Work to school: Teachers from industry

This paper is based on that cross case analysis. The findings demonstrate that these new teachers have a valuable and quite different contribution to make to technology pedagogy and practice in the NSW secondary system as well as offering workplace knowledge and experience in pathways from school to further vocational education and training. These findings are bound to the specific teachers and context of the study so the intention is to understand the ways in which these teachers create authentic learning spaces using their experiences from industry.Vocational Education and Training (VET) in Schools teachers are required to deliver current and relevant industry and workplace knowledge to senior students in secondary schools. One of the ways in which VET in Schools teachers can be well prepared to teach VET Industry Curriculum Framework courses is to take teachers from an industry background and return them to schools after an accelerated teacher training program. These teachers also need sufficient knowledge of the technologies required for the broad and varied subjects offered in Technology and Applied Studies in NSW schools. This paper examines some of the findings of a longitudinal study which took a case study approach to try and find out how some of these teachers have coped with the demands of pedagogy and practice in rural and regional NSW schools. While acknowledging all teachers are individuals, the researcher was interested in finding out whether this pathway produced a new 'type' of teacher. The study used interviews, site visits, emails and conversations with the twelve participants, to try and understand the reality of the new professional lives of these teachers. Interviews were also conducted with other staff in each school. Where possible, the Principal of the school was interviewed. As well as looking at each participant as a case study, cross case analysis was also undertaken to ascertain any patterns or similarities emerging from the data.