This Call for Papers is on teacher educators in the related further education (and skills) (FE) sector across the world. This call follows the Routledge publication of Professional Development of Teacher Educators in Further Education: Pathways, knowledge, identities and vocationalism (Loo, 2020 published in December 2019). Teacher educators are “those who are educating prospective teachers, and they include prospective teachers in all education sectors irrespective of national boundaries, as it is dependent on contexts, be they education settings (sectoral, or institution-related) or country-related” (Loo, 2007, p. 426). This edited research monograph aims to understand how teacher educators across the globe perform as trainers in the sector.

This sector may be viewed as ‘significantly different’ to the compulsory, higher education sectors, and professional education. These differences might relate to the significant provisions of work or occupation-related disciplines, for instance, in England, over 70 per cent of these provisions are vocational-related (Frontier Economics Limited, 2016, Table 17). However, one may also argue that work-related programmes are also increasingly offered in secondary, higher and professional education. The previous studies on vocational education and training in the FE sector still have significant gaps (Loo and Jameson, 2017). Coffield (1998) was critical of the cosy arrangements of research findings in the education sector. Terminologies such as pedagogy and vocational education and training were not clearly defined nor contested with the tacit notion that there were collective agreements amongst the academic fraternity. In short, the sector rather than viewed as ‘distinctive’, it should be perceived, for research purposes, as having commonalities with other educational areas. These commonalities include academic and vocational as a continuum, academic levels from the pre-university to higher levels, and the age groups of the learners from 14+ and beyond. These overlaps with other sectors offer interesting dilemmas for teacher educators in their roles as training the next generation of FE teachers and also in terms of their professional development. It is these educators that the call is focused.

The editor is keen to accept manuscripts, preferably based on empirical research, using theoretical frameworks that have applicability in teacher training and related explicitly to teacher educators. Contributors may come from academics, researchers, practitioners, managers and associated stakeholders.

Contributions should cover one or more of the following areas:

1. Perspectives of teacher educators who are involved in teacher training programmes.
2. Views of policymakers, professional/occupational bodies and other related stakeholders. They might include researchers from academic and professional institutions and socio-development change agencies, think tanks and transnational organisations (such as the OECD).
3. The impact of information, communication and electronic technologies (ICET) on the pedagogic delivery by teacher educators.
4. Training or education, including professional development of novice and experienced teacher educators.
5.  Professional identities of teacher educators.
6. Teacher educators’ teaching know-how and its application (pedagogy).
7. The professionalization of teacher educators.
8. Opportunities and issues of teacher educators.
9. International comparisons and perspectives of teacher educators.
10. Ethical, gender and social justice dimensions of teacher educators.

Investigating and understanding these actors and agencies are the foci of this Call for Papers. There is a two-phase approach starting with abstracts. Each abstract should be around 300 words (+ or – 10%) inclusive of a short reference list using Harvard referencing style, in Times New Roman font and font size of 12. The abstract should include a title, author’s name and institution, e-mail address, the topic of investigation, related conceptual frameworks, details of the empirical study (qualitative and/or quantitative methodologies), findings and contributions of the study. It is unlikely that ongoing projects will offer sufficient criticality in this edited research monograph. The successful authors will be invited to submit a full manuscript of 5,000-word length (all-inclusive) with specific instructions at the next phase.

Submission Instructions

Interested authors are invited to address their queries and submit their manuscripts by e-mail to Sai Loo at sai.loo@ucl.ac.uk.

Please note the following dates:

• Phase 1: Abstract screening (deadline for submitting abstracts: 31 March 2020)
• Date by which authors of successful proposals will be notified: 30 April 2020
• Phase 2: Manuscript review (deadline for submitting manuscripts: 31 October 2020)
• Date by which authors of successful submissions will be notified: 31 January 2021
• Expected research monograph publication date: Latter half of 2021
• Each submitted manuscript will undergo a double-blind review process and the decision of the reviewers and editors will be final.

Contact email: sai.loo@ucl.ac.uk

Editor

Dr Sai Loo, UCL Institute of Education, University College London, England.

References

Coffield F 1998 A fresh approach to learning for the learning age: the contribution of research. Higher Education Digest, 31: 4-6

Frontier Economics 2016 Further Education workforce data for England: Analysis of the 2014-2015 Staff Individualised Record (SIR) data. London, Frontier Economics

Loo S 2007 Learning to be teachers of adult numeracy. Journal of Education for Teaching, 33(4): 425-440

Loo S 2019 Further Education, Professional and Occupational Pedagogy: Knowledge and Experiences. Abingdon, Routledge

Loo S, Jameson J 2017 Introduction: Vocationalism in the English context. In: Loo S, Jameson J (Eds) Vocationalism in Further and Higher Education: Policy, Programmes and Pedagogy. Abingdon, Routledge