This writing seeks to make sense of how practicing teachers can be supported in their pursuit of Masters Degrees in Education. Indeed it focuses not on the traditionally conceived supportive mechanisms present within university systems, but the supportive mechanisms which are in their naissance within state schools. It centres on my role and agency as an element of support for three teachers following their own individual journey to achieving a Masters Degree. Each of these paths is discrete in nature; moreover the method or type of support in each case is similarly delineated. It is through this delineation that the text seeks to make sense of how the pursuit of a Masters Degree can utilise support outside of university walls. This work is positioned within a critical poststructural paradigm employing qualitative research methods. Three dyadic modalities of support are identified within the study, these are: mentor/mentee, coach/coachee and critical friendships. The three modalities are examined as individual case studies through combined reference to the current corpus of knowledge associated with these terms, interview data from the participants and the author, all with recourse to selected concepts of Foucault. It is through this textual analysis that an understanding of these modalities is created and furthermore an attempt is made to locate meaning within these overly full dyadic signifiers. Once ascribed with meaning and delineated as such the signifiers are then examined with regard to worth and application within my own practice, the purpose being to improve subsequent endeavours in this area. Writ large within this is the importance of contextual factors which implicitly govern the dyadic relationships and hence limit the transferability of the text. The resultant conclusion is that the strict adherence to codified modes of support is potentially limiting with regard to the teacher ultimately becoming independent of support. A potentially more useful approach to supporting teachers in their Masters journey is to have a cognisance of modality but a flexible approach within this. This hence allows the supporter to eventually reduce the level of support to zero.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:582751 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Woolley, David Charles |
| Publisher | Manchester Metropolitan University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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