Reconciling Professional and Political Imperatives for Teacher Education in Northern Ireland

RECONCILING PROFESSIONAL AND POLITICAL IMPERATIVES FOR TEACHER EDUCATION IN NORTHERN IRELAND (NI) IN A CHANGING GLOBAL ECONOMY

Background

With the ending of the political conflict and the signing of the Belfast Agreement (April, 1998), Northern Ireland (NI) has its own Assembly (1999) with legislative policy making powers. Politicians who are elected to the Assembly choose Ministerial portfolios in proportion to their party strength based on the principle of power-sharing. Political devolution and power sharing have created a new set of policy relationships which in many ways have frustrated efforts to achieve consensus on key policy decisions, since all major legislation requires cross party support. Teacher education has been the subject of a prolonged review which concluded with the publication of a consultation document Teacher education in a climate of change: The way forward (DE and DEL 2010). While the purpose of the review was described as being concerned with matters surrounding the closer integration of initial teacher education (ITE) with induction, early professional development (EPD) and continuing professional development (CPD), issues of rationalization, demographic trends and the cost of initial teacher education (ITE) were never far away.

Purpose

The paper seeks to examine the impact of the current global recession and political context on teacher education in NI. Reconciling political, policy and professional agendas are complex, especially when set alongside the goal of building a sustainable, peaceful society which requires a substantial resource commitment. The specific challenges facing teacher education include declining demographics, over provision, reducing quotas, as well as a considerable shortfall in funding. However, a number of opportunities arising from the review provide promising prospects for teacher education although many of these are contingent on a number of broader educational initiatives being expedited.

Sources of Evidence

Data which informs the paper derive from multiple sources including education policy documents, review and strategy documents, research reports and relevant research literature. It will be supplemented by the author’s knowledge and experience as a teacher, teacher educator and international researcher and sustained contributor to the formulation, implementation and evaluation of teacher education policy in NI.

Main argument

With the predicted reduction in expenditure for Higher Education in NI likely to be £68m over the next four years, substantial cuts in teacher education are inevitable (DEL January: 2011). Prior to the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) efficiency savings in NI had been planned with the announcement of major changes to the administration of education, resulting from an overall review of public administration (RPA). Unfortunately, many of these plans have not progressed due to an inability to achieve political consensus thus reducing opportunities to achieve financial efficiencies. The education system in NI is a complex one with religious demarcations being costly in terms of both social and economic resources (OFMDFM 2005). Education is pivotal to growing a stable economy and has the potential to create greater sharing thus addressing the diseconomies of duplication of provision.

Conclusions

There is no doubt that the current economic climate is de-stabilizing and will inevitably impact negatively on the provision of teacher education. Since teacher education is undeniably a political enterprise, the current policy vacuum due partly to the transition to a new Assembly and the indecision surrounding many proposed educational initiatives could prove detrimental. Globalization, too, is pervasive, with HEIs no longer being a local, regional or national resource, but also very much globally connected, thus opening up increased competition. Beyond institutional competitiveness in NI there is a need to respond positively to these challenges and to assume a proactive role in implementing the recommendations highlighted in the review taking a longer term view rather than being consumed, defeated and damaged by the short term concerns.

Introduction: the NI context

The Belfast Agreement (1998) was designed as a political blueprint for Northern Ireland (NI) to address the causes of conflict, to define the political context and provide a new impetus for policy formulation, defined by values of pluralism, equality and social inclusion. Political devolution was accompanied by fresh hopes for education and much work to date has concentrated on the role of education in contributing to peace and reconciliation and to working towards a shared society. While there is a danger that too much might be made of regional variation, it would be imprudent to ignore the structural and cultural complexities of the policy context and its significant role in determining education policy. Education policy making has traditionally sought to effect social, political and economic change and has been informed by the national emphasis and the associated underlying cultural values and norms within countries (Lawton 1989). The articulation of explicit values acts as a basis for cultural analysis, questioning the kind of society we live in, our preferred kind of society and the means to achieve this (Lawton, 1989). Thus the prevailing policy discourses and underlying strategies within nations, the administrative systems and the prevailing social relations which exist, may be affected by broader influences, such as the local, historical and cultural traditions which characterize contexts, as well as the economic, social and political contexts of education (Raffe 2006; Crossleyand Watson 2003).

In his foreword to A Shared Future: the First Triennial Action Plan 2006-2009 (2006), the Secretary of State for NI in re-stating the government’s vision for the future of NI as a peaceful, inclusive, prosperous, stable and shared society, used the opportunity to highlight the economic, social and political costs of the societal divisions which still existed (OFMDFM 2005). He subsequently commissioned research to establish the cost of delivering services in a divided society with a view to driving down and ultimately eliminating those costs to improve the competitiveness of the Northern Ireland economy, believing that the economic argument for A Shared Future was as strong as the social justification one. All public expenditure should promote sharing over separation, except where the costs of doing so outweigh the benefits (OFMDFM 2006).

One of the most comprehensive and far-sighted education strategy documents produced since the Good Friday Agreement was the independent Strategic Review of Education which sought to examine three broad areas of policy: financial issues, strategic planning of the schools’ estate and integrating education and improving collaboration (Bain 2006). The concept of planning schools on an area basis focused on education communities:

Areas should comprise coherent sets of nursery, primary and post primary schools, as well as accessible further education provision, and as far as possible lie within a single local council area to facilitate links between education planning and community planning

(Bain 2006: 113).

While area based planning was specifically designed to support the planning of curricular provision, in an attempt to address the proliferation of small denominational schools, it has significant potential for integrating education, a conceptdeveloped by Bain (2006) to denote the numerous ways in which sharing in education could be achieved. In recognizing the significant contribution of schools designated as integrated schools, he advocated a more pervasive and inclusive strategy, focused on the dynamic process of integrating education across the school system, beginning with each school as an inclusive, civilized and tolerant learning community, building mutually beneficial relationships with other schools, and in the case of post-primary schools, with Further Education, focused on learning and sharing together.

These ideas were to be developed and overseen by a new body the Education and Skills Authority (ESA), but unfortunately, due to an enduring inability to achieve consensus across the major political parties, these plans have not yet been realized. The consequence of this is that neither the vision for integrating nor the efficiencies which were planned have been achieved as ESA has yet to be established.

On many occasions, teacher education, similarly characterized by its denominational nature, has been identified as an important vehicle for addressing the legacy of the religious and political conflict which still persists in NI. The seminal role, which teacher educators could play in promoting mutual understanding and respect for diversity, was originally highlighted in a consultative document Towards a Culture of Tolerance: education for diversity (DENI 1999). The report emphasized that none of the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) had been able to devote any significant attention to EMU in initial teacher education (DENI 1999). The more recent policy document A Shared Future (2005), in outlining the way forward, highlighted that

... universities and institutions with responsibility for training new teachers have a key role to play in preparing them to teach about living and working in a shared society and helping children and young people to respect each other’s values and differences

(OFMDFM 2005: 26-27).

Yet, in spite of these various attempts to address wider issues of social, cultural, academic and religious divisions, teacher educators for a variety of reasons have tended to resist these challenges.

Teacher education in Northern Ireland

Responsibility for teacher education extends across two government departments, the Department of Education (DE) which is predominantly responsible for policy, including the determination of intake quotas and the evaluation of initial teacher education (ITE) courses, and the Department for Employment and Learning (DEL), which among other responsibilities, oversees the financing and administration of ITE. The teacher education competence model has three distinctive but interrelated phases, initial teacher education (ITE), induction (one year) and early professional development (EPD) (two years) with a nominated lead partner assigned to each phase. The Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) lead during ITE, the Local Education Authorities (LEAs) during induction and the schools during EPD, with an expectation that all partners will contribute to each stage. There are five main providers of teacher education: three Universities (Queens University Belfast (QUB), the University of Ulster (Ulster) and the Open University (OU), and two University Colleges St Mary’s University College (SMUC) and Stranmillis University College (SUC), both of which are affiliated to QUB. The number of assignedquotas to all ITE courses for 2008/09 academic year was 643 students which represents an overall reduction of 237 places (27%) since 2004/05. This increased to 663 for the following two years due to 20 additional places being allocated for special educational needs and inclusion but reduced again in 2012/13 to an overall number of 600. Entry to the teaching profession is highly competitive with up to 15 times more applicants than places for the primary programme and 7 times more applicants than places for the post primary sector. Many of those who are unable to gain places go to either England or Scotland to train but return to NI to teach.

Significant changes have affected teacher education policy in recent years arising from the declining demographic profile which is set to continue to reduce until the end of 2011-12 although due to rise again by 2015-16. Notable among these is the age profile of the teaching workforce and the surplus of teachers,with little likelihood of retirements affecting demand for the foreseeable future (DE and DEL 2010, 5).

Employment patterns among NI beginning teachers are low with just 22% of the teachers who graduated in 2010 having obtained a permanent teaching post or teaching post of a significant temporary nature (GTCNI 2011). This situation has improved with a recent announcement of a number of new signatory projects by the NI Assembly. One of these will guarantee the employment of 230 graduate teachers on a fixed term basis specifically for the purpose of raising levels of literacy and numeracy in both primary and post primary schools.

In 2011 there were 628 graduates trained from within NI and alongside this an additional 511 teachers were registered with the GTC, all of whom had trained elsewhere. While not wishing to undermine the importance of student mobility the reality is that a significant proportion of the teachers who go outside NI to train do so because they are unable to secure a place in NI due to the very restrictive quota of places.

Early in 2012 the Minister of Education announced that an analysis of the financial sustainability of the two University Teacher Training Colleges would be undertaken (February 2012). According to the Terms of Reference the purpose of the review was to provide an independent assessment of their future financial viability and sustainability and review the costs of current provision of ITE in NI. The original business case which supported the proposed merger of Stranmillis University College with Queens University Belfast was also to be reviewed to determine whether the financial projections in the business case remained valid. This assessment was due to report in April 2012 but at the time of writing (November 2012) the outcome of this review is still awaited. The NI Higher Education strategy Graduating to Success refers on one occasion to teacher education suggesting that ' a more integrated system of delivery and funding for teacher education in Northern Ireland’ would be required (DEL 2012:5).

The financial imperatives of maintaining 4 traditional institutions in a place the size of NI [population of 1.7 million] have been queried:

It is hard to argue that an area the size of NI requires teacher training in four traditional institutions, especially when three of these are in Belfast

(Osler 2005: 9).

Multi provision of ITE will, always, be the expensive option to be justified on policy grounds other than simple financial efficiency

(Osler 2005: 8).

The review of teacher education which was initiated in 2003 sought to examine issues surrounding the closer integration of the three phases of initial, early teacher education and continuing professional development (CPD). Whilst it was not the intention of the commissioning Ministers to address structures, discussions inevitably returned to the issue of workforce planning, the need to address the numbers admitted to Initial Teacher Education (ITE) courses and the statutory and financial controls which governed it (DE 2010:2).

One of the first studies to be commissioned by DEL and DE examined demographic trends, the cost of ITE and the use of the ITE estate (Taylor and Usher2004). In their report, Taylor and Usher outlined four strategic options for the future of teacher education, the last of which recommended a fully integrated or federated structure, with overarching responsibility for all the providers offering ITE (Taylor & Usher. 2004:27). A second report, one year later, proposed to name the three Universities as the ITE providers, with the consequent closure of the two University Colleges as separate entities or their merger into a Faculty of Education at QUB (Osler2005). Osler, in making his suggestion, recognized that some 25 years earlier a plan to amalgamate the Colleges with QUB had to be abandoned due to strong opposition from both the Catholic and Protestant Churches (Chilver 1980), a situation which has recently returned.The likely controversy should also be considered against a backcloth of increasing recognition in NI of the importance of catering for and acknowledging the legitimacy of diversity (Osler2005:12).

Osler asserted that there was no evidence to suggest that training a teacher in Northern Ireland costs more, or less, than in any other part of the UK. A small country such as NI needs a smaller number of teachers, but that does not mean they can be trained in a single institution as sheer numbers might dictate. Geographical access, collegiate interaction, competition between providers and provision across subject disciplines, he believed could only enhance quality. However, he did highlight the government’s duty to ensure the efficient use of public money, emphasizing that doing nothing was not an option (Osler, 2005:10-11).

Following the publication of the Osler report, the Governing Body of SUC commissioned a review of sustainable options for the future of the College (Taylor, 2006), subsequently announcing that SUC was to merge with QUB. This was the subject of a public consultation due to: matters relating to the maintenance of the Christian ethos in the merged entity; the future role of the Transferor Representative’s Council (a body which brings together representatives from the Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Methodist Churches); safeguards around the future use of the high value physical estate of SUC; and issues of staff morale within the college as a result of the methods surrounding the announcement and subsequent handling of the proposed merger. Interestingly, concerns surrounding the Christian ethos and representation are all too familiar and share a striking similarity to those expressed by SMUC who have confirmed their resolve to remain as a small Catholic institution. The Minister in responding to questions at the launch of the SUC consultation document pledged:

Protective measures will be in place to give voice and legal commitment to the historic position of Stranmillis in the controlled [Protestant] sector and in the religious education element of teaching

(Kennedy 15 March 2011).

Before leaving office the Minister fully endorsed the merger. However, subsequently, with a new Assembly and corresponding change in Ministerial portfolios following elections in May 2011, and in the light of the outcome of the consultation process this did not proceed. The review document made no mention of the proposed merger nor did it address the specific issue of the proliferation of teacher education providers, referring only to the need for greater efficiencies in the light of the demographic changes.

With teacher education quotas reducing annually all the HEIs will have to become increasingly competitive to sustain their current positions especially with the recent budgetary cuts. All of the above attempts to resolve these issues were influenced by policy ideas that had been tried, tested and successfully implemented elsewhere predominantly in Scotland.

Some duplication of ITE provision does exist mainly across the two University Colleges, both of whom offer a four year Bachelor of Education (B Ed) primary course and five similar subjects at post primary level (Business Studies, Religious Education, Technology and Design, Mathematics and Sciences). The post primary subjects are also replicated across the three Universities. The OU is a small provider with just 20 postgraduate places allocated annually across the full range of subject areas, using distance learning. Each University College (UC) has a current admissions intake of 95 students to the primary programme and 50 to post primary (2011-12). QUB and Ulster offer postgraduate programmes with 137 and 117 places allocated respectively (2012-13). English is the only subject duplicated across the two providers. Post primary provision presents the greatest challenge currently for all HEIs with reducing numbers in each subject area. Furthermore, the new Entitlement Curriculum for all 14-19 year olds is designed to give access to learning pathways that provide broader more flexible curriculum choice across both academic and vocational routes. This has clear implications for teacher education but in the absence of a common and cohesive 14-19 education and training policy and strategy, linked to an agreed financial model, very little has been progressed. Teacher education for these sectors is provided separately, with the teaching qualification for schoolteachers offered on a full time basis only and the Further Education qualification offered solely on a part-time basis. The opportunity to consider a more integrated approach, in which elements of the two programmes could be usefully combined for the 14-19 age group, within are-configured model would seem timely.