of cost cutting. The frequent change and instability in the tendering/re-tendering process has meant that the issues of workforce planning and refreshing education infrastructure have not been properly addressed, as there has not been long-term accountability. The process of commissioning education for profit in prisons has arguably diverted resources away from the development, design and delivery of truly meaningful education. It has become more about managing the contract, than its purported aims of delivering meaningful education in order to reduce reoffending. Additionally, it has created a fragmented workforce who face many challenges, including unfavourable employment conditions. In the commercial culture of delivering prison education contracts, teachers have been treated as a commodity, to be traded to the bidder who can deliver prison education for the lowest price for government.

The University and College Union (UCU) carried out surveys and focus groups with its prison education members, to seek out those 'drowned voices' and better understand the issues. UCU also carried out a joint members' survey with the Prisoner Learning Alliance (PLA), which led to the report, 'Hidden voices: the experience of teachers working in prisons' (2021) [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 150.102]. This paper summarises the research findings.

UCU found that issues such as inadequate assessments when prisoners enter prison, not enough different levels of education for prisoners, unsuitable learning space and facilities, inadequate resources, inflexible curricula and insufficient time for teachers to plan and prepare for lessons, are interlinked and as such, will require a strategic approach to resolve. These issues have a detrimental impact on learners and teachers alike. However, going beyond the learning 'space', additional issues for educators themselves are their pay, their precarious employment contracts, their unsatisfactory continuous professional development (CPD), their lack of career progression, the senior management structure and in some instances, their pension. UCU believe the current Prison Education Framework (PEF) commission model is failing learners and failing staff. As one UCU member describes it, 'It's a broken system within a broken system'.

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Educational leaders face unprecedented changes in developing new strategies and processes that improve teacher effectiveness, student performance, and administrators' professional development. Coaching is a way to improve and increase performance. Educators are in a position to take advantage of coaching as used by business leaders all over the world. This study examined the effectiveness of a coaching model designed for managers in a college of business. The study included both educational (n = 5) and business leaders (n = 30). It examined their perceptions and outcomes of their participation. The results strongly support the efficacy of this coaching model.

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