The Practical Work of Scholarship in Australian Technical and Further Education Institutions

Authors

  • Fleur Goulding Holmesglen Institute, Melbourne, Australia
  • Terri Seddon Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14297/jpaap.v1i2.65

Keywords:

scholarship, vocational education and training, academic practice, higher education, TAFE

Abstract

A recent trend in Australian education is the diversification of programme delivery outside institutions’ traditional sector of education, including delivery of bachelor degrees by some public vocational education and training institutions (known in Australia as technical and further education, or TAFE, institutes). The delivery of higher education programmes in non-traditional providers, such as TAFE institutes, has created significant challenges for teachers working in these settings. They work within a vocational education and training (VET) culture but confront the regulatory frameworks demanded of higher education providers. Scholarship is a particularly problematic issue because it has not been an expectation in VET providers but is a key feature in higher education. This article examines the emerging nature of scholarship in a TAFE institute offering higher education programmes. We report on an analysis of regulatory and quality assurance documentation, which begins to formalise the notion of ‘scholarship’ in VET. We then compare this emerging official definition with higher education TAFE teachers’ experience of scholarship using interviews. We argue that higher education teachers and their TAFE institutes are forming distinctive hybrid scholarly cultures and practices as they take on external expectations and navigate through existing orientations to industry, educational commitments to teaching and the absence of scholarly structures and values in TAFE.

Author Biographies

  • Fleur Goulding, Holmesglen Institute, Melbourne, Australia

    Fleur Goulding completed a minor thesis in 2010 as part of her Master of Education at Monash University under the supervision of the co-author and went on to receive the Faculty of Education’s 2011 Top Graduating Student Award. She also works in a mixed-sector institution, where she supports the higher education function through her role as Manager, Institutional Research and Planning.

  • Terri Seddon, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

    Terri Seddon is a Professor of Education at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Her research examines intersections between policy and practice by focusing on knowledge and change. Terri investigates the effects of global transitions that disturb workplaces and the way educators engage with knowledge in ways that govern adult learning, educational work and innovation and change.

References

Angus, L., & Seddon, T. (2000). Social and organisational renorming of education. In Beyond nostalgia: reshaping Australian education (pp. 151-169). Camberwell, Victoria: ACER Press.

Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA). (2009a). Report of an audit of the Gordon Institute of TAFE (Higher Education). AUQA. Retrieved from http://teqsa.gov.au/sites/default/files/auditreport_gordon_2009.pdf.

Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA). (2009b). Report of an audit of Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE (Higher Education). AUQA. Retrieved from http://teqsa.gov.au/sites/default/files/auditreport_nmit_2009.pdf.

Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA). (2010a). Audit manual. Version 7.1. AUQA. Retrieved from http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/127066/20110826-0004/www.auqa.edu.au/files/auditmanuals/audit_manual_version_7.1_webversion.pdf.

Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA). (2010b). Report of an audit of Box Hill Institute of TAFE (Higher Education). AUQA. Retrieved from http://teqsa.gov.au/sites/default/files/auditreport_boxhill_2010.pdf.

Babbie, E. (2010). The Practice of Social Research, (12th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Bartram, A., Stanwick, J., & Loveder, P. (2010). Review of NCVER building researcher capacity initiative. Adelaide: National Centre for Vocational Education Research. Available from http://www.ncver.edu.au/publications/2306.html

Boshier, R. (2009). Why is the scholarship of teaching and learning such a hard sell? Higher Education Research and Development, 28(1), 1-15.

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07294360802444321

Boyer, E. L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: priorities of the professoriate. Princeton, New Jersey: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Brew, A. (2010). Transforming academic practice through scholarship. International Journal for Academic Development, 15(2), 105-16.

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13601441003737618

Connell, R. W. (1983). Intellectuals and intellectual work. In Which way is up? Sydney: Allen and Unwin.

Connell, R. W. (1993). Work for researchers. In Schools and social justice (pp. 109-124). Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Connell, R. W. (2007). Southern theory: the global dynamics of knowledge in social science. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Glassick, C. E., Huber, M. E., & Maeroff, G. I. (1997). Scholarship assessed: evaluation of the professoriate. San Fransisco: Josey-Bass.

Harwood, J., & Harwood, D. (2004). Higher education in further education: delivering higher education in a further education context – a study of five south west colleges. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 28(2), 153-164.

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0309877042000206723

Kelly, A., Wheelahan, L., & Billet, S. (2009). Betwixt and between: higher education teachers in TAFE. Proceedings of the 12th annual AVETRA conference. AVETRA. Available from http://avetra.org.au/publications/conference-archives/conference-archives-2009/papers-presentations-209

King, M., & Widdowson, J. (2009). Scholarly activity in higher education delivered in FE: a study by the Mixed Economy Group of colleges. Retrieved from http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/heinfe/MEG_Scholary_Activity_Report.pdf

Kreber, C. (2005). Charting a critical course on the scholarship of university teaching movement. Studies in Higher Education, 30(4), 389-405.

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03075070500160095

Levin, J. S. (2004). The community college as a baccalaureate-granting institution. The Review of Higher Education, 28(1), 1-22.

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/rhe.2004.0029

Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA). (2007a). National Protocols for Higher Education Approval Processes. MCEETYA. Retrieved from http://www.mceecdya.edu.au/verve/_resources/NationalProtocolsOct2007_Complete.pdf

MCEETYA. (2007b). Guidelines for the registration of non self-accrediting higher education institutions and the accreditation of their courses. National Guidelines for Higher Education Approval Processes. MCEETYA. Retrieved from http://www.mceecdya.edu.au/verve/_resources/NationalGuidelinesOct2007_AandB.pdf.

Moodie, G. (2012). Research overview: mixed sector tertiary education. Adelaide: National Centre for Vocational Education Research. Retrieved from www.ncver.edu.au/publications/2468.html

National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). (2013). Opportunities for researchers. Available from: http://www.ncver.edu.au/research/opportunities.html

Parry, G., Davies, P., & Williams, J. (2004). Difference, diversity and distinctiveness: higher education in the learning and skills sector. 2nd ed. London: Learning and Skills Development Agency.

Punch, K.F. (2005). Introduction to social research: quantitative and qualitative approaches. 2nd ed. London: SAGE Publications.

Rice, R.E. (2002). Beyond Scholarship Reconsidered: toward an enlarged vision of the scholarly work of faculty members. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 90, 7-17.

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/tl.51

Trigwell, K., Martin, E., Benjamin, J., & Prosser, M. (2000). Scholarship of teaching: a model. Higher Education Research and Development, 19, 155-168.

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/072943600445628

Turner, R., McKenzie, L., & Stone, M. (2009). ‘Square peg – round hole’: the emerging professional identities of HE in FE lecturers in a partner college network in south-west England. Research in Post Compulsory Education, 14(4), 355-368.

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13596740903360919

Turner, R., McKenzie, L.M., McDermott, A.P., & Stone, M. (2009). Emerging HE cultures; perspectives from CETL award holders in a partner college network. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 33(3), 255-263.

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03098770903026172

Wheelahan, L., Moodie, G., Billet, S., & Kelly, A. (2009). Higher education in TAFE. Adelaide: National Centre for Vocational Education Research. Available from http://www.ncver.edu.au/publications/2167.html

Young, P. (2002). ‘Scholarship is the word that dare not speak its name’: lecturers’ experiences of teaching on a higher education programme in a further education college. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 26(3): 273-286.

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03098770220149620a

Downloads

Published

2013-11-30

Issue

Section

Original Research