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Diane Swift

Executive Director, Keele and North Staffordshire Teacher Education

TEP Level 3 Programme: Training Excellent Mentors, Coaches and Facilitators

Diane Swift is Executive Director of Keele and North Staffordshire Teacher Education, a partnership of over 80 primary middle and special schools, predominately in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire. It supports several School Direct Lead Schools and Teaching School Alliances to offer a primary initial teacher education programme that includes specialisms, as well as a SEND pathway. With a cohort of over 70 Associate Teachers completing their PGCE with QTS programme, the organisation works in collaborative partnership with Keele University and is part of Shaw Education Trust.

Having been in post for five years, Diane signed up to the TEP Level 3 Programme: Training Excellent Mentors, Coaches and Facilitators.“Our ethos at Keele and North Staffordshire Teacher Educationis to develop a community of teachers who work together collaboratively, critically, creatively and carefully to understand and improve the positive impact they have on pupil wellbeing and achievement,” she explained. “We believe that Teacher Educators (TEs) are at the heart of this process. Within our SCITT we promote the TE role as a key middle leadership opportunity. It is not overstating their role to suggest that the future of the profession lies on our TEs shoulders, and so we feel it is essential that we develop career opportunities for our TEs. We were therefore delighted to access NASBTT’s TEP and found the emphasis on informed collaboration to be particularly beneficial.”

Diane revealed that the organisation has further developed the principles of “informed collaboration” through its own emphasis on co-analysis, directly impacting on their practice. “Co-analysis is a reflective and empowering dialogic process that continually drives the improvement of professional practice towards shared goals that develop both the individual and that relate to the ‘big ideas’ of being a teaching professional (see summary below),” she said. “We would highly recommend NASBTT’s TEP to others and are now looking forward to developing an extension to our own programmes, combining our passion for co-analysis with our emphasis on developing a philosophical approach to initial teacher education. We are considering what it might mean to ‘be a philosophical teacher educator’, one who is aware of both the ‘big ideas’ or key concepts of teaching, and who can help trainees relate their ‘in the moment’ experiences to these big ideas so as to develop their expertise. We are delighted that NASBTT is also interested in such a development.”

 

CO-ANALYSIS – A SUMMARY

Co-analysis is a reflective and empowering dialogic process that continually drives the improvement of professional practice towards shared goals that develop both the individual and relate to the ‘big ideas’ of being a teaching professional. Where co-analysis works well:

  • It is predicated on the ambitions of professional enhancement, inclusion of the ideas from both in relation to what it is to ‘be a teacher’ and the motivation to participate.
  • There is recognition that both the ‘in the moment’ experience of co-analysis and the subsequent reflection on the new understandings, and knowledges created are both cognitive and social i.e. there is recognition that teaching is a practical profession underpinned by an informed philosophy.
  • There is acknowledgement that this process is never ‘finished’ and that searching for a deeper understanding of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment should be seen as a positive feature of being a professional teacher and teacher educator.
  • The dialogue is simultaneously rigorous, challenging and nurturing and the asymmetry of the relationship is acknowledged in an empowering and enabling rather than in an authoritarian manner.
  • The dialogue draws on a range of resources and references, not only those visible within the school context, but those that can be referenced beyond the site of experience and that can relate to, inform and challenge the ‘in the moment’ experiences of both the teacher and teacher educator.

 


Provider details: Keele and North Staffordshire Teacher Education

Website: https://knste-shaw.org.uk

Contact NASBTT:

Alison Hobson, Executive Officer
Telephone: 01933 627049
Mobile: 07925 805399
Email: office@nasbtt.org.uk

Media enquiries:

All media enquiries and interview requests should be directed to Phil Smith, NASBTT PR Consultant
Telephone: 01778 218180
Mobile: 07866 436159
Email: phil@philsmithcommunications.co.uk

 

For further reading you might be interested in viewing NASBTT’s Member Case Studies

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