"Towards a new teacher professionalism" by Professor Geoff Whitty, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
20th Anniversary of University of London Institution of Education Old Students' Association at City University of Hong Kong, 17 June 2006
Attended the lecture this morning and it's really thought provoking.
I have to admit that the main reason of my attendance is because of the dissussant of Prof Kai-ming Cheng, Professor at Faculty of Education in The University of Hong Kong, a great mentor opened my horizon on the realm of qualitative research. Though the lecture is to remark the 20th year of anniversary of the University of London Institution of Education Old Students' Association, I found some familiar faces, mostly current postgraduate students, from the Faculty of Education at The University of Hong Kong.
Prof Whitty shared with us his idea on the development of teacher professionalism. In 1950 -70s, the 'golden age' of teacher profession in United Kingdom, teachers have the maximum control towards the course delivery. During this period, teachers were granted with the freedom to decide not only what to teach but how to teach. Situation changes with the rapid economic development and demand of evident-based result in Education. Therefore, the teacher professionalism shifted from 'Traditional' to 'Managerial'. Teaching practice was later depended very much upon the government policy and guidelines. Teacher's authomoy was therefore erosed. During this stage, Managerial liers were created in and outside the school, making teachers' a paragdim shift on the course delivery. Prof Whitty then argued for the new professionalism of teachers: from traditional to collaborative and demoncratic professionalism.
The democratic society is moving us to take different shakeholders' point of views in our daily life, education is not an exception. Nowaday, when we make decision in education setting, not only do we need to take the funding organisation, the government and the management of the school into consideration but also the current students, parents as well as prospective students. Therefore, it is bascially not a new professionalism but a re-professionalism. The managerial professionalism, though having their drawbacks, did offer us an alternative prospective in seeing the teachers profession development, Prof Witty said.
When being reminded of the new paradigm of the teachers professionalism, I somehow realized the participation of the self-financed sector in higher education may be pushing the development even faster. In Government funded institutions, changes required considerable discussions at various levels of the management. However, the self-financed sector survived depends very much on the the immediate response and feedback of the shakeholders. These of course include the clients and the persons who are financing their education, i.e. parents. Some types of shakeholders, like the current or the prospective students, are not commonly the major shakeholders of the regular funded institutions, at least before the government's funding cut on Universities in these years.
Professsor K M Cheng asked a very inspiring question before the end of his discussion which worth thinking seriously :
When we are talking about the new teacher professionalism, are we thinking of the existing teachers being renewed ? Or we are actually having a new generation of teachers?
In my humble 10 years working expereinces in University and its extension arm, I personally did experience changes in the previous decade. Teaching staff members in higher education used to pay more attention on research and their own area of interest than students feedback and comments. Of course they love the students and may passionately in sharing their views with them during lectures, student-based teaching was the agenda on a few academics only. With the development of University extension on providing self-financed programmes, I see the role of the teaching staff has dramatically changed. Not only do the teachers in this new sector need to transfer knowledge but also need to mind greatly on students' feedback. These feedback, among other things would be considered crucial by the senior management, in particular during personal actions like promotion or renewal of contract. Therefore, there's a group of new teachers who know to present their concerns and ideas with vivid activities and demonstration. My personal experience told me that those teachers who still in the nostalgia of postgraduate studies is ususally the first group of teaching staff members be regarded as 'ineffective' teachers. Students in the self-financed mode of studies, particularly the Assoicate Degree one, are mostly far from being a self-regulated learner. Most of these students ask for the taste of University education before having corresponding intellectual and language proficiency. Therefore, they would need diverse teaching methods with animiated presentations, discussions and illustration that can fill up the gaps between their ability and the course requirement. In sum -- a different teaching style from the regular College programmes and thereafter different types of teachers.
After this Anniversary lecture, I postulate that the shift in the role of teachers in the self-financed higher eduation sector will be the fuel on the development of other sectors towards this new development of teacher professionalism.
20th Anniversary of University of London Institution of Education Old Students' Association at City University of Hong Kong, 17 June 2006
Attended the lecture this morning and it's really thought provoking.
I have to admit that the main reason of my attendance is because of the dissussant of Prof Kai-ming Cheng, Professor at Faculty of Education in The University of Hong Kong, a great mentor opened my horizon on the realm of qualitative research. Though the lecture is to remark the 20th year of anniversary of the University of London Institution of Education Old Students' Association, I found some familiar faces, mostly current postgraduate students, from the Faculty of Education at The University of Hong Kong.
Prof Whitty shared with us his idea on the development of teacher professionalism. In 1950 -70s, the 'golden age' of teacher profession in United Kingdom, teachers have the maximum control towards the course delivery. During this period, teachers were granted with the freedom to decide not only what to teach but how to teach. Situation changes with the rapid economic development and demand of evident-based result in Education. Therefore, the teacher professionalism shifted from 'Traditional' to 'Managerial'. Teaching practice was later depended very much upon the government policy and guidelines. Teacher's authomoy was therefore erosed. During this stage, Managerial liers were created in and outside the school, making teachers' a paragdim shift on the course delivery. Prof Whitty then argued for the new professionalism of teachers: from traditional to collaborative and demoncratic professionalism.
The democratic society is moving us to take different shakeholders' point of views in our daily life, education is not an exception. Nowaday, when we make decision in education setting, not only do we need to take the funding organisation, the government and the management of the school into consideration but also the current students, parents as well as prospective students. Therefore, it is bascially not a new professionalism but a re-professionalism. The managerial professionalism, though having their drawbacks, did offer us an alternative prospective in seeing the teachers profession development, Prof Witty said.
When being reminded of the new paradigm of the teachers professionalism, I somehow realized the participation of the self-financed sector in higher education may be pushing the development even faster. In Government funded institutions, changes required considerable discussions at various levels of the management. However, the self-financed sector survived depends very much on the the immediate response and feedback of the shakeholders. These of course include the clients and the persons who are financing their education, i.e. parents. Some types of shakeholders, like the current or the prospective students, are not commonly the major shakeholders of the regular funded institutions, at least before the government's funding cut on Universities in these years.
Professsor K M Cheng asked a very inspiring question before the end of his discussion which worth thinking seriously :
When we are talking about the new teacher professionalism, are we thinking of the existing teachers being renewed ? Or we are actually having a new generation of teachers?
In my humble 10 years working expereinces in University and its extension arm, I personally did experience changes in the previous decade. Teaching staff members in higher education used to pay more attention on research and their own area of interest than students feedback and comments. Of course they love the students and may passionately in sharing their views with them during lectures, student-based teaching was the agenda on a few academics only. With the development of University extension on providing self-financed programmes, I see the role of the teaching staff has dramatically changed. Not only do the teachers in this new sector need to transfer knowledge but also need to mind greatly on students' feedback. These feedback, among other things would be considered crucial by the senior management, in particular during personal actions like promotion or renewal of contract. Therefore, there's a group of new teachers who know to present their concerns and ideas with vivid activities and demonstration. My personal experience told me that those teachers who still in the nostalgia of postgraduate studies is ususally the first group of teaching staff members be regarded as 'ineffective' teachers. Students in the self-financed mode of studies, particularly the Assoicate Degree one, are mostly far from being a self-regulated learner. Most of these students ask for the taste of University education before having corresponding intellectual and language proficiency. Therefore, they would need diverse teaching methods with animiated presentations, discussions and illustration that can fill up the gaps between their ability and the course requirement. In sum -- a different teaching style from the regular College programmes and thereafter different types of teachers.
After this Anniversary lecture, I postulate that the shift in the role of teachers in the self-financed higher eduation sector will be the fuel on the development of other sectors towards this new development of teacher professionalism.
1 comment:
Hey Jennifer!
I wasn't exactly sure what your current email address was, but the comment you left on my blog led me to yours. How are things? I've actually decided to stop in Tokyo on the way back from Beijing, so I won't make it to HK this year. But there will be other trips to HK in my future and when they are scheduled I will be sure to let you know. My email address these days is lcwiste(at)ucdavis(dot)edu-- keep in touch!
Best,
Leah
Post a Comment