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Abstracts

Volume 3, Number 2, Winter 2001-2002

Older adults' access to HE in New Zealand

Brian Findsen, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand

That older adults in Western societies have tended to be excluded from access to more formal learning opportunities is exemplified by the paucity of older adults in many Western countries' HE systems. In the New Zealand setting, older adults are usually active participants in informal and non-formal learning (Jarvis, 1985) but tend to shy away from HE.1 This paper attempts to provide an explanation different from the conventional ones used in the adult education literature. It is based on a political economy approach, a subset of critical educational gerontology (Phillipson, 2000). This paper argues that the apparent reticence of older adults' participation in formal education environments is better explained by more contextual explanations that relate to the social and material conditions of their lives (Estes, 1991). In particular, the virtual absence of older adults from HE is explained by a contextual analysis of the issues of the state, social class, gender and ethnicity in New Zealand conditions. Subsequently, the implications for the State and HE institutions are discussed in the context of New Zealand milieux.

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IAG development:support for the adult guidance practitioners

Gill Aslett, Open University in East Anglia

Recent policy moves to support the development of proactive guidance for non-participant adults have included prioritising the Guidance Council's Quality Standards for services, and the new national vocational qualifications (NVQs) in guidance for practitioners. In this investigation, two groups of experienced guidance practitioners working with adults - one from community-based services, the other from the Open University (OU) - provide details of their backgrounds and discuss current developments in their services. Both groups outline their approach to professional delivery but report difficulty in structuring continuing professional development. The introduction of local Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) partnerships is welcomed by the community-based group for improving their status and resources. The new qualifications in guidance are also welcomed, but practitioners feel that the current NVQs need revision, and that they do not cover the full range of professional development. Comparison is made with proposals for the training for the new Connexions personal advisers working with non-participant 16-19-year-olds.

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Access, equity and the learning society: spin doctor solution or embedding culture change?

Geoff Layer, University of Bradford and
Jan Smith, Sheffield Hallam University

This paper takes as its subject the growth of government interest in the concept of a 'learning society' and its relevance to addressing inequality in post-compulsory education. We identify some problems of definition and interpretation, and argue that to date little progress has been made in changing cultural attitudes towards learning. Significant obstacles appear to us to be:

o ideological tensions in policy development;
o definitions of 'what counts' as learning; and
o the failure of specific policy initiatives to address cultural divisions in society.

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Mature student perceptions of Access: perspectives from a qualitative longitudinal research project

Kenneth Gibson and June Waters, University of Derby

This paper is based on part of an ongoing longitudinal research project into the experience of mature adults studying on a university-based Access to HE course. The research is being carried out in three phases. The data on which this article is based have been taken from the second phase, where one of the topics was failure to meet students' expectations of the learning process. In the context of lifelong learning, it is vitally important that Colleges of FE and HE retain the men and women who have had the courage to take the first steps in returning to education. We begin by describing the context and the methodology of the research project. A detailed account of the findings follows, using the voices of the adult returners themselves. Aspects covered include quality of provision, assessment issues and resources.

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Lifelong learning or the knowledge economy?

Graham Fowler, University of Derby

This review article examines an important series of four books, based on the ESRC project 'The Learning Society', under the editorship of Frank Coffield. The works offer a thorough and critical evaluation of not only The Learning Age (DfEE, 1998) but also lifelong learning. The review explores important debates largely in terms generated by the contributions themselves. Building upon this position, the review article argues that the knowledge society - evidenced by a preparedness to engage in education - is already here. Yet the knowledge economy, measured by jobs requiring high level skills, is reluctant to show. This is held to suggest that the expansion of lifelong learning can be read as a mechanism rooted in social discipline. This review article supports this contention by noting the increased diversity in the graduate labour market, where three in ten are over-educated for their job. Those groups lower in cultural capital are likely to gain less from their degree study. Drawing upon recent evidence, it is noted that mature students may well actually lose financially and be more dissatisfied at work. Since the failure of the knowledge economy impacts so strongly upon mature graduates, it is possible to question whether and how mature students ought to engage with university education.

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Standards, standards, standards: the unintended consequences of widening participation?

Mary Stuart, University of Sussex

There is a growing recognition that the current focus of the widening participation (WP) agenda, particularly in England and Wales, is not delivering what many radical adult educators had hoped for when they called for greater access to higher Education (HE) during the 1980s and 1990s (Thompson, 1983; Ward and Taylor, 1986). Increasingly the access debate, which had hitherto been more focused on alternative entry and different experience, is being focused on a notion of preserving standards. This paper argues that in order to explain why this shift has occurred it is important to examine debates outside of adult education and examine theory and practice within compulsory education. Using a small-scale case study of discourses in compulsory education, I examine some of the contradictions currently prevalent within debates about WP to HE in Britain and show how current practices in compulsory education are affecting the opportunities for widening access and the potential of widening participation to transform HE in the future.

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