Selena Chan
Output 2009 – CPIT research week
September 2009
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Why do this project?
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Participants’ profiles
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Initial findings
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Aspects of identity and boundary crossing
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Where to from here
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Some recommendations
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CAT review at CPIT
Ako Aotearoa Southern hub funding required a
wider perspective to be taken
Involvement of South Island Educational
Developers group
Trades tutors a focus
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New trades tutors (starting full-time in 2007)
13 male tutors from 5 Polytechnics teaching in
8 trades
Age range 27 to 63 – average 40 years
Over ½ left school with minimal qualifications
but all have at least trade certificate
All held positions of responsibility before
beginning teaching
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Motivators for entry into teaching
Concepts of teaching in an ITP as compared
to training in the workplace
Identity formation as trades teachers - concentrating
on this one for this presentation which also includes aspects of the 2 points
above
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Suggestions for the improvement of teacher
training courses at ITPs
Support for new tutors not always available
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Concepts of craftsmanship (Ainley, 1995) versus scholarship
of teaching & learning (Trigwell, Martin, Benjamin & Prosser, 2000)
Identity formation - Erickson & Marcia (ASHE-ERIC, 2002) but
applying the work of Vygotsky (Penuel & Wertsch, 1995)
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Communities of practice
(Wenger, 1998) – engagement, imagination &
alignment with community, practice, meaning & identity
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Learning as becoming (Hodkinson, Biesta & James, 2008)
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Boundary crossing concepts
(Jones, 2007; Manathunga, 2007)
Identification as a trades person
Arana: I think I am both because I can’t be one without
the other really. And I need to maintain my
integrity in having student respect by still being an
electrician. So as far as work goes, I am a tutor but I
still need that recognition as electrician. The thing
is they still need to wire a house say, they still need
someone to instruct them how to wire up a house. I
got to still be a sparky.
Arapeta: I love cookingI live for cooking but I must
admit I enjoy as much the mentoring side. Yeah,
that’s right, its something I love, its easy to do, it’s a
hobby for me. Cooking is not a job.
Rawiri: I am not so focused on being a teacher, I don’t
want to be a teacher, still want to be chef that
happens to teach. So I don’t want to be a tutor or a
teacher that just happens to teach cooking. So I
don’t know if that fits into the mould but seventeen
years of being locked away in a kitchen, cooking, I
don’t want to lose that. To my students that what I
am, I am a chef that happens to be standing in front
of this class teaching them about what I love. And I
don’t wanna to lose that.
Moving towards becoming a teacher
Hemi: It was good. It was actually quite scary and this
is going to sound stupid. But that is when I realised
teaching is another trade. The job is teaching it just
happens to be painting. That I suppose is obvious
but all the things around how people learning, that
was brilliant.
Maaka: I consider myself as a more a teacher than I do
builder. Ah, it would have been. It was fairly early
in the piece, because I started realising these things
fit me.
There is a change in how students are perceived
as compared to apprentices being trained in the
workplace.
Maaka: That’s a curly question. I think now, I find I
have more responsibility and whereas before you
could say they were work colleagues, equals and
even though they are. And now I see that I have
quite a lot of influence on the young fellas. They
look up to you a lot more. With that tutor role, you
have to be careful what you say, how you respond to
them. Yeah, a lot more responsibility.
And for Hemi, a change in focus for his teaching
from his trade to the literacy skills of his
students.
Hemi: Encouraging them to write. Which is an
exercise [tutor Hemi defers to] does where he gives
them a notebook which we disguise as actually a
journal and everyday, they writing something that
they have learnt, or something they have found hard
or… we avoid feelings and things like that.
And also encouraging them to get out in front of a
board early on. So just making it, without them
being aware, they are standing in front of a whole
class, drawing on the board or writing something on
the board. Making it safe and comfortable about
that.
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Does this generalise to the wider ITP sector?
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What of work overseas?
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What does this study tell us about our
professional/vocational identities?
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Communities of practice (internal, external)
important
Using the ‘apprenticeship’ model to provide
mentorship
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Induction systems need to be more effective
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Role models important
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Contact:
Selena Chan
email:- chans@cpit.ac.nz
Blogging at:- http://mportfolios.blogspot.com