Preparing masters students for teaching in higher education: a new route to enhanced employability? Lorraine Allibone ) Steve May Hendrik van der Sluis Available at:

Setting a context Brand (2007) argues that current frameworks reflect a narrow view of what constitutes a teacher Delivered by Academic Development Centre Employability a KU and sector wide concern KU course two cohorts take PgCLTHE: students and staff

Validated courses MA in Design or MA in Fine Art with Learning and Teaching in Higher Education The PgCLTHE modules offer 60 of the total 180 credits MFA in Creative Writing The PGCLTHE as a stand alone qualification alongside their MFA credits

The Programme 4 modules (15 credits each) Introduction to L & T in HE Developing teaching Practice and Supporting Students Assessment and Feedback in HE Curriculum Development and Evaluation in HE

Aims of the study: To assess student perceptions about the challenges and benefits of the course To identify issues arising from cross disciplinary and departmental collaboration To inform ongoing development of the Masters route with the employability agenda in mind To assess staff perceptions about the value of the course

Methodology Qualitative approach Sample: ADC staff, students, and faculty staff Data were gathered through  semi-structured interviews ( Simons, H. 2009),  focus groups ( Powell, R.A. & Single, H.M. 1996) Ethics: Informed consent was obtained from all participants and data represented here, and elsewhere, are anonymised

Methodology continued Transcripts coded for key themes relating to the aims:  Insights to experience  Cross disciplinary collaboration  Impact on employability NVivo and Leximancer software is being used to assist in coding and quantifying the findings for other emergent recurring themes (ongoing).

Data Collection MA and MFA students year one cohort (interviews: n = 3) MA and MFA students mixed cohorts (focus group: n = 7) MFA student cohort only (interviews: n = 1) ADC staff ( interviews: n = 2) Faculty Staff (interviews: (n = 2)

Key themes Recognised benefits of the programme “It's brilliant for someone who wants to be a member of staff because not only do you how it should be done correctly but actually you're seeing the pitfalls of things” (MA student)

Key themes Value of the qualification “the only reason they would have me is because I had the qualification, because they needed someone who had a teaching qualification.” (MFA student)

Key themes Workload “..combining it with a Masters was hard to do the work, more than I was expecting so I didn't really feel the benefit until I finished” (MFA student)

Value of students with staff mixed cohort “It’s probably is easier to keep them apart, in future this course could have some different learning outcomes so it could be better to keep them separate (ADC manager) Key themes

Communication between ADC and Faculty “I think the challenges are the ongoing communication with the faculties because we aren't in the faculty” (ADC manager)

Key themes Value of and amount of teaching practice “while you're teaching you're learning the theory behind what you're doing which is great but while we were doing it we were reflecting critically, which is what writers do anyway” (MFA student)

Key themes Marketing and recruitment of students “for us it was all about them having an aptitude for learning and teaching ….. I suppose, my concern is about offering the course to people that would come along - but actually not everybody is cut out for teaching” (ADC lecturer)

Key themes Impact of PGcert on discipline “we had issues with the delivery of the PgCERT and fitting that into fine art schedule” (FAC lecturer)

Key themes Career choice and networking “I have paid for this qualification and really got my foot in the door, that's what I really got out of it” (MA student)

Further thematic analysis using Nvivo (CAQDAS package), Nodes

Further thematic analysis using Nvivo (CAQDAS package), Nodes and Sources

Changes made to date: Better communication across course teams (Contract of agreement) MA course liaison on L and T team Separation of staff and student cohorts Development of pre -course information leaflet re PgCert Review of ‘structured supported’ opportunities Dedicated workshops for writing development

References: Bazeley, P. (2002). The evolution of a project involving an integrated analysis of structured qualitative and quantitative data: From N3 to NVivo. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 5(3), Brand, A. (2007), ‘The long and winding road: professional development in further and higher education’. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 31 (1), Bryman, A. (2001) Social Research Methods (3 rd Ed). Oxford, Oxford University Press Fielding, N.G. & Lee, R.M. (2002). New patterns in the adoption and use of qualitative software. Field Methods, 14(2), 197–216. King, A. (2008) Using software to analyse qualitative data. In Knight, A. & Ruddock L. (Eds), Advance Research Methods in Building Environments (pp ). Oxford, Blackwell Publishing Ltd Powell, R.A. & Single, H.M. (1996), ‘Focus Groups’, Int J Qual Health Care, 8(5), Simons, H. (2009), Case Study Research in Practice. London, SAGA Publications Ltd