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This paper explores the enterprises artist-teachers in adult community learning (ACL) engage with and how these form their identity. This is significant to consider as artist-teachers in ACL are overlooked in the published literature. ACL is comprised of community-based learning delivered by local authorities and general further education colleges. Thornton defines the artist-teacher as an individual dedicated to both art and teaching. This is visualised in his Artist Teacher Model. However, Thornton ignores other enterprises that an artist-teacher could be involved in. This paper then considers Daichendt's use of Wallace and Gruber's networks of enterprises. Using the earliest recorded artist-educator, George Wallis, as a case study, Daichendt highlights how one is often engaged in several enterprises and uses the network of enterprises to visualise this. Participant interviews and focus groups test if this is more appropriate for the artist-teacher in ACL than Thornton's model. The impact of this research on practice is an improved understanding of the multifaceted identities of artist-teachers. The paper helps to produce new knowledge around the identity and introduces newly developed visual tools for tracking this, including the Tetrad Identity Model, and the ATLS. These tools may also be used for other professionals with multifaceted identities.

The dominant public discourse regarding the recruitment and retention of teachers is one that is often framed in terms such as 'crisis'. Data from the Department for Education, the National Audit Office and bodies such as the Education and Training Foundation highlight challenges in filling vacancies across each part of the education sector. This is particularly acute in subject areas relating to Science, Engineering and Technology (SET). This paper analyses discourses relating to teacher training amongst tri-service personnel in the English context. Sources from publications such as FE Week and CTP (Career Transition Partnership) are addressed. In doing so, the paper compares educational and military sources in order to examine how the representation of a civilian teaching career varies between the two. This is about adding to the wider societal narrative regarding the ways in which military to civilian transition can be aided by the reframing of skills and experience acquired during military service.

This paper examines staff perspectives on institutional representations of a range of areas of diversity and inclusion in a key post-compulsory education sector: that of UK Higher Education (HE). The paper focuses on comparing representational statements made by institutions with the reality of their lived experiences as perceived by staff. The paper first reviews literature around key issues of promoting and progressing in these areas, and how these areas are represented by institutions and the sector as a whole. It presents and discusses data from a survey (n = 300) to show strong agreement with representational statements as mirroring those of institutions, yet statistically significant differences between representations and the reality of lived experiences, particularly in relation to the lived experiences of staff. These data are discussed in the light of progress made by institutions, and the challenges faced in translating representations into real lived experience. Suggestions for institutions and policy makers are made to help better align reality with these representations in the UK Higher Education sector and, theoretically, for post-compulsory education sectors elsewhere.

The article is concerned with the research approaches and nature of methodologies and epistemologies used by practitioner-researchers in a range of occupational areas. The authors use the experiences of candidates on a generic Doctorate in Professional Studies who undertake a module on research and development for professional practice. They also bring their experience as tutors and programme leaders and the results from focus groups with their peers in other universities to this current and topical area of the higher education curriculum. Part of the module asks candidates to write an assignment in which they investigate the methodologies and epistemologies used as a practitioner-researcher. A close analysis of ten of these assignments reveals that the methodologies selected for practice-based projects may be as a result of the candidates' personal, professional and disciplinary backgrounds as well as a time imperative and desire for brevity that arises from an immediacy in the situation. The authors also conclude that a range of factors were important to the practitioner-researchers and that these have important epistemological implications. The social-science-oriented approaches introduced on the programme offer tried and tested ways to research, but more practice-based approaches to practitioner-research could be developed further. (Contains 2 figures.)

This paper examines responses to the trend for increasing participation in tertiary education, linking developments in higher education with those in apprenticeship systems, in Australia and the United Kingdom. In both sectors, expansion proceeded for several decades, but was robustly criticised in both countries. The expansion of access to these two forms of tertiary education, therefore, was contested and potentially precarious. The paper finds, through analysis of official data, that participation in higher education and in apprenticeship was actually almost static, or fell, in both countries in the 2010s. Yet criticism of expansion continued in media commentary during this decade. The paper both explains and takes issue with the arguments against expansion, which have been influential in both sectors. It discusses some ways forward to understand the phenomenon better, and also the need to address the problems caused by the restriction of opportunities. Comparative analysis between the two sectors has not previously been undertaken. It is argued in the paper that such analysis enriches the theoretical lenses through which expansion of access may be viewed, and that it may suggest avenues for future research, and perhaps, for advocacy.

A systematic review of qualitative primary data (2010-2021) was undertaken to understand how inequality is experienced by undergraduate students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds transitioning to the UK labour market. A ten-step protocol for qualitative synthesis was adapted to guide the study, whilst the PRISMA flow diagram was used to report the search. Data was extracted from 14 papers with thematic synthesis used to analyse the results inductively. This review illustrates multiple barriers faced by disadvantaged socio-economic students in a competitive graduate labour market and the severe impact this may have on student career development. Disadvantaged students often apply more effort than advantaged counterparts in seeking work and internship opportunities and live more precariously, as they lack finance to buffer them. In contrast, advantaged socio-economic status students can act quickly to build their employability profiles from the beginning of their degree studies, with the strategic application of social, cultural and economic capital. The qualitative papers in this review complement previous quantitative research, illustrating that despite participation rates in high education increasing for disadvantaged students, their career outcomes have not generally improved relative to their more advantaged peers. The review includes recommendations for stakeholders including government, universities, careers services and employers.

When attending predominately residential universities, commuter students are the minority and typically have poorer outcomes than residential peers. Research demonstrates commuter students identify factors impacting on their persistence and success, include time taken to commute, lack of social integration and a poor sense of belonging. In contrast, most students studying in UK college higher education are commuter students. They are already embedded in local communities, with their family and friends outside of university, and have a different sense of university belonging. Data collected during 13 online focus groups over six months explored college higher education commuter students' sense of belonging and persistence. Reflexive thematic analysis identified that in contrast to the much-researched notion of belonging being important to students' persistence, in this group of non-traditional commuter students, the notion of mattering was more important. Students spoke about how college higher education staff, particularly their personal tutors, demonstrated students mattered, and this feeling was reciprocated. Feeling like they mattered helped them to engage with learning and persist with their studies. This paper offers insight for higher education providers with high proportions of commuter students, and recommendations about how providers can foster mattering in their students to develop their persistence and success.

This paper is based upon a collaborative research project with a group of eight second-year students studying on an Early Childhood BA at a Midlands (UK) University. The empirical research project emerged as a response to the concerning levels of disengagement demonstrated by this group post-pandemic. Because the focus of their module was research approaches, as module lead, I took the decision to engage the students in "real world" research. I reasoned that if the stakes were raised, they might feel more compelled to interact with the content in a meaningful way. An anonymous survey, exploring student health, wellbeing and motivation, was the result. Although the survey added little to the existing discourse concerning the drivers and barriers for Higher Education students in 2023, the process provided an extremely rich learning experience for the students, particularly in relation to the complexity of the ethical decisions required for research and researcher positionality. This article focuses upon the process of the research and the barriers encountered, but it also considers the ethics of using the incidental data that resulted.

This paper aims to contribute to the contested body of work about the factors influencing student motivation, expectations, engagement and satisfaction in higher education (HE). Policy surrounding the deployment and use of the National Student Survey (NSS) and the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) constructs social relationships between teachers and students as calculated instrumental exchanges, whereby, in exchange for the fee they pay, students expect to receive an education designed to ensure they have the knowledge, skills and innovative capabilities required by businesses and the economy in the competitive global market place. Drawing on fieldwork conducted between 2011 and 2015; and using narrative data obtained from face-to-face conversations and email interviews with sampled cohorts of post 30s students enrolled on two vocational degree programmes in a post 1992 university; the paper aims to highlight the flawed assumptions about student expectations, engagement and satisfaction, which fail to acknowledge the positive life-changing impact the higher education experience can have on students and in their work. Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, field, capital and illusio, and Goffman's classic pieces on 'The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life', 'Stigma' and the 'Cooling out the marks' process, are used to develop this argument.

Further education (FE) has traditionally been a rather unspectacular activity. Lacking the visibility of schools or the prestige of universities, for the vast majority of its existence FE has had a relatively low profile on the margins of English education. Over recent years this situation has altered significantly and further education has undergone profound change. This paper argues that a combination of related factors--neo-liberalism, globalisation, and dominant discourses of the knowledge economy--has acted in synergy to transform FE into a highly performative and marketised sector. Against this backdrop, further education has been assigned a particular role based upon certain narrow and instrumental understandings of skill, employment and economic competitiveness. The paper argues that, although it has always been predominantly working class in nature, FE is now, more than ever, positioned firmly at the lower end of the institutional hierarchy in the highly class-stratified terrain of English education.

This paper reports on Phase Two of a small-scale qualitative research project. Phase One (2015-2016) focused on pre-service student teachers' perceptions of observation and feedback in relation to their developing identity as teachers. In Phase Two, two previous participants reflected on the research findings as qualified and beginning teachers. New participants were invited to contribute their perspectives of the transition they had made from the Postgraduate Certificate in Post-Compulsory Education (PGCE PCE) one-year full-time course to their first year of teaching. Phase Two considers constructs of teacher identity and theoretical models of communities of practice and ecological learning systems. Participants reviewed transitions from PGCE PCE into their first year of teaching in relation to a continuum of practice that saw them taking increased levels of ownership of their development. They described the extent to which and the ways in which they identified themselves with the teacher role and as members of a community at work. Applications of the community of practice model were discussed and occasionally compared unfavourably to the community of practice context of the PGCE PCE course. Community of practice concepts such as 'membership' and 'validation' are re-explored in this paper.

This paper explores notions of professionalism amongst vocational teachers in the United Kingdom and Australia, through an analysis of voluntarism/regulatory frameworks and professional body frameworks. In terms of empirical evidence, the paper reports on data drawn from a documentary analysis of government policy documents, standards for the education of teachers, and regulatory frameworks in both countries. It is located within a broad range of literature exploring contemporary concepts of professionalism amongst vocational teachers. Documentary analysis implies that whilst there is an expectation and assumption that vocational teachers are, and should be, professional, this is not necessarily translated through initial teacher training requirements, some of which fail to address concepts of professionalism at all. Further, it offers evidence to suggest that where notions of professionalism are addressed, the concept is described in largely reductive and utilitarian terms, and that this is the case in both countries. The paper considers the implications of this for teachers, students, and wider practice within the sector, arguing that meaningful understandings of the notion of professional, which are effectively applied in practice, are fundamental to broader understandings of key issues in further education, such as those associated with in/equalities and in/exclusion in education contexts. The paper concludes that such understandings are unlikely to be drawn from utilitarian, Competency Based Training (CBT) based teacher-training programmes.

The post-incorporation further education (FE) sector has experienced a number of quasi-markets over the past 23 years designed to incentivise college agents (managers and lecturers) to meet government objectives. To create such quasi-markets principal-agent (P-A) solutions have been introduced in the form of a series of funding incentives and inspection frameworks under the Conservative administration (1993-97), New Labour (1997-2010), the coalition government (2010-15) and currently under the new Conservative administration. This paper reviews the FE literature to assess the effectiveness of these P-A solutions as a means of improving students' skills for employability, needs-based equity for disadvantaged students and the wider benefits of education. The conclusion is that such P-A solutions have been ineffective at realising these goals because distant government diktats are unable to accommodate local knowledge of communities and businesses, leading to the creation of incomplete contracts which limit professional values, intrinsic motivation and tacit knowledge in the production process. Centralised funding incentives and inspection frameworks have also led to gaming behaviours and impression management activity as a means of presenting colleges as auditable commodities. More particularly, P-A solutions have encouraged a performative culture where students are viewed as commodities (of financial and presentational value) to the detriment of both needs-based equity for disadvantaged learners and student employability. Significant caveats are provided in this paper for the current Conservative government to consider in its planned policy of improving skills for employability through localism and devolution in the FE sector. It suggests that if single-minded P-A solutions are used at the local level, through the continued use of funding and inspection targets and incentives, they will not improve skills for employability or needs-based equity for disadvantaged students, nor will they facilitate a regard for the wider benefits of education due to the creation of incomplete contracts. New forms of local governance and accountability will be required to facilitate more flexible principal-agent relations which accommodate decision-making, intrinsic motivation and professional values at the local level.

As cuts in public-sector funding continue to affect the lives and careers of public-sector workers in the UK, and in other countries, there are added pressures on educational establishments to equip students with the knowledge and skills for employability, sustainable employment and career development in an employment marketplace characterised by neo-liberal principles and practices. In this new era of austerity, the empirical research for this paper is focused on the career experiences of graduate employees working in the public sector. The paper examines the contested ideology and politics of vocational education. Specifically, it argues that the policy-driven discourse on vocational education informs a "cooling out" process that deflects attention away from structural weakness in the economy, and disavows the impact of major changes in labour-market conditions and in employer-employee relationships. This cooling out process, whereby individuals are made morally responsible to make something of their lives, in contexts where opportunities to do so are increasingly reduced, perpetuates ideological fantasies of individual aspiration and opportunity that amount to a form of "cruel optimism." The paper ends with the case for a robust, research-informed debate about the contested purpose of post-compulsory education in the twenty-first century, the processes of psychological contracting between students and staff in colleges of further education and universities, and how contractual expectations and beliefs change over time.

Practice-based research is now widely accepted at doctoral level, and it is recognised that creative practice can be the mode, method, tool, object, subject and/or embodiment of research in the arts and humanities PhD. The growth of creative methods and arts-based methods also means that data is increasingly gathered through creative means in many social science and education doctorates. The doctoral contribution as thesis can therefore no longer be automatically assumed to be contained solely in a written text. This paper questions the extent to which research degree regulations and policies are reflecting and enabling the diversity of contemporary forms of knowledge articulation in practice-based research. Arising from my lived experience of supporting doctoral candidates to navigate regulations on the format and formatting of a submission, it draws on empirical research into research degree regulations at a number of universities in the United Kingdom, contextualised in relation to the literature. I reveal the assumptions and constraints embedded in regulatory practices and highlight ongoing concerns around the articulation and archiving of practice-based doctoral research.

This paper draws on my experience of supervising research degrees undertaken by practising artists, mainly painters. It is driven by the question of whether and how practice might be incorporated into the review process to encourage the development of more relevant research skills for practitioner-researchers. The aim is to develop methods of search and review for practitioner-researchers which take into account the types of projects practitioner-researchers are engaged in as well as the types of knowledge at play as a result of the role of practice in the research. Beginning with the concept of the literature/practice review and the aim of locating researchers' work in relation to that of other practitioners through the creation of a lineage of practice, examples of creating a lineage based on the experiences of four artist-researchers are presented. In addition, strategies for creating a lineage, which require the researcher to engage in creative practice, are outlined. In conclusion, ways that practitioner-researchers from different practical domains might share experiences to develop more relevant strategies for undertaking, assessing and presenting results of search and review within practice as research projects are discussed.

The paper draws on the Wolf (2015) report ("Heading for the Precipice: Can Further and Higher Education Funding Policies Be Sustained?") and other quantitative data, specifically that derived from HEFCE's Participation of Local Area (POLAR) classifications. In addition it explores key literature and debates that associate higher education in further education (HE in FE) with the pursuit of social justice. This enables an interrogation of conceptualisations of vocationalism as well as a consideration of its articulation with class and gender. Whilst the paper is set within a particular and English socio-economic context, it addresses issues that have a much broader global significance. The paper argues that whilst HE in FE has limited traction in facilitating social mobility it does serve as a resource in the struggle for social justice.

This paper draws on data that formed part of a major three-year longitudinal study (2008-2011), which set out to investigate basic skills (BS) provision and needs in the British army and its relationship to operational effectiveness. Using mixed methods, the findings draw on qualitative data from 60 semi-structured interviews with 26 young recruits and interviews and survey data with 1518 recruits, with an average age of 19.6 years. The research also uses testimony from their line managers and trainers. The first part of the paper looks at educational BS provision that the army provides. While the benefits of this provision are discussed, there is a debate about the extent to which BS programmes provide recruits with qualifications rather than enduring and transferable skills, which would make them more operationally effective and useful to the army organisation. The second part deconstructs the concept of what is meant by being 'operationally effective' and the role BS play in reaching this ultimate military objective.

This paper addresses a recurring theme regarding the UK's Vocational Education and Training policy in which further education (FE) and training are primarily driven by employer demand. It explores the tensions associated with this process on the everyday working practices of FE practitioners and institutions and its impact on FE's contribution to the wider processes of social and economic inclusion. At a time when Ofsted and employer-led organisations have cast doubt on the contribution of FE, we explore pedagogies of practice that are often unacknowledged by the current audit demands of officialdom. We argue that such practice provides a more enlightened view of the sector and the challenges it faces in addressing wider issues of social justice, employability and civic regeneration. At the same time, the irony of introducing laissez-faire initiatives designed to remove statutory qualifications for FE teachers ignores the progress made over the past decade in raising the professional profile and status of teachers and trainers in the sector. In addressing such issues, the paper explores the limits and possibilities of constructing professional and vocational knowledge from networks and communities of practice, schools, universities, business, employers and local authorities, in which FE already operates.

Since Edwards' influential study on mature women students and families in the 1990s, questions have been raised about the effects of Higher Education (HE) on family lives. Edwards maintained that relationships were at risk of breakdown due to the changing identity, increased self-esteem and enhanced confidence levels of women students. Men were perceived negatively as often being unsupportive of their wives' return to HE, or threatened by the changes they observed in her. This paper is based on qualitative research methods focusing on whether HE changes a woman's identity and reconstructs family relationships. A narrative line of inquiry was used to build detailed stories of a small group of women students and their husbands. The 11 women students were selected from one Foundation degree in Early Years programme at a further education institution. Data was constructed using mind mapping, focused interviews and a mosaic approach of participant-led research. Research findings showed that HE had the potential to transform a woman's identity and position within her family relationships. The results also demonstrated that family capital, in the form of practical and emotional strategies of support from both husbands and children, played an instrumental part in the women's success and participation in HE (though this aspect will be discussed in a subsequent paper).

This paper presents the initial findings of a research project that aims to investigate the impact of teacher training for lecturers in post-compulsory education on engagement with continuing professional development (CPD) for learning and teaching. The majority of colleges and universities operating in the UK now ensure that all teaching staff are given access to training in skills for learning and teaching. This training can take many different forms and this paper explores the potential differences in outcome and influence on engagement with CPD and lifelong learning of graduates from these programmes. For the study, 18 lecturers from different colleges (one large multi-campus college in Scotland and another in Wales) provided narrative accounts about their professional background, training and qualifications prior to initial lecturer training and their route into teaching in further education. Respondents then engaged in semi-structured interviews about their experiences in lecturer training and ongoing engagement with CPD and further learning post-training. The findings indicate that respondents feel insufficient emphasis is placed on vocational skills training, meeting special educational needs and classroom management techniques. Lecturers agree that CPD in learning and teaching is very important but the research data show lack of meaningful engagement with the training options currently available. Recommendations are made to colleges to increase the practical and vocational focus and content of teacher training for lecturers whilst acknowledging the importance of allowing novice practitioner status. The requirement for access to high-quality, valid and targeted CPD is highlighted, with lecturers acknowledging the importance of training and expressing the desire to engage with relevant courses in learning and teaching.

The flipped classroom seeks to remove didactic instruction from the classroom and deliver it via electronic videos outside of the classroom, leaving contact time free for more interactive and engaging teaching and learning activities. This paper has two distinct aims: (1) to conduct a literature review of published UK-based "flipped classroom" studies and (2) to contribute to this field of study. The paper will show that there have been many published scholarly pieces on the flipped classroom in countries such as the USA, detailing flipped studies in both compulsory schooling and higher education. However, at the time of writing there have been no published papers concerning an implementation of the flipped classroom in the UK further education sector. In order to contribute to this gap in the field, the findings from a small-scale flipped classroom project based in a further education college will be presented and discussed. The study was conducted in the 2012/13 academic year whilst the author was undertaking initial teacher training. This case study yielded significant benefits to learners through adopting this approach. In addition to charting the effects of a flipped classroom upon attainment and engagement, the paper will discuss the often under-represented staff experience of flipping the classroom.

This paper is based on in-depth interviews carried out with students in their first and final years of undergraduate study. The paper examines how students approached career decision-making and the rationale underpinning the approach they adopted. The research found that students were not utilising the type of rational approaches to career decision-making promoted by policymakers, careers professionals and the educational system. This was because students tended to be present-rather than future-orientated; they had a predisposition to an extrinsic locus of control and dependency rather than agency; and they preferred to make decisions using informally absorbed information and their intuition. The paper concludes by suggesting that colleges and universities should encourage students to critically evaluate the way they currently make decisions and support the development of their students' decision-making skills so that they can make more rational career decisions.

The problematisation of the professional standards for teachers in the UK lifelong learning sector tends to focus on the discourses that the standards embody: discourses that are posited as being based on a restricted or technicist model of professionalism, that fail sufficiently to recognise the lived experiences of teachers within the sector both in terms of professional knowledge and competence, and professional development. This paper takes a different approach, drawing on social practice theories of literacy in order to shift the locus of problematisation away from what the standards might mean, to how the standards are physically assembled or instantiated in documentary form. The paper concludes by suggesting that a first point of problematisation rests not in the discourses that the standards embody, but in the inherent fragilities of any text-based material artefact that has the intention of carrying meaning across spatial, institutional or temporal boundaries.

The paper addresses workplace learning; vocational pedagogy, education and knowledge; and the transformation of practice. It draws upon discussions of vocationalism, vocational pedagogies as well as the constitution of vocational knowledge(s), debates which are set within particular historical and socioeconomic as well as national contexts. It points towards the limitations of analyses of workplace learning and in so doing draws upon conceptualisations of "really useful knowledge" and subject-based disciplinary knowledge. Workplace learning can easily fold over into an instrumentalism concerned with enhancing variable labour power. The paper argues for a recognition of the articulation between practice-based and employer interest in vocational education and training, set against wider disciplinary understandings and access to powerful and transformative knowledges. It is suggested that disciplinary knowledge when allied to workplace experiences can be appropriated by oppressed and marginalised groups, thereby becoming "really useful knowledge" to be marshalled in the struggle for social justice. This then is the pedagogic challenge -- to open up possibilities that themselves presage not only the transformation of practice but also social relations.

This paper presents findings of a research project that aimed to critically examine the pedagogical beliefs of work-based learning teachers, and their potential implication on practice and expectations of learners and employers. Based on an online tool, qualitative and quantitative (descriptive) data were generated from a purposive sample of some 120 academics working in the sector across the United Kingdom. Two pedagogical belief orientations emerged: "pedagogical belief A"--transfer of professional/working knowledge; and "pedagogical belief B"--facilitating learning and developing reflective practice. The paper argues that the ability of work-based learning teachers to look beyond their own beliefs and understanding of teaching to more strategically blended and shared understanding would be important to ensure that while teaching and learning meet academic quality standards, student learning experiences would meet expectations at the workplace.

In the United Kingdom, changes in the policy, funding and commissioning landscape for mental health and well-being are posing opportunities and challenges for adult community learning (ACL). Opportunities include increased recognition of, and funding for, the "wider benefits" of learning, whereas challenges include the risks of ACL provision becoming hijacked by a health and well-being agenda that compromises its primary educational purpose and values. This paper engages with these policy debates through reporting on a study of mental health ACL that employed the capabilities approach along with two other complementary areas of social theory--recognition theories and theories of capitals. Its aim was to explore the means through which ACL impacts mental health and to draw out implications for policy and practice. Findings from focus groups with adult learners and tele-discussions with ACL practitioners revealed three main means through which the provision helped generate interlinked mental health and educational capabilities: providing recognition, generating resources (capitals) and enhancing agency freedom. Elaborating these findings, the paper sets out an argument for interpretation of the mental health and well-being agenda in ACL in terms of a humanistic, liberatory pedagogy that encompasses feminist praxis and draws out policy implications across the areas of ACL and mental health.

The discourse of disengagement has achieved ascendancy just as young people's employment prospects have declined--in many countries to crisis levels. Conceptualising and interpreting young people's non-participation in dominant modes of education, training and employment has been a preoccupation of academics, policymakers and journalists. This paper offers a critical analysis of the discourse of disengagement. It queries the primacy of participation as the dominant policy response to mass youth unemployment, identifies some paradoxes of this policy priority, and locates them within a political-economic analysis of youth unemployment. It proposes a view of prevailing policy responses as a mode of governance of problematised populations of young "non-participants". By juxtaposing two ostensibly incompatible analytical frameworks, the paper draws attention to some potentially illuminating tensions between materialist and governmentalist analyses of dominant policy responses to "disengagement", and considers how these might be exploited in researching and reconceptualising non-participation. (Contains 2 figures.)

Expectations for higher education providers to produce graduates ready for the workplace have shaped provision, with the introduction of the Foundation Degree, and expectations of an employability component within higher education programmes. This paper reports on an intervention for three groups of foundation degree students, which introduces them to ideas of skills for employability. An initial evaluation was followed up two months later exploring the longer-term impact and connections within students' programmes of study and data were captured from employers and tutors supporting this intervention. In agreement with similar studies, benefits for students were identified. However, this research reinforces the challenging nature of the employability agenda, particularly within the context of Foundation Degrees and their dual vocational-academic remit. This paper suggests there is a case to be made for a social constructivist approach within programmes and institutions for promoting awareness and consistency in developing student employability skills.

The dissonance between Eastern and Western learning approaches is regarded as an obstacle for Chinese students in adjusting to Western education environments, and one of the reasons is the lack of an understanding of Chinese learning approaches, that is, Chinese learners are uncritically perceived as rote learners. This paper investigates Chinese international foundation students' learning approaches when they were in China and here in the UK. Their experiences indicate that, similarly to UK students, Chinese students learn with the intention of understanding, they use memorisation only when they fail to understand or have examination pressure. Consequently, Chinese students adjust well to Western teaching styles. Some difficulties they experienced in classrooms are due to language problems and a lack of understanding of Western cultural backgrounds and expectations. Moreover, similarly to UK students who leave home for the first time, the greatest challenge is to develop self-regulated learning. The paper argues that, although Eastern and Western teaching styles are significantly different, students' underlying learning approaches can be similar in China and the West.

Study tours abroad are important arenas for post-compulsory education. This paper focuses on how personality affects students' learning on study tours abroad. The research involved 66 learners from one higher education institution in Taiwan on tours to the UK, the USA and Australia. Data were gathered using questionnaires and learning journals, and informed by participant observation of the first author as tour leader. Findings can be only indicative as the study was limited to a relatively small sample from one institution and the tours were short term. The paper illustrates how study tours are a special example of experiential education. Data reveal notable, self-reported improvements in English language ability and cultural knowledge, supporting findings of other researchers. They also indicate, in terms of type theory, that extraverts and sensates derive the most benefit from study tours. The findings hold important implications for study tour leadership and organisation. (Contains 8 tables.)

This paper represents a contribution to the Skills Commission's call in 2009 for more research into the attitudes of apprentices towards advanced further education and higher education. Understanding of the perspective of apprentices has been argued to be important to informing any policy change aimed at increasing the low progression rate of apprentices to higher level learning. This paper outlines how the issue of apprenticeship progression, particularly progression to higher education, has latterly fitted with the aims of Lifelong Learning Networks, set up to facilitate progression for learners on vocational pathways and to create opportunities for vocational learners to build on their earlier learning. We present two pieces of research into apprentices' attitudes towards progression to higher levels of learning and show how this forms a contribution to our understanding of the issues around progression from apprenticeships, within the wider context of Lifelong Learning Networks' endeavour to facilitate greater vocational progression into higher education. (Contains 9 tables.)

This paper questions the assumption underpinning recent government initiatives, both at national and international level, that the Further Education Sector is "an enterprise free zone". As part of the drive for global competitiveness policies to improve the business start-up rate as well as engender enterprise skills and capabilities within young learners have assumed significance. Attention has focused primarily on the compulsory school phase, with comparatively little regard given to activities within colleges. Drawing on case study exemplars, this paper offers a tentative alternative view by suggesting a number of possible reasons: there is a lack of common understanding around terminology; exemplars of enterprise education offered look like just good practice in post-compulsory teaching and learning; the over-emphasis on bolt-on activities fails to take account of the pedagogical approaches inherent in education for enterprise and entrepreneurship; there is a lack of robust evaluation data. It concludes by suggesting that there is possibly far more going on in colleges than is recognised either by external commentators or by college practitioners.

This paper reviews the reasons behind the absence of central Government funding for enterprise and innovation at Further Education Colleges (FECs). Enterprise and innovation are, according to conventional wisdom, crucial in rebuilding the UK's economy and providing jobs. In pursuit of this, the Government has provided central funding for enterprise promotion and education for both Universities and Secondary Schools, but not for FECs. The review starts by looking at recent Government policy papers on enterprise and innovation, then briefly considers the current economic characteristics that lay behind the need for enterprise education and innovation. The efficacy of the current proposals is questioned, looking at the concepts concerning the type and level of intelligence entrepreneurs need, also touching on what types of innovations can be expected to increase employment. The paper concludes by asking if elitist or class bias plays a part in the exclusion of Vocational Education & Training students at FECs from central funding for innovation and enterprise. (Contains 3 figures.)

The New Labour government identified the further education (FE) sector as a vehicle to deliver its central policies on social justice and economic competitiveness in England, which has led to a torrent of initiatives that have increased central scrutiny and control over FE. Although the connections between social justice, economic competitiveness and education are hegemonic in mainstream British politics, they are unfounded. Therefore, FE can only fail to deliver fully the government's central programme. Thus, a gap exists between policy initiatives and practice in colleges even, paradoxically, where reforms are ostensibly successful. In order to illustrate this gap and how it is maintained this paper considers one specific reform: the statutory obligation for teachers in English FE colleges to undertake 30 hours of continuing professional development (CPD) annually. Evidence from small-scale exploratory research suggests that this initiative has had little impact on patterns of CPD, though the government's quantifiable targets are being systematically met. This paper argues that a symbiosis of performativity has evolved where the government produces targets and colleges produce mechanisms to "evidence" their achievement, separate to any change in practice and thus maintaining the gap between policy and practice.

Within education, the term "research" is used in a multiplicity of ways. This paper draws on my own reflection of how educational practitioners experience shifting relationships to research. It suggests that within the further education (FE) sector, professionalism in teaching is measured through observation in the form of the Ofsted inspection. In this case, the lecturer becomes an agent of research, i.e. a "body" to be assessed and scrutinised according to a defined set of criteria. In contrast, in higher education (HE), an academic becomes the creator of research and is expected to generate new knowledge through research output. This paper therefore examines the relationship between theory and practice with specific reference to how different discourses of research are used to either assess or demarcate professionalism within UK post-compulsory education, depending in which sector practice is based. (Contains 1 note.)

This paper describes some outcomes of a nine-month design-based research study into the professional development of 24 numeracy teachers with post-16 learners. The teachers were encouraged to integrate eight research-based teaching principles into their classroom practices as they implemented a set of discussion-based mathematics learning resources. A mixed methods approach was used to evaluate the outcomes, including interviews and classroom observation. The paper examines teachers' perceptions of the project, the reasons they found some pedagogical principles more difficult to incorporate than others, and the factors that enabled and impeded their use of the learning resources. In particular, it is noted that the principles that teachers considered to be most important were not the ones that they were observed using most effectively. The paper concludes by considering the implications of the research for initial and continuing teacher education. (Contains 2 tables, 2 figures, and 7 notes.)

The goal of autonomous learning as preparation for being-in-the-world-of-change has clear advantages for both individuals and society. Tomkins and McGraw declare, rather inspirationally, that the challenge for academics is leading "students to the wisdom of their own minds and setting them free on their own learning". In this paper, the role of learning contracts in facilitating this change is investigated. Specifically, the paper discusses their use in the workplace in shifting relationships between student, teacher and university where the benefits for the three parties are; academic awards, successful degree supervision and accumulation of knowledge for practical purposes. The awards are professional awards at Master's and Doctorate level. The argument is that by engaging in workplace study, both student and academic institution risk becoming normalised by commerce. The analysis is based on the learning contract documents of four UK universities. (Contains 7 notes.)

This paper investigates the experiences of a group of mature students as they move from a Foundation degree in Teaching and Learning Support to a progression route, the BA (Honours) in Teaching Learning and Mentoring. This piece of action research employs student narratives as a means of gaining some understanding of individual and specific experiences of transition between programmes with a view to enhancing the experience for future cohorts. The student experiences are considered within the broader framework of the political and educational agenda of life-long learning, and the paper concludes with a discussion of the pedagogic value of the use of narrative as a means of preparing both student and tutor for such a transition.

This paper discusses the findings of a small-scale qualitative study exploring the aspirations and learning identities of three groups of Level 1 students in two English further education (FE) colleges. Emerging identities are explored in the context of classed and gendered dispositions and the educational positioning of the young people. Empirical sections show that the young people's lifestyle aspirations have a heavy celebrity influence and that their occupational aspirations have an unreal, dreamlike quality associated with a lack of awareness of the trajectories they would need to follow to achieve their ambitions. Further, the paper argues that whilst the young people are developing identities in which learning, leisure, work and domesticity are synonymous, leisure identities assume the greatest importance to them. The paper concludes that this aspect of their young lives is significant since it provides an "escape" from the mundane drudgery of a low-value vocational programme and the inevitability of a future engaged in low-paid, low-skilled work.

This paper describes the process of designing and administering a sufficiently valid and reliable assessment instrument to measure the progress in attainment of adult learners studying numeracy, and discusses some of the inherent difficulties that were involved. The fieldwork took place during 2003-2005 and involved a sample of 34 teachers and 412 learners aged post-16. The paper details how the lack of a range of suitable instruments, the heterogeneous nature of adult numeracy teaching, the remit and requirements of the research project and other practical factors, made it difficult to produce an instrument capable of measuring learners' progress accurately, and hence to produce robust and reliable conclusions, generalisable across the whole sector. Having said this, and despite all the problems faced, the researchers still believe that the test has a "sufficient" degree of validity for the purposes of the study. The paper ends with some recommendations that may benefit other researchers when it comes to designing future numeracy assessments. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)

In his keynote lecture at the Reimagining Further Education conference in Birmingham in June 2016, Sir Frank McLoughlin was clear that the sector 'needed a mission' to unite around, and to let people know where it is going. This was endorsed by the attendees, who felt that it would enable the sector to regain ownership of what it stands for nationally, regionally and locally. Such a vision is needed to create a Technical and Vocational Education and Training sector that is targeted to develop an effective shared culture in the further education sector, close skills shortages and skills gaps in education, enhance community cohesion and improve productivity. This vision needs to have a robust measure of impact that aligns with the vision. One possibility is to explore a non-financial and intangible value metric where social value is aligned to the sector mission. A robust measure will enable key stakeholders to agree on areas of focus in a specific geographical location or a specific time. Such a measure might challenge the need for the existence of regulatory bodies such as Ofsted in the way they operate now. With such a robust measure of social value/impact, Government will not need to issue a white paper every time a response to a localised issue is required. We suggest that the Social Earnings Ratio (S/E or SE Ratio) is such a robust measure. For example, if the need in a certain locality is to address skills gaps/shortages or to focus on community cohesion, all that is needed is a change in the weighting of the various components of such a measure. This will allow development of a further education mission that can be utilised nationally, regionally and locally. In this article, we develop this idea and provide an illustration of how the SE Ratio could be applied to a further education college. The example we use is that of a small further education college with an annual budget of £12 m. We demonstrate, using SE Ratio, that this college produces an intangible value of approximately £40 m per annum. Such an approach will enable further education to become the strong owner of its mission and vision in the future, and allow it to develop its own culture and expertise to the maximum of its potential.

Drawing on stories from ten years of social purpose teacher education in the UK, this paper assumes that the future of further education is still unwritten. It illustrates complex and workable ideas via a theorised sketch of the fictional Bee Learning Programme, an imagined education setting of the future. The narrative that follows is designed to provoke.

This article explores the perceptions of international students studying in the UK regarding their transition from undergraduate to postgraduate study, the challenges they faced in the process and the factors that supported that transition. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 44 taught international postgraduate students at a UK university. It was found that students initially struggled with the academic demands of the course, particularly the ability to integrate critical thinking into written submissions. Consequently, students looked to develop peer support networks. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of the findings for universities, particularly concerning pre-course preparation and ongoing structured support.

This paper examines the role of culture in the development of higher education institution (HEI) policy on widening participation. The study involved documentary research and interviews with senior and middle managers. It suggests that a culture of widening participation is often not embedded throughout institutions. Therefore, widening participation policy formulated at the senior management level is likely to be reinterpreted, revised--and in many cases even undermined or ignored--as it migrates down the organisational hierarchy. The paper contends that senior management take insufficient account of the cultural complexity of HEIs. As a result, there is too much emphasis on institutional (or "meso") level policy-making and a top-down approach. The paper argues that more attention should be given to generating widening participation policy at the micro level within universities and colleges of higher education.

This paper takes as its focus the much contested concept of professionalism in the context of Further Education (FE). The notion of professionalism per se is discussed and its "fitness for purpose" in terms of the FE sector examined. The difficulty in identifying the basis of "professionalism" in the sector is explored through an examination of the impact that the re-positioning of FE as a market-oriented servant of the economy, via the imposition of various government agendas (marketisation, managerialism and performativity), has had on the role of the educator in the sector. The paper concludes by suggesting that there is a "new professionalism" emerging amongst those working within the sector based not on the traditional imperatives of subject expertise and professional knowledge, but on that of continuously updated transferable skills.

For some years now, teachers in the post compulsory sector have been lambasted in educational circles for what some perceive as the poor quality of teaching and learning in classrooms. Such criticisms have tended to emanate from those responsible for inspecting the sector's provision. In fact, when Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education) and the ALI (Adult Learning Inspectorate) took over responsibility from the FEFC (Further Education Funding Council) for post compulsory inspections, it made it clear that as part of its remit, it would endeavour to bring about an overall improvement in the standards of teaching and learning in classrooms. This "improvement" was to be based significantly on the strengths and weaknesses identified by inspectors in classroom observations. This paper examines the role that classroom observation has to play as a tool for teacher assessment and development in external inspections and similar schemes within the post compulsory sector. It is argued throughout that current models of classroom observation, which typically involve some form of appraisal or assessment of the teacher's performance, run contrary to the principles of teacher development and as such do little to improve the overall quality of teacher performance. The position postulated in this paper is that such approaches to observation tend to induce a culture of negatively charged emotions and focus on the more trivial features of teaching. Furthermore, instead of providing teachers with the opportunity to develop their own ability to reflect on, and assess, their teaching, they tend to rely too heavily on the subjective judgements of inspectors/observers. In conclusion, this paper contests that if future classroom observation schemes are serious about improving the standards of teaching and learning in the post compulsory sector, then they must move towards a more equitable model in which both teachers and learners themselves are actively involved in the process of assessment. (Contains 2 notes.)

The paper examines the relationship between research and practice. Its starting point is a consideration of the difference between policy science and scholarship. This leads to an analysis of the current importance attached by the state to evidence-informed practice and systematic review. Such research strategies will, it is claimed, lead to enhanced educational practice. This is to be facilitated through the incorporation of best practice as well as the dissemination of research findings that can be used to inform practice in general. The paper suggests that these claims are overstated as they fail to recognise the complexity of educational practice. They also neglect the politics of educational research and draw upon a limited understanding of practice, one that is tied to teacher practice. (Contains 1 note.)

Policy discourse about lifelong learning has shifted from economic imperative to social and moral pursuit and intrinsic good. Despite this, the emphasis on technological solutions in Information Age discourse subjugates social, civic, and political concerns to an economic competitiveness rationale. (Contains 66 references.) (SK)