Capturing learning: using visual elicitation to investigate the workplace learning of ‘newly qualified’ in-service teachers in further education

Abstract

ABSTRACTUnlike their counterparts on school-based Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes, ‘newly qualified’ teachers in further education in England do not have the entitlement to support conferred by Newly Qualified Teacher (NQT) status. Yet there is an expectation that ITE providers support former trainees’ progress in employment, with little recognition of the complexity of the sector or the influence of the workplace on their professional development. This article reports on a study investigating what former in-service trainees learn in the workplace in their first year after qualifying, with a view to better supporting this process. Learning is theorised as ‘participation’ in a socio-cultural practise, using a framework developed from Lave and Wenger. But the tacit, informal nature of much workplace learning makes it inherently difficult to operationalise, often going unrecognised by participants. The focus of this article is methodological, considering one strategy for addressing this issue, specifically the use of the Pictor technique. The contribution and limitations of this Visual Elicitation Method are evaluated using a small amount of interview data. The article concludes that this method has a valuable role to play in ‘capturing’ the learning of former trainees and in the study of workplace practises more broadly.