The past, the present, and the future of Bridging and

Foundation Educators in NZWhere to from here?

Helen AndersonBay of Plenty Polytechnic

Take Home

• Observe the big picture (think strategically)• Know where you fit in• Understand the detail• Have a plan

• BUT – understand you don’t know what’s coming!!

The Past

• Seminal Year 2001

• Three Goals– Research– Policy– Data

The Past

• TEAC

• TES

• Profiles and Trends

• Annual Conferences (Research and Practice)

The Present

• Well established role /data available / research agenda growing (NZ and International)

• Policy focus on Literacy and Numeracy

• Participation flat / target groups over represented at lower levels

• Uneven EPI outcomes

Goals

• Policy (not just literacy and numeracy) • Research (learn from others first)• Data XX (but use it well)

•Pedagogy

Baggage

• the OECD is supporting and reporting on the re establishment of education in the Tohoku region of Japan following the 2011 tsunami. The exigencies of their situation has led to a transformation of their learning to focus on improvising, innovating, problem solving, critical thinking and taking initiative. This requires courage, resilience and adaptability. It brings a vastly unexpected set of meanings to learning design where unnecessary baggage is left behind to put all energies into core learning essentials. This is to ensure the future capability of children of the tsunami..

Baggage??

• Directive Teachers– Observation research

• Timed out resources – paper based, drills, generic/decontextualised

• The Pedagogy of Dependence

RISK

Entrenching the destructive process of building time bound knowledge and skills without the independent/self directed dispositions that create futures.

Generation 2

• Knowledge– Anything /Everything!!

• Skills– Literacies– Communications and information technology– Cultures– Vocations

Generation 2

• Dispositions

– Self direction/independence– Group/team participation– Curiosity– Creativity– Tolerance of uncertainty

Where to from here?

• Success at higher levels for target groups• Success for everyone in future

/study/workplaces

• How? Reconceptualise bridging and foundation as preparation for the unknowable

How? (policy, research, pedagogy)

• Qualifications that staircase

• Pedagogies that enable

• Resources that inspire

• Graduate profiles that focus on a mix of knowledge, skills and dispositions

Change

• We manage change by being highly connected, well informed, prepared to experiment, determined to evaluate and to have an attitude/processes that allows for constant challenge from colleagues, the community, business and industry and from students

Take Home

• Observe the big picture (think strategically)

• Understand the detail

• Know where you fit in

• Have a plan

• BUT – understand you don’t know what’s coming!!

The Foundation and Bridging Educators of New Zealand is an Incorporated Society.

The Aim of the Society is:

To encourage, promote and widen access and successful participation in tertiary education leading to employment or further study, for people who have previously not achieved in the New Zealand education system, or who want a change of direction.

The objectives of the Society are:

To create a shared platform for tertiary educators across the sector, to work to promote the pedagogical strategies of foundation and bridging education as a means of empowering and creating success for students, their families and communities, and for society and the economy

To promote professional development, collaboration and research, both nationally and internationally, for foundation and bridging educators.

To be proactive in informing policy development and to be recognized as the peak consultative body for all foundation and bridging education by tertiary education organizations, professional organisations, the government and the community.