Issue 14 - Stranmillis Principal, Anne Heaslett - Diversity in learning
Most of Anne Heaslett’s career in education has been spent in the further education sector which has prepared her well for taking the helm at Stranmillis University College last year. Owen McQuade met up with Dr Heaslett to discuss her experiences in higher education and in particular the challenges of preparing newly qualified teachers.
Diversity in learning
Anne Heaslett was appointed Principal of Stranmillis University College in April 2007. Dr Heaslett’s career has “been first and foremost in education”. She continues: “The fact that so much of my career has been spent in further education means that I have had a diverse range of teaching experience, which has greatly shaped my thinking.” During her teaching days in further education she dealt with diverse groups of learners: “I was teaching ‘A’ level courses to students with a wide range of backgrounds. For example, some were in the 16-18 year old age bracket and had come from post primary schools, others were adults who had come back to education after lots of life experience.” Her experience in the further education sector and dealing with a wide range of learners, including those who were getting a second chance at education, has influenced her view of education: “For me education, it is not about the level or sector. My whole educational experience is about confidence building and helping the learner realise his or her potential. In some ways that makes the current debate about selection somewhat sterile for me.” Dr Heaslett’s experience with adult learners in further education has given her a firm commitment to the concept of lifelong learning and she has brought this to her current role. She adds: “If our core business is preparing the next generation of educators, then I think we have to find ways of helping them articulate the vision and practice of lifelong learning.”
Dr Heaslett has developed a passionate commitment to work in the field of literacy. She came to that through adult literacy: “I remember well when I became head of department, finding it difficult to get a member of staff to co-ordinate the adult literacy classes. As a result of that lack of interest I ended up getting involved. I feel very strongly in my present position about pursuing the literacy agenda, which is critically important to what we do today. I spent my life in further education at the intervention end but think how much easier it is to address the issue of literacy through effective teaching at the early stages of learning.” Dr Heaslett believes that a wider context for learning often produces better outcomes: “I have also experience of ‘family learning’ where a very young learner comes with an adult learner. This challenges me in my present role to think about what range of learning experiences we are giving to the young professionals we are responsible for shaping. They need to be exposed to a diverse range of learning environments. For example, I don’t think primary education should be studied in isolationfrom other phases of schooling. I have experience of promoting family learning, which creates a situation where a primary school child and an adult member of the family are being taught together.”
Creating a learning community
In addition to experiencing a wide variety of learning situations, Dr Heaslett has in her previous role had the task of bringing various strands within education together to work in partnership. She outlines her experience of such partnership working: “In recent years I have had a wonderful experience of working as part of the Limavady Learning Partnership. This involved the college where I was principal working with primary schools and post primary schools including grammar, maintained and controlled. We had a vision to create a learning community, which was about facilitating the learner to access a range of pathways – very much in line with the entitlement framework.” She then outlines the benefits she saw with such a partnership, saying: “It was a very interesting learning experience for those of us who were leading the development. There was evidence to show that young people were starting to move between the different education providers with remarkable ease. Often they would move between providers in order to access a wider choice of subjects. They still had a strong sense of identity and support from their ‘homebase’ school but were confident to move between schools and the college. We had examples of pupils coming from school to the college for subjects with a vocational focus and then perhaps to the grammar school for an A level subject which wasn’t available at their own school. The commitment to all partners to provide high quality teaching and learning was a key driver. I think the big challenge for leaders in education is not to underestimate the ability of young people to move with ease across the system when the framework is available to them, and not have the hang ups about what type of school they are accessing.” Dr Heaslett highlights the sharing of resources as another key learning point from the Limavady partnership experience: “For example the college built a new centre for technology. We equipped the centre for teaching engineering and construction. We saw this as a resource for the whole community and consequently the schools would come to our centre for these subjects. This meant there was no duplication of resources and young people had access to a learning environment equipped to industry standards.”
Managing change
During her tenure at Limavady Dr Heaslett lead a change programme that saw not just new accommodation being built but a different model of delivery of services that involved partnering with other providers and local stakeholders. I ask her what did she learn from leading such a change programme. Dr Heaslett starts by outlining the drivers of the change, saying: “One of the major practical issues was the extremely poor state of the estate – an estate that wasn’t fit for purpose. There was a high percentage of mobile classroom space and the state of the buildings was generally very poor. I spent the first 18 months doing the spade work of preparing a full economic appraisal to look at the overall picture and to determine what type of learning environment we needed to create. We also made specific decisions about the curriculum. We weren’t going to offer high quality vocational qualifications.”She goes on to detail the lessons learnt: “As regards change management, we started to articulate a vision and then by looking at our resources and curriculum we set about creating it.” The development plan was worked up into two phases and the first phase was approved for a capital expenditure of £3.6 million. Within one month of this the second phase was approved when Gordon Brown announced additional funding and as the college had its plans worked up they were “fortunate to be well placed” to receive the another £3.2 million. Dr Heaslett says: “We proved the statement that there is no such thing as luck, only being well prepared. An extremely valuable lesson is when you go into new situations take time to understand the strategic context and really doing your homework and be systematic in your analysis. It is a bit like digging the foundations of a building. The strength of your vision will ultimately depend on how solid the foundation is.”
The outlook for teacher education
We then move onto Dr Heaslett’s current role as Principal of Stranmillis University College. She starts by saying: “I have come into teacher education as head of Stranmillis at a very challenging time. The policy context is extremely challenging compounded by the fact that there are demographic changes and spare capacity in schools. In addition we also have to think through what the school of the 21st Century should look like. This means that Stranmillis must respond to the challenge of how we prepare students to be well rounded professional practitioners to serve these schools and the young learners in them.”
On developing teachers in this changing world, she says: “A student entering Stranmillis will have four years before they will go out the gate as a qualified teacher. Even during their time at College the potential for policy changes and the reshaping of learning environments is considerable. You only have to think of policies such as extended schools, specialist schools as well as learning partnerships with other agencies. The education environment they will be entering is increasingly dynamic.”
Dr Heaslett belives that the college’s core offering, the BEd, must meet the demands of a fast changing sector, saying: “Stranmillis is currently engaged in a robust internal debate about these issues and is looking at our current courses. We are starting to review our BEd in light of these external changes and the strategic framework being created by policy. We want the BEd to be innovative and responsive to changing needs.”
She also believes that the college has a key role in shaping its future: “We don’t want to be passive recipients of policy. We want to be proactively exploring the options, and addressing the challenges. Stranmillis wants to be shaping the debate and to be part of the solution. In the schools sector the status quo is not an option. The realities we are facing don’t allow us that luxury.” She continues: “Stranmillis has made a very robust case that it should not only be in the business of preparing people in terms of initial teacher training but managing the induction and early professional development stages. St Mary’s University and ourselves, should be key players in that process. We build up a relationship with people over the four year BEd, a significant development period, and are consequently well placed to create a seamless transfer to the early stages professional practice and development. This is practically important in the present climate where graduates are finding it difficult to get permanent teaching posts. We have a challenging market where newly qualified teachers who go into subbing may lose out on a structured induction process. Stranmillis and St Mary’s have the expertise and resources to ensure that induction and early professional development is handled in a systematic way. And of course we would urge government give serious consideration to the guaranteed induction year as happens in Scotland. Such a policy would not only contribute to the professional development of newly qualified teachers but help bring new ideas and thinking into our schools.”
Pioneering
Stranmillis is no longer solely focused on teacher education but has broadened its remit into other related professional fields such as Early Childhood Studies and Health and Leisure. Dr Heaslett says: “Clearly both these developments complement our core business”. She believes that this expansion of the College’s portfolio has enriched the experience for all students.
Another important aspect is the college’s international programme, which gives students experience in other parts of the world especially in Europe and Africa. Dr Heaslett sees two advantages from this programme: “The richness of experience which students bring back to Northern Ireland and secondly the opening of their minds to a range of opportunities in education.” The College has also been involved in North South exchanges. She believes that the North South dimension needs to be explored further and there also needs to be progress on the portability of teaching qualifications in a European context.
Dr Heaslett would like to see the BEd being more widely accepted as a qualification for careers other than teaching. She says: “The BEd has potential to be looked at more broadly. Not just as a qualification to teach but a qualification suited to a range of complementary professions where you are dealing with people, especially young people. People coming to the job market with BEd should be encouraged to look at a range of options.”
We inevitably touch on the segregation of the Northern Ireland education system. She believes there is no quick fix to resolve this issue, saying: “No one is going to write a policy paper that brings an overnight solution. The only hope is that we can commit ourselves to building relationships, which is the essence of the Shared Future policy so that gradually, bit by bit, we can build bridges. One of the things I have learnt from working in partnerships is that recognising and respecting the identity and the value position of each partner is critical if we are to succeed.”
agendaNi - February 2008