COMPULSORY education, EDUCATIONAL law & legislation, BRITISH education system, POST-compulsory education, LEARNING, EDUCATION policy, ADULT education, EDUCATIONAL change
Abstract
This paper examines recent empirical work on the lived experience of learners in post‐compulsory education. The starting point is a brief examination of the socio‐economic context of the sector. Despite the sophistication of analyses of learning cultures, a more radical approach is needed. Failure to do so renders these analyses amenable to appropriation by ‘new labour’ modernisers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Busher, Hugh, James, Nalita, Piela, Anna, and Palmer, Anna-Marie
Subjects
ADULT education, HIGHER education & society, RIGHT to education, SOCIAL marginality, BRITISH education system, EDUCATION policy, ADULT students, CONTINUING education, HIGHER education
Abstract
Adult learners on Access to Higher Education courses struggled with institutional and social structures to attend their courses, but transformed their identities as learners through them. Although asymmetrical power relationships dominated the intentional learning communities of their courses, their work was facilitated by collaborative cultures and supportive tutors, and students gained the confidence to construct their own emergent communities of practice for learning. The students attended seven further education colleges in the East Midlands of England. Data were collected by mixed methods within a social constructivist framework from students and their tutors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]