PIFA or AIFA or MIFA

[eggbasket]

Work with less supervision?
Work more effectively and efficiently?
Write more sarcastic comments on context sheets?
Take more and longer fag breaks while they recount tales of the good old days to the newer staff?
Spend more time saying "That's not how we did it at my old unit, so your procedures are crap."

In theory they should be able to take more responsibility, but I am not sure how the IFA could recognise this given their structuring system for the levels. If you were to say that experience should be taken into account when determining the level at which someone may join the IFA, the process would become too heavily reliant upon references because there would be little that was demonstrable in their background apart from the actual amount of time they have spent working in archaeology. This is not always a useful measure of competence. I think that medals are definitely the way forward.

Cheers,
Eggbasket
Gentleman Adventurer and Antique

"All human endeavour is futile"

[kevin wooldridge]

quote:Originally posted by eggbasketI am not sure how the IFA could recognise this given their structuring system for the levels. If you were to say that experience should be taken into account when determining the level at which someone may join the IFA, the process would become too heavily reliant upon references because there would be little that was demonstrable in their background apart from the actual amount of time they have spent working in archaeology. This is not always a useful measure of competence. I think that medals are definitely the way forward.

I think there is a solution to this problem and the IFA are already more than half way there with their Continuing Professional Development (CPD)scheme. Problem is that at the moment it is not compulsory....

I believe that an archaeologist who becomes PIFA should automatically become AIFA after 3 years continuous IFA membership providing they can demonstrate evidence of CPD for that 3 year period. A similar connection should exist between AIFA and MIFA status. The IFA suggests that evidence of CPD should be maintained in a CPD log and there is a downloadable form for members to use.

The following taken from the IFA web-site defines CPD.

As a principle, CPD refers to the continuing need of all archaeologists to keep up to date and extend our knowledge and expertise. This is essential to the continuing development of the academic discipline and practical methodology of archaeology, to enhancing society?s understanding of its past and present and to maintaining our standards in the use and care of a vulnerable, valuable resource.

As a process, CPD describes a structure through which each of us, as individual archaeologists, can identify the underpinning knowledge and skills necessary to maintain or develop our expertise and further our careers, within existing roles or in seeking or taking on new responsibilities. The structure enables us to select the ways by which we acquire that knowledge and those skills, and to commit to this learning. Further, it provides us each with a means of articulating to others our learning needs and for each of us to seek, and obtain, the support we may need in our commitment.

CPD is applicable to all archaeologists, professional and amateur alike. It is relevant to all practitioners, in all sectors of the archaeological community, no matter what their seniority or specialisation may be.

? Home-based learning Private study, structured reading on particular themes or topics. Use of audio, video or multi-media resources, internet and other distance learning materials
? Work-based learning On-the-job training or supervised responsibilities in particular activities or skills; background reading, research or preparation required to tackle a new area of work
? In-house training courses Courses on particular themes or in particular skills that are provided by, and logged or certificated by, employers
? External training courses Short Courses on particular themes or in particular skills that are provided by organisations other than employers
? Preparatory research Researching information and other materials for presentations to conferences, technical seminars and other eetings, professional bodies or for publications
? Conferences, seminars, workshops or other technical and professional events and meetings
? Formal research Supervised and/or peer reviewed academic research
? Qualifications Courses, including full and part-time or distance learning, leading to a qualification, such as degrees, diplomas and certificates, NVQs or SVQs (or units thereof), or professional qualifications

I am sure that within the scope of CPD it will be possible to distinguish with ease the differences between a cheeky 9-month old and a bashful 9-year old archaeologist.

The IFA seems to recognise that it is possible to develop as an archaeologist within existing roles or in seeking or taking on new responsibilities. so making distinctions between site assistants, project managers and any grades in between largely irrelevant, at least when it comes to consider PIFA/AIFA/MIFA status.

As one great man once said 'Blessed are the Cheesemakers'. Surely the highest level of IFA membership should be attained by those who subscribe to and abide by the Rules and Codes of the Institute.

[achingknees]

Rather than medals I would prefer PIFAs to have the ability to show their career progression through little cloth badges. These can be sewn onto your coat by your mam. Each to show proficiency in the excavation of certain feature types, experience of certain sites, ability to constuct a strat matrix etc. Rather than nine months experience for AIFA status you would need nine badges across certain catagories. MIFAs must have 36 such badges, the final ones being stripey. IFA would have the power to tear off stripes when MIFAs lost touch and failed the unannounced strat matrix test.

[Cautionary Tale]

quote:Originally posted by kevin wooldridge
Surely the highest level of IFA membership should be attained by those who subscribe to and abide by the Rules and Codes of the Institute.

This should be (and I thought is) a minimum requirement for PIFA standard.
I fear the real problem with the current IFA bands, and what I was aiming at with the question, is that the bands effectively relate to job titles/descriptions. If you take responsibility for an area of a site/part of a report/sequence of post-ex processing etc, you are supervising and therefore your job description, if not your job title, tallies with AIFA and given the length of time doing that you can attain AIFA. Same goes for MIFA. This comes to your point about "making distinctions between site assistants, project managers and any grades in between largely irrelevant...". I don't agree with this point. It is perfectly possible to improve as a site assistant without neccessarily taking on more responsibility. I'm thinking of examples like doing short courses in pottery/bone identification etc. None of these would make you a specialist in the purest sense of either discipline, but would improve the individuals performance on site without automatically making them more responsible for their work. With regard to CPD, all memebers and non members should be involved to the improvement of the workforce. A change in corporate level within the IFA shouldn't be seen as some automatic reward for doing what you should be doing anyway to keep up to date. While it may not be compulsary, if you apply to the IFA you do have to demonstrate you have a CPD plan.This would be the real problem with automatic promotions and would surely compound the existing percieved preference for office based archaeologists who could undertake short courses etc relatively easily and still wouldn't have to go out on site - which is what most grumbles are about.

Achingknees - surely hardhat badges would be best (easier to put on take off, available in a range of fetching colours and wouldn't require mam involvement?)

Haec olim meminisse iuvabit

[1man1desk]

quote:Rather than medals I would prefer PIFAs to have the ability to show their career progression through little cloth badges. These can be sewn onto your coat by your mam.

- from achingknees

Not after you have the sewing badge. Then you have to sew them on yourself.

1man1desk

to let, fully furnished

[rachstebbs]

Maybe iron-on ones would be easier, I'm much too lazy to sew, and my mother would tell me where to go if I asked her to do it for me...

[1man1desk]

I think the key issue that is arising here is the extent to which progression through the IFA grades should depend on each of the following:

- your level of archaeological skill and knowledge;
- the level of responsibility you have held within archaeological projects;
- your level of archaeological achievement, measured by reports etc.

The current system seems to be based principally on the last two, the implied principle being that you are not likely to reach higher levels of responsibility or achievement unless you have first reached a higher level of skill.

The existing approach tends to reflect that taken by other professional institutions. Many (such as the ICE) do require CPD records etc to show continuing improvement in skills and knowledge, but this is as well rather than instead of the responsibility/achievement strands.

To determine what is the best approach, you have to decide what the different grades of membership are actually for. I believe that their key purpose is to enable curators and clients to identify those who have demonstrated the ability to run a project (or a significant component of a project, such as a specialist study) and bring it to a successful conclusion in the form of a report and archive (whether it does this well is a different question). This argues for a responsibility/achievement-based approach, rather than a skills-based approach. (note - I have deliberately based this on what I think the grades are for, without looking at what the IFA says they are for; it is a personal view).

One possible solution would be to introduce two separate strands of membership, using different titles. Both would start at PIFA. Someone who wanted to progress by a skills-based route could follow a route through (say) 'Professional Field Archaeologist' (=equivalent to AIFA) and 'Expert Field Archaeologist' (=equivalent to MIFA. The other strand would be responsibility-based, using the existing titles.

Just an idea, and it could perhaps use some work, but it would meet both sets of needs. It would not be elitist, because it would explicitly recognise the equivalence between grades on the two strands, and there would be nothing to stop people from pursuing both.

1man1desk

to let, fully furnished

[achingknees]

quote:Originally posted by 1man1desk

quote:Rather than medals I would prefer PIFAs to have the ability to show their career progression through little cloth badges. These can be sewn onto your coat by your mam.

- from achingknees

Not after you have the sewing badge. Then you have to sew them on yourself.

1man1desk

to let, fully furnished

Sew them on myself? [:0] Would prefer to have them on my jacket. Never got into the whole body piercing/tattoo scene. oh no, I'm getting cross-threaded.........

[mercenary]

quote:One possible solution would be to introduce two separate strands of membership, using different titles. Both would start at PIFA. Someone who wanted to progress by a skills-based route could follow a route through (say) 'Professional Field Archaeologist' (=equivalent to AIFA) and 'Expert Field Archaeologist' (=equivalent to MIFA. The other strand would be responsibility-based, using the existing titles.

I like it.

[troll]

Me too-tiz what is desperately needed.