EVALUACIÓN DE LA PROTECCIÓN EXISTENTE:

Thérèse (CT) is positive about the extension of ITE programmes seeing it as a learning opportunity to hone one’s skills. Nevertheless, the possible financial burden on PSTs to engage in a two-year ITE programme was raised as a concern, and identified by Thérèse as a possible mitigating factor for some prospective students. She suggested financial support of some kind to be made available to PSTs, as is done for nursing students. The second CT, interviewed, Trish, believes that since the extension to ITE programmes, she does not see the PSTs as often.

I have always worked generally with students from UCD [name of HEI], so they were here every day until lunch time. I saw them on a daily basis for a transfer of

information. I don’t know whether that is still the case with UCD [name of HEI] because I haven’t had a UCD [name of HEI] student for a number of years, I’ve had Trinity[name of HEI] last year and DCU [name of HEI] this year. So, I’m not seeing them as much. They’re not here as much. Even to get involved in to go on a trip or to help you, support you, on a daily basis – maybe run a club or something like that. I’m not seeing the student as much this year but I don’t know whether that’s because DCU [name of HEI]in essence is different to UCD [name of HEI] (Trish, CT).

The principal, Tanya, has mixed feelings about the newly reconceptualised programme. Although positive about the experiences gained by PSTs in two different schools: “we can certainly see a difference in terms of confidence and I’d say competence very often as well with the year 2 students”, she questions whether the academic element of the course has changed. Tanya, also raises the issue of financial stress on PSTs.

Respondents from CS1 appear to have been affected in different ways by the reconceptualisation of ITE programmes. Whereas Thérèse experienced no impact on her workload, as a post holder and programme co-ordinator, Trish (CT) had a different experience. The promise of "free time" to complete other obligations was rescinded after PSTs timetables

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changed during the year, without notice to the CTs. Tanya indicated that there was a bigger impact on the workload of the DP, stating:

I would say it has impacted more on the work of the deputy principal, it certainly has because the deputy principal in this school and probably in many schools, does the timetable and it can present difficulties when the hours need to change and that in itself wouldn’t be a problem if all of the universities had the same requirements. But not only do they have different requirements, but they have different requirements for each year so it means revisiting the timetable a number of times in the year and reorganising it and that is a lot of work (Principal, CS1).

Similar to CS1, mixed feelings were expressed by CS2 participants. Leona (CT) cited the real benefit of the new ITE programme as being the extended period PSTs get to spend in schools, thereby enabling them to participate in extra-curricular activities and embed themselves in school life. Luke (CT), however, queried whether the reason behind the extension was to slow down the output of teachers graduating each year. He also questioned the benefit of the “Block” element of the new ITE courses, as in his opinion the substantial increase in the number of lessons taught during “Block” in the past, appeared to be missing from the new courses. Although Larry (DP) acknowledges the benefit of PSTs working in two different schools, due to difficulty in obtaining placements, he questions whether that actually happens in reality.

Unsurprisingly, Larry stated that there had been no impact on his workload since the

reconceptualisation of ITE programmes. Unlike the other cases, Leona (CT) who organised SP in her school noted that the changes made to SP have had a huge impact on her workload, stating:

Yes, because as different universities have different times so it’s hard to kind of get all that in line and then sometimes you know you have people who are absolutely desperate to get a place and they might arrive ... like we had one student who arrived I think it was from ... was it Trinity [name of HEI] rang us and said: ‘Please can you place this

student?’ She arrived after Christmas and you don’t like to let anybody down so we took her in and then that’s a lot of work to try and get her up to speed, so yeah.

Referring to the newly extended 2-year PME programme, Declan (DP of CS3) is positive about the 2-year element of the course in that PSTs can gain experience in two different schools. Dan (CT), however, states that he "would have absolutely hated it [a two-year course] [and would] … feel sorry for anyone who has to do it”, as he found the H.Dip. long and

repetitive. Nevertheless, he welcomes the opportunity for PSTs to spend more time on SP and to gain teaching experience in different schools. Dan is the only case study participant to raise the issue of “over-load” during the interviews. Believing that nowadays more work is being foisted on and demands being made of PSTs and NQTs. In Dan’s opinion, more experienced teachers should be made the focus of professional development initiatives:

I suppose one overall comment is, I think there’s a lot more work put on them now, especially follow up programmes like Droichead and stuff and I actually think we’re

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hitting the wrong people sometimes. I think ... I know they’re going to bring in

Continuous Professional Development for all teachers eventually through the Teaching Council, but I do definitely think that it’s the wrong people who are being hit, if they are doing a 2-year degree or course on that and then they have to come and do follow- up courses, which are repetitive in themselves by their nature, I think it’s rather unfair on them.

In stark contrast to Dan, Deirdre (CT) believes the newly reconceptualised and extended courses are welcome. Deirdre acknowledges that the one-year HDip. course was reflective of the business of a teacher’s life, but believes the one-year duration was too “intense and compact”. Deirdre is positive about the extension to ITE programmes, believing PSTs will “cover a lot more” and gain more teaching experience.

I do welcome the fact that it’s 2 years, I definitely think they need the time. I don’t know now from having talked to them whether it’s as intense as before, maybe it is, but I’d like to see a departure from so much written work and reporting and paper. There seems to be a huge amount of paperwork and that’s not very indicative of what they will have to do when they start teaching, I don’t think … I suppose I think it depends from school to school how committed the management are to the programmes. When I did my Dip in Castleknock [name of placement school] we would have met with the co- operating teacher and the deputy principal once a month and we would have gone through all our lesson plans, any problems we were having, discipline issues. My co- operating teacher would have met with me at least once a week for coffee, but we would have had time allocated to us to do that (Deirdre, CT).

Dan and Deirdre have contrasting opinions on whether newly-conceptualised ITE programmes are affecting their work as CTs. Dan has experienced no change, whereas Deirdre is anxious that her pupils may be falling behind in classwork. Smith and Avetisian (2011) also refer to the “two-fold challenge” (p. 336) faced by CTs in supporting student teachers’

‘progressive’ ideas while also ensuring their own pupils do well. Deirdre articulates this conundrum stating:

It has because the length of time is so extensive now it would be a case that, for

example, the first student I had this year took them for one class a week for the year, for most of the year, and then I would have had them only for two classes then. Now, the class that I had were actually fluent Irish speakers so it didn’t impact on them so much because they’re very advanced anyway, but if they had have been an English-speaking class I would have struggled to cover the course on time and I was very aware that maybe even though I had set chapters to cover I didn’t know how much of it was being covered or whether it was being done the way it would be expected, according to the Department here. And I was trying to allow for creativity, they were using a lot of IT skills and AfL [assessment for learning] and games. So, you know that’s what doing the teaching practice is all about, but at the same time I was worried coming up to tests whether they [the pupils] would be prepared or not.

Deirdre’s concern of ensuring pupils learning and PSTs’ learning while on SP has been

identified as “a key tension in developing the role of schools in teacher education” (Ní Áingléis, 2009, p. 92). With almost twenty PSTs on placement in the school, the DP, Declan indicated

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that the extension to SP has dramatically impacted on his workload and that parents do complain about the number of PSTs teaching their children:

Absolutely yeah. We’re getting more applicants now. We’ve always got a lot of applicants here … but I’ve noticed certainly over the last 2 years we’re getting more [applicants] because every year now you have the year 1s and you have the year 2s who are applying as well…The only one concern we would have is just I suppose the volume of them. We have taken on quite a lot and we would have had a few complaints from parents that their son or daughter has a lot of PME classes … I try to avoid hitting the same class twice or three times. But, again, I just find there is such a volume of PMEs coming in now and they are here more often that situation is happening more often, where you’ll have a class and they could have 2 or 3 PME teachers in the week and there will be a complaint from a parent or two in relation to that you know because ... and especially with first years because the first years, they’re coming from primary school where they have 1 teacher, but you’re coming into a school where they now have 11 teachers in a given week and now, all of a sudden, they have another 2 or 3 on top of that.

The concern expressed by participants concerning whether the progress of pupils is being hindered, is perhaps to some extent reflected in the Stage 1 data finding, whereby almost 46% (N=57) respondents indicated that they either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that “Parents complain about the number of student teachers teaching their child”. When the data from the online questionnaire for this respondent was reviewed the vast numbers of PSTs applying to the school were staggering. Declan typed:

More PMEs applying to our school looking for placement ... over 100 applied to our school for this academic year alone...a lot of correspondence required to deal with same PMEs spending more time in school.... for example, Mater Dei [name of HEI] students were with us for 5-week placement last year ... this is now 12 weeks!!!!! Teachers not happy giving up their classes for so long. Each University have (sic) different

requirements...takes a lot of time to get all the timetables sorted....and then they change with block placement etc...

Unsurprisingly, Declan would welcome the establishment of a national database for SP, indicating that it might reduce the number of requests the school receives each year from HEIs and PSTs.

Predictably, because CS4 had not had a PST on placement in the school in the past, neither interviewee had experienced a difference in their workload since the

resconceptualisation of ITE programmes. In fact, Gavin (DP) was “very positive” about the newly-conceptualised ITE programmes, believing that PSTs now get more:

in-depth study of pedagogy and teaching methods and an understanding of teaching methods and developing research skills and I think there’s also greater emphasis maybe on reflective practice for student teachers as well.

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The requirement for PSTs to spend time on placement in two contrasting schools is an advantage, as "The longer a student teacher has in class to develop their skills, to develop their strategies and their coping mechanisms, the more valuable they are going to be to schools in the future." The concept of mutuality is brought to mind, as explored by Jones et al. (2016), who cite Kruger et al. (2009). Mutuality, according to Kruger et al. (2009) represents the degree to which each partner understands the positive joint outcomes that working together leads to.