Mary Bousted: Teachers need to be able to make professional decisions

If ill-judged, ill-timed policies have forced the profession into hibernation, a springtime of CPD can help re-establish schools as places where dialogue, not obedience, is valued and supported, says Dr Mary Bousted...

Michael Barber recently opined that teachers are ‘semi-professional’. He argued that the profession remains heavily unionised (obviously a bad thing when it comes to Barber’s view of professionalism). Yet consider this fact. ATL has provided CPD to over 24,000 members in the last eight years – making the union one of the largest CPD providers in the country. Members come to their union for training and development because they are not getting what they need from their employer. Too many schools still lack the capacity to meet individual teachers’ CPD needs (or even the collective needs of their staff – hence the parlous quality of so many INSET days). It is a sad fact that teachers, who facilitate the learning of their pupils, are not facilitated by their employer to be learners throughout their careers. In too many cases teacher education, training and development is never seriously supported beyond initial teacher education (and increasingly the quality of ITE is in doubt).

And yet, teachers are eager to learn. Look at the success of the TES connect website – where millions of teachers have shared their teaching materials. Teachers want for themselves what they give their pupils – frequent opportunities to learn; teachers want CPD that is shaped to meet their individual needs, as well as the more corporate needs of their school; and the opportunity to share effective practice, collaborating with, and learning from, their peers. Teachers want access to the latest thoughts and developments in their subject; they are keen to learn more about different pedagogical approaches and they are self-critical, always wanting to teach more effectively and support their pupils’ learning more closely.

The College of Teaching could be one vehicle towards a better deal for teacher professionals. The teaching profession has suffered, perhaps more than any other profession, from ill-judged, ill-timed and poorly-evidenced policy interventions in education provision. The most serious result of this has been a decrease, amongst teachers, of their sense of professional agency – rooted in a loss of control over core elements of their work, including approaches to the curriculum and professional discretion over teaching and learning practices. If established with a clear mission and remit, and with independence from the political establishment, the College could be the buffer between the profession and politicians whose relentless pace of reform in all aspects of their work – including the curriculum and qualifications – has had such a negative effect. 

There is broad consensus across education that teachers’ access to excellent professional development is not what it should be, a consensus evident at ATL’s CPD panel event in January: ‘Meeting the learning needs of future generations – is CPD for teachers an entitlement, requirement, necessity or just a distant dream?’ This event was part of an ATL #Shape Education series on key issues in education, which finished up in February with events around Curriculum and Ofsted. We not only want to facilitate the exchange of ideas and views but to trigger action and to find ways that we can tackle some of the challenges facing education and the profession.

The issues raised by the engaged and expert audience at the CPD event included the stifling current one-size-fits-all approach to CPD in schools; the inconsistent use of mentors; the need to interweave sustained development throughout teachers’ practice, with less emphasis on input in favour of process; and a willingness to look at other sectors and countries to see what lessons can be learned from their successes in developing teachers and education professionals. And all were left with the challenge: what next, who do we need to convince, what barriers do we need to tackle?

In relation to teachers’ professional development, there are discussions to be had around the issues of adequate resources, contractual entitlement, personalisation and needs identification, reducing workload and sustaining support, and the need for a continuum of teachers’ professional development encompassing ITE and CPD, specialisms and leadership. What is needed most, however, is a re-awakened sense amongst teachers of their professional agency. Teachers need to be able to make well-informed, professional choices about the curriculum and about teaching and learning approaches. Schools must be re-established as democratic workplaces where dialogue, not obedience, is valued and supported. And governments of all persuasions must recognise that constant legislation, without consideration of the challenges, for teachers and school leaders, of implementation, does not raise standards of education and damages the conditions in which teacher professionalism can flourish.

About the author

Dr Mary Bousted is general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers ( atl.org.uk e).