The Future of Education

The purpose of this research was to examine the perceived role of the cooperating teacher in art and design teacher education in Ireland with a view to clarifying and supporting that role for both teachers and students. The focus of this study is on the cooperating teachers experience within the Professional Masters in Art and Design Education (PME) programme in National College of Art and Design (NCAD). This is a timely study as the two-year PME programme, established in 2014, produced its first graduates in 2016. The Teaching Council of Ireland (TC) have recommended a more structured approach to identifying and supporting schools who host PME students (TC, 2013). The TC extended the duration of time spent on school placement and devised guidelines for cooperating teachers as part of the move to a masters programme (2016). The students’ perspective as to the implementation of the cooperating teachers role was ascertained through a cohort study (n=31) by questionnaires derived from these guidelines.  The perspective of the cooperating teacher was ascertained using a qualitative approach through three semi-structured interviews analysyed using thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006). Overall, students and teachers viewed the experience as positive. The support experienced by students varied greatly. There were considerable deficits reported regarding guidance in planning, observation of the student teaching and feedback. Teachers identified communication with NCAD as an issue that needed to be addressed and requested more clarification and recognition for their roles.