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At a time when 'personal development planning' is being rolled out across the UK higher education sector, this paper explores young adults' inclinations to plan for the future in relation to work, relationships and other aspects of life. Although Giddens has emphasised the prevalence of strategic life planning (or the 'colonisation of the future') in all strata of contemporary society, du Bois Reymond has argued that there are important differences by social class, with young people from more privileged backgrounds more likely than their peers to engage in such life-planning activities. This paper draws on interviews with 90 young adults (in their mid-20s) to question some of these assumptions about relationships between social location and propensity to plan for the future. It shows how, within this sample at least, there was a strong association between having had a privileged 'learning career' (such as attending a high-status university and identifying as an 'academic high flier') and a disinclination to form detailed plans for the future. In part, this appeared to be related to a strong sense of ontological security and the confidence to resist what Giddens terms 'an increasingly dominant temporal outlook'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses Pierre Bourdieu's multi-faceted understanding of the higher education process by considering the evolution of this domain since the end of the 1970s both in France and England. Following a brief review of Bourdieu's main interpretations of higher education, several theoretical shifts in his thought and practice over time are identified that have sought to accommodate the rapid changes that have occurred in the higher education sector in recent years. This theoretical repositioning is used to reflect on ideas of homological reasoning advanced by Bourdieu and others, and their limitations in the cross-national comparative exercise. Using the findings of her own comparative study of the evolution of the French and English higher education sectors, the author tests some of the conceptual tools developed by Bourdieu mainly during the 1960s and 1970s, and discusses claims for their universal validity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning is high on the political agenda for post-compulsory education and training in England. Official discourses about learning assume a predominantly individualist stance, despite the development of theoretical models that stress the contextual and situated nature of learning. In a study following 50 young people through further education over 4 years, it became apparent that the institutional culture of the colleges had a significant impact upon students’ dispositions towards their learning. In this paper, we explore the nature and significance of this impact in a case-study sixth form college: an under-researched sector of educational provision. This is followed by a brief discussion of the implications of our analysis for issues of access, widening participation and inequality in relation to current proposals to reform age 16–19 educational provision in England. We conclude by identifying some of the questions about the fine-grained nature of that college culture that our data does not permit us to address directly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on further education (FE) in England and related issues such as socioeconomic factors in educational policy, the state's interest in preparing skilled employees for business needs, and social justice in the FE sector. Policy rhetoric concerning competitiveness in a global economy, the development of a vocational education and training system that is based on market demand, and the failure of a supply-led model for the development of human capital are discussed.

Drawing on ESRC-funded research (RES-000-22-0832), this article examines the accounts of men participating in London access and foundation programmes in relation to their shifting masculine identifications. I consider how the men's early memories of schooling shape their student masculinities. Their accounts are contextualised in relation to hegemonic discourses of widening participation and neo-liberalism. Drawing on feminist critique, I pay attention to the men's self-regulating practices in their struggle to be recognised as deserving of higher education access and participation. The interconnections and contradictions within men's identifications across a range of differences are considered in relation to their experiences and imaginaries of accessing higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses some of the key issues involved in the attempt to redefine the nature of teacher professionalism in England. During the 1980s, the various attempts to find new ways of training teachers had led to the development of a number of shortened courses, extended courses, and part-time courses. Each of the successive reforms has been announced before earlier changes have been properly evaluated and they have all been accompanied by well-orchestrated media attacks on the role of higher education in teacher education. The process of deprofessionalisation and reprofessionalisation of teaching involves a combination of measures to open up the market to new producers of qualified teachers and to foster a different ideology amongst new entrants to the profession. First, to locate the reforms in the broader context of other changes taking place in education and, more particularly, in the nature of teachers' work. Government interventions in education have sought to introduce a competitive market system for the supply of educational services. This has resulted in changes to the governance, content and outcomes of schooling.

The article discusses some of the key concepts, debates and issues concerning the political economy of markets. Identification of problems and sources of tension and dysfunction which mark the points at which market failure might occur and the impact on teacher education of the introduction of market principles. In common with many other areas of education and sectors of the public services, teacher education in England and Wales is experiencing a period of intense change. There are now several summaries of recent developments in teacher education. The major elements of these have been identified as firstly the establishment of alternative routes into teaching. Secondly the requirement for Higher Education Institutions to enter into partnership arrangements with schools to provide initial training. Thirdly a move away front specification of course content and towards the use of profiles of teacher competences as exit criteria specifying student achievement. The proposal to shift to the new Teacher Training Agency both the control of funding from the Higher Education Funding Council and also the accreditation of courses and institutions, from the Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education. If government policy were seriously intended to make education more receptive to a market orientation then it would not be unreasonable to expect some specification of the relevant market form or forms.