Resistance and relational activism: exploring teacher education at the interstices

For a decade the teacher education sector in England has been in the hands of DfE policy makers who view teacher training as a market to be manipulated, as illustrated by the results of the 2022 Initial Teacher Training (ITT) accreditation process. In 2015 Ellis and McNichol argued that as a sector the universities had not recognised or responded with enough force to the threats of the policy implementation of the ideologically based transition from teacher education to teacher training in England. The lack of attrition gained by the 2013-14 BERA-RSA Inquiry into Research and the Teaching Profession also indicated that research in the field typically fails to gain the attention of the DfE. If we are to believe the dominant DfE narrative the most attractive feature of the current teacher education map is the ‘golden thread’ of ITT, the Early Career Framework (ECF) and National Professional Qualifications (NPQs), all offered by the designated providers representing a pincer movement on the sector in which many teacher educators feel they now have limited agency.

Teacher education at the interstices
In this increasingly prescriptive teacher training landscape, it is worth noticing forms of teacher education and learning undertaken in the interstices, including those engaging educators within and beyond the 11-16 school sector. Social media is used as a mechanism to bring people together, share knowledge and approaches, and to both share and challenge the dominant narratives. Teacher professional development gatherings framed as TeachMeets, unconferences and festivals have proliferated. Networks have emerged which support the wellbeing and progression of educators in minority groups, and those at transitional stages in their careers. The pandemic created new momentum in many of these as well as ensuring that they occupied the online spaces used by educators.

In this workshop participants will explore the proposition that our traditional academic approaches to influence policy and to construct practice in teacher education are falling short and new ways of being are needed and being created in the interstices. We will draw on narratives, provocations and freshest thinking to explore the extent to which these interstitial spaces might be experienced as resistance and/or relational activism.

The workshop will be in four parts:

Video narratives. Short video narratives of interstitial teacher ‘education’ from the doctoral research of four members of our own university-hosted network will be shared (Sidebottom, 2021, Holme, 2019, Mycroft, 2020, Tremayne, 2021). The researchers will provide fresh perspectives on their work and its current and potential implications.
Conceptual provocations. Key ideas from three non-disciplinary sources will be introduced; how to resist, challenge the system and influence decision making (Bolton, 2017), conversations to restore hope to the future (Wheatley, 2009) and relational activism (O'Shaughnessy and Huddart Kennedy 2010).
Personal and professional narratives. Using a co-coaching approach (developed through 2020-22 Erasmus project designed in response to the educational challenges of the pandemic) participants will be invited to contribute their own narratives. This will offer an opportunity to consider the realities of practice, to reflect, to respond and to begin to re-imagine what might be possible.
Freshest thinking. Drawing on the principles of the thinking environment (Kline, xxx) the workshop will close with a thinking round in which participants will offer their freshest thinking.
Anticipated outcomes

Workshop participants will be invited to video record their own narratives and freshest thinking at their convenience, and to share these with the facilitators. A collated and edited video will be produced and published through the university research and practice centre (permissions and consent will be gained). A BERA blogpost will be submitted to introduce the video and to encourage dissemination. An opportunity to form a new teacher education network associated with the themes of this workshop will be developed.

References
BERA-RSA (2014) Research and the Teaching Profession: Building the Capacity for a Self-Improving Education System, British Educational Research Association https://www.bera.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/BERA-RSA-Research-Teaching-Profession-FULL-REPORT-for-web.pdf
Bolton, M. 2017. How to Resist: Turn Protest to Power. Bloomsbury, London
Ellis, V. and McNicholl, J. (2015), Transforming Teacher Education: Reconfiguring The Academic Work, Bloomsbury, London and New York, NY.
Holme, R. 2019. An investigation into teacher-initiated or DIY Professional Development: the push and pull of teacher Professional Development, EdD Thesis, University of Dundee
Kline, N. 2002. Time to Think: Listening to Ignite the Human Mind, Cassell Illustrated, Octupus Publishing Group Ltd, London
Mycroft, H.L. 2020. Strange Times: The creation of a nomadic community education Imaginary. Doctoral thesis, University of Huddersfield.
O’Shaughnessy, S. and Huddart Kennedy, E. 2010. Relational activism: Reimagining Women’s Environmental Work As Cultural change, Canadian Journal of Sociology, 35(4)
Sidebottom, K. 2021. Rhizomes, assemblages and nomad war machines – re-imagining curriculum development for posthuman times. PhD thesis, Lancaster University
Tremayne, D. 2021. More than just a chat? Online teacher-learning communities as sites for professional learning and teacher agency, PhD thesis, Leeds Beckett University
Wheatley, M.J. 2009. Turning to each other: Simple conversations to restore hope to the future (2nd ed), Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. Oakland, CA