Rethinking partnership in initial teacher education – developing professional identities for a new subject specialist team which includes a joint school-university appointment – a case study in mathematics Rosa Archer, Sian Morgan, Sue Pope University of Manchester rosa.archer@manchester.ac.uk

National context 2010 White paper The Importance of Teaching Teaching Schools – 100 p.a. rising to 500 in 2015 Academy status – 2000 currently (half of all secondary schools) Expansion of Teach First Introduction of School Direct Changes to ITE allocations

The team Teaching in school Teaching in HE Advisory work Qualifications 10 years 6 years BSc, MSc, PGCE, PhD 8 years BSc, PGCE 1 year Those with HE experience had only worked in post-92 universities that were former teacher training colleges

The scenario 50 PGCE secondary mathematics students All new tutor team – two in September 2011, one in January 2012 Previous team had two very long serving members Ofsted rated ‘outstanding’ provision Well established high quality partnership

Joint school/university appointment Why? What? How? Which students? Students had to apply to be involved with the school, criteria included being confident teaching mechanics at A level

Research questions How does a new team of mathematics educators (some with experience of other institutions) establish itself and ensure that previous strengths and successes are maintained and developed? Joint school-university appointment is novel, but given current government priorities something that is likely to become more commonplace (TDA, 2011). What are the affordances of this model? What are the personal challenges for the appointee and colleagues working with the appointee – in school and in university? Professional identity provides a means of interpreting the way practitioners conduct their work (Day et al, 2005)

Third space Mixed identities: Boundaries are blurred as a consequence of closer partnership with schools. Mixed identities and third space professional. Whitchurch (2008) Third space: Learning community in which the object of activity is extended and the activity itself reorganised resulting in new opportunities for learning. Gutierrez (2012)

Challenges for new ITE tutors Establishing credibility with: students university colleagues school colleagues Including: tutor induction M level study Becoming a teacher educator is challenging at the best of times (Berry, 2007; Swennen & van der Klink, 2009), as is establishing yourself as a teacher in a new school (Day et al. 2007).

Data collection methods Survey of student teachers Semi-structured interviews with teachers Focus group with university tutors Team members’ reflective logs

Students’ written comments It has been the hardest but amazing year. Great course and excellent support - thank you! I'll never forget my time here. It's been fantastic - everything I hoped for. Overall I enjoyed the PGCE and feel prepared for the year ahead. Thanks

Students’ suggestions for the future clearer explanation of how the year works and what will be expected of us at the very beginning give details of assignments well in advance more consistency on grading between tutors more guidance on monitoring/recording/reporting

Feedback from school based colleagues Student teachers get a fantastic deal Exciting to be working closely with university colleagues Work of the department has been enriched Need to clarify roles and responsibilities with all members of the department

Feedback from university based colleagues Collegiate, hard working, committed team Keen to get things right Willing to help Very high expectations both personally and for the students Could be more forthcoming in meetings offering ideas May want to set clearer boundaries for students

Personal reflections Challenge of new responsibilities, new cultures Working with existing documentation and course structure Developing new relationships with one another, with university based and school based colleagues Assessing assignments (six M level, three individual study packs and monitoring files) Moderating school placement grades My aim is to understand more fully the complexities of teacher training and the nature of teaching and learning. The concern with feelings and perceptions renders objectification and quantification insufficient on its own. Statistics may show interesting trends but it is the stories behind them that explain these trends.

For the school/university appointee Can easily reinforce university input Travelling between sites makes it difficult to catch up with people informally Managing the competing priorities of school, university and M level study Making work space away from the students when they are on placement Assessing students’ school practice

Answering the research questions It appears that the new team hasn’t had a detrimental impact on student outcomes Opportunities to do things differently – lesson study, student teachers in different institutions, students coming into university to do mathematics, collaborative work with teachers (TA funded lesson study pilot)

The team’s future priorities Develop planning and reflection through lesson study Share the reasons for our behaviours and expectations Work more closely with a number of schools Involve mentors in course delivery Enhance mentors’ understanding of the course Work with teachers involved in different routes Paper available at http://www.bsrlm.org.uk/IPs/ip32-3/BSRLM-IP-32-3-03.pdf