Re-Imagining New Futures in Teaching Profession - Personal Statement Example

Re-Imagining New Futures in my Teaching Profession Name: Lecturer: Course: Date: Re-Imagining New Futures in my Teaching Profession Introduction Researchers in learning futures have identified a range of orientations in the future viewpoints of learning. Gidley et al (2004) identified three approaches for viewing future learning: possible futures, probable futures and desirable futures. Building on this approaches, Gidley et al (2004) developed an additional orientation for preparing for the future called ‘preparedness or readiness to act.’ Such a readiness to act could be referred as the prospective futures capacity, which I attempt to address in this paper. Building on readiness to act, London (2011) underscored the need for re-imagining the futures of learning, which also forms the basis of my paper. Indeed, the future holds diverse challenges for my profession as a teacher as dramatic shifts are expected in my line of work. These may result in significant changes to the assumptions that I initially had as a teacher regarding our present and past work designs, workforce size, management, compensation, and nature of work. While the work environments were traditionally characterised by stable careers that were characteristically slow to change and guaranteed long-term employment, the future workplace will have more dynamic environments that require considerable flexibility in order to sustain competitive advantage. Hence, teaching will become increasingly dynamic and complex (London 11). Based on this backdrop, I argue that the pace of change is speeding up towards a more diverse future that appreciates lifelong learning, and which is likely to affect the teaching profession. In this paper, I address how the workplace context could operate in the next five years (Altes et al 1999). Accordingly, I also seek to examine the expectations, assumption, challenges, and implications of promoting learning in substantially diverse ways and the expected interactions among different roles within organisations or across networks. I further discuss the implications of change for the teaching profession. Workplace context in the next five years Shifts in the Demographic Patterns The changing demographic patterns, the shift in the knowledge-based economy, accelerated technological advancements, in addition to the cost-containment and productivity are likely to define the changes in my teaching profession (Chatman & Flynn 2001). Over the next 5 years, these factors are likely to delineate the future of work that we do, and will as well as impact the key components of the schools in Riyadh, such as the workforce size, work design, compensation and management practice. Due to the shifting demographic trends, in terms of participation rates and labour force, the number of teachers as well as other professions will increase, although at a considerably slow pace than today or the past years. For instance, according to RAND Corporation, the future workforce grew by an annualised 2.6 percent in the 1970s, which declined to 1.1 percent in the 1990s. In the period between 2000 and 2010, the annual growth remained the same as that of the 1990s. It is however expected to shrink to 0.4 percent between 2010 and 2020 (Karoly, L & Panis, C 2014). When it comes to the composition of the workforce in schools, the future will have a more balanced workforce distribution in terms of race or ethnicity, sex and age. For instance, while the workforce has grown older as the baby-boom generation comes of age, the workforce is also becoming increasingly distributed across the age groups (Karoly & Panis 2014). Additionally, the steady increase in the participation of female labour force to have a gender balance will be witnessed. Technological change The rate of technological shift, whether through advancements in biotechnology, information technology, or nanotechnology will speed up over the next five years. This is likely to affect my profession as a teacher. In the field of information technology, RAND Corporation predicts that advances in microprocessors will support real-time translations and speech recognition, while robotics and artificial intelligence will advance further (Karoly & Panis 2014). Application of these technologies in teaching will support the capacity to rapidly reconfigure computers to teach students from different races or ethnic backgrounds. For instance, rapid real-time translations will allow me to teach English to Arabic students without a human translator. This would however implications on the kind of skills schools would want. In particular, such technological advances are likely to emphasise the demand for skills workforce, as well as change the nature of lifelong learning and employment relationships (Altes et al 1999). Economic globalisation Economic globalisation in the future will become increasingly extensive, which would affect the workforce segments that are today shielded from trade-related competition in Riyadh and other places globally. Indeed, the RAND Corporation estimates that trade in services grew from 18 percent to reach 30 percent between 1994 and 2014, while some higher skills, such as teaching, business processing services and IT will increasingly become outsourced in the future (Karoly & Panis 2014). Key implications of future changes There are three major implications for training and teaching based on the demographic shifts. As teachers today, we function and learn in environments that are becoming increasingly diverse. We will also need to take up more responsibility, and hence make teaching jobs more complex (London 2011). There will also be more outsourcing, since contract and part-time teachers will be added as required, complementing a small fraction of long-term and full-term employees. This implies that there will be minimal job security for many teachers, as well as minimal loyalty. Lastly, the training or learning programs will need to address the differences among generations. Because of the shrinking workforce, the adult learners will have to take more responsibility and their scope of work will be expanded and enlarged. A section of these responsibilities will comprise new skills that will need training, including computer and technical skills (Davies et al 2011). At the same time, the older teachers may not have confidence in their capacity to learn new technology. Hence, training the older workforce technical content to enable them build on their confidence would be a more effective approach to training. At the same time, I note that advancing technology combined with the shrinking workforce will make my experience in teaching more complex (Plomp 2013). In terms of training the adult learners, I discuss three key implications. The unstable nature of the future workforce will augment the need to institute continuous education and development of diverse skills (Davies et al 2011). Additionally, skills required for collaborative in diverse work settings will be essential or success. Lastly, the service-based economy will need learners to have the right interpersonal skills. I argue that this is since as schools will become less static and more dynamic, there would be an augmented need for a a teaching force that is flexible. Several more teaching positions will be flexible. Indeed, the frame of mind of a self-reliant teacher of the future would be to approach all employments as temporary (Karoly & Panis 2014). The range of jobs I be expected to work in, in a lifetime would increase. Accordingly, I would be less committed to my school, as well as more committed tomy career. Because of the substantial changes in the workplace, I expect teachers of the future to be more reliant, more self-developing persons, and flexible (Davies et al 2011). Overall, the ultracompetitive environment that will typify the future economy will have significant implications on my teaching profession in the future. For instance, teaching jobs would become more temporary due to the constant layoffs and downsizing (Karoly & Panis 2014). In addition, schools will become more willing to hire an individual with a combination of skills who can teach various subjects instead of commit themselves to developing them internally. Such organisational changes would prompt self-development. To be able to compete in the future labour market, we would need to participate in continuous learning to develop the diverse skill sets. London (2011) points out that organisations will need to support self-development through provisions of non-threatening feedback, reinforcing behavioural learning choices, encouraging seeking of feedback and offering rewards to participation in learning processes. I would need to take responsibility for my careers, and evaluate my competencies and weakness or job paths personally. We would will also have to be skilled into something needed by the market. Teachers lacking something to offer will find it difficult to make a comfortable living (Gram 2009). Expectations on learning The change from a resource-based economy into one of knowledge-based economy will have significant impacts on the kinds of jobs available to me as a teacher, as well as the work skills required to secure the teaching jobs. A hybrid skill set, including information-seeking skills, business, technology and interpersonal skills, will become increasingly essential. As predicted by International Labour Office (2010), skills will feature as the most significant global currency in the 21st century workplace. Within the context of my profession as a teacher, skills are the combined competences, attributes, and knowledge that are learned, and which allow us to perform a task successfully. We would need to develop these skills through continuous learning. My teaching workplace will also shift into a more social-learning sandbox. Technology will provide the capacity to connect, work collaboratively and share learning experiences and roundtable discussions or negotiations with teachers and students. Additionally, the future learning will consist of a mishmash of competency building using lecture-led seminars, and discovery-learning team-building through the use of social media (Karoly & Panis 2014). Greater emphasis will be on lifelong learning and retraining even as we, the teachers, become more competitive to respond to technological shifts and global marketplace. This is since the workforce is likely to become more decentralized, even as my relationships with my employer are likely to become more individualised and less standardised. Additionally, school organisations will shift from vertically integrated organisations to become more specialized one, that favour outsourcing non-core functions and more decentralised types of internal organisation (Karoly & Panis 2014). Challenges The shifting demographic issues, such as multigenerational and multiethnic workforce are likely to affect my profession as a teacher (London 2011). This is since we, the diverse teaching fraternity, would need constant training and retraining, maintenance and communication culture, in addition to the organisational values, making timely feedbacks on performance and creation and maintenance of efficient performance-based systems (Helyer & Lee 2012). In terms of technology changes, the paradigm shift into a technology-based workforce also presents challenges to schools, such as the need to hire or train teachers with new skills set, capacity to adapt to the changing technology while at the same time retaining skills needed for addressing older systems, shifting from lifetime skills into lifelong learning and shifting to non-standard from the routine work (International Labour Office 2010). An additional challenge I expect would be enhancing the responsiveness of training systems and education to the shifts in skill requirement, as well as improving access of skills development and training (London 2011). The implication of the growth of non-standard work arrangements due to outsourcing, use of technology and globalisation is that there may be greater uncertainty and insecurity on the part of the labour force (London 2011). Productivity pressures and the need for cost containment means that my school would need to augment performance and productivity. This would leave managing teachers critical. It also means more opportunity to hire teachers who can work as organizational trainers to improve employee talents that fit organisational culture (Karoly & Panis 2014). My school will be faced with the challenge of equipping its employees with pertinent skills for the future jobs. Work implications for educators facilitating learning Based on the challenges discussed above, I reason that the future presents diverse and amplified opportunities to me as a teacher. We are likely to be sought after by schools as well as corporate that look to diversify organizational learning (London 2011). Since new occupations are emerging in replacement of others in various occupations, the skills and competencies are also changing as the knowledge content of production processes change. I believe that this will require organisations to initiate lifelong learning processes. More teachers or trainers are likely to be hired to take the role of implementing lifelong learning (Kalantzis & Cope 2012). There would be a need to acquire skills in using technology mediated learning as a critical tool for lifelong learning internally as through training institutions. This is since the dynamic technological shift and global competition underscore the need for the workforce to fast adapt to the shifting technological and product demand. The changes in the forms of business organisations and the growth for demand of knowledge-based work will also call for strong cognitive skills, non-routine, problem-solving, as well as abstract reasoning on the part of professional who need to facilitate learning (London 2011). Within this context, the future holds more opportunities to me as a teacher will become a nonstop process for the employees, including training and re-training that will go on beyond the entry into labour market. The diversifying social and demographic factors are poised to significantly increase the demand for skilled workforce who can offer teaching service. Still, vocational training and education systems will need to address the increased demand on either side of skill spectrum. Additionally, as technologies change, the working lives expands, hence the need for lifelong learning to make us teachers more re-trainable and adaptable would be essential (Kalantzis & Cope 2012). The pace of the shifts is a significant issue for trainers and educators who will be tasked with training the workforce to have the pertinent skills for the shifting scope of work, in addition to the ability to be lifelong learners (London 2011). For schools to ensure that they remain competitive, they will have to consistently initiate skills development at work. Hence, an increased proportion of the employments, whether higher- or lower-skilled will need lifelong learning to update workforce skills. This presents me as a teacher with an opportunity to offer ongoing training of the workforce (Kalantzis & Cope 2012). Conclusion I conclude that when it comes to the composition of the workforce, the future will have a more balanced workforce distribution in terms of race or ethnicity, sex and age. Technological change is likely to underscore the demand for my teaching services, as well as change the nature of lifelong learning and employment relationships. Additionally, as technologies change, the working lives expands, hence the need for lifelong learning to make the employees more re-trainable and adaptable would be essential. To me, this means more opportunities to participate in train adult learners. At the same time, globalization would affect the workforce segments that are today shielded from trade-related competition, make the workforce more diverse and emphasize the need for lifelong learning. The futures present diverse and amplified opportunities to me as a teachers. I’m likely to be sought after by organisations looking to manage the increasingly diverse workforce and to carryout diverse learning. This is since the dynamic technological shift and global competition underscore the need for a workforce to be flexible and adapts to the shifting technological and product demand. The changes in the forms of business organisations and the growth for demand of knowledge-based work will also call for strong cognitive skills, non-routine, problem-solving as well as abstract reasoning on the part of professional who need to facilitate learning. Recommendations Due to the focus on lifelong and continuous learning, I suggest that government policies should develop human capital and promote extensive access to competencies and skills. This will call for commitment to formal education, in addition to incentives for organisations and their workforce to embark on lifelong learning and the ongoing training. Instead of just creating skilled workforce that is narrowly skilled, I also suggest that organisations need to ensure that their employees have broad interpersonal, problem-solving and communication skills needed for effective teamwork and flexibility. Organisations should also initiate learning teams that are cross-functional and cross-generational. They should also invest in continuous employee training and development. References Altes, J, Alston, D, Anderson, P, Barkman, M et al 1999, Skills for a New Century: a Blueprint for Lifelong Learning, viewed 1 Nov 2014, Chatman, J & Flynn, F 2001, "The Influence Of Demographic Heterogeneity On The Emergence And Consequences Of Cooperative Norms In Work Teams," Academy of Management Journal, vol. 44, no. 5, pp.956-974 Davies, A, Fidler, D &Gorbis, M 2011, Future Work Skills 2020, University of Phoenix Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA Gidley, J, Bateman, D & Smith, C 2004, "Futures in Education: Principles, practice and potential," Monograph Series 2004 No. 5 Gram, T 2009, The Big Question: Workplace Learning in 10 Years, viewed 1 Nov 2014, Helyer, R. & Lee, D. 2012, ‘The twenty-first multiple generation workforce: overlaps and differences but also challenges and benefits’, Education Training, vol. 54, no. 7, pp. 565 -578. International Labour Office (ILO) 2010, A Skilled Workforce for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth, viewed 1 Nov 2014, Kalantzis, M. & Cope, B. 2012, ‘New learning’ in New learning: elements of a new science of education, 2nd edn, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 17-37 Karoly, L & Panis, C 2014, 'The Future at Work — Trends and Implications," The RAND Corporation, viewed 1 Nov 2014, London, M 2011, The Oxford Handbook of Lifelong Learning, Oxford University Press, London Plomp, T. 2013, Preparing education for the information society: the need for new knowledge and skills, International Journal of Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 3-18 Read More