The Political Economy of Adult Education and Development (Global Perspectives on Adult Education and Training)

Youngman, Frank

Natl Inst of Adult Continuing

In government rhetoric, 'widening participation' in Higher Education is a way of stretching a system that was once designed for an elite, to accommodate a wider social mix of students in order to encourage economic regeneration through education and social inclusion. For those who work in, or who want to study in Higher Education, the government agenda raises issues about purpose and provision in ways that present both an enormous challenge and an opportunity. In her introduction to Stretching the Academy, Thompson asks how we can make the most of the opportunities created, now that participation and democratic renewal are back on the political agenda. She considers the extent to which we can: not only 'stretch' but also 'turn' the academy; create the space; re-theorise the discourse; influence the practice; operate dialectically and strategically within and against the systems in which we work. This collection of twelve essays provides a major new intervention in the widening participation debate by academics active in radical politics. Collectively they bring together critical analyses and inspirational prose, rooted in the authority of experience and practice. They promote a distinctive social theory of knowledge, deriving from a politically committed analysis and theory of power. These are ideas which inform pedagogy that is concerned with democratising knowledge-making and learning, in ways that re-define the parameters of what counts as higher education.

Stretching the Academy: The Politics and Practice of Widening Participation in Higher Education

Education & Teaching

Thompson, Jane

Higher & Continuing Education

As the gap increases between those with access to information and those denied it, redistributing information and making it accessible become ever more important educational and political tasks. While some people now have greater access to a wide range of information, they do not necessarily have the basis for making critical judgements about its significance and value. Literacy has been, and can be, a significant means of social change. By 'powerful literacies', the contributors mean the interventions and practices which attempt to enhance the autonomy and control of powerless learners and their communities over their environment. This book includes issues raised by and for learners, teachers and researchers from the outcomes of literacy programmes in Britain and internationally. The book addresses the twin themes of power and literacies. It approaches power in a variety of ways - sharing power between teachers and students; accessing power through using and understanding new technologies; learning as a powerful agent of change. Literacy is approached as a complex social practice, and a range of literacies is explored, such as literacy as a communal resource and as reflexive practice. The advance of literacy to the forefront of an agenda of social inclusion, participation and active citizenship has inspired a technical literature aimed at practitioners. This book seeks to interrogate the ideas, assumptions and policies that inform literacy practice. The authors reflect a diversity of contexts, political positions and interests, but share a common theme of seeking to promote literacy as a powerful tool for challenging existing inequalities and dependencies.

Powerful Literacies

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

An original contribution to the theory and practice of adult education. It breaks the mould of much adult education writing by drawing inspiration from other related fields of study. The author 'theorises the person' in terms of 'radical' as distinct from 'liberal humanist' ideas. Accessibly written and illustrated by everyday examples, the focus of attention is women's community education. The book is highly relevant to the radical project with all minority and least powerful groups.

Feminist Ways of Knowing: Towards Theorising the Person for Critical Adult Education

Ryan, Anne B.

This topical book examines the connections between theory and practice in citizenship learning. Focusing on the experiences and views of a range of citizens, many on the margins of society, the contributors explore the significance and impact of particular forms of educational policies and provision in peoples' lives and the role adult learning can play in the development of citizenship. Organised into three sections, the book provides a theoretical overview and a framework for understanding the links between learning and citizenship. This is followed by an exploration of the voices of different citizens as they seek to develop their lives and learning. The final section brings together theory and practice and identifies ten 'Propositions for Practice' in developing adult learning for citizenship, primarily in community contexts.

Adult Learning, Citizenship and Community Voices: Exploring Community-based Practice

Johnston, Rennie

Coare, Pam

Creative Writing: Education, Culture and Community offers the first conceptual account of creative writing, one of the most popular - and controversial - educational subjects. O'Rourke, a long-established member of the creative writing community, provides a comprehensive and accessible guide to the issues and tensions associated with creative writing and puts them in the context of current policy debates. These debates include how best to manage, teach and learn creative writing; how to value and evaluate these activities; and the interface between arts activity and educational inclusiveness. This compelling and lucid text argues that the current dominance of educational values and processes in cultural policy is problematic for advocates of cultural action as a catalyst for radical social change. The book offers both a detailed ethnographic study and a careful historical account of creative writing in cultural policy and educational provision, and provides a contextual framework that highlights the contribution of adult education to cultural change and community development.

Creative Writing: Education, Culture and Community

O'Rourke, Rebecca

This book is written for any adult educator who has endured rather than enjoyed a meeting, whether a departmental briefing, management meeting or conference. Essentially a workbook, Getting on brilliantly is a collection of recipes, process tools and ideas that help people work well together in groups and meetings. Modelled on a cookery book, this guide offers off-the-shelf techniques for running successful and inclusive meetings. Organised into sections by outcome, it contains over 80 tried-and-tested recipes with clear step-by-step instructions, whether you want to foster creative thinking, generate ideas, make decisions, negotiate differences of opinion and much, much more.Simple exercises help to ensure that everyone is able to participate meaningfully and that the focus and purposes of the meetings are clear to all. A CD-ROM containing all resources from the book is included. You don't need to be an expert or external consultant to use the ideas in this book. It is written for innovative leaders, for managers, for anyone wanting to develop their facilitation skills. Using process tools will have a positive impact on your work, on organisational health, balance and performance.

Getting on Brilliantly: Ideas for Leading and Managing Groups and Teams

Murray, Susan

Zera, Annette

This international text with contributions from Europe, the United States, South America, Africa and Australia brings together a unique collection of both experienced and new writers examining the relationship between popular and higher education. It shows how university-based teachers and researchers can use their work to support and resource popular struggles for democracy, equality and social justice - at a time when all the demands being made upon them are towards institutional disengagement from social and political action. Exploring how many of the current trends in intellectual and institutional life can be challenged and changed, the book considers amongst other themes, the hegemony of technical rationality and the new managerialism, the construction of higher education as a competitive market place and the dominance of individualised models and modes of learning and achievement.

Popular Education: Engaging the Academy

Martin, Ian

Crowther, Jim

Galloway, Vernon

There is a large body of research that shows literacy is a matter of context and social relationships - rather than a skills-deficient model of inadequacy and lack. Drawing on this research, Outside the classroom explores how, by using the social practice view of literacy, teachers and policy makers can look beyond the skills focus of the classroom to see something of the networks and environments in which learners operate. Expounding the links between theory and practice, the authors set out both the key concepts central to the social practice view of literacy and the crucial aspects of teaching practice. Each is illustrated by a related group of portraits, researched and written by teachers of adult literacy in partnership with learners, offering a rich and varied collage of literacy lives. The authors bring these together in the concluding section, signalling further directions for teaching and research. For anyone interested in the social realities of reading and writing, this is an invaluable resource for professional development, participatory research and teaching practice in adult literacy education.

Outside the Classroom: Researching Literacy With Adult Learners

Mace, Jane

Fowler, Ellayne

There is growing evidence that assessment, when it is used effectively, can play a powerful and positive role in motivating learners and encouraging them to take control over their learning. Yet it can be a complex, confusing, and often controversial area which, rather than complementing learning, often detracts from it. In this new edition the author relates basic principles, purposes and practices of post-16 assessment to some of the broader developments in the qualification system within a political and theoretical context. Highlighting the main themes that make these processes problematic, she explores how to reach a balance between assessment that is flexible, accessible and inclusive yet allows for quality assurance and maintenance of standards. Offering practical strategies for improving assessment and accreditation, this book will raise the level of debate about the purposes of different assessment activities offered to learners and the best ways of providing it at a practitioner, organisational and policy level.

Understanding Assessment and Qualifications in Post-compulsory Education and Training: Principles, Politics and Practice

ECCLESTONE, KATHRYN

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