Browsing by Author "Pulsford, Mark"

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    Constructing men who teach: research into care and gender as productive of the male primary teacher
    (Gender and Education, 2014-05-06) Pulsford, Mark
    This paper argues that in order to begin loosening the ties that bind care and gender in primary education, we need to re-examine the knowledge sought and found by educational research about teachers. The focus is primarily on how we understand men who teach. Through an examination of two scholarly texts – Ashley and Lee (2003) and King (1998) – I argue that we must be mindful that our research can effectively produce and reiterate common-sense understandings of men that binds them to the hegemonic masculine ideal. It is argued that mixed-method qualitative research that untangles the layers of context influencing the lives of men who teach is important. The paper also suggests that the study of male teachers' emotions, as at once individual and social, and private and public, can disrupt the rational–emotional binary that cements care to gender and reveal new configurations of the gender order.
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    ‘I came out feeling scared and pressured, and just like a number': undergraduate Education Studies students' perceptions of post-graduate Initial Teacher Education (ITE) routes and selection processes for 2016-17
    (2017) Purves, Ross; Pulsford, Mark
    This paper reports on one phase of a research project examining the National College of Teaching and Leadership’s (NCTL) revised methodology for the allocation of postgraduate ITE places for the 2016-17 academic year. The paper’s focus is the often neglected voices of applicants as they negotiated this process, for whom this revised methodology ‘pilot’ year was their first and potentially only engagement with the ITE recruitment system, and doing so often represented a significant personal milestone on a life-long journey towards a career in the classroom. In all, 21 participants from a large Undergraduate Education Studies degree took part in focus groups or interviews during May and June 2016 about their experiences of applying and interviewing for a range of ITE routes and providers. The findings indicate the significance of (assumed) differences between University-based and School-based routes in shaping applicants’ perceptions of their experiences; the impact of the frenetic atmosphere generated by the ‘race’ to secure a place during this recruitment cycle; and applicants’ varied responses to providers’ tactics and reported ‘gaming’ of the system. Implications and recommendations for ITE providers are made, set briefly in the context of the ‘teacher recruitment crisis’ and the direction of travel for ITE provision.
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    Neoliberalism and primary education: Impacts of neoliberal policy on the lived experiences of primary school communities
    (SAGE Journals, 2019-11-01) Hall, Richard; Pulsford, Mark
    This special issue of Power and Education analyses the ways neoliberal policy agendas inflect and infect primary school communities. In recognising that ‘schools are complex and sometimes incoherent social assemblages’, this widened perspective – beyond a customary focus on just pupils and teachers – marks the particular contribution of the Special Issue. In examining how neoliberal logics thread through and organise relations between parts of primary school communities, the collection enables a critical view of the factious contemporary socio-political landscape through the lens of primary schooling. In doing so, the varied papers address what Piper and Sikes suggest are central concerns of the Power and Education journal: to interrogate ‘the general and specific imposition of crude discourses of neoliberalism and managerialism; the need to analyse carefully what is happening in particular contexts; and the possibility of constructing resistance and concrete alternatives’. Under scrutiny here is the evolution of a new educational ecosystem that reflects a re-engineering of the primary schooling terrain. This terrain might once have been characterised by the aims of nurturing children intellectually, emotionally and culturally, so that they can become socially aware, confident and critical citizens, actively able to contribute to communities that are inclusive and socially just. As these aims are re-engineered, their contested evolution can be witnessed in the tensions between: first, specific stakeholder groups like parents or teachers organising against curricula they view as dominated by metrics that damage self-actualisation; and second, policy intentions that stress the importance of security, safety and happiness. This is a crucial area of struggle, precisely because learning is increasingly governed by discourses of human capital and efficiency, where new school governance structures and tangible re-workings of teachers’ priorities have emerged to re-shape a vision of primary education. Are the proposed outcomes holistic child development with a capacity to stimulate community-oriented social justice, or productive, long-term economic activity, or something else? In this special issue, a range of authors seek to place primary educational policy in the global North in relation to the concrete experiences of teachers, senior leaders, parents, children and community members. The purpose of this is to reveal the tensions that erupt between policy drivers for productivity, human capital, efficiency, excellence and so on, in effect policy drivers for-value, against the impetus for education to frame humane values. One core terrain in which such tensions are played out is the school, and yet the school is more than a simple set of linear relationships. Such relationships emerge at the intersection of, for instance, family and caring responsibilities, educational engagements, faith-based interactions, racialized or gendered asymmetries, the public and the private, the communal and the corporate. As such, the definition and co-option of the idea of the school as a community or the school community is complex. In this collection, we seek to highlight this complexity and to demonstrate how the concrete, lived experiences of groups inside primary schools are affected by specific flavours of policy.
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    Undergraduate Education Studies students’ experiences of applying for postgraduate Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes in 2015/16
    (2016-05-06) Purves, Ross; Pulsford, Mark
    Content: Drawing on preliminary analysis of data from focus group discussions (that will take place in early 2016), this paper explores the experiences of undergraduate Education Studies students applying for ITE courses beginning in September 2016. Students at one East Midlands University will be invited to participate in group discussions about the process of applying and attending interview events for Primary and Secondary school ITE courses. Comparisons will be made between the views of applicants choosing University-based teacher education routes with those that have opted for school consortia- and individual school-based routes. In light of concerns about the decline and closure of ‘traditional’ university-based PGCE courses and the rise of school-based routes in an increasingly fragmented ITE landscape, these findings are likely to provide much for Teacher Educators to consider. For ITE providers this research will give clear indication of how their type of provision is viewed by prospective applicants and how those perceptions interact with the on-the-ground process of choosing and meeting representatives of those providers. Following the National College of Teaching and Leadership’s (NCTL) introduction of a system removing individual course allocations and imposing a national limit, the application process in 2015/16 has been characterised as a race to secure an ITE place amid rumours of courses recruiting quickly and closing early. Against this backdrop, and in response to mooted suggestions for a new system next year, this research has implications for future policy since it invites policy-makers to acknowledge the varied experiences of students that have navigated the terrain. As far as we can find there is little research exploring current HE students’ experiences of applying for ITE courses, and certainly in this year any insight gleaned from the users of the system must be seen as a vital component to inform future policy developments. The paper will also be relevant to those within HEIs preparing students for ITE applications, and to those who partner or accredit school-based providers. This is because the research will seek to contrast the perspectives of successful candidates with those students who have been unsuccessful in securing a place. Based on experience of the system, what makes for a winning application? What makes a ‘good’ candidate? These findings may also be used to encourage future candidates to reflect on their own position in relation to those apparent success criteria.
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    What can we learn from the experiences of Education Studies students who applied for postgraduate initial teacher education programmes in 2015-16?
    (2016-06-08) Purves, Ross; Pulsford, Mark
    This presentation reports on research into the experiences of undergraduate Education Studies students who have applied for initial teacher education courses starting September 2016. In particular, we hope to offer indications of how various types of teacher training provision are viewed by prospective applicants and how those perceptions interact with the on-the-ground experiences of the selection and interview processes. We will offer generalised reflections on participants’ experiences that will be of benefit to colleagues working in other areas of DMU. Findings may also be used to encourage future candidates to reflect on their own position in relation to our findings.