Congress motions

Motion

Motion title

Lesson observation disputes

Session

2008-2009

Meeting link

FE conference

Meeting date

28 May 2009

Status

Passed

Motion

FE16

Motion text

Sector conference notes that lesson observations remain an issue in dispute in a number of colleges and of concern to all FE lecturers. The introduction of repeated and/or unannounced 'walk through' observations constitutes yet another fundamental worsening of the conditions of our members.
Along with other detrimental measures being pursued by college managements at the behest of the LSC, Ofsted and sundry government agencies, these observations introduce new opportunities for bullying, intimidation and victimization. They thereby threaten both our members' livelihoods and the quality of educational experience for our students.
We support the action taken at Westminster-Kingsway and any other college to resist the imposition of divisive and punitive schemes which are seriously exacerbating stress levels and workloads of lecturers and driving some out of the profession. We call on the NEC to give this issue a much higher priority than it has received and to circulate guidelines on best practice in the sector.
Much of this problem arises from college managements acting unilaterally to corrupt the rationale of teaching observations. Conference instructs the head of colleges and FEC to instigate negotiations with the AoC and Ofsted in order to establish a national collective agreement on observations which protects lecturers from:

excessive observations

persecution when achieving a 'satisfactory' grade

unilateral impositions of punitive observation schemes
We welcome the draft guidelines on the questions of observations but believe they need to be made more precise and it should be national policy to have:
a) the same incidence of observations for all
b) notification of the lesson slot to be observed.

Proposing body

Westminster Kingsway College

Amended

Yes

Allocated to

Further education committee (FEC)

Notes