SECONDARY CHEMISTRY SCHOOL TEACHERS WORKING IN TERTIARY EDUCATION CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENTS - CRITICAL REFLECTIONS ON THE POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Aditya

Several UK university chemistry departments employ former secondary school chemistry teachers as School Teacher Fellows (STFs), integrating extensive outreach and teaching responsibilities. The study examines the outreach role from STFs’ perspectives, using a reflective writing task in which participants addressed themselves to guide new incumbents. Responses are analyzed by relationships, motivations, and role characteristics. Results show STFs strengthen university-school links, support transitions post-16 to undergraduate study, and improve tertiary teaching practice, while barriers remain around recognition, support, and funding.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages14

Reading Time35 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Defining the School Teacher Fellow (STF)

Motivations and barriers

The Bristol ChemLabS and national funding initiatives

SECONDARY CHEMISTRY SCHOOL TEACHERS WORKING IN TERTIARY EDUCATION CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENTS; CRITICAL REFLECTIONS ON THE POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES S.R. Glover, T.G. Harrison, D.E. Shallcross Abstract: Several UK University Chemistry Departments have former secondary school chemistry teachers employed as School Teacher Fellows (STF) who are heavily involved in outreach work and a range of teaching responsibilities. This study looks at the outreach role from the point of view of several of the STFs; the benefits, and the barriers and how this role can be developed further. A reflective exercise, asking STFs to write a letter to themselves to advise any new incumbent was used to generate data. This mode was preferred to a formal interview after consultation with STFs. All the responses were analysed in terms of their relationships, motivations and other aspects of their posts. It is concluded that the STF provides a number of unique opportunities to progress relationships between university and secondary and primary schools, to assist new undergraduates in making an effective transition from post-16 study to undergraduate study and to review, support and progress teaching practice at tertiary level. However, barriers to the effective utilisation of STFs include; appropriate support and recognition at the tertiary institute and funding. Key words: chemistry outreach, school–university relationships, communities of practice, school teacher fellows. 1. Introduction In this study we define a School Teacher Fellow (STF) as a qualified and experienced secondary school chemistry teacher who has been seconded to work within a UK universities’ chemistry department for a period of time, usually for a year or more [1-7] . In general, the concept of a School Teacher Fellow is not confined to a particular subject and could involve a primary school teacher working in a secondary school or tertiary (Higher Education) institute or a secondary school teacher working in a primary school. The general concept being that an educator from one phase of the education system works in another phase of the system and shares best practice and acts as a conduit for educators like themselves. In this way, barriers to transition from primary to secondary (e.g. [8- 10]) and secondary to tertiary (e.g. [11-12]) can be addressed. It is also perfectly possible for tertiary educators to also work in primary and secondary schools, but a lack of a formal teaching qualification may preclude such a transition in many cases (at least in the UK where Qualified Teacher Status is usually required) . Shallcross et al., [3] compare the current STF programme with a UK initiative from around 2000 called the Excellence Fellowship and discuss the motivations for a teacher to want to take on a STF role and why the initial scheme was not successful. A key area for the paucity of success of the Excellence Fellowship was facilitation of a relationship between the host Higher Education department and the STF and the provision of support and recognition of the skills being provided by the STF. There are myriad motivations to become a STF and these are discussed in detail [3] but prominent ones are; re-energization of experienced teachers, an opportunity to engage with post-18 students and academics, develop new skills, update subject knowledge, familiarization with current ways of teaching at Higher Education level, etc. In this study the STF in Chemistry role was pioneered by the School of Chemistry at the University of Bristol UK under the auspices of the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning initiative called Bristol ChemLabS [1, 6, 7] established in 2005. The Bristol STF initiative (a secondary school teacher working in a higher education institute) was so successful that the Royal Society of Chemistry funded STF positions at other universities, initially, as part of the ‘Chemistry for our Futures’ Programme [2, 13-15] . The Chemistry School Teacher Fellows (S

FAQs

What is the role of a School Teacher Fellow (STF) in UK university chemistry departments?

An STF is a qualified, experienced secondary school chemistry teacher seconded to a UK university chemistry department, usually for a year or more, to contribute to outreach and teaching-related responsibilities.

How did the study collect data on STFs’ experiences?

The study used a reflective exercise asking STFs to write a letter to themselves to advise new incumbents, rather than relying on a formal interview.

What benefits and barriers did the study identify for the STF program?

The STF role creates unique opportunities to connect university with secondary and primary schools and supports students’ transitions and tertiary teaching practice. Barriers include insufficient support and recognition within the tertiary institute and lack of funding.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Aditya