Earthquakes, cancer and cultures of fear: qualifying as a Skills for Life teacher in an uncertain economic climate

O'Leary, Matt and Smith, Rob (2012) Earthquakes, cancer and cultures of fear: qualifying as a Skills for Life teacher in an uncertain economic climate. Oxford Review of Education, 38 (4). pp. 437-454. ISSN 0305-4985

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Abstract

The Skills for Life (SfL) initiative followed the Moser Report (1999) and incarnated a Third
Way agenda that sought to address England’s perceived adult skills deficit. SfL marked a large
investment in adult education but also a distinct shift to a more focused, instrumentalist role for
Further Education (FE) in England. A new structure of teacher standards and qualifications
underpinned this development with its own, newly devised and matriculated knowledge base.
Teachers emerged from these new programmes with subject specialisms in Literacy, Numeracy
and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). The landscape that these ‘new professionals’
have entered is one that suggests the autonomy of colleges within a competitive market,
but this disguises a funding methodology that facilitates ongoing centralised policy intervention.
In the last two years policy makers have used this funding methodology to shift monies decisively
towards 14-19 provision and away from adult education. This article draws on qualitative
data from a study into the experiences of pre and in-service SfL teachers in the final stages of
qualification. The data explore the impact of these latest movements in the FE market on these
student teachers who are qualifying in some of the newest subjects in FE.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number:	10.1080/03054985.2012.710545
Dates:	Date Event 27 July 2012 Published
Subjects:	CAH22 - education and teaching > CAH22-01 - education and teaching > CAH22-01-02 - teacher training CAH22 - education and teaching > CAH22-01 - education and teaching > CAH22-01-01 - education
Divisions:	Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences > Centre for Study of Practice and Culture in Education (C-SPACE) Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences > College of Education and Social Work
Depositing User:	Matthew O'leary
Date Deposited:	23 Mar 2017 14:32
Last Modified:	03 Mar 2022 17:02
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/3963

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