Academic staff governors’ power and professional status in the governance of further education colleges in England

Abstract

ABSTRACT At a time of the British government’s heightened interest in Further Education (FE) college governance, this paper explores Academic Staff Governor (ASG)’s professional and power status at three colleges in England. The study draws upon relevant literature to identify concepts related to ASGs’ power and professional status in governance. An interpretivist stance is used to collect predominantly qualitative data through a combined methods approach. During fieldwork, evidence from semi-structured interviews; questionnaire responses, observations of governance meetings and governance documents was analysed. Findings suggest that ASGs’ insiderness; relationships, professional status and the decision-making circumstances may limit their influence in the governance of the colleges, with implications for governance quality. From the exploration, ‘The Restricted Professional Model’ has been developed to highlight the restricted nature of the ASG role with implications for good governance. For governors, organisations and policymakers, the research recommends avoiding low-power and low-status governance roles; taking action to develop ASGs’ professionality as educators; removing structural and power barriers and allowing more opportunities for ASGs to contribute to governance. Finally, future research is identified including research to establish ASGs’ professional profiles in FE and the wider impact educators’ professionality has on governance in a variety of educational institutions.