What is the role of the meso-level ‘buffer zone’ in the policy-making process with regard to FE professional formation? 1.How do those in the meso-level ‘buffer zone’ mediate policies on FE professionalization? 2.What is the specific role of HEIs and teacher educators in this process and how much agency do they have? 3.Should they have greater agency and, if so, what might facilitate this process?

The meso-level ‘buffer zone’ HEIs Teacher educators (TEds) UCET TELL IfL ETF UCU Ofsted

Factors influencing FE professionalization Managerialism Identities Incorporation Neglected sector

Policy-making ‘gets done to people’ (Bowe et al, 1992, p7) Professional ‘deficiencies’ Government re-professionalization policies

Policy-making process (Bowe et al, 2012; Ozga, 2000; Hodgson and Spours, 2006) Players Interaction Construction of policies

What ‘games are being played’? Surfers Manipulators Activists ‘Enforcers’ Quitters‘Comply-ers’

Issues The players are too fragmented to have effect. The players are all too reactive: even together, they would still have no impact Pro-activity?

A new pro-active CoP? Quitters need to become responders: they look for ways of having and showing the impact of what they do. Surfers need to become producers : producing evidence and educating those in power Manipulators need to become ‘impactors’: work needs to be oriented towards the impact it has. Activists need to become collegials: becoming part of a pressure group which is accessible to educators, knowledgeable about ITE, media savvy TELL?

References Bowe, R., Ball, J. and Gold, A. (1992) Reforming education and changing schools, case studies in policy sociology, London: Routledge Hodgson, A. and Spours, K. (2006) 'An analytical framework for policy engagement: the contested case of reform in England', Journal of Education Policy, 21 (6), Ozga, J. (2000) Policy research in educational settings, contested terrain, Buckingham: Open University Press