Ann-Marie Bathmaker

Dual‐sector further and higher education: policies, organisations and students in transition 1

Colleges and universities that provide both further and higher education are a key component of government policies to expand participation in English undergraduate education. The opportunities for access and progression made available by these organisations are regarded as central. At the same time, the division of further and higher education into sectors has implications for how ‘dual‐sector’ education is conceived and developed. Drawing on early evidence from policy interviews and fieldwork studies in four case study institutions, the influence of this division on national policy formation, organisational change and the student experience is discussed.

Positioning themselves: an exploration of the nature and meaning of transitions in the context of dual sector FE/HE institutions in England

This article explores English policy on widening participation in higher education (HE), drawing on insights from a research study into higher education transitions and ‘dual sector’ institutions. Although further and higher education in England are divided into two sectors, it is possible for one institution to offer both further and higher education. This article examines the nature of transitions in such ‘dual sector’ institutions, and explores the shaping and structuring of HE transitions, as well as students’ experience of such transitions. The article draws on empirical research from a two‐year study which investigates the changing shape and experience of HE in England, and students’ experience of moving between different levels of study. The study includes four case‐study ‘dual sector’ institutions, and this article considers one of these institutions in more detail. The article discusses a number of different forms of transition which arise out of the analysis of the data – institutions in transition, transitions in institutions, and individual student transitions – and draws on Bourdieu’s theoretical ideas to argue that the work that transition is doing in the case‐study institutions might be seen as involving processes of ‘positioning’, whereby institutions and individuals work at defining their place within higher education. Since such positioning both highlights and helps to create a differentiated and stratified system, the article concludes by pointing to the unsettling and complex issues this raises in relation to social justice and equity.

‘How do I cope with that?’ The challenge of ‘schooling’ cultures in further education for trainee FE lecturers

The development of professional identity amongst lecturers training to teach in further education (FE) colleges in England involves processes of adaptation. These partly take place during teaching placement in FE, as trainees navigate between their own anticipated professional identity and the identities which they feel under pressure to assume as they engage in their work with students. This article explores these processes of development, focusing in particular on the identities that trainee lecturers develop in their work with disengaged 16-19 year-old students. Using case studies of two trainee lecturers, the article explores the way in which they are pushed towards adopting what they see as a pedagogic, teacherly identity, which they had previously associated with schoolteachers, in their work with such students. The article suggests that the notion of schooling identities and cultures, whilst contrasting with the vocational habitus proposed by others, is a useful way to explore how cultures and identities in general FE are created through similar processes of identity construction and reconstruction.

Moving into practice: transitions from further education trainee teacher to lecturer

The current paper draws on data derived from a small‐scale ongoing longitudinal study of further education trainee teachers. It examines their experiences during and after the completion of their training. The study was conducted at a university in the English Midlands and sets trainees experiences within the socio‐economic and policy context. This paper addresses the experiences of six respondents, exploring their trajectory into the sector, orientations towards pedagogic relations and enacted professionality. The paper concludes by suggesting that trainees educational commitment to the tenets of social justice need to be accompanied by an expansive and politicised understanding of practice.

The Impact of "Skills for Life" on Adult Basic Skills in England: How Should We Interpret Trends in Participation and Achievement?.

The English Skills for Life strategy symbolises the prominent place that adult basic skills have claimed in education and training policy in England since the beginning of this century. The strategy aims to improve the skills of a large number of learners over a ten year period (2001–2010). This paper explores what we can learn about the impact of the strategy from an analysis of available statistical data. The paper presents trends in participation and achievement over the first four years of the strategy, which indicate a pattern of diminishing returns to numbers participating over time, and which may well reflect the growing difficulties the policy will face of engaging ‘hard to reach’ learners. Alongside this analysis, the paper raises a number of issues concerning the limitations of available statistical data in providing answers to questions such as the progress made by learners and their subsequent progression, both within and beyond adult basic skills provision. The paper goes on to argue that the strong emphasis on a numerical target related to qualification outcomes may serve to focus both practitioners’ and policy makers’ attention on this aspect alone. This, it is argued, may serve the interests of international benchmarking of skills levels in the population, but may do rather less in helping to improve learners’ lives and capabilities.

Education plc: Understanding Private Sector Participation in Public Sector Education

The book Education plc. Understanding private sector participation in public sector education is by Stephen Ball, London, Routledge, 2007, 216 pp., £22.99 (paperback), ISBN 0-41-539941-6