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Abstracts of Articles

Volume 4, Number 1, Autumn 2002

The complexity of disaffection Mature returners and the narrative tensions of inclusion, hierarchy and Access

Paul Warmington, University of Nottingham

This article comprises a critical ethnography of a group of mature, working class students on an inner-city Access to HE programme. It examines the self-narratives that served to secure their Access projects in the face of the risks associated with returning to education. These self-narratives, offered in a series of group and individual interviews covering perceptions of past schooling, social class and HE, problematised the ‘second chance education’ model and its tendency to favour resistance theories. Emphasis is placed upon the inclusion narratives constructed by students, wherein, without denying the tensions generated within the educational site, students confirmed their educational projects by constructing a discursive coherence between their personal requirements and the ethos and structures of the education system.

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Access - Guidance and tutor/student relationships: Perspectives from a qualitative longitudinal research project

Kenneth Gibson and June Waters, University of Derby

In the Winter (2001-2) edition of JACS, Gill Aslett contributed an article on guidance largely from the point of view of practitioners. This article looks at guidance offered to Access students and tutor/student relationships, from the point of view of Access students. The article is based on part of a longitudinal research project into the experience of 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 were elicited from the second phase, where one of the topics was the causes of adult student withdrawal from courses. The findings are taken from analysis of transcripts of a number of semi-structured interviews with adult returners, about their experiences of guidance and their relationships with their tutors.

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Regeneration - potential or missed opportunity? What is the contribution to the new learning agenda?

John Diamond, Edge Hill College of HE

Regeneration initiatives, especially in urban areas, have claimed that they are concerned with the development of local skills especially in relation to training, employment and ‘capacity building’. A central feature of these initiatives is the partnership arrangements that draw together the post-16 sector, local agencies, the voluntary sector and training providers. The article highlights some of the issues raised by those involved in the process. It suggests that there is an inherent contradiction between a skills agenda defined by agencies external to a local community and one that seeks to draw together local residents and activists. In particular there may be a mis-match between a skills agenda that enhances capacity building as defined centrally and one that is defined locally or within a neighbourhood. These potential areas of difference raise important policy and practice issues for those involved in adult or community education. The article discusses the significance of these tensions by placing them in the context of the regeneration agenda and in its relationship to other policy issues such as accreditation, curriculum design and delivery.

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Age mixing in FE colleges: Does it help or hinder learners?

Pam Cole, University of Sheffield

The Schools of Education at the Universities of Sheffield and Surrey successfully bid jointly to the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA) to undertake research on ‘Learning Relationships in Settings Shared by Young People and Adults’. The initial stage is that of identifying and collecting college data on the age profile of learning groups, together with issues emerging, the objective being to collect information on which to base a statistical analysis of patterns of age mixing based on ten colleges from Yorkshire and the surrounding area.

At a time when lifelong learning has become a key concept it seems perhaps surprising that so little thought has been given to the effects on learners of mixed-age ‘classes’. The age range of students in FE has always been wider than in any other type of educational institution. While many students spend much of their time in homogeneous age groups, some do share their learning experience with people of a different age. The same learning group may contain students who have just left school and have experienced the national curriculum, alongside others whose previous experience of formal education was in very different circumstances. It would not be surprising if the learning styles, needs and expectations of these learners varied by age, and if the extent and nature of age mixing had an impact on the quality and outcomes of the educational experience. However, there is remarkably little research evidence on these issues. The absence of such evidence is a serious handicap to policymakers, managers and teachers, who have no systematic basis to judge whether mixing in general, or mixing of particular kinds, should (and can) be encouraged or discouraged.

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Included in exclusion Learning, civil society and widening participation

Stewart Martin and Bill Williamson, University of Durham

This article argues that current policy initiatives designed to widen participation are counterproductive, serve to widen the gulf between traditional and non-traditional forms of education and actually promote social exclusion. It argues that a fundamental rethinking of the basis for the existing education system is required. Reflections on initiatives at the margins of the present formal system are used to suggest a shift away from structures which serve to replicate a centralist system towards one which challenges it and which promotes the needs of individuals and groups within the lifeworlds of modern civil society.

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The pre-history of Access Popular movements and adult learning in the nineteenth century

Jim Crowther, University of Edinburgh

Popular movements in the 19th century were important vehicles for motivating people to learn and for stimulating educational work in relation to the collective interests of working class men and women. This article aims to contribute towards a debate about what can be learnt from the pre-history of access work, particularly in relation to developing a more equitable and inclusive society. It is argued that the experience of popular movements in this period can help illuminate current issues and alternative possibilities for access work today.

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