Helen Colley

The interrelationships between informal and formal learning

This paper summarises some of the analysis and findings of a project commissioned to investigate the meanings and uses of the terms formal, informal and non-formal learning. Many texts use these terms without any clear definition, or employ conflicting definitions and boundaries. The paper therefore proposes an alternative way of analysing learning situations in terms of attributes of formality and informality. Applying this analysis to a range of learning contexts, one of which is described, suggests that there are significant elements of formal learning in informal situations, and elements of informality in formal situations; the two are inextricably inter-related. The nature of this inter-relationship, the ways it is written about and its impact on learners and others, are closely related to the organisational, social, cultural, economic, historical and political contexts in which the learning takes place. The paper briefly indicates some of the implications of our analysis for theorising learning, and for policy and practice.

Learning to Labour with Feeling: Class, Gender and Emotion in Childcare Education and Training

There is debate among early years experts about the appropriate degree of emotional engagement between nursery nurses and the children in their care. Through research into the learning cultures of further education (in the Economic and Social Research Councils Teaching and Learning Research Programme), the author considers how prospective nursery nurses first learn to deploy emotion in their work. Few researchers have investigated the learning of feelings for caring occupations, and this article presents a detailed case study, based on both quantitative and qualitative data, of a group of childcare students throughout their two-year course. In analysing its official, unwritten, and hidden curricula, and the social practices of learning it entails, the author draws on feminist readings of Marx and Bourdieu to reveal how gendered and class-fractional positionings combine with vocational education and training to construct imperatives about ‘correct’ emotions in childcare. The author compares theorisations of emotional capital and emotional labour, and suggests we need social rather than individualised understandings of how feelings are put to work. The author concludes that emotional labour carries costs for the nursery nurse, not because children consume her emotional resources, but because her emotional labour power is controlled and exploited for profit by employers.

Unbecoming teachers: towards a more dynamic notion of professional participation

This article considers teacher professionalism from a neglected perspective. It analyses assumptions about the dynamics of professional participation implicit within competing academic and policy constructs of professionalism, including the currently iconic concept of ‘communities of practice’. All entail notions of becoming and being a professional. However, data from the project ‘Transforming Learning Cultures in Further Education’ (TLC) reveal significant instances of ‘unbecoming’: a majority of the tutors participating in the project were heading out of further education (FE) teaching. This illuminates a broader problem of exodus from the sector, in a political context which privileges economic goals and targets at every level, and in which the current climate of performativity increasingly impacts upon pedagogical relationships—contextual conditions which are also highly relevant to schooling and higher education. Drawing on exemplar case studies of two tutors, and on the theorization of learning cultures emerging from the TLC project, a Bourdieusian analysis of these dynamics is developed in terms of the interaction of habitus and fields, and ‘communities of practice’ critiqued. Paying particular attention to policy‐driven changes in and to the field of FE, and to the cross‐field effects in FE of policies in other sectors of education and beyond, the article argues for a more dynamic notion of professional participation. This might underpin ‘principles of procedure’ for improving teaching and learning, and policies to support diverse forms of teacher professionalism throughout the education system.

A 'rough guide' to the history of mentoring from a Marxist feminist perspective

Mentoring is now a favoured policy initiative in a number of countries, including Britain and North America, both as an element of professional development, and in addressing social exclusion. The former is of direct relevance to teacher education. The latter is a key issue affecting teachers today, as they have to liaise with mentors allocated to pupils and students. Yet the concept of mentoring remains confused. This paper reviews the literature, deconstructing its mythical representations and its celebratory bias. It applies, from a feminist perspective, the dialectical materialist method to the inter-relationships between essence and appearance in mentoring. It identifies four distinct historical stages in its development. These reveal that official concepts of mentoring have shifted from dominant groupings reproducing their own power, to subordinate groupings reproducing their own oppression. The conclusion suggests a research agenda for more detailed empirical investigation of mentoring in the field of teacher education.

Problems withBridging the Gap:the reversal of structure and agency in addressing social exclusion

The Social Exclusion Units Report Bridging the Gaphas had a major influence on the British governments policy towards socially excluded young people. This article argues, however, that the Report contains fundamental contradictions in its analysis of non-participation in learning and the solutions proposed. Despite appearing to re-instate a concern for the social, it locates the causes of non-participation primarily within individuals and their personal deficits. Yet it denies individuality and diversity by representing the socially excluded as stereotyped categories. In a flawed move, the Report presents non-participation not just in correlation to a raft of other social problems, but as cause to their effect. Deep-seated structural inequalities are rendered invisible, as social exclusion is addressed through a strongly individualistic strategy based on personal agency. At the same time, measures to enhance individual agency, notably the new ‘ConneXions’ service, are formulated within a prescriptive structural framework. Structure and agency are thus reversed in current English policy approaches. While such approaches will doubtless assist some young people, there is a significant risk that they may make things worse for others.

Righting rewritings of the myth of Mentor: A critical perspective on career guidance mentoring

Mentoring is entering the repertoire of career guidance techniques as careers services prioritise socially excluded young people. This article explores the use of Homers Odyssey as a source of definitions and legitimations of many current accounts of mentoring. Contrasting modern versions of Homers myth of Mentor with the original, it draws on feminist and class perspectives to question the basis on which such myths are used to proclaim the origins of a very contemporary phenomenon. It identifies an emerging discourse of mentoring, a régime of truth which exerts control not only over the young people being mentored, but also over career guidance staff expected to act as mentors in new Personal Adviser roles.

Learning Cultures in Further Education

This paper examines the nature of learning cultures in English Further Education (FE), as revealed in the Transforming Learning Cultures in FE (TLC) research project. In it, we describe four characteristics of a generic FE learning culture: the significance of learning cultures in every site; the significance of the tutor in influencing site learning cultures; the often negative impact of policy and management approaches; and the ever‐present issue of course status. We go on to different types of learning cultures within FE related to the degrees of synergy and conflict between the multiple influences on learning in those sites. In general, sites with greater synergy have more effective learning, pointing to valuable new ways to further improve learning. However, such synergy is sometimes difficult to achieve, and brings further problems in its train. It is important to separate out judgments about learning effectiveness, from equally important ones about learning value. The conceptions of the latter varied from site to site, and were often contested.

Not Learning in the Workplace: Austerity and the Shattering of "Illusio" in Public Service.

Purpose – This paper seeks to discuss the impact of UK government austerity policies on learning in public service work, specifically youth support work. It also aims to argue that austerity policies intensify “ethics work”, create emotional suffering, and obstruct workplace learning in a variety of ways.Design/methodology/approach – The research adopts narrative methods and a critical interpretive paradigm to investigate practitioner perceptions within a broader analysis of neo‐liberal change. It draws on Bourdieus sociology as an interpretive framework.Findings – Austerity is shifting the “stakes” of the youth support field from a client‐centred ethos to the meeting of economically driven targets. This shatters the illusio of practitioners committed to client‐centred ethics, resulting in emotional suffering, difficulty in learning to cope with new demands, and an erosion of professional capacity.Research limitations and implications – A particular limitation is the lack of longitudinal data. There is a...

Competing time orders in human service work: Towards a politics of time

Human service work is being reconfigured by welfare state reforms driven by neo-liberal globalization. Sectors are being merged, ‘hybrid’ occupations formed and occupational boundaries renegotiated. Yet time is rarely considered in the study of such boundary work. This article conceptualizes time as generated by human action, in different orders that may operate in tension with one another. Three case studies of reform in educational work, from Finland, England and Germany, each illustrate a particular configuration of these competing time orders. The article concludes by arguing for a politics of time to create a more democratic climate for education and other human services work.

Professional capacity for 14–19 career guidance in England: some baseline data

ABSTRACT This paper reports some early findings from a research project about the impact on career guidance in England of 14–19 reforms in recent years. We begin by highlighting a paradox in English national policy, since reforms in education and training have created a heightened demand for career guidance, whilst reforms in youth support services have disrupted its infrastructure and reduced its funding. While previous authors have warned of the risks inherent in this policy, we present evidence of some of its actual outcomes on professional capacity for 14–19 career guidance, and consider some of the implications for future provision. We conclude in particular that there is a need for more rigorous baseline data about specialist professional capacity, to be monitored nationally and locally; and that greater clarity is needed about appropriate training and qualifications for professional career guidance practitioners.