Search results

The aim of the paper is to examine whether there really is a shortage of VET teachers, and if so, whether there are links to the salary offered and to the qualifications required.

The paper uses three main approaches to examine the narrative of a shortage of VET teachers in Australia.

There was no documented evidence of a VET teacher shortage, beyond a general perception of shortage in line with other occupations due to the post-COVID economic recovery. Salaries for VET teachers were found to compare well with other education occupations and other jobs in the economy. There was no evidence of the required qualifications deterring entry. The main concern appears to be whether VET can adequately train workers for other sectors in shortage.

The research did not include empirical survey work and suggests that this needs to be carried out urgently.

The research provides evidence that will challenge current assumptions and help in the recruitment of VET teachers.

It argues for a recognition of the importance of the VET sector beyond its function of serving industry.

It highlights ways to make VET teaching a more attractive proposition and to better promote its advantages.

The broad aim of this paper is to use Noddings' theory of ethical care to analyse mentors' caring experiences. More specifically, it aims to analyse how physical education (PE) mentors provide care, how they are cared for and how this impacts their role within the context of secondary PE initial teacher training (ITT).

Semi-structured interviews were used to generate data from 17 secondary PE mentors within the same university ITT partnership in the north-west of England. Questions focused on the mentors' experiences of care and the impact this had on their wellbeing and professional practice. A process of thematic analysis was used to identify, analyse and report patterns in the data.

The participants reflected established definitions of mentoring by prioritising the aim of developing the associate teachers' (ATs) teaching rather than explicitly providing support for their wellbeing. This aim could be challenging for mentors who face personal and professional difficulties while supporting the training of an AT. Mentors frequently referred to the support of their departmental colleagues in overcoming these difficulties and the importance of developing interdependent caring relationships. Receiving care did not impede mentors from providing support for others; it heightened awareness and increased their desire to develop caring habits.

Teacher wellbeing has drawn greater attention in recent years and is increasingly prioritised in public policy. These findings highlight the value of mentor wellbeing and how caring professional relationships can mitigate the pressures associated with performativity and managing a demanding workload.

The Further Education and Training (FET) sector is being positioned as a centrepiece of the government's post-pandemic recovery. However, issues of capacity and staff churn are threatening the potential success of this strategy. Unfortunately, there has been almost no strategic analysis of teacher churn in the English FET system or of the derivative issues of recruitment and retention, both of which jeopardise the sector's capacity to deliver high-quality teaching and improve workforce skills. This paper examines these issues for policymakers and sector leaders and makes suggestions on how these can be redressed. A call for a more joined-up FET sector is presented.

This is a follow-up paper to a report published by the Education and Training Foundation in 2022 on teacher recruitment in the English FET sector. This paper pulls together all of the most recent research on the English FET sector on teacher recruitment and retention and frames these against the DfE's Skills for Jobs policy commitments. It also analyses a number of proposed solutions, reflecting on their merits and potential consequences.

An updated profile of FET institutions within the college, private training and adult subsectors is offered, showing how the FET sector in England has been in steady decline, which is juxtaposed against the rhetoric of industrial productivity and economic renewal. Four variables, namely funding, institutional numbers, staffing and learner numbers are examined to explore this disparity. A more in-depth analysis of recruitment and retention research follows, showing that pay, job insecurity and status are the factors influencing the decision to start an FET career. Strategies for remedying the “crisis” are assessed, including the role of national campaigns and professional bodies.

The first point for any research programme is to draw together the research data and themes that have been previously discussed in order to build a platform for future investigation, which is what this paper does. There are clear steers on where future research might be located: staff well-being, professional status, recruitment methods and what is meant by an FET career. These are factors that affect the desirability of FET work and the sector's ability to recruit high-quality candidates. The consequences of not doing this research is the likely continuation of the status quo, which is unsustainable for the FET sector and potentially catastrophic to UK productivity.

Policymakers and sector leaders are presented with analysis and advice on the impact of teacher shortages and the factors that contribute to this. The evidence to support these factors is explored and solutions discussed in light of this evidence. A research agenda is suggested including an appeal for professional organisations and FET stakeholders to work together to solve the recruitment and retention crisis. The power of research to enlighten and inform is one of several conclusions proposed.

Addressing the factors that corrode staff professionalism and increase teacher attrition is an essential component of a wider discourse to improve the desirability of an FET career. Issues of status and esteem are interwoven in this analysis, as are the implications of not recruiting talented teachers and assessors. This includes staff well-being – a rare topic in FET journal papers – as well as organisational culture and importance of the FET mission, which is considered to be embedded in an ethic of public service. This mission is linked via the Augur Report to the sector's transformational properties to raise social mobility.

There is no precedent for this paper. It is the first article that has provided a comprehensive examination of teacher recruitment and retention issues affecting the whole FET sector in England. Whilst its comparative analysis builds on the Education and Training Foundation (2022) earlier report, it uniquely draws on other contemporary research that triangulates and discusses these findings, including setting out a new agenda for change and future research. In doing so, new issues are introduced for discussion including professional status and staff well-being.

This study explores the role of previous occupational identity in the formation of the (new) teacher identity of vocational teachers. The focus is on how vocational teachers discover their teaching identity, how they describe the connection between their previous occupation and teacher identity and how they describe a competent member of the teaching community.

The theoretical approach is inspired by Communities of Practice (CoP) theory. More specifically, the realignment between socially demanded competence in the profession and personal experience as well as identification with the teaching community are discussed. The research material comes from 14 interviews with vocational teachers in different disciplines.

Findings indicate first that the process of professional identity (trans)formation was initiated by finding one's teaching self when the individuals became aware of their interest in teaching by discovering that they had already achieved some sort of teaching-related competence. Second, individuals had been connecting their professional identities – finding common competence between their previous occupation and the teaching role. Third, vocational teachers experienced legitimising their competence and their new identity with reference to what their new CoP instructed as important competence (regime of competence).

While teachers' vocational competence is not scrutinised, their teaching competence needs to be constantly proved. This imbalance often leads to teachers returning to an aspect of their identity that is well established – their vocational competence. Looking back to their occupational competences constitutes a realignment backwards, when teachers attempt to serve their new professional goal by drawing on old competence.

This study aims to analyse the self-perception of future secondary school teachers (FTs) of biology about their education for sustainable development (ESD) competencies and evaluate the competence profile they develop in their educational proposals.

A mixed methodological approach was used to analyse 162 FTs’ ESD action competencies as proposed by UNECE. Firstly, a six-point Likert-type scale questionnaire is used to explore their self-perception of the level of acquisition of these competencies. Then, a rubric is applied to analyse the competence profile when designing educational proposals to address socio-environmental issues related to consumption and waste generation. Besides descriptive analysis, inferential statistics were used to assess the significance of the differences detected between the competencies.

FTs self-perceive a partial acquisition of ESD action competencies, in line with their competence profile. Where they recognise and show significant difficulties is in assessing learning outcomes in terms of changes and achievements. Similarly, their best perception and competence profile is achieved in the approach to contextualised situations in the students’ lives. There are also some discrepancies between their perception and their profile. In particular, FTs regard themselves as very competent in considering different dimensions and perspectives of the issues, but this is precisely where they reveal a lower competence profile.

This study applies a fully replicable rubric for the assessment of teachers’ ESD competencies when designing proposals to address socio-environmental issues. This assessment allows one to approach the sustainability competencies that they will promote in their classrooms.

Halfway into the United Nations (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs) timeline, we deemed fruitful an injunction into current teacher education (TE) practices at higher educational institutes (HEIs). The scoping literature review used all known English nomenclature interrelating to environment, sustainability, development, and education as regards TE. We explicated and modelled the data through timelines favourable to UN initiatives within a spatiotemporal metric. Thematic research topics and research methodologies strictly pertaining to TE were rigorously researched and delineated. Our study aims to elucidate a grander picture of the trends-as-patterns of environmental and sustainability education in teacher education (ESE-TE) research in HEI and potential contributions to come.

The spatiotemporal study adopts a scoping review as an investigative tool to probe current research trends on ESE-TE in the academic literature with respect to thematic research topics and research methodologies midway through the SDGs.

A total of 2,142 research papers spanning five decades, 152 journals and 96 countries were screened equally by two researchers. Of the 788 papers deemed eligible (i.e. English-language, peer-reviewed, pre-service/in-service TE that explicitly mentioned ESE-TE research), data from 638 studies have been included in the authors’ study.

Comprehensive trends in the international literature of all known environmental and sustainable education nomenclature specific to international ESE-TE research throughout the time period (1974 – 2021) were identified. Value is accrued by illuminating international trends in research topics and methodologies, exposing gaps in the history of the subfield, and predicting future trends for Agenda 2030 (e.g. SDG 4 – education) to mature the field.

This study explores the impact of new technologies, such as simulation and virtual reality, on the pedagogy and learning of engineering students. It aims to compare the effectiveness of these digital tools against traditional teaching methods in enhancing student learning experiences.

Utilizing a quantitative research approach, the study involved third-year engineering students from the “Production Management” course at the School of Engineering of Vitoria-Gasteiz. Data were collected through an ad hoc questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS software, focusing on student satisfaction, challenges in adopting new technologies and the evolving roles of students and teachers.

The research highlighted several key aspects. Firstly, it identified the need for adapting teaching methods to incorporate new technologies effectively. Secondly, the integration of simulation and virtual reality was found to facilitate a deeper understanding of real-world problems, as students could engage with these issues in a simulated, virtual environment. Finally, the study emphasized the importance of pedagogical approaches that leverage these technologies to increase student involvement and motivation. The results suggest a positive impact of digital tools on the learning process in engineering education.

The study’s scope was limited to one course within a single institution, suggesting the need for broader research across various disciplines and educational settings.

This research offers valuable insights into the integration of simulation and virtual reality in engineering education, underscoring their potential to enhance the learning experience and knowledge acquisition among students.

Education 4.0 (E 4.0) represents a new paradigm in the field of education, which emphasizes a student-centric approach that allows learners to access education anytime, anywhere, tailored to their individual needs through modern-day technologies. The purpose of the study was to unearth the critical success factors (CSFs) essential for the successful implementation of E 4.0.

The CSFs were unearthed using a literature review and further the interrelationships were analysed using multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach.

The study unearthed 15 CSFs for the successful implementation of E 4.0. The most important factor for the successful implementation of E 4.0 was personalized learning which was found to be the casual factor. The other causal CSFs were clear vision and leadership for E 4.0, stakeholder involvement, data analytics in teaching and learning, inter-disciplinary learning and blended learning environments. The effect factors were digital citizenship-based education, teacher training and development for E 4.0, supportive environment, curriculum redesign for E 4.0, open educational resources, digital technologies, formative assessments, infrastructure for E 4.0 and sustainability in education.

This is the first study which unearthed the CSFs and found the interrelationships among them, thus contributing to the theory of technology organization environment.

This study represented a pioneering effort in understanding the CSFs underpinning the successful adoption of E 4.0, paving the way for a more personalized, tech-savvy and effective education system.

The study aimed at identifying the degree of professional competence of faculty members from the students’ perspective at Kuwait and Palestine Technical University Kadoorie, and identifying the effect of the variables of gender and academic year.

The researchers developed a 24-item questionnaire and administered it to 115 students each from Kuwait (male: 57, female: 58) and Palestine Technical University Kadoorie (male: 21, female: 94). The study used a descriptive approach to analyze the collected data.

According to the students' perspective, the average professional competence of faculty members at Kuwait University is 2.74 for the teaching competencies, 2.29 for the technology competencies, 2.65 for the evaluation competencies and 2.71 for the human competencies. Similarly, at Palestine Technical University Kadoorie, the mean of the professional competencies of faculty members from the students' perspective is 2.31 for the teaching competencies, 1.96 for the technology competencies, 2.24 for the evaluation competencies and 2.34 for the human competencies. There were significant differences in the degree of professional competence at Kuwait and Palestine Technical University Kadoorie due to the gender of all domains in favor of females. There were significant differences in the degree of professional competence in Kuwait due to the academic year of the technology domain between the first year and second year, in favor of the second year. There were significant differences due to the variable of the academic year of the human domain between the first year and the third year, in favor of the third year. There were significant differences in the degree of professional competence at Palestine Technical University Kadoorie due to the academic year of the technology domain (second, third, fourth year and more) and second year, in favor of (the second year). There were significant differences due to the academic year of the human domain between the first and second year, in favor of second year.

The authors hope that their findings will inspire further research in this area and help universities to better support their faculty members and improve student outcomes.

The potential role of higher education institutes is indispensable for realizing the dream of a sustainable future. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of knowledge-oriented leadership on the sustainable service quality of higher education institutes. Furthermore, it also investigates the mediating role of organizational innovation and psychological empowerment.

Data of this study is collected from 306 faculty members of the public and private universities of Pakistan. Structural equation modeling technique was used for data analysis and testing of hypotheses.

The results demonstrate the positive impact of knowledge-oriented leadership on sustainable service quality. Organizational innovation and psychological empowerment partially mediate the relationship of knowledge-oriented leadership and sustainable service quality.

The policymakers including the higher education commission of Pakistan and university administration are highly recommended to promote a knowledge-oriented leadership style in the higher education institutes to improve innovation and psychological empowerment at the workplace which leads to foster sustainable service quality.

The concept of sustainable service quality in higher education institutes is in the infancy stages in developing countries. There is a dearth of studies that explore the relationship between knowledge management enabler and sustainable service quality. This study attempts to explore the unexplored relationship and extends the literature of higher education institutes and sustainable service quality.