Jim Gallacher

Understanding Participation in Learning for Non-traditional Adult Learners: Learning careers and the construction of learning identities

Concepts of learner identities and learning careers have recently acquired popularity as ways of analysing participation in learning among young adults. This paper presents a conceptual challenge to unilinear approaches to the concept of learning careers. It draws on empirical data gathered during a study of new entrants to Scottish further education colleges, and illustrates the analysis through two biographical studies. It argues that learner identities can be fragile, contingent and vulnerable to external changes, and indeed can incorporate elements of hostility to education, as well as a degree of denial of responsibility even on the part of enthusiastic learners.

Learning careers and the social space: exploring the fragile identities of adult returners in the new further education

This paper examines the concept of ‘learning careers’ as a way of understanding the processes through which adults return to education. It particularly considers the ways in which adults from groups who are at risk of social exclusion develop identities that enable them to engage with learning. The concept of learning careers is derived from symbolic interactionist theory, with its origins in the work of the Chicago School. To illuminate the concept of learning career, the paper presents qualitative data produced in a research study set in Scotland in which the processes that underpinned participation and non-participation in further education (FE) colleges were explored. FE colleges constitute spaces that occupy a specific location in relation to the social milieux inhabited by many working-class adults, so that engaging in learning involves a degree of socio-cultural boundary-crossing. The paper draws on theories of the social space that derive ultimately from attempts to operationalize Bourdieus concept of ‘habitus’. Bourdieu used this term to denote systems of durable, transposable dispositions, internalized subjectively by actors as a consequence of their objective positions within the social space, which in turn constituted the underlying principle of generation and structuring of practices and representations. In Bourdieus own words: ‘To speak of habitus is to assert that the individual, and even the personal, the subjective, is social, collective. Habitus is socialized subjectivity’ (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992: 126). We also draw on the concept of status passages, including personal factors and social relationships, as well as institutional responses to the needs of non-traditional adult learners in the formation of learning careers and the patterns that these careers assume. We also argue that learning identities should be seen as fluid or even fragile, rather than fixed and unidirectional.

Employer–university ‘partnerships’: a key problem for work‐based learning programmes?

This paper focuses on the development of work‐based learning programmes within higher education in the UK. It explores how ‘partnership’ with employers came to be seen as a central aspect of this new form of provision. However, we suggest that this emphasis on partnership has been problematic. We focus, in particular, on three areas of concern. Firstly, the limited evidence that employers wish to engage in these sorts of relationships with universities. Secondly, the problems arising from the different cultures of the potential partners and, in particular, different understandings of ‘learning’ and ‘knowledge’. Thirdly, the emergence of the quality assurance agenda within higher education, which is reducing the influence of employers in these programmes. We conclude that the emphasis placed on partnership in the policy and practice literature may well be hindering the more widespread development of work‐based learning in higher education.

Blurring the boundaries or creating diversity? The contribution of the further education colleges to higher education in Scotland

This article outlines the important contribution that further education (FE) colleges make towards higher education (HE) in Scotland, and the ways in which this is a distinctive contribution, differing from that provided by the higher education institutions (HEIs). However, it also explores the ways in which the boundaries between FE colleges and HEIs are being blurred. This discussion is presented in the context of a wider process of differentiation and stratification in HE in Scotland, which has been associated with the emergence of a mass system of HE. A number of sub‐sectors can now be identified which are making different types of contributions to HE provision. The FE colleges can be seen as one of these sub‐sectors. The article also provides a brief discussion of recent developments at the level of national policy and strategy designed to create a more coherent and integrated system of tertiary education in Scotland.

Higher education policy in post-devolution UK: more convergence than divergence?

Many researchers studying the impact of parliamentary devolution conclude that education policies in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are diverging. They attribute this to five factors: the redistribution of formal powers associated with devolution; differences in values, ideologies and policy discourses across the four territories; the different composition, interests and policy styles of their policy communities; the different ‘situational logics’ of policy-making and the mutual independence of policy decisions in the different territories. This article reviews trends in higher education (HE) policy across the UK since parliamentary devolution. It focuses on policies for student fees and student support, for widening participation, for supporting research and for the HE contribution to economic development, skills and employability. On balance, it finds as much evidence of policy convergence, or at least of constraints on divergence, as of policy divergence. It argues that each of the five factors claimed to promote divergence can be associated with corresponding pressures for convergence.

A comparative study of work‐based learning within Higher Nationals in Scotland and Foundation Degrees in England: contrast, complexity, continuity

Scotland and England now have systems of work‐related higher education which differ from each other in important respects. While Scotland embarks on a process of modernising its existing system of Higher National Certificates and Diplomas, in England there has been a decisive shift away from this form of provision towards Foundation Degrees. Meanwhile, providers in both countries are being encouraged to engage ever more closely with employers. This article draws on empirical work with programme organisers to explore the nature and extent of work‐based and work‐related learning that can be found within these two systems. Despite the contrasting national structures, we identify considerable continuity between practices in the two countries and also considerable variability in the forms of work‐based or work‐related learning which can be found within each of them. This variability emerges as a pragmatic response to the difficulties of engaging employers with these programmes, and could we suggest results in valuable learning experiences for students.

Expanding Our Understanding of the Learning Cultures in Community-Based Further Education.

This paper presents arguments for distinctive features of the learning cultures present within community‐based further education. It draws on an analysis of qualitative data generated through interviews with staff and learners in two community learning centres (CLCs) attached to two of Scotlands Further Education (FE) colleges. The following features are identified: the permeable boundaries of CLCs; the complex roles of teaching staff and the ‘horizontality’ of the relationships with learners; the centrality of the role played by non‐teaching staff; the tensions created by balancing formality and informality associated with the impact of the wider field of FE; and the extent to which CLCs can be come a comfort zone for learners, and make transition difficult. In the analysis of these empirical observations the concept of ‘learning relationships’ has been influential. We have also drawn on Bourdieus concepts of ‘habitus’, and ‘field’, in understanding the dispositions and practices of the staff and learners.

Higher education in Scotland: differentiation and diversion? The impact of college-university progression links

This paper addresses the issue of the impact of expansion and differentiation on widening access to higher education. In particular, it considers the impact of the growing importance of full-time short-cycle higher education in Scotland’s colleges of further and higher education, the progression pathways which have now been established from these programmes to bachelor degrees in the Scottish universities and the policy initiatives to strengthen these pathways. It concludes that while these developments have helped promote inclusion, they have also resulted in some outcomes which can best be understood as diversion.

Can New Technology Remove Barriers to Work-Based Learning?.

In this paper Fiona Reeve, Jim Gallacher and Terry Mayes of Glasgow Caledonian University, bring together two current themes in higher education, work‐based learning and the use of new technology in teaching and learning. The paper begins to explore their interaction by examining the ways in which new technology can help to overcome some of the barriers which exist to work‐based learning. To begin this analysis a general model of a WWW‐based learning resource is described which has relevance for a range of open learning contexts. A central aspect of this model is the use of communication technologies to promote the creation of learning dialogues. The way in which this general model might be applied to work‐based learning is then examined. Having suggested that such a model has much to offer work‐based learning, some of the constraints which might be encountered on implementation are then identified. Finally, the authors conclude that it is in promoting more and better forms of communication that new techn...

Using accreditation of prior learning and accreditation of prior experiential learning for entry on to the BSc in Medical Illustration

The Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL) and Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL) scheme described in this paper has been prepared following discussions between the Institute of Medical Illustrators (IMI) and Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU), departments of Learning and Educational Development and Biological Sciences. The scheme gives specific academic credit under the Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SCOTCAT) scheme for learning gained from experience, allowing access onto the Bachelor of Science Degree (BSc) in Medical Illustration to potential students who do not have the required Higher National Diploma (HND) or equivalent entry qualification. The need, rationale and structure of the scheme are described.