Breaking the wall? Autoethnography and the transition from subject specialist to professional educator in FE

Abstract

One of the most difficult challenges facing those entering the lifelong learning sector (LLS) as teaching practitioners is for them to discover their identity as educators. Unlike the majority of those entering training to teach in compulsory education, who follow the traditional route of acquiring subject specialism through university training, most of those entering the LLS are mature entrants with specialist expertise in a particular vocational or professional context with a strong desire to teach the skills associated with their particular occupation. Reflective practice has long been regarded as an integral component in the development of a professional identity for teachers but since the new Initial Teacher Training (ITT) regulations of 2007 there appears to be a trend for this to be focused on the technicalities of subject teaching at the expense of the social and emotional aspects. The use of autoethnography, a form of reflective practice which recognises and emphasises the importance of the social and emotional self in the development of identity, is discussed within this paper as a potential means of redressing the balance between technicality and emotion in an attempt to nurture well-rounded educators capable of working with learners at a holistic level in addition to being subject specialists.