This paper considers how teaching within a university based in the North West of England, is currently operating beyond the bounds of formal curriculum delivery, and where the pressure is on to do more than ‘simply teach’. In Higher Education, there is an increasing interest in students’ employability skills, that is a direct response to Condition B3 set out by the Office for Students’ (OfS) regulatory framework. The OfS require, HE providers to ‘deliver successful outcomes’ for students, which are recognised and valued by employers. The project situates, with trainee teacher observations, who are registered on Initial Teacher Education Programmes (ITE) within the school of Education and Psychology. We observe students engaging with the attested method of ‘storytelling’ (Bruner, 1985, Aylett, R, 2022 & Gibson, 2012) as a pedagogic tool to practise their oral literacy skills, communication; and digital literacy skills, via social media, online threaded discussions; journaling, blogging; vlogging and tweeting. We posit, developing students’ abilities to share their persuasive stories both online and in person with peers, also advances a shared and richer understanding of wider, UK politics, economy, society and technology, in readiness for a diverse labour market. In parallel, we call attention to the perceptions and experiences of academic colleagues, who are adapting to hybrid models of working, to meet new regulatory requirements. In doing so, we contribute further nuanced understanding of the challenges faced by academic staff, when responding to the employability agenda, in both sustainable and socially just ways.
Dr Lucy Caton is a Senior Lecturer on post-graduate studies in Education, at The University of Bolton. Lucy started her career in Further Education at Blackburn College and later taught at Blackburn University Centre. Lucy has since worked as a lecturer and programme lead at Manchester Metropolitan University, where she completed her full time, PhD scholarship, looking at child participatory video research, using interdisciplinary methodologies. Currently, through her affiliated work with The Open University, she continues to develop knowledge of innovative, online pedagogies.
Dr Sarah Telfer is Associate TIRI (Teaching Intensive Research Informed) Professor in Education at the University of Bolton. Sarah is an experienced educational leader and teacher educator with a background in ESOL and Literacy teaching and learning, teacher training, and staff development in a range of different educational contexts. Sarah’s areas of special academic interest include: the use of storytelling as a pedagogic tool to encourage student engagement and interaction in a classroom setting; and her specialist areas of research focus on the use of storytelling in the English and ESOL language teaching, to promote oral literacy and employability skills.