Post-16 Educator

By and for practitioners and activists . . .

Post-16 Educator is a quarterly magazine produced by and for activists in all sectors of post compulsory education.

To all UCU and other union branches with an interest in further, adult and higher education, the magazine is a 24-page quarterly produced entirely by and for practitioners and activists in these sectors.

If your branch would like to arrange a subscription, please contact the editor on cwaugh1@btinternet.com and let us know how many copies you would like, whether you would want a PDF of each issue etc, and we will get back to you with a suggested subscription rate. For individual or regular individual subs go to Subscriptions.

Post-16 Educator interviews candidates for Deputy General Secretary of the National Education Union

This October, members of NEU will elect a Deputy General Secretary. The winning candidate may ultimately go on to become the first elected General Secretary of the NEU, taking over from Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney who have been Joint General Secretary since the amalgamation of the NUT and ATL. Post-16 issues tend often to be overlooked in debates about 'education' which are more frequently focused on statutory schooling. Given that, with over 450,000 members, the NEU is the largest education union in Europe, this election offers an important opportunity to discuss the challenges facing the post-16 sector, with regard especially to school sixth forms and sixth form colleges. These include funding, teachers' conditions and pay, the ongoing academic/vocational divide, T-levels, and the possible loss of BTEC qualifications, as well as building workplace power and effective collaboration with UCU and other unions in and outside the different parts of the post-16 sector. Daniel Whittall spoke with all three candidates on behalf of Post-16 Educator, with a view to getting a sense of where each stands in relation to post-16 issues. Link to the transcripts here.

Latest Post-16 Educator
Issue 105, October to December 2021

Steve McQueen’s Small Axe films: what they mean for FHE projects Roy Stafford

Huge opposition to defunding BTECs Martin Allen

Post-16 Education: NEU DGS candidates speak Dan Whittall

Management fixation with observations Nina Doran

Lesson observation: beyond performance management Matthew O’Leary

We are fighting for everyone’s future David Ridley

Review: David Ridley’s ‘method of democracy’ Patrick Ainley

The promise of higher education (article with images) Luca Morini

Is it worth doing a degree? Kate Purcell

Being an academic activist in a neoliberal university Gurnam Singh

Government must keep UC and WTC uplifts! Stephen Lambert

PSE Features

100 Years On From The Ruskin Strike
‘Plebs’
The Lost Legacy of Independent Working-Class Education, a PSE occasional publication by Colin Waugh

The Real Radical Education?

Liberal and General Studies with vocational students in UK colleges 1950-1990 as revealed through interviews with practitioners who taught it.

Bulletin 1: origins; purpose; context October 2017
Bulletin 2: history; aims; legacy November 2018

A Post-16 Educator occasional publication

General Studies Project

Set up in July 2013, the Project aims to recapture the experience of those involved with Liberal Studies, General Studies and General and Communication Studies.
If you were a lecturer in this field, and/or you’re in touch with someone who is or was, and you’d like to be involved in this research, please contact us at this email address.

About PSE

There are several real debates going on in post-16 education at the moment. Practitioners need to engage in these debates before decisions get made. Post-16 Educator covers all the major issues in the post-compulsory sector.

Each bi-monthly issue includes news and commentary from those working within post compulsory education, plus regular contributions from other interested activists. Comprehensive news coverage picks up on reports in national and local media, together with academic and government papers relevant to the sector. Recent features have included the Israeli academics boycott, prisoner education, teaching practice, and the University and College Union (UCU).

The Editorial Board

The editorial board consists of grass roots activists from UCU and the NUT working together to organise readers and contributors into a national network that is democratic, that develops our practice and our thinking, and that equips us to take action over issues rather than always having to react to changes imposed from above.

Where we stand

Post-16 Educator seeks to defend and extend good practice in post-compulsory education and training. Good practice includes teachers working with students to increase their power to look critically at the world around them and act effectively within it. This entails challenging racism, sexism, heterosexism, inequality based on disability and other discriminatory beliefs and practices.

For the mass of people, access to valid post-compulsory education and training is more necessary now than ever. It should be theirs by right! All provision should be organised and taught by staff who are trained for and committed to it. Publicly funded provision of valid post-compulsory education and training for all who require it should be a fundamental demand of the trade union movement.

Post-16 Educator seeks to persuade the labour movement as a whole of the importance of this demand. In mobilising to do so it bases itself first and foremost upon practitioners – those who are in direct, daily contact with students. It seeks the support of every practitioner, in any area of post-16 education and training, and in particular that of women, of part-timers and of people outside London and the Southeast.

Post-16 Educator works to organise readers/contributors into a national network that is democratic, that is politically and financially independent of all other organisations, that develops their practice and their thinking, and that equips them to take action over issues rather than always having to react to changes imposed from above.

Articles for Publication

The editors welcome articles of any length by and/or for practitioners and intending practitioners in any area of post-16 education, especially by women, plus letters, news items, photographs, materials and illustrations. Articles can be published anonymously if required.

Subscribe to PSE

In addition to the free online content, you can subscribe and support PSE and receive 4 paper copies each year from only £3. Click here for further details.