Mapping professional development in TAFE

Since beginning in 1974, Technical and Further Education (TAFE) in Australia has experienced significant changes due to the implementation of a series of government policies of vocational education and training reform. TAFE teachers are now part of a national Vocational Education and Training (VET) system and responsible for the delivery of National Training Packages and the Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF). Seemingly, the Australian government has underlined the value of a constructivist learning theory by actively seeking to embed this theory through initiatives originally implemented by the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA). These include a major pedagogical change to a student-centred approach that allows multiple perspectives and stresses the importance of collaboration. Since the abolition of ANTA in 2004, their former roles were absorbed by the Federal Government Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) and later by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR). The aim of this qualitative study was to learn how TAFE teachers felt about various professional development activities and examine their individual perceptions of issues, concerns and assumptions about change in their working lives. Ethnographic techniques and participant observation enabled the gathering of primary data. The subsequent identification and rich description of their life in their educational environment added a cultural dimension that is not readily available through the application of quantitative or experimental methods