Resilience training for Further Education (FE) managers has become an increasingly familiar aspect of management development. This paper challenges the accepted orthodoxies underpinning resilience as a 'learnable' skill required to succeed as a manager. In particular, it addresses the concepts of toxic positivity, growth mindset (Dweck) and Grit…

This article discusses the findings of research into further education (FE) lecturers' and middle managers' perceptions of what constitutes effective professional development. This focus addresses an area of paucity in the literature that requires attention in this historically under-funded, yet evermore burdened, education sector which can ill…

The notions of performativity and the use of accountability practices within the UK education sector are contentious. Although some commentators suggest that statistically driven performativity measures do not align with practitioner values, little research has investigated any potential differences in relation to job role and level of management…

This small-scale research project explores policy and staff perspectives which affect student parents in higher education at an English further education college. Drawing on Nancy Fraser's work on the welfare state and the social organisation of care work, the paper examines approaches to a marginalised student group. Qualitative data were…

Using the concepts of practice architecture, organisational and occupational professionalism, this research looks at the rites of passage from being a fully trained teacher to being a middle manager in the further education sector. It argues that teacher training at an academic level is a basis for being an excellent teacher but that what is more…

This research draws on the concepts of practice architecture, middle leader and scholarship and uses narrative analysis drawn from a 'community of practice' of HE in FE practitioners. Whilst being an existing 'community of practice', the university concerned changed the collaborative framework of support and this provided a platform for the…

In a turbulent working environment with varying expectations and challenges is it fair to expect further education teachers and managers to maintain and improve standards? This article highlights that with the incorporation of colleges began a series of initiatives to professionalise the FE sector. This coupled with pressures for those who work…

The role of the middle manager has proved to be a difficult one to define due to the fluid nature of the tasks performed and the heterogeneity of understanding that exists for the term. This is further complicated by the differences associated with the context in which individual manager's work. This research, which explores the drive towards…

This article assesses the role that middle managers play in creating and sustaining entrepreneurial institutions. To date little is known about this role, with attention favouring a more macro-level, top-down focus on institutional leaders, and/or a micro-level, bottom-up focus on individual enterprise champions. This focus on unidirectional…

Interviews with staff, focus groups with middle managers, and a survey of management teams in British further education colleges identified aspects of middle managers' role. The role is largely intuitive and has transactional, transformational, supervisory, and representative aspects. Facilitators include clarity of college systems, support of…

The roles and expectations of managers in the Australian vocational education and training (VET) sector are changing under dynamically complex conditions. The adoption of a more "open" national training market as a government policy initiative has led to significant changes within VET providers and significant challenges for VET managers. This…